2017 in Review -- Games

Last year, as every year, I tracked which board games I played. I'm not as methodical about it (nor as prolific a gamer) as a friend of mine who tracks scores, who he played with... more than enough data that statisticians could data mine him. Still, I do enjoy seeing what comes to the gaming table over the course of a year.

This year, I got in 107 games. (Not counting games I was playtesting in the course of work, as per usual. If I were counting those, Clank! and Clank! In! Space! would have each scored at least that many plays.) 107 games is my highest number in three years, though I wouldn't mind seeing that go higher still in 2018. I played 64 different games, so there weren't all that many repeats.

The full breakdown:

1    Alchemists
1    Arena: For the Gods!
4    Between Two Cities
1    The Boss
1    Bottle Imp
1    Brew Crafters
7    Camel Up (1 of those with the expansion)
1    Captain Sonar
1    Castles of Mad King Ludwig
1    Clank!
2    Clank! In! Space!
1    Codenames
2    Codenames: Deep Undercover
2    Codenames: Duet
1    Covert
1    Dixit
1    Eight Minute Empire
1    Escape Room in a Box
1    Escape the Room: Mystery at the Stargazer's Manor
2    Ex Libris
1    Exit the Game: The Abandoned Cabin
1    Exit the Game: The Secret Lab
1    Flipships
1    The Fox in the Forest
3    Fuse
1    The Game of Things…
2    Hanabi
5    Happy Salmon
1    Isle of Skye
2    Jorvik
3    Kingdomino
2    Kodama
1    Las Vegas
2    Magic Maze
1    Mask of the Pharaoh
2    Medieval Academy
2    The Networks
1    Not Alone
1    Nmbr 9
1    The Oracle of Delphi
1    Photosynthesis
8    Poker (we'll call this 8 sessions; 1 with friends and the other 7 on my trip to Vegas)
1    Potion Explosion
1    Quadropolis
1    Raiders of the North Sea
1    Raise Your Goblets
2    Rick and Morty: Total Rickall
3    Sagrada
3    Sentient
1    The Speicherstadt
2    Telestrations
1    Telestrations After Dark
1    That's a Question
1    Terraforming Mars1    Ticket to Ride
1    Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar (with the expansion)
1    Unlock! Escape Adventure: Squeek and Sausage
1    Vikings
1    Viral
1    War
1    Witch's Brew
1    Wonky
1    Yggdrasil
2    Yoko Hama
2    Zendo

The top slot this year went to good old fashioned Poker -- Texas Hold 'Em, specifically. If you choose not to count myriad sittings over the course of a couple of days as separate "games" (or if you prefer not to think of poker as a "board game"), then instead the top honor goes to Camel Up.

I have a variety of escape room games in there, and it's not like you can play any given one of those more than once. If you were to add the 5 I played all up into an "escape room games" category, that would take the next position behind Camel Up.

It's debatable whether you should count Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes as a board game or a PC game. (It's also debatable whether to count each round played, or each session.) If it counts as a board game (and you count whole sessions), then you could add 4 nights of that to my total.

Board games played on my phone via app included:

• Disc Drivin' (as a proxy for Pitch Car)
• Evil Apples (as a proxy for Cards Against Humanity)
• Lanterns: The Harvest Festival (from my own company, Dire Wolf Digital)
• Stone Age (which hasn't yet and may not be updated for the new iOS)
• Ticket to Ride: Europe (which no longer functions; I may have to spring for the new version of Ticket to Ride)
• Ticket to Ride: Switzerland (see above)
• Words With Friends (as a proxy for Scrabble)

Here's to more great gaming in 2018!