Intro Part 1: BGG Collection Insights

In which we get to know the author by way of a game collection.

Why do an introduction?

It’s helpful to know the author a bit when reading about tabletop games.

Some people love heavy euro-style economic games, while other people want battles and area control. While 18XX games aren’t for everyone, there are those who deeply love the genre. It’s easy to have blind spots when you only play certain genres, not knowing some mechanisms even exist.

I try to get exposure to as many new games as I can, but (alas) there’s only so much time.

So, I wanted to start off Skeleton Code Machine with a little bit about the types of board games I like.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Look at some overall stats from my BoardGameGeek collection (e.g. weight and ratings).

2. Give a Top 10 list of the games I think are the best.

Or, why not both?

This will be part one of a two part series, beginning with a look at the overall collection. Next week, we’ll look at a Top 10.

BGG collection and ratings

As of right now, I have played and rated 227 games on BoardGameGeek out of a collection of 325 total games. While that’s nowhere close to Tom Vasel’s 7,919 ratings, I think it’s still a fair number.

I basically use the BGG rating system:

• 10 - Outstanding - will always enjoy playing.

• 9 - Excellent - very much enjoy playing.

• 8 - Very good - enjoy playing and would suggest it.

• 7 - Good - usually willing to play.

• 6 - Ok - will play if in the mood.

• 5 - Mediocre - take it or leave it.

• 4 - Not so good - but could play again.

• 3 - Bad - likely won’t play this again.

• 2 - Very bad - won’t play ever again.

• 1 - Awful - defies game description.

I’m constantly tweaking and adjusting ratings to make sure that not only (A) the individual game ratings make sense (e.g. “Underwater Cities is a 8.1.”) but also (B) the ratings make comparative sense (e.g. “Is Underwater Cities better or worse than Troyes?”). It’s almost a slow bubble sort of the list, as pairs are compared and the better ones rise to the top.

Therefore, the list is ever changing and moving. I once thought Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia was one of the best games ever, but its rating (7.0) has dropped a bit over time.

A quick analysis of my BGG ratings

Let’s export the the collection and ratings to .csv and take a look…

Distribution of Ratings

Histogram of BGG collection game ratings (N=227)

Here’s my overall rating distribution (N=227).

My average rating is 6.3 with a range of 2.0 - 9.5.

I grade a little tough, and it’s hard to get an 8+ rating. Just six of my rated games (3%) earned a 9+ rating.

That’s lower than most of the people in my local game group. They might hand out more 8s and 9s. For me, there’s only a precious few that rate that highly.

Here are two more ways of looking at that:

Scatter plot and box and whisker plots of my ratings vs. BGG average rating.

The scatter plot implies that my ratings are generally correlated with the BGG average user ratings. As the BGG community rating goes up for a game, my rating tends to go up as well. Ratings are well correlated in the 5 - 8 range, but less so in the low end.

The box and whisker plot shows the difference a bit more. My ratings (green) are quite a bit lower than the BGG community average box (pink). It becomes fairly clear that for the games in my collection, the BGG average rating is closer to a 7.5 while mine is around a 6.3.

Impact of Weight on Ratings

Scatter plot of my rating vs. BGG average weight.

The BGG Weight is defined as the game’s complexity rating on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being a “light” game and a 5 being a “heavy” game. This takes into account the amount of rules, game length, choices available, amount of bookkeeping, and more.

My average weight is 2.5 (medium), and I clearly tend to play games in the 2 - 4 range most often.

The scatter plot above shows my ratings are positively correlated with weight, meaning I enjoy heavier games a little more than lighter games.

Conclusion

What does this tell us?

1. My ratings are correlated with the BGG average ratings.

2. I tend to rate games lower than the BGG community at large on average.

3. I tend to rate “heavier” games a little higher than “lighter” games.

Now do yours!

Example of GeekGroup collection insights.

You don’t need to know statistics or have Excel to check out your own collection! There’s quite a few websites that will do it for you.

One of the ones I prefer is GeekGroup. Type in your BGG username, and then click on Insights. You’ll be able to see facts about your collection size, ratings, weights and more.

Any interesting insights or surprises from your own collection? Comment and share them below!

Next time we’ll finish the introduction with a Top 10 list, and then onto the tabletop mechanisms!

— E.P. 💀

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