Many folks who play board games will provide a year-end report of games they played, often in a form known as a “5 & 10” or “five and dime” report.  This is because the report will list all games played 10 or more times and those played 5-9 times - this is obviously an indicator of what people are playing frequently.  It does tend to skew results towards lighter fare since longer games don't come out as often.

I didn't keep terribly accurate data on my gaming this year.  I was pretty good at keeping things up to date in my GameTracker software, but fell off in the July timeframe.  Fortunately this weblog provides a decent log of what I played with groups outside the home; unfortunately many of the games that get brought out casually at my home are missing.  Therefore I will estimate some of the numbers.

I will also include online games that I played with other human beings, some in real-time, some via email or play-by-web.  In case you are interested, this is what I played online last year:

• Tigris and Euphrates (at the boardgamegeek)
• Settlers of Catan (using Settlers 3D)
• Carcassonne (at BSW, but only because I haven't tried playing some other games like Puerto Rico there)
• 7th Sea (using Apprentice for 7th Sea)
• Magic (just a few games using Magic: the Gathering online)
• Wallenstein (using Mikael Sheik's great PBW version, still in beta)

So here goes the list:

Total Games Played: 309

Total Unique Games Played: 98

Games Played 10 or More Times

• Settlers of Catan (16) - About half of these were played online.
• Euphrat und Tigris (15) - All but two of these were played online.
• Fluxx (15) - Many plays while sitting in a restaurant with the family.
• 7th Sea CCG (14) - I got back into this after getting some deals on eBay.  I also played in a couple of online, casual tournaments.
• Apples to Apples (14) - Very popular with extended family and non-gamer friends.
• Carcassonne (14) - Popular intro game, plus I played online 5 or 6 times.
• Can't Stop (12) - A favorite to bring out just before bed for Matthew and Jacob.
• Magic: the Gathering (11) - Still one of my all-time favorite games.  I still just play with decks I built 8 years ago or pre-constructed decks for new expansions.
• Liar's Dice (10) - Another family favorite.

Games Played 5-9 Times

• Balloon Cup (8) - Matthew's favorite 2-player game.  He beats me at least half the time.
• Puerto Rico (7) - This would definitely be in the top 10 if I would learn to play it on BSW.  Any volunteers to mentor me?
• Wyatt Earp (7) - My favorite rummy game.
• Alpha Playing Cards (6) - Didn't get played very much in the second half of the year.
• Fresh Fish (6) - I wish my family enjoyed playing this more.
• Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation (6) - This has been played 3 more times in the past 2 days in our household.  Great 2-player game.
• Piratenbucht (6) - Probably our favorite heavier family game.
• Samurai (6)
• Battlecards (6)
• Chrononauts (5) - One of Jacob's favorite games.  Very creative.
• Dragon Delta (5)
• King of the Elves (5)
• Mystery Rummy 4 (5)
• Wallenstein (5)
• Zendo (5)

Commentary

I rediscovered board games about exactly one year ago.  The fun I've had this year is immeasurable - and I can't stress enough how good this has been for our family.  I want to thank a number of people who welcomed me into their gaming groups and homes over the past year:

• Kevin Graham
• Doug and Mimi Walker
• Ken Rude and family
• Andy Christensen in Redmond
• Angela Gaalema in Colorado Springs
• The Card Benders in Dallas, TX
• Mikael and Jonathan in Brooklyn, NY
• The Arizona Boardgamers
• Scott Alan Woodward in Burbank, CA
• Greg Schloesser and the Westbank Gamers
• The RipCityGamers

Stay tuned for some of my awards and top “n” lists for 2003.