Starting on Wednesday over on Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel as well as with posts, I’ll be doing my Top 100 Games. This list is my favorite games, and I think that there’ll be some shake-up this year. I’m going through today (and maybe tomorrow) to get them ranked. But I’ve heard from other big board game fans that it’s hard to make a Top 100 List. And while I agree with that it can be hard, it’s less hard than people might think.

Let’s Meet What Makes It Easier

There are a number of ways people sort, they look at the games that they own and try and sort them that way. They put them on little post-it notes or note cards and lay them out and try and put them into an order. What I’ve found that works really well is the Ranking Engine on Pub Meeple.

Pub Meeple is a nice little nerdy site that I just know of and use for their ranking engine. You can rank anything from soft drinks to movies to board games. But it is nicest for board games. You always have to provide your own list. But for board games, it connects into Board Game Geek. So it can pull in every board game I have in my collection. And more than that, every board game that I have rated, so not just own but have given a rating to.

Since I update my ratings fairly often or will rate new games when I play them, that, besides some games growing up, I’m sure, is basically all the games I’ve ever played. And I can filter out expansions as well, which fall underneath the board game that they come from. In fact, a standalone game, like Small World and Small World: Underworld, I can go through and just add one to sort.

Then comes the trickier part. It gives me comparisons. But not a huge list of games. Instead I pick between two. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it is a bit harder. Between Concept and Gloomhaven, I got that, but there are times when it’s a tough decision still. But because of how the ranking engine works and the single comparison point it make it easier.

How Do I Pick Between Close Games?

There are a lot of different factors that can lead into this. But there is one, assuming that time or players aren’t an issue, which one would I prefer to play right now. Now, campaign games do mess this up a little bit, do I want to go out and purchase another copy of Pandemic Legacy Season 1 to start playing again right now? Do I want to play through the campaign of Gloomhaven again?

So then I have to consider other factors as well. What was my original experience like with the game? Was the original experience with Pandemic Legacy Season 1 better than a play I could have a game right now? I won’t ever be able to truly get that first time experience with Pandemic Legacy Season 1 again because I know the story. But the fact that there was a story, is that better than a game without a story. So you can see how it gets trickier.

However, the question of, would I still want to play that game again does matter. Even without the story, is Pandemic Legacy still a fun gaming experience to have. If the story was fun but the game sucked, the game will drop lower on the list. If the game is great but the story sucked, yeah, that’ll drop further too, but maybe less over time.

And At The End You Have Your List

Going back to that, once I am done with all my comparisons, Pub Meeple spits out a list of how everything is ranked. Those comparisons do take a while. I think with my games played it’s over 1100 different comparisons, possibly. And generally I will be a little surprised where some things end up on my list.

I know some people will tweak their list because they think those surprises are wrong. I think that it’s just one of those things where in the moment of comparison, maybe things have shifted. My Top 100 list tends to shirt fairly often. Now some of that is that I’m playing more games. I get new games to the table and they make it to the list. Or I play one game a lot and it drops because I feel like I’ve explored it. So a Top 100 list can always be changing.

How Many Games Do You Need To Have Played?

So besides the fact that it can be tricky to do, which is what Pub Meeple helps with, another thing I hear is that people don’t feel like they’ve played enough games. I look at it this way, if I’ve played 100 games, I can make a Top 100 list. Now, at the bottom of that list are going to be games I don’t like. And that is just fine and dandy, this isn’t supposed to be the list of best games of all time, it’s my Top 100 list.

I get that it feels wrong, it feels off to put a game you don’t like on a list, unless it’s Top 10 Games You Don’t Like list. Or like my 10 Games I’m Probably Wrong About List. But that list is equally as valid with some disliked games on it because it’s your list. I committed a sin when I bashed Dominion, but it is also okay that I don’t like Dominion, why, because it’s my taste in game. So you just need to have played 100 games to make a Top 100 list.

When Are My Top 100 Games Coming?

So starting on Wednesday at 8 PM I am going to be doing my Top 100 games of all time over on Malts and Meeples. I’ll have the videos lined up soon so that you can click that notification bell to know when I’m going live. But if you want to find out the list live and chat along with me, that’ll be where you can do it and if I calculated correctly the last one should be the week before Thanksgiving.

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.