The website, www.boardgamegeek.com, is a free online gaming community that focuses mainly on war games, strategy games and empire building games. Forum contributors say some of their favorite games include Agricola and Through the Ages: a Story of Civilization and Dominion, to name but two. Newcomers can register to the site to write their own game reviews, upload images and chat with other game enthusiasts. Visitors can read reviews, strategy tips, find opponents to play against and even buy games they can’t find in stores. For the ultimate gamer, a community is an invaluable resource.

The site, www.boardgamegeek.com, is a great place for parents to check for their annual “Board Game Gift Guide.” At a glance, parents will see a photo of the game pieces, the price, the number of players, the time it takes to play, the ages and where to buy it. They can also find links to reviews. For Christmas 2008, they recommended Incan Gold, TransAmerica, TransEuropa, The aMAZEing Labyrinth, Hey That’s My Fish, Qwirkle, Blokus and Zooloretto. For party games, they recommended Apples to Apples, Pit, Time’s Up, Wits & Wagers and Balderdash. Some of BGG’s favorite two-player games include Lost Cities, Hive and Memoir 44. The “stocking stuffer” category mentions card board games like No Thanks, Pick Picnic, Circus Flohcati and Loot. Then there’s that ever-hard-to-please teenage demographic. For this discerning audience, try Pandemic, Taluva, The Settlers of Cartan, Cartagena, Ticket To Ride, Carcassonne, Ingenious, Scotland Yard or Heroscape. By contrast, young children might love Go Away Monster, Sorry Sliders, Gulo Gulo, Cranium Cariboo, Cranium Hullabaloo and Make N’ Break.

As with any virtual community, there are ways to connect with like minds on www.boardgamegeek.com. Users can read what others write in the forums. They can peruse “GeekLists” to find users with similar gaming interests. They can add “GeekBuddies” to see their friends’ recent posts, reviews, ratings and comments. Members will receive “GeekGold” awards as they post new content to earn cool avatars and virtual currency for the community. The bottom line is that an online board games community is the best way to get all your gaming questions answered, seek new strategy hints, find new opponents, expand your game collection and flex your own expertise on this subject matter.

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In 2008, the sale of boardgames jumped 23.5% to 8 million. This may sound odd, considering that we’re in a recession and all, but it seems that Americans are cluing into the fact that a Scrabble board game costs a third of the price of a new video game and can provide just as much entertainment, and more social entertainment to boot! Video game sales have been growing too, but only by about 7% each year. Given their higher cost, they’re bringing in .4 billion annually. Families operating on tight budgets are realizing that now is a great time to set their sights on affordable family fun with some classic board games. Here are some selections for the “Best Games of 2009.”

Sometimes the best way to find exciting new boardgames is to see what the best sellers are over at www.amazon.com; the Internet’s biggest online marketplace. Currently, their top-selling boardgame is The Settlers of Catan, an award-winning strategy game that has players collecting resources to build roads, settlements and cities. Amazon calls this game “fun and engaging for both children and adults” and they say the game can be played in hundreds of different ways. Their second best selling game is Quiddler, where players are dealt point-awarded alphabet cards, which they must use to create a word with only one discard. Bananagrams is a very similar word game that doesn’t require a pen or paper, doesn’t take too long to play and comes in a neat banana pouch.

The 2009 American International Toy Fair in New York City introduced some great new boardgames this year. Pants on Fire (3 or more players, ages 10+) is a fun story-telling game, where a player writes brief stories about each of the three topics revealed. For example, a “bad date” or a “first job,” and the other players have to guess if the story is “true or false.” Another fun boardgame, Pressure Point (3 to 8 players, ages 10+) has players racing against the clock to give answers down a list of questions as quickly as possible, while other players bet on the number of correct answers they think the player will give. Masters of Venice (2 to 5 players, ages 10+) uses games strategy where players must act as 15th century Italian merchants trading spices, silks, gems, iron and grain, while playing alternate characters like thieves, harbor masters and gondoliers. Time’s Up: Title Recall (4 to 8 players, ages 12+) is a fun party game that asks players to guess the famous person associated with famous books, movies, songs and albums. A new 10th anniversary edition of Time’s Up has also been released this year.

You will be happy to hear Mensa has released the five winners of their 2009 Mind Boardgames competition. Their press release stated: “Mensa Select games are chosen based on a variety of categories including aesthetics, instructions, originality, play appeal and play value.” Cornerstone is their favorite of the 3-D strategy building games, which challenges players to have a steady hand and clever mind. Dominion is a strategy game where players try to earn the most victory points by building the best deck including buying action, treasure and victory cards. Marrakech has everyone role-playing salesmen who are rolling dice, moving pawns and making decisions, while trying to outwit the competitors. Stratum has players layering pieces to cover their opponents. Tic-Tac-Ku is similar to Tic-Tac-Toe except that there are nine playing areas.

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