Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The Gone Gaming 2006 Board Game Internet Awards

The Gone Gaming: Board Game Internet Awards results are in. A big thank you to the tireless staff at Gone Gaming for their work in selecting the winners, and especially to Shannon for tabulating the votes and creating the award images.

If your site has won, you may display the "Winner" image here on your site with a link to this post's URL or the main Gone Gaming URL.

Here are the results:




Best game resource site



Winner: Board Game Geek

Surely no surprise to anyone, Board Game Geek is the behemoth of board game websites, with information on over 27,000 games, hundreds of thousands of registered users, and everything from player aids to online contests. Scott Alden, Head Geek, quit his job at the beginning of 2006 to run the site full time, and this year saw many new improvements and features to the site.

Having won two years in a row, Board Game Geek becomes our first Hall of Fame winner, and will be ineligible for this category next year.



Runner Up: Bruno Faidutti




Best publisher site



Winner: Days of Wonder

For the second year, Days of Wonder wins this award for providing a user-friendly all-comprehensive site with everything that anyone could want, from rules, to forums, to online play.

Days of Wonder is our Hall of Fame winner in this category, and will be ineligible next year.



Runner Up: Fantasy Flight Games




Best game club site




Winner: East Tennessee Gamers

Once again we pick Greg Schloesser's East Tennessee Gamers club site for it's clear navigation, rich session reports, complete bios, and other game information.

East Tennessee Gamers is our Hall of Fame pick for this category and will be ineligible next year.



Runner Up: Long Island Boardgaming Organization




Best online magazine




Winner: INDEPTH

INDEPTH is a complete full-color monthly magazine full of session reports, reviews, product information, and bonuses galore, and is our pick for best magazine or journal.

There is no Runner Up in this category.




Best online gaming site




Winner: SpielByWeb

SpielByWeb continues to be an easy-to-use online gaming site with great games and no problems.

SpielByWeb is our Hall of Fame pick for this category and will be ineligible next year.



Runner Up: BrettspielWelt




Best blog






This year's winner was a tie vote.

Winner: Gathering of Engineers

Sadly ending mid-year, Gathering of Engineers was a joint blog with weekly discussion topics by some of the best game bloggers. Lucky for use, some of these bloggers continue to write elsewhere on the web.

Winner: NYC Gamer

NYC Gamer has a rich gathering of reports, reviews, analysis, and interesting writing. It jointly earns the win in this category.




Best podcast/videocast




Winner: Board Games With Scott

BGWS sneaked in with a win at the end of last year, but this year really came into its own, with useful, humorous, and fluid videos about games.

Board Games With Scott is our Hall of Fame pick for this category and will be ineligible next year.



Runner Up: The Dice Tower




Best new site (2006)




Winner: Mike Doyle's Art Play

Mike Doyle's Art Play is not only a unique blog about art and form in board game design, but an incredible gallery of his unique and beautiful designs and redesigns for existing board games.



Runner Up: Journal of Boardgame Design




Best strategy article (2006)




Winner: The Tao of Gaming: Six thousand words about Caylus

A huge, comprehensive, and enjoyable strategy guide to the year's hottest heavy Euro-game.

There is no Runner Up in this category.




Best review article (2006)




Winner: Board Game Geek (Tom Rosen): Carcassonne as heavy as Tigris and Caylus?!

Tom writes a clear and useful review of one of the core games of the decade, along with two of its expansions. With pictures.



Runner Up: Board Game Geek (Tom Rosen): Power Grid – Friese’s Fiddly Funkenschlag Flop




Best session report (2006)




Winner: Board Game Geek (Diane Close) : How To Play Doom Like A Girl!

A surreal, humorous, and engaging first play of Doom by a woman who would prefer to go to sleep.



Runner Up: Board Game Geek (Tom Rosen): Pappenheimer Surprise




Best industry article (2006)




Winner: Chris Farrell: Here I Stand, and big decks

A thorough and interesting analysis of the effects on a card-driven war game by varying the size of the decks.



Runner Up: Boardgamers' Pastime: Fill in the Blank



Runner Up: My Play: An Introduction to Elegance




Best humorous article (2006)




Winner: Board Game Geek (Diane Close) : How To Play Doom Like A Girl!

I didn't forget to mention humorous, did I? Diane wins again for this great session report.



Runner Up: Gamer's Mind: Meeting of the Minds




Best article series (2006)




Winner: Board Game News (Jeff Allers): Postcards From Berlin

Jeff Allers writes from a unique perspective about what it's like to live and game as an American in Berlin.



Runner Up: Board Game Babylon: The Demise and Rise of the FLGS




Best downloadable board game




Winner: Scott: Pocket Civ

What more could you ask for than a portable pocket-sized game of Civilization? Thanks, Scott!



Runner Up: Axis and Allies.org: Axis & Allies Revised Historical Edition




Congratulations to all the winners and runners up. And thanks again to all of our readers for participating in the nominations.

The Gone Gaming Staff

6 comments:

dave said...

Thanks for the recognition of Gathering of Engineers, even though we ended in the first half of the year. It was fun but unfortunately we couldn't handle the turnover (to which no group site seems immune, even yours). Blogging is hard work! It was definitely a lot of fun while it lasted...

Zwicky Chesterfield said...

Thommy won both first prize AND runner-up for Best Reiview? Highly impressive.

Greg J. Schloesser said...

Wow! Thanks for the award for the East Tennessee Gamers website. I appreciate the honor.

And it is in the Hall of Fame as well! Wow! And they said I'd never amount to anything! :o)

Anonymous said...

Nad thanks for my wbesit's award as well- best after the geek, that's something!
Sorry I didn't mention on my website earlier, but I learned about it only today. You should have emailed me;-)

Gerda said...

Dieser Beitrag gefällt mir sehr.Habe schon lange danach gesucht.Vielen Dank.
Gruß Notebookfreake

Docven said...

Danke für diesen sehr guten Beitrag. Er ist gleichermassen hilfreich wie interessant.