Designer's Favorites

January 25, 2006

While many game designers choose to refrain from rating games on BoardGameGeek, there are a number of designers who have rated numerous games. Whether or not you think it's appropriate for a game designer to publicly rate games, you may very well be interested in what some of your favorite designers enjoy playing themselves when they're not coming up with their greatest new creations. Here is a list of the prominent game designers that have rated games and their favorite games.

• Andreas Seyfarth
• Games of Note: Puerto Rico
• Favorites: Acquire, Carcassonne, Citadels, Civilization, Outpost
• Rüdiger Dorn
• Games of Note: Goa, Jambo, Louis XIV, Traders of Genoa
• Favorites: Attika, Caylus, Goa, Magic: The Gathering CCG, Tichu, Traders of Genoa, YINSH
• Friedemann Friese
• Games of Note: Power Grid
• Favorites: 6 Nimmt, Apples to Apples, Can't Stop, Fresh Fish, Mamma Mia, Power Grid, RoboRally, Wallenstein
• Franz-Benno Delonge
• Games of Note: Manila, Fjords, TransAmerica
• Favorites: Chess, Schafkopf
• Richard Garfield
• Games of Note: Magic: The Gathering CCG, RoboRally
• Favorites: Acquire, Apples to Apples, Carcassonne, Cosmic Encounter - Eon Expansion #4, Hera & Zeus, Hoity Toity, Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation, Lost Cities, Scrabble, Settlers of Catan, TransAmerica
• Stephen Glenn
• Games of Note: Balloon Cup
• Favorites: Acquire, Balderdash, Chinatown, Crokinole, Euphrat & Tigris, GIPF, Go, Poker, Through the Desert, YINSH
• William Attia
• Games of Note: Caylus
• Favorites: Diplomacy, Euphrat & Tigris, Ingenious, Princes of Florence, Puerto Rico, Ricochet Robot, San Juan

Here are some of the prominent designers who have chosen not to rate games. I respect their decision, but also appreciate the opinions expressed by the designers listed above: Aaron Weissblum, Alan R. Moon, Bruno Faidutti, Christian T. Petersen, Jay Tummelson, Martin Wallace, and Richard Breese.

(See this Forum Thread for this article plus additional comments on it)