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This is an award that identifies my personal favorite game from each year. The 1995 through 2007 winners (and other nominees) were discussed in Games of the Years. The 2008 winner was discussed in Best in Show, the 2009 winner in Non-German Three-Peat, and the 2010 winner in From Top to Bottom: A Year in Review. Two games that would have won for their year if I had discovered them earlier are Antiquity from 2004 and Through the Ages from 2006.
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This is the most well-known award in the world of board games. The Spiel des Jahres was founded in 1978 to promote awareness of board games. The jury that selects the award is composed of journalists in Germany. The jury has identified the following characteristics that they look for in a game: originality/playability/educational value of the game idea, organization/clarity/understandability of the rules, packing/layout of the gameboard and rules, and functionality/overall quality of the game materials. In early June of each year, the jury identifies five "Nominees" and a host of "Recommended" games, and selects a Game of the Year from the Nominees a few weeks later.
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The Deutscher Spiele Preis is often considered the "gamers' game award" because it tends to pick more complicated games with longer playing times than the Spiel des Jahres (which has leaned more towards simpler and quicker family games in recent years). This award is given by a German magazine, but the magazine collects votes from the general public. The DSP actually acknowledges the ten best games of each year, ranking them from one to ten.
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The International Gamers Awards is decided each year by a committee of 19 board game players from around the world. The IGA selects three games each year: Best multi-player general strategy game, best two-player general strategy game, and best historical simulation wargame. According to the IGA website, the award was "created to recognize outstanding games and designers, as well as the companies that publish them. The awards are truly international in scope, with committee members representing countries throughout the world. As such, it is our belief that these awards will truly select the 'best of the best' and come to be respected by not only hobbyists, but the general public at large. We hope that this will lead to greater exposure for these wonderful games to more and more people and help spread the word of the 'wonderful world of gaming' on a global scale."
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The Golden Geek award is selected by the voting of the user community at the BoardGameGeek website. The community not only recognizes the "Game of the Year," but also the best games in a variety of other categories, such as Gamer's Game, Wargame, 2-Player Game, Family Game, Children's Game, Party Game, Card Game, and Best Artwork/Presentation. The full list of winners is available at this website.
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The Meeples' Choice Award is decided by the Spielfrieks Internet discussion group, which was founded by Stephen Glenn and Mark Johnson in January of 2000. According the MCA website, "a series of retrospective polls from the membership of Spielfrieks were conducted" in 2001, with awards spanning back to 1995 (because the release of Settlers of Catan in 1995 helped reinvigorate boardgaming in the Untied States. "The Meeples' Choice Award is given to the three most popular boardgames released each year. Going forward, voting is open to every member of the Spielfrieks discussion group. The votes are taken each May."
Mensa members are invited to play and judge board games at the Mensa Mind Games event each year. The games must have been submitted (and pay a fee) in order to compete for the award. The five most popular games are named the Mensa Select. The judging criteria for this award according to the Mensa Mind Games website are: "originality (structure, concept, creativity), game play (enjoyment, excitement, challenge), play value (repeatability, longevity, price), aesthetics (look, feel, style) and instructions (brevity, clarity, completeness)." The Mind Games event is held over three days, and each participant evaluates 30 games during that time. Due to this very short time period to learn and play games, the Mensa Select award tends to favor games that are quick and easy to learn. Please note that I do not list all of the Mensa Select winners, but only a sampling of the ones that I think might be of interest to eurogame players. For a full list of Mensa Select winners please see either this website or this other one.
According to the Funagain Games listing for the Games Magazine Award, each "year since 1980, GAMES Magazine has published a Buyer's Guide to Games in their year-end holiday issue." The article lists and reviews "one hundred games each year, and was thus dubbed The GAMES 100 . . . In 1991, GAMES also began recognizing the favorites in each category with a special Best designation, and has selected one game from the whole list to receive the highest honor of Game of the Year." Thus, the Games Magazine Award not only recognizes the "Game of the Year," but also others such as the Best Abstract Strategy Game, the Best Advanced Strategy Game, the Best Family Game, the Best Family Card Game, the Best Family Strategy Game, the Best Party Game, the Best Puzzle, and the Best Historical Simulation Game (plus a runner-up in each category).
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