ludossier

These awards are given since 2000, by a jury composed of expert gamers from around the world. There are three categories: general strategy games for two players, general strategy games for multiple players, and historical simulations (i.e. wargames). In each category, the jury first nominates several games and then selects a winner. For more information, see:

• the official site.

Since 1985, the members of the Spiele Kreis Wien (Viennese Game Club) vote at all evening meetings (i.e. every 2–3 weeks) for their favourite games. The most voted game gets 5 points, down to 1 point for the 5th most voted game. When a game accumulates 50 points, it gets into the Hall of Games, provided it was voted 1st at least once or voted 2nd at least five times. In terms of the six Spiele Hits categories, the Hall of Games tends to include games for expert gamers, and is unlikely to contain children games. For more information, see:

• the official site with the list of games and the year they entered the Hall of Games.

The awards of the Wiener Spiele Akademie (Viennese Game Academy) started in 2001 and aim at recommending good games for playing with family and friends. Games must be commercially available in Austria, and must have been published in German in the previous 12 months. Any gamer can nominate games; a five person jury will then select the game for the main Spiel der Spiele (Game of Games) award and about a dozen games distributed among the six categories of Spiele Hits: games for two, games for many (e.g. party games), games for playing within the family, games for playing with friends, games for children to play among themselves, and games for expert gamers. For more information see:

• the official site (in German);
• the German Wikipedia article, with a list of all past winners.

GAMES, a magazine which is actually more about puzzles than games, started the Hall of Fame in 1984 to

“honour games that have met or exceeded the highest standards of quality and play value and have been continuously in production for at least 10 years; i.e., classics”.

As you can see from the BoardGameGeek user ratings of these games, many players will disagree with the magazine’s editors about the “quality and play value”. For more information, see:

• the official site with the list of games in the Hall of Fame.

The German Game Award started in 1990 and is based on popular vote. Ballots are sent to gamers, readers of the spielbox and Fairplay magazines, dealers, game clubs, etc. throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but anyone can vote on the official site. Anonymous votes are not accepted, in order to avoid duplicated votes. Voting occurs until end of July, and only games that appeared in the two previous main German game fairs (Essen and Nuremberg) are eligible. Each person ranks up to five adult/family games and votes for one children’s game. A game gets 5 points each time it is ranked first, 4 points if it gets ranked 2nd, etc. The organisation of the award sums the points and publishes the list of the 10 games with the most points, the award going to the first placed. Given the source of votes, the family/adult award tends to go to “gamer’s games”. The award for best children’s game goes simply to the most voted game.

There is also a special award for outstanding contributions by individuals or organisations and a best rules award. The latter has its own name (Essener Feder – the quill of Essen) and it actually pre-dates the German Game Award. From 1981 to 1988, it was given by the Spiel des Jahres jury. It was not awarded in 1989, and since 1990 it is part of the German Game Award. The winner is selected by a 5 person jury.

The results are announced every year in October, just before Europe’s biggest game fair, in Essen, Germany. For more information, see:

• the official site (in German);
• the English Wikipedia articles about the main and best rule awards;
• a commented list of the past winners.

Awarded since 1979, Germany’s Game of the Year is probably the best known and most important award for the game industry. This award is aimed at family games, not “gamer’s games”. The winner is chosen by a jury (composed only of independent, specialized game journalists) from 5 games they nominated previously. The nominated games are selected from those published in the preceding 12 months in Germany.

A special award for children’s games was introduced in 1989. It became an autonomous award (Kinderspiel des Jahres) with its own jury in 2001, and follows the same procedure as the main award. Other special awards, e.g. for more complex games, are given out occasionally, at the jury’s discretion. From 1979 to 1997, a special award for the most beautiful game was given out regularly.

The juries also recommend several additional games, besides the nominated ones. Since 2004 the juries edit a brochure (in German) describing the recommendations, nominees, and winners in some detail. They also point out where they beg to differ from the game publisher’s recommended age or average duration.

For more information, see:

• the official site (in German), which contains details about all past recommendations, nominees and winners;
• the more detailed description about the aims and procedures of both awards;
• the English Wikipedia article;
• a commented list of all past winners, nominees and recommendations.

In an age where even the most humble product or business has to be award-winning, the gaming industry is no exception. In future posts I will present some of the awards given out every year, sometimes to the usual suspects, sometimes not. As it happens with any award, the public (game players in this case) does not always agree with the juries. The aim of the posts will be to describe how the awarding process works and what kinds of games (and game players) the awards are aimed at. To keep current about which games are actually awarded, I recommend the blog listed on the sidebar.