Going Analog

Where video game industry veterans introduce great board games to video gamers

Podcast #36: Celebrating BoardGameGeek's 20th b-day

BGG just turned 20. Let's take a look back through the good (and bad) years.

BoardGameGeek just hit its big two-oh anniversary -- and we bet most of you didn't even realize it was out of its pre-teen years. (If we hadn't known any better, we would've estimated around 12-15 years old. Owner Scott "Aldie" Alden told us on his last Going Analog Podcast appearance about the big milestone that was coming up.)

So we had to ask Aldie and Lincoln Damerst (BGG's director of media) to come back to our show to reminisce about the...well, not-always-great ol' days: all the outages, the technical hiccups, the scrappiness.... When you hear these stories, you won't believe how on earth the site survived all this time.

Our four new topics:

  1. Scott: How did we all first discover BoardGameGeek?
  2. Lincoln: The history of BGG media
  3. Shoe: What do you mainly use BGG for?
  4. Christina: The most underrated games on BGG

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Here's a full list of the games mentioned on the show:

Intro & Scott's topic: How did you first hear about BoardGameGeek?

  • Settlers of Catan
  • Manhattan
  • Die Hanse
  • Magic: The Gathering
  • Chess
  • Poker
  • UNO
  • Risk
  • Mahjong
  • Scrabble
  • Carcassonne
  • Black Box
  • Lost Cities
  • Wingspan
  • Thunderstone
  • Dominion
  • Android: Netrunner
  • Love Letter
  • Coup
  • Puerto Rico

Lincoln's topic: The history of BoardGameGeek media

  • Power Grid: Factory Manager
  • Aquatica
  • Space Dealer

Shoe's topic: What do you use BoardGameGeek for the most?

  • Throne of Allegoria

Christina's topic: The most underrated games on BoardGameGeek

  • Lost Legacy: The Starship
  • Lost Legacy Legend
  • Billabong
  • Speculation
  • Wyatt Earp
  • Koryo
  • Choson
  • Alcatraz: The Scapegoat
  • A Game of Thrones: Hand of the King
  • Secrets
  • Werewolf
  • Mafia

Final thoughts:

  • Root
  • Russian Railroads
  • Kingdom Death Monster