127 Games Played in 2014!
Now that we’ve rolled into 2015, it’s time to look back over all the board games, card games, and party games I’ve played during the past year.
For 2014, I’ve played 127 different games with a total of 465 game plays!
While 61 of those games (48%) are just single plays, that means I’ve played 52% of those games at least a couple times.
And just because I’ve only played a game once, doesn’t mean it’s a bad game. There are plenty of those 61 games that I’d love to play many times. (see which ones below)
If you’re asking, “how does he know how many games he’s played this year?”, let me briefly tell you.
Thanks to BoardGameGeek.com, as well as the cool BGG app, it’s so simple to record which board games I play. After playing a game, I’ll simply click on “Record a Play” and boom, it’s done. Then I can easily pull reports of all sorts to review the games I’ve played.
It’s a great way to look back and see which games aren’t getting to the table as often as I’d hope.
For the purposes of determine how many different games I’ve played, I combine the game expansions all as one game. For example, playing the 7 Wonders: Cities and 7 Wonders: Leaders expansions, don’t count as two different games. They’re still just 1 game = 7 Wonders. Likewise, I group the different Memoir ’44 expansions as just plays of Memoir ’44, etc.
Most Played Games 2014
With all that preamble out of the way, it’s now time to list the board games, card games, and party games I’ve played the most times during 2014 (ordered by number of plays).
(Click on the game names below to see our full reviews.)
Played 25 times or more:
Once again Dominion is the clear winner for most-played game in 2014 – clocking in at close to 100 plays!
And it’s no surprise to me that Kingdom Builder and Memoir ’44 continue to regularly make this list. I love those games!
Played 10-24 times:
I was actually quite surprised that only 2 games fell into the between 10 and 24 plays category. One reason is because I had hoped to complete the 10 for 10 challenge last year. It was the challenge about playing 10 games 10 times during the year.
The challenge I think is targeted for folks like me that play a wide variety of games, but not a bunch of the same game in a given time period. The view is that playing a game more will increase the love of the game by getting a better feel for the depth of the game. It also allows a player the chance to try different strategies in really exploring a game.
Maybe this year… 🙂
Played 5-9 times:
- Coup
- Gravwell
- Sequence
- Alien Frontiers
- Cash ‘n Guns (second edition)
- For Sale
- One Night Ultimate Werewolf
- RoboRally
- Timeline
- 7 Wonders
- Bang! The Dice Game
- 10 Days in Africa
- Quarto
- Twister
This grouping of games includes a number of surprises to me.
I’m not surprised at all that Coup, Gravwell, Sequence, Alien Frontiers, or 7 Wonders are on this list. They hit the table lots of times during the year in different settings.
RoboRally also comes out a bunch and is frequently requested on Guys Game Night. So I really thought it would make the 10+ list. It was also found under the Christmas tree of a number of the guys that come to our game night. Yep – they’re hooked too.
The first big surprise is Ca$h ‘n Guns. It’s a game we just got for Christmas and we played it 7 times before the new year. That says quite a lot about what we think of the game. Yep – our game review is coming soon.
The biggest surprise however is that Twister made the list. How on earth did that happen?
Sure it just barely made the list at 5 plays, but I’m still surprised – with a smile on my face of course.
I was also surprised by a few games that just missed that list. One of the board games that came close to making the list with 4 plays is another game we just received for Christmas – Black Fleet (review also coming soon). And how did K2, Scotland Yard, Spot It, or King of Tokyo miss the 5+ mark?
So close.
Played only 1 time:
I’m not going to list all of the game that fell into this category for 2014. But I do want to highlight some of the great board games I love that I only played once this year:
- Code 777
- Abandon Ship
- Battlestar Galactica
- Carcassonne
- Forbidden Desert
- Pandemic
- Power Grid
- Small World
These will definitely get more play time in 2015!
Regardless of which game, or how many different games I’ve played, that’s a lot of family together time – I love it!
Looking ahead to 2015
Another great thing about checking the list of board games played over the past year is that I can also see which of our games haven’t been played in a while.
That doesn’t mean they’re on the chopping block of being cut from our game collection. But it does help see which games we may want to play on our next game night.
Another simple way to track could be to organize our board game closet in such a way that we rotate through games. Play a game, set it on a “played” shelf. Then the next game also has to come from the “not-played yet” shelf.
Maybe that’s the next challenge – play through all our games at least once a year.
Nah – I don’t like that already. Why?
Because the best game to play is the one that fits the situation at hand: number of players, ages, length, mood, etc. And I don’t want to play a game because we “have to” play that game before we can get back to one we really like.
But I do plan to get some of those non-played games from 2014 to the table soon.
Gaming Goals
January is the time of year for setting goals. It’s in the air.
We set goals in many aspects of our lives, so why not have some gaming goals as well.
Time isn’t stopping and our kids keep growing.
In less than 2 months our oldest son will be leaving on a church mission. No doubt, that will have a big impact on our family dynamics this year.
My gaming goal for this year is to simply enjoy every moment I have playing with my family.
Sure that isn’t a goal that’s easily measured by numbers, but it’s my goal nonetheless.
May you be able to do the same – enjoy every moment you have with your family!
That’s some impressive gaming numbers. When I first started gaming, I was keeping track on BGG, then stopped. The one good thing is I take photos of nearly every game I play for Instagram and other things, so I’m slowly going back and trying to see them all so I can log everything. It’s definitely cool being able to see what you played.
This is a good idea, too. I might have to do this on my blog for me next year!
P.J. – That’s pretty cool that you’ve taken a photo of all the games you’ve played. That’s a nice habit to have – a good way to record your fun with family and friends.