Why are Games of the Year lists not done now?

Why don't more people do top games of the past year this month instead of January? It doesn't have to be calendar year. It would allow Essen releases to be judged after almost a year instead of a couple months. It's also the start of holiday shopping season so would be useful to more people.

This seems Ill advised because there are problems around titling the list and with SEO.

I'm not sure how people searching for best of the year lists would stumble across it, which means long-term traffic would be poor.

charlest wrote: This seems Ill advised because there are problems around titling the list and with SEO.

I must be misunderstanding something. Wouldn't the list be 'The Best Board Games of 2021' regardless of whether it were released in December or January?

Given the number of games coming out each year now I don't think any one group of people can speak with any authority on the subject. I haven't heard of 95% of the games people mention here until they're mentioned here.

But if you would like to go after it with the current time frame in mind, I think a Christmas 2021 Games-to-Buy List would be a great way to phrase it.

Virabhadra wrote:

charlest wrote: This seems Ill advised because there are problems around titling the list and with SEO.

I must be misunderstanding something. Wouldn't the list be 'The Best Board Games of 2021' regardless of whether it were released in December or January?

I think the original post was suggesting a list spanning a year that starts and ends with Essen. So like November 2020-November 2021.

If you did a best of 2021 and ended it arbitrarily in October, games released in November and December would never be eligible and when people searched for similar lists it could cause yours to appear somewhat irregular or incomplete.

Geek & Sundry used to do a "Best of 20xx Thus Far" list which came out midway through the year. Then they'd update it at the end of the year with a new article. That's not a bad approach.

charlest wrote:

Virabhadra wrote:

charlest wrote: This seems Ill advised because there are problems around titling the list and with SEO.

I must be misunderstanding something. Wouldn't the list be 'The Best Board Games of 2021' regardless of whether it were released in December or January?

I think the original post was suggesting a list spanning a year that starts and ends with Essen. So like November 2020-November 2021.

Yeah, I was thinking more like an Industry Year than a Calendar Year.

ChristopherMD wrote: Yeah, I was thinking more like an Industry Year than a Calendar Year.

Go from one Chinese New Year to the next, since that's when Santa's Elves temporarily get to leave the toyshops.

I’m not doing them anymore, I guess I really haven’t done one in a couple of years. I’d rather just post and say “hey, these were my favorites that I played this year, whatever”. It’s not like I’ve played 1% of what’s come out in 2021. I don’t even fucking know what all is in the running out there.

You want my list? Here it is:

Dune Jr.
Dune Imperium (I reviewed it in 2021)
Descent: Legends of the Dark
Mini Rogue
Magnate
Alien: Fate of the Nostromo

RPG of the year- Original Adevnures Reincarnated: Temple of Elemental Evil

Miniatures game of the year- Unmatched (fight me)

Turd of the year award goes to Under Falling Skies

I'd read Michael Barnes' "These Were My Favorites That I Played This Year, Whatever”. I mean, you wrote the reviews, so I guess that's it. I'm still interested in the titles that gamers who share my tastes have liked recently, especially if they're new to me. Not so interested in anybody's claim to an annual roundup, unless it's something hyper-specific like "Top Ten Non-Tolkien Fantasy Hexcrawls on Itch.io" or "So Your SO Will Only Play Co-Ops, 2021."