February 17, 2006

What Makes a Eurogame Game?

The Games Journal recently posted another attempt at defining the qualities of a Euro Game. It's a pretty good writeup, and although we agree with most of the thirteen points, we'd probably remove point "11. Abstract to the point that the 'theme' appears to be tacked on", point "4. Uncertainty of information", and point "6. Very pacific".

Why trim these three? Well, mainly becuase 10-points lists have been the standard for thousands of years (ever since Moses dropped that third tablet), and this 13-point list makes our anal side claw at the walls. On top of that - Eurogames do have somewhat aggressive game elements. You're not slaughtering each other with table top muskets, sure, but take the thief of Settlers of Catan, or the ability to box-in farmers in Carcassone, etc. The "uncertainty of information" doesn't seem uniformly applicable, either.

We'd also like to add that Eurogames have seemingly evolved out of a social movement in German familes. From our understanding, one of the things that German familes do during their "together time" is huddle around a table for a board game or two. It's a pastime that's becoming increasing popular... and we definitely understand why. Eurogames light our engine, and we look forward to years of more great titles yet to come.