GLA #4: Essen 2005 aftermath
After Essen, the BoardGameGeek is full of discussion about William Attia's Caylus. As far as I was able to follow up on the discussion, BoardGameGeek saw at least one new Caylus related posting each day since Essen 2005. In addition, numerous boardgame blogs also followed up on the secret number one game of Essen 2005. Or they were just writing about the fair in general. Lots of pictures have been published, too.
You will probably have had plenty of opportunities to make up your own mind. I have seen some controversial reviews on some of the games. But who is right and who is wrong? Which games will remain? Which ones got a really good rating by the BoardGameGeek-community? Which games were not bought after playtesting them?
Lots of questions. To shed some light on these issues, there's several GeekLists out there providing answers...
GeekList Aggregator #4 compiles the Essen Spiel 2005 Aftermath.
Find out whether how your personal view correlates with the majority of the Geeks out there...
GeekList #11001: Essen 2005 - Fairplay Scout Voting by Wolfgang Friebe
Traditionally, the German Gamer magazine Fairplay runs a voting at their booth during each Spiel fair. Any visitor may vote on games they have seen. Fairplay then publishes a first barometer of gamer's opinion while the fair is still running. Each game which receives more than 50 votes and gets an average score of 2.5 or better (1 = excellent,..., 6 = very bad) makes it to the list. During Spiel 2005, Fairplay collectd ~6700 votes. This GeekList displays the results after the final voting (Sunday evening).
By the way: a little hint for the upcoming Essen Spiel fairs. The Fairplay Scout is also an excellent source of information when you are short on time during your visit. Check out their booth and take note of the top 10 games mentioned on their list. These will definitely be worth seeing. Oh, did I mention: Caylus made it to the top of the list with an average score of 1.73 (128 votes).
GeekList #10955: Games you didn't buy after playtesting in Essen by Alexander Schmalz
Alexander Schmalz raised *the* question. Actually several very important questions: Which games should be avoided? What looked good at first sight but didn't make it through Essen playtesting? What are the really annoying games? Some of us won't like the answers. Of course, this GeekList is extremly subjective. But nonetheless - it's interesting to see the reasoning in some of the comments. Oh, yeah, and some relatively high ranking games are mentioned on this list. Games which are currently at an average rating of 7.81, 7.32, 7.28, 6.98.
GeekList #10978: Free Stuff @ Essen 2005 by mac edwin
Well, in terms of free goodies this list shows what you might have missed (or maybe have to look for on ebay). In my opinion the number of free giveaways could have been larger, but at least we got a free promo card for Caylus, a Settlers-scenario, Diamanten Joe for Niagara, an extension to China and several others. I am not saying free stuff is necessarily good. I am just saying it is nice and may be fun. Mac Edwin's GeekList shows it all. If only someone could provide this information *before* I go to visit Essen 2006. Oh, and don't forget to mention the exhibition hall and booth numbers... ;)