2007 in Review -- Games

For two years running now, odd curiosity has led me to keep a list of every game I played throughout the year. The time has come to look at the results and ponder.

First, the "rules" of this list:

* I'm cataloging board games, card games, and the like; computer and console games need not apply. (I wouldn't need to log the results to tell you that: copious amounts of Guitar Hero II and Rock Band, with a handful of other things splashed in.)

* I did not count games of my own design that I played in the capacity of working on that design.

Weirdly enough, I played exactly one more game in 2007 than I did in 2006 -- 234 total compared to the previous 233. I played a considerably greater variety of games in 2007, however -- over 90 different games, compared to only 60 in 2006.

Here's the full breakdown:

25 Words or Less (2)
Amazing Race DVD Board Game (1)
AMC Reel Clues (1)
Apples to Apples (2)
Attika (1)
Augsburg 1520 (4)
Avalanche (1)
Beyond Balderdash (3)
Big Boggle (3)
Blackjack (1)
Blokus (1)
Bolide (1)
Candy Land (1)
Carcassonne (with The Expansion and Traders and Builders) (1)
Carcassonne (with The Towers) (3)
Carolus Magnus (1)
Cartagena (1)
Castle (1)
Catch Phrases (3)
Caylus (5)
Chess (2)
Cities and Knights of Catan (1)
Craps (1)
Deal or No Deal DVD Game (1)
Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix (3)
Do You Worship Cthulhu? (1)
El Grande (1)
Fact or Crap (1)
Fearsome Floors (1)
Goa (1)
Grave Robbers II: Skippy's Revenge (1)
Guillotine (1)
Hare and Tortoise (1)
Hearts (1)
Hey! That's My Fish! (5)
High Society (1)
In a Pickle (1)
Linie 1 (1)
Loaded Questions (3)
King of the Hill (1)
Louis XIV (1)
Maharaja (3)
Metro (1)
Mexica (1)
Movie Mania (1)
No Merci! (2)
Notre Dame (10)
Once Upon a Time (1)
Othello (1)
Palazzo (1)
Perudo (3)
Poker (20)
Princes of Florence (2)
Pueblo (1)
Puerto Rico (1)
Pyramidis (1)
Quad (1)
Quelf (1)
Rack-O (1)
Ricochet Robot (11)
Rummikub (1)
Scattergories (4)
Scene It! - TV Edition (1)
Scrutineyes (1)
Set (10)
Settlers of Catan (3)
Sleuth (3)
Snorta! (12)
Squint (11)
Stonehenge - Chariots of Stonehenge (1)
Stonehenge - Magic of Stonehenge (2)
Taboo (1)
Terra Nova (1)
ThinkBlot (1)
Through the Desert (1)
Thurn and Taxis (2)
Thurn and Taxis - Power and Glory (4)
Ticket to Ride (1)
Ticket to Ride - Marklin Edition (3)
Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 (4)
Ticket to Ride: Switzerland (3)
Tikal (1)
Time's Up (7)
Titan: The Arena (2)
Too Many Cooks (2)
TransAmerica (4)
TransEuropa (2)
Tri-Ominos (1)
Uno (1)
Untergang von Pompeji (3)
Up and Down (10)
Vampire (1)

Some specific thoughts and memories conjured up by this list:

Avalanche. This is an old game involving marbles and an inclined plastic track they're dropped down. This was my grandmother's copy. I remember her having it back when I was about 5 years old, and the one time I played it this year was with my little cousin who is now that age.

Chess. I haven't played chess in years. But a friend of mine has a son in school who's now learning to play as part of a chess club. I ended up playing the both of them once each in the course of the year.

Cities and Knights of Catan. In principle, I love some of the things this expansion adds to the basic Settlers of Catan game. Unfortunately, they also make it take over twice as long to play, which is not cool. I had fun playing it for the first hour and change, but as hour two was drawing to a close, I remembered why I hadn't played the expansion in years.

Deal or No Deal DVD Game. Yes, I actually did play this "game." I don't want to talk about it.

Poker. I actually played poker more than any other game this year, which pretty much feels "right." Two trips to Las Vegas in one year certainly helped juice that number.

Tikal and Mexica. I was so glad both these games came out to play near the end of the year. I hope they keep coming back in the new year. I haven't played either in a while, and I still like them both.

Attika and Goa. Despite what I said last year about wanting to play these more, I still only wound up playing each of these once in 2007. (sniff)

Ra and New England. Aw, what happened to you guys? You deserved to get played a couple times. And Doge, absent two years in a row? Do I even remember how to play that game now?

So that's it for 2007. Am I destined to play 235 games in 2008? We'll see.