Berks Boardgamers

Pennsylvania-based boardgame group. Some (thin) session reports, but this is basically just a point of reference, and 'advertisement' for potential new members.

Berks Boardgamers

Board Game Factory - Cool Pages

The first thing that hits you with this site is the awful colour scheme and choice of fonts, and the decidedly old-school, 90's layout, look-and-feel. But as Chad from Iowa, the site owner states, his career has higher priority now than site maintenance, and that's fair enough.
If you can look beyond site aesthetics, there actually are a few items of interest to be found within, like links to various game rules and other relevant sites, and The Game Factory, which contains a collection of instructions on how to create new games from a handful of existing published and generic game sets.
The Huge File Vault is now perhaps not all that huge when stacked up against the likes of BGG, and is certainly not current, but could be worth a browse from time to time. I have no idea what the thinking was behind Games Held for Ransom - presumably this falls into the seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time file. I have not explored the Invented Game Library, but a glance down this list indicates quite a few Sid Sackson titles, so for the serious fans, there may well be something worth discovering here that might be hard to find elsewhere.
Ignore the Games Magazine and Collectibles stuff.

Board Game Factory - Cool Pages

Basement Gamers

Basement Gamers are a bunch of gamers that live in the Detroit area drink too much and love to play games...
Old-tech site for a small gaming group (in Detroit), with some session reports, including a handful of pics, that go back to 1999. Same pages broken. Reports few and far between since 2003. Last report apparently Aug 2006.

Basement Gamers

Spielfrieks

Apparently this is an active Yahoo! group discussing many things about German board games, but none of this is visible to anyone except members. I read somewhere (probably Boardgamenews) that apparently this was an adminstrative error - that closing access to the group was unintentional, and that anyone who asks will be given membership access.
However, it is not immediately clear how or who to ask, and one would think that if they were truly active, and serious about expanding a lively community, they simply would fix the error. How hard could that be, really?
No kudos from this corner.

Spielfrieks

Games Directory

A (sic) online games directory for the games industry and a resource for internet gaming.
Whatever.
A good idea in principle, maybe. But there isn't much here that hasn't already been done before. Looks like there was a burst of enthusiasm throughout 2005-2006, but since then there had been almost no new material. Predict this one will never rise above complete obscurity.

Games Directory

The Game Ranch

A very nice place of personal game reviews and session reports here, run by Ed and Susan Rozmiarek.
Quality content. Feed provided.

The Game Ranch

Kulkmann's G@mebox

Despite the obvious German origin, this site is all in English, published by Herr Frank Schulte-Kulmann.
There is a massive collection of board game reviews here, and an excellent personal account of Essen 2006, but the site is not organised to deliver news or commentary in any chronological way. Under each of the boardgame review categories there is a section at the top showing the latest ones, but since there are no doubts on any entries, only the game publication year gives any hint of how recent the review could be.
Excellent material here, but would be enhanced greatly with the addition of date stamps on the entries.

Kulkmann's G@mebox

Game Caravan

It's not clear what the intention is here, although it looks like the goal was to be BoardGameGeek-like without a broader community involvement. The visuals all look so 2oth century, and perhaps the designer gave up trying to be a competitor when BGG was re-vamped in early 2006.
Don't understand the mixing of a Movies database and movie poster advertising here; I guess that's a reflection of the eclectic and arguably disorganized interests of the current site owner.
The top of the home page states, "The GameCaravan Website is for SALE! Yes, everything: pages, code, content, databases, domain, and affiliate relationships. GameCaravan needs a makeover and the time to keep it updated. "

Game Caravan

Critical Gamers

CriticalGamers was founded as an emotional outlet to share gaming experiences and to report on gaming-news regarding upcoming products, variants, and other under-the-radar gaming titles...

This site seems to be what they say it is. Plenty of advertising, but not nearly as intrusive as say About: Board/Card Games, and although there seem to be lots of Amazon links, there are plenty of others to indicate that they are not a simple vendor front (like Board Game Central). They are, however, part of the "Blogpire" empire, who serve "Weblogs for the product-oriented consumer...". Make of that what you will, but I have no problem with advertising being presented alongside editorial content, provided it's clear which is which, and that seems to be the case here.
Active since Jan 2005. Founder and main contributor: David Della Bitta. Provides a feed.

Critical Gamers

ConsimWorld

Conflict simulation gaming news and discussion
The focus here is on war games in particular, with archives dating back to 2003. They also run a community forum on a rich range of topics, and provide resources like variant rules, errata, etc.
Feed provided.

ConsimWorld

Gaming Report

The focus of this editorial/news site seems to be role-playing (RPGs) and customisable card games (CCGs), and hence prehaps a good compliment to Ogre Cave. Having said that I just saw a review here by Tom Vasel of Ticket to Ride USA 1910, so there is obviously some BG content.
According to their About page, they have been in service for seven years, which is confirmed by looking at their archive list which goes back to August 2000 (which technically makes 6.5 years, but I won't argue...).
They provide feeds and as well as various news widgets (scripts) that you can add to your site if you care to.

Gaming Report

FunandBoardgames.com

Attractive site edited and maintained by W. Eric Martin, who also appears from time to time at Boardgamenews.
In a cynical mood, the professional look and feel of funandboardgames.com had me looking for a close vendor association, but this is not present. At the bottom of reviews will be a small selection of references to retailers where a given game can be acquired, but in some cases this is information such as: "xxx has been out of print for decades, but you can search for used copies in the BoardGameGeek Marketplace, on eBay (where they sell anywhere from one cent to $10), and in thrift stores".
So despite banner ads, etc. (which are all perfectly acceptable in my book!), this site is the real deal, and Eric's reviews and commentary are quality content. And he provides feeds.
Apparently up and running only since Oct 2006, it is a slight worry that no new material has been posted since mid December. I hope we'll see fresh content here again soon...

FunandBoardgames.com

Web Grognards

One of the longest-standing sites for war-gaming, having been online since 1995 - golly, that's 12 years (at the time of this entry)!
If you don't know what a 'grognard' is, then this site is probably a bit niche and not for you, although the term is explained on their front page.
But if you are into war games, this may well be the richest oline resource for rules translations, errata and variants etc., you could ever hope to find. There's even material here on some titles you might not think of as war games, eg., Age of Renaissance, Euphrat and Tigris, Merchant of Venus and others.
They have an updates RSS feed, although its behaviour has been inconsistent with one of my readers.

Web-Grognards

Ogre Cave

"OgreCave is committed to the promotion of games, primarily non-computer, non-console games... "

This is mainly news and commentary/editorial, run by a team of "Cave Dwellers" headed up by Allan Sugarbaker. Occasional interviews, including one I spotted right away: Richard Garfield captured back in Oct 2004.
Their focus seems to be on role-playing games (RPGs) and some customisable card games (CCGs; like Magic, etc), although they dip into boardgames and miniatures as well. Although I would describe this as "niche", with connotations of a certain demographic, that's in no way intended as derrogatory since this is an active niche with regular material that goes back to the start of 2002. And they provide a feed.
If you're into CCGs and/or RPGs, you want OgreCave's feed.

Ogre Cave

Unity Games

"We are an open board game discussion forum which includes individual gamer enthusiasts as well as members of various game groups in the Eastern Massachusetts (near Boston) and surrounding areas... aimed at discussing board and card games with the emphasis is on German/Euro/Designer style boardgames..."

This is a very active community, online since mid 2000, with an average of over 300 posts per month (although this has dropped back to a bit below 200 for the past 12 months).
If you're a board gamer (or thinking about it), and you live in or near this area, then you probably already are part of this community. If not, you probably should be...

Unity Games

Board Games To Go

Mark Johnson's Occasional & Opinionated Podcast about Strategy Boardgames

Sometimes you can just get a "feel" about a site, or an individual personality, with only a minimal or superficial browse of the material. In this case, although I have never listened to one of Mark's podcasts (I just don't have the time!), I just have the sense that this is quality material (if I'm wrong, please say so in a comment).
Mark's been regularly podcasting since March 2005, and looks like a committed stayer.
So if you're into boardgames and podcasts, I have the "feeling" that Mark's commentary should be near the top of your list.


Board Games To Go

Matthew Gray's Boardgame Stuff

Here's someone even more obsessive about capturing and manipulating data than me... Matthew's more recent posts include a discussion of BoardGameGeek's ranking mechanism and analyses of the different games he's played over years, as well as year-to-year differentials! And the Huber Happiness Metric is quite intriguing...



Matthew Gray's Weblog

Billabong Boardgamers

Melbourne-based gaming community, with site managed by David Coutts.
Material seems to trail off in about 2002 and other resources since out of date. However, the front of the website states "yes we are still alive and kicking...", having apparently migrated ongoing discussions to a Yahoo Groups mailing list.


Billabong Boardgamers
Yahoo Groups Billabong Boardgamers

Best of Board Games

"Best of Board Games is a collection of interesting links to various board game resources in the web: blogs, BGG threads, whatever. "

This is primarily a blog by Mikko Saari, although includes multiple contributors commenting on meta-game issues, and an aggregation of relevant articles from a range of sources. The original content and the relayed articles are high quality, and they provide a feed.
Active since December 2005.

Best of Board Games

Funagain Games

This is a vendor portal for boardgames, but it is a good one - perhaps the best. I think of it as the "Amazon" of the BG world.

Yes, you can have an account here to order stuff, etc., but there's lots of other "sticky" value-add content to keep you coming back, including user reviews and high-profile reviewers, namely Tom Vasel. They syndicate lots of their content, like reviews, sales and top sellers - the latter might be interesting if you want to keep up with what's selling.

But more - Funagain also provides the source - and feeds - of blogs by Mike Siggins (the Gamer's Notebook), "Board Games with Scott", which is actually a video blog, and The Dice Tower, a podcast blog by Tom Vasel and Sam Healey.

Funagain Games

Board Game Central

"This site is a central resource for board game information, rules, software, and links, focussed on the traditional and family board games that many people know and love, as well as new games you might not yet be familiar with, but which we think you'll enjoy. So explore our games & have some fun!"

This site seems to be a veneer for a large(-ish) US vendor called unclesgames.com. The focus is very broad, so you'll find references to Peurto Rico, Settlers of Catan, Monopoly, Scrabble, Chess and Checkers, etc.. However, the info is not at all deep; don't expect an alternative to BoardGameGeek. Their target seems to be the consumer market.

Similarly, their Board Game News component is simple with selected headlines only, sourced from elsewhere and re-cast as editorial. This is fine, but not particularly compelling if you're interested in material that goes beyond the superficial consumer world of boardgames. A feed is provided, so this is a plus.

The collection of online board gaming resources looks quite good, although I haven't thoroughly explored these. However, again the focus seems to be on traditional games.

Board Game Central

Spielboy

Boardgaming online magazine with a risque edge - his take on the Playboy bunny appears to be the little Buddha statue from Samurai unless I'm mistaken. Some funny bits as well (I like the "translated" one-line reviews from boardgaming personalities), although the Found Porn section seems to be the result of some ridiculously over-active imaginations.

While session info appears to continue through 2005, unfortunately it looks like the whole magazine project came to an end in 2004 after only 5 issues. This is a pity - Spielboy looks like it would have provided a truly unique angle on the nerdy hobby of boardgaming.

Spielboy

About: Board / Card Games

One of thousands (or maybe only hundreds) of subsections of the About.com info aggregation entity. Reference to the Our Story page tells you, "...Whether it be home repair and decorating ideas, recipes, movie trailers, or car buying tips, our Guides offer practical advice and solutions for every day life...."

The idea is that one is attracted to the worthwhile content on the page, which does seem to be current and regularly updated, but then you have to weave your way through the advertising to get at the meaningful content.
I'm not sure this has anything to offer over and above BoardGameGeek, but perhaps there are commentaries here that won't find elsewhere. And it has an RSS feed.

About: Board / Card Games

Brett & Board

Danish site by Mik Svellov claiming "information and news about German family board games and other designer games".

At one time I think this was quite an active site, with lots of info in particular about the Essen games fest. Unfortunately content seems to be untouched since 2004, although some pages appear to dated 2006.
Although Mik's search function seemed to be working, some of his other databases are lost or broken, so you may not have too much luck retrieving anything. A pity - the Links page looks like it would have been a fantastic resource for the games world.

Brett & Board

The Games Journal

A serious but brilliant online magazine about the playing of games, psyxhology, reviews, etc., edited by Greg Aleknevicus. They had had to stop the ongoing updates unfortunately due to "declining submissions", from about early to mid 2006.
This is a great pity, although like Ken Tidwell's Game Cabinet, thankfully the site is still accessible in it's entirety, and hopefully will serve as a great resource for meta-game analysis and discussion for years to come...

The Games Journal

Ken Tidwell's Game Cabinet

Until 2000, apparently when Ken abandoned updates on this site, this was the best online resource for information about boardgames.

As Euro games began to take off in English-speaking countries, one common challenge was that rules for a lot of these great games were often not provided in English (or other languages). The Game Cabinet was an excellent place to go for games rules in English, for free.

Now frozen in time, but still fully functional (at the time of writing), The Game Cabinet is still a good place to visit every once in a while to see the games world as it was back in 2000!

The Game Cabinet

Boardgamenews

These guys have their finger right on the pulse of the board games world, with up-to-date news, previews and reviews of the latest game releases, upcoming conventions, and other happenings in the industry. Take a feed, and you'll often get half-a-dozen or so new items every day.

They also appear to be the only up-to-date providers of the marvellous Ted Alspach cartoon, "Bored to Pieces".

Their links section had a few out-of date items at the time of review, but still an excellent resource for further information.

Boardgamenews

BoardGameGeek

Appropriately, this is the first site review entry here.
This is the ultimate site for anything to do with boardgames, with a massive user-contributed catalogue of probably every game that's ever been available.

The first place to go to find info about a specific game, rules, variants, reviews, etc. The unique community user-ranking mechanism is a valuable way to get a summary of how well a particular game is regarded by the gaming community at large.

User participation is free, and it's easy and fascinating to surf through the collective and individual personalities of those that contribute to this site.

BoardGameGeek