What is Board Game Geek?

What is it?

BoardGameGeek is a fantastic resource for any fan of board and card games. Have you ever wanted to see almost every single game out there? Have you ever wanted to know any game mechanics? Then this is the website for you.

From the front page, “BoardGameGeek is an online resource and community that aims to be the definitive source for board game and card game content. The site is updated on a real-time basis by its large and still growing user base — more than two million registered users! — making the Geek the largest and most up-to-date place to get gaming information! You can become a registered member of BBG for free, although we welcome your contributions to the site in the form of ratings, reviews, and thoughts on games to the existing database!

BGG features reviews, ratings, images, play-aids, translations, and session reports from board game geeks around the world, as well as live discussion forums. In addition, every day nearly a hundred game trades pass through the hands of registered members, as well as transactions in the Geek Market. If you are new to the site and are wondering where to begin, you might start with the Guide to BoardGameGeek.”

With plenty of ways to play and tons of resources for playing those games, it’s no wonder why nerds, geeks, and gamers of all kinds choose to use this platform. Whether it is a heavy game depth or a light game just for the games you love playing it’s the place to check out.

Resources

The resources are available on BoardGameGeek. All Boardgames, Categories, Artists, Artists, Publishers, Honors, Gone Cardboard, Recent Additions, Previews, Families, Mechanics, Designers, Accessories, Random Games, Podcasts, and Wikis. You can find a group to play with or people that can help you decide on which games to play.

In this article, I’ll just be going over the resources that I feel are the most useful for the people reading these types of articles. The parts I’ll recommend are Mechanics, Publishers, Podcasts, and Accessories. I think these are some of the most important sections to discuss.

Mechanics

As someone who is interested in game design, I love knowing where to start. When I found out that there is a dedicated section with a list of game mechanics it gave me so many directions to go and a place to start integrating my own ideas into actual game mechanics.

Each mechanic has an example with images and a list of popular or known games that use the mechanic. It easily puts into perspective that even some of the biggest and most well-loved games are actually just a series of different mechanics. It makes it easier to understand how the games were created and where the creator innovated.

I would say this resource is essential for game designers. It’s free, and it allows you the opportunity to see the system that helps develop these games we love. With mechanics like these, you’ll have the data you need to get started.

Publishers

Becoming familiar with the different publishers can be a massive help for your game design journey. Knowing where to begin when it comes to contacting a publisher will help you when you begin networking, learning what games they are looking for, and in general just getting more knowledge.

When you are a game designer you will have to gain a lot of skills including networking and being able to clearly share your ideas with others and sell them on your idea and games. Get started now so that by the time you are ready to publish you’ll be prepared with publishers in mind.

Podcasts

One common theme throughout this post is that knowledge is power. I haven’t said it until now but the more you know the better off you will be. We can read every article, play every game, and watch everything to do with games but unless we do it ourselves we won’t learn much.

By listening to those who have actually been in the process we won’t be able to get far. Learning from the mistakes of those that came before is a great learning tool. If a successful designer has shown the things that fail at a game you could still try to make it work but why waste your time? Why not move on and try something that will work better?

Listening to podcasts or watching videos is like discussing an issue with your friends. It allows you to participate in the topic. There are hundreds of podcasts on the board game geek website. There are probably thousands of hours worth of content to discover.

Accessories

Have a great idea and have done tons of playtesting? Are you ready to actually start building a good-looking product? Well, this website can help you on your quest! There are 66 long pages full of products for established games and pieces for you to build your own.

Have you played a game and just loved it for the pieces that came with it? Or have you ever played a game where the pieces felt cheap and like they belonged in a shoe box? Well just look at the hundreds of products you can choose from.

This may sound like an advertisement but in reality board game geek just gives you the resources and links leading to those that actually provide the pieces you’d need. It can be hard to select the right parts for your game or for the game you’re playing but there is a place you can get them.

Endnote

This is a basic overview of the website boardgamegeek and some of the resources they offer to any and all people trying to learn about board game design. I really enjoy this website as it opens my mind to a whole world I had no idea about.

Go ahead and take a look at all of their content and form your own opinion. Good luck out there! Game design is hard and you could use all of the resources available.

Written by Colton Iverson