Month metric update

A while ago, I posted the idea of a month metric for gauging quality/longevity and overall "goodness" of a game. Essentially, count the number of unique months in which a game is played. That is it's score. Read the old entry for some more discussion of it.

I figured I'd post an update of games with a high month metric. I've
only been keeping accurate numbers since 1999, so the theoretical
maximum score is in the sixties.

Electronic Catchphrase is the only with a score above 30 at 32, and I expect it
will continue to go up though more slowly than it did in recent years.
Five games get scores above 20: Crokinole (25), Can't Stop (23), 6
nimmt! (23), Call my Bluff (23) and Battle Line (21).

Another five games score 15 or above: Zirkus Flohcati (16), Speed
(16), Lost Cities (15), TransAmerica (15), and RoboRally (15). This
list rapidly betrays my taste for fairly short but not overly light
games. RoboRally is the only one on the list (with the occasional
exception of Crokinole) that goes over 45 minutes.

Sixteen games have a score of 10 or above and there starts to be a
number of "big" games here: Ra (14), For Sale (14), Apples to Apples
(13), Knockabout (13), Carcassonne (13), Hick Hack in Gacklewack (12),
Princes of Florence (12), Puerto Rico (12), Ricochet Robot (11),
SpinBall (11), Traumfabrik (11), Settlers of Catan (11), Medici (10),
Igel Argern (10), Lord of the Rings (10), and Schnaeppchen Jagd (10).
The auction games (Ra, Medici, Traumfabrik) and LOTR would all be
higher if they were more favored in the groups I frequent.

In the end, I'm pretty happy with the month metric. All 27 games on
the list are "great"s. Some recent games seem likely to make the list
within another year or two (Ticket to Ride, Oasis, Heroscape, San
Juan, Adam & Eva) but it's too early to be sure and the month metric
has that conservativism nicely built in. The only games that seem
like their "missing" from the list are Vinci (current score: 8) and
Euphrat & Tigris (current score: 8) and they'll get there, though it
will take more than two months.

Another month metric update

A few years ago, I posted the idea of a month metric
for gauging the long term worthiness of a game. Last year, I posted
an update to my top games by month metric and
I figured it's worth doing again. Games that score 10 or above on the
month metric (played on at least 10 occasions in different months),
make for a nice sort of "hall of fame".

When I posted a bit over a year ago, the list was 27 games: Electronic
Catchphrase, Crokinole, Can't Stop, 6 nimmt!, Call my Bluff, Battle
Line, Zirkus Flohcati, Speed, Lost Cities, TransAmerica, RoboRally,
Ra, For Sale, Apples to Apples, Knockabout, Carcassonne, Hick Hack in
Gacklewack, Princes of Florence, Puerto Rico, Ricochet Robot,
SpinBall, Traumfabrik, Settlers of Catan, Medici, Igel Argern, Lord of
the Rings, and Schnaeppchen Jagd.

In the past year or so since I updated, the following 7 games have
joined the list: Cartagena, San Juan, Basari,
Euphrat & Tigris, Loopin' Louie, Fiese Freunde Fette
Feten, and Shit!. I remain pretty happy with the metric as
a "hall of fame" measure.

When I last posted, I predicted a few games would make this list
before long. Of those predicted, only San Juan has made it so far,
but Heroscape is only one more play away from making the list and the
others (Ticket to Ride, Oasis, Adam & Eva) seem like still not bad
bets for the next year or two, but it may take a while for them to get
up there.

Of this years crop, Um Krone und Kragen seems likely to make
the list before too long. It's already at 4 and I don't even own a
copy yet, plus it's short. Thurn und Taxis, Descent and
Blue Moon City each have a score of 3 so far and will likely
climb, but it may take some time before they hit 10.

The "elite" set, those that score 20 or above, remain the same:
Electronic Catchphrase, Crokinole, 6 nimmt!, Call my Bluff, Can't Stop
and Battle Line. Zirkus Flohcati and Ra will probably
break in before too long.