Elo ratings explained How to measure players' skills in games

Have you ever wondered what those #EloRatings on #BoardGameArena are and what they mean? I've explained them at exhausting length in my latest blog post: blog.recommend.games/posts/elo-ra... #BoardGames #Elo

Looks like a lot of board game folks made their way over here and followed me back, so a quick (re) #introduction:

Hi, I'm Markus and I created @recommend.games, a board game recommendation engine and data analysis blog. Pay us a visit, why don't you? 🤓

recommend.games

Due to expired credentials, it wasn't possible for user to request being added to the R.G database. Apologies for that. It's fixed now, so anyone who got errors in the past two weeks, please try again now.

For technical reasons (my old laptop caking its pants) there hasn't been an update to the @recommend.games model and database in a while. Since there's been a number of new users over the past week, I managed to update at least the database, although some functionality was lost along the way.

A political map of the world with countries coloured by the size of their BoardGameGeek community

If you're curious to find out what this map has to do with #BoardGameGeek, you should check out this article: blog.recommend.games/posts/world-...

Scatterplot of board game complexity vs rating. The trend line shows a strong positive correlation. The animation then lowers the slope till the complexity bias is removed.

Here's one of the main animations from my article about debiasing the #BoardGameGeek ranking. This and more details in the full article: blog.recommend.games/posts/debias...

This top 10 list after removing complexity bias actually includes games that I regularly recommend. (Can't say the same for unadjusted.)
1. Just One
2. Codenames
3. Cascadia
4. Scout
5. Pandemic Legacy 1
6. 7 Wonders Duel
7. The Crew: Deep Sea
8. Azul
9. Patchwork
10. Quacks of Quedlinburg

Debiasing the BoardGameGeek ranking Bias is a bit of an ugly word, isn’t it? It certainly has become one of those battle phrases in the culture war, where both sides of the argument accuse the other of forcing their biases onto …

New article about debiasing the #BoardGameGeek ranking: blog.recommend.games/posts/debias... 🤓

What was the best year for board games? The highest rated years on BoardGameGeek

What was the best year for board games? 🤔 Find out in our latest blog post: blog.recommend.games/posts/highes...
#BoardGames #BoardGameGeek #UnnecessaryDetails

Spiel des Jahres 2024 predictions – Part 2! The waiting is finally coming to an end! On Sunday, July 21, the jury will announce the winners of Spiel des Jahres and Kennerspiel des Jahres 2024. We’re blessed with another year of very …

Just two days till #SdJ2024 winners will be announced. My predictions are #CaptainFlip and #Daybreak as winners. Read the full article here: blog.recommend.games/posts/spiel-...
#SpielDesJahres #Kennerspiel @spiel-des-jahres.de

I don't have any user tracking on @recommend.games so I don't know how many people I reach. It's really liberating not to stare at the numbers and I started to just write for myself. But this makes it even more important that people write feedback, share the links etc. Always makes my day 🥰

Spiel des Jahres 2024 predictions – Part 2! The waiting is finally coming to an end! On Sunday, July 21, the jury will announce the winners of Spiel des Jahres and Kennerspiel des Jahres 2024. We’re blessed with another year of very …

With less than two weeks to go till #SdJ2024 winners will be announced, it's high time for my predictions: blog.recommend.games/posts/spiel-...
Looks like I have surprisingly strong opinions on #TtRLegacy 😅
@spiel-des-jahres.de #SpielDesJahres #Kennerspiel

Thoughts on Spiel des Jahres What it is and what it isn't

Less than a month till #SdJ2024 winners will be announced. Perfect time to read my thoughts on @spiel-des-jahres.de, about its history, mission and intention: blog.recommend.games/posts/though...
#SpielDesJahres #Kennerspiel #SdJ

POLL: Spiel des Jahres 2024 & Kennerspiel des Jahres 2024 | BGG It's still a couple of weeks until Spiel des Jahres and Kennerspiel des Jahres 2024 winners will be announced on July 21, but I think it's already time for some speculations! 🤓 Who do you think will b...

Who do you think is going to win #SdJ2024? Vote on #BGG: boardgamegeek.com/thread/33199...
#SdJ #SpielDesJahres #Kennerspiel

Spiel des Jahres 2024 predictions Spiel des Jahres 2024 is around the corner! As in the previous four years, I’ll try to predict what games have the best shot at ending up on the longlist (aka recommendations) and the shortlist …

Less than two weeks till #SdJ2024 nominations will be announced. High time for our annual predictions: blog.recommend.games/posts/spiel-...

What games do you think the jury @spiel-des-jahres.de will nominate? 🤔 Let us know! 👇

#SpielDesJahres #SdJ #Kennerspiel

Game Designer Hall of Fame The best board game designers of all times – according to Spiel des Jahres

Less than one month until #SpielDesJahres2024 nominations. 🤩 Time to look back over the past 45 years and celebrate the most successful designers - the #HallOfFame of board game designers according to @spiel-des-jahres.de : blog.recommend.games/posts/game-d...
#SdJ #SdJ24 #SdJ2024

The world of board games Board game rankings by country

Have you ever wonder what's the favourite game in your country? What country is the most enthusiastic about board games? Find the answers to those questions in my latest blog post:
blog.recommend.games/posts/world-...
#BoardGames #BGG #maps

Measuring the Shut Up & Sit Down effect Using synthetic control to make up our own counterfactual world

🎲 Exploring the SU&SD Effect: Curious about the true influence of Shut Up & Sit Down's board game reviews? Join us on our journey as we dive into the data, featuring John Company by @colewehrle.bsky.social:
blog.recommend.games/posts/susd-e...
#BoardGames #BoardGameGeek #SUSD

Child's play: How hard is Orchard? Orchard is a beloved children’s game classic which is so old – it’s as old as myself. 👴 As one might expect from a children’s game, it’s really simple: roll a die, pick a fruit …

New blog post! This time about the very important question how hard it is to win a children's game: blog.recommend.games/posts/orchard/

Because of expired credentials, it was impossible to create new collection requests. This is fixed now - if you got an error message in the past few days, please try again now. Sorry about that... 😅

Lots and lots of collection requests coming in over the past day or two. (Keep 'em coming! 🤩) Is Recommend.Games being discussed somewhere? 😅

Lots and lots of collection requests coming in over the past day or two. (Keep 'em coming! 🤩) Is Recommend.Games being discussed somewhere? 😅

Last night's weekly update to the model and database of Recommend.Games was the first including the new collection requests introduced about a week ago. So all those lovely people who submitted a request can now get recommendations in their old glory again! 🤓

Now with verified domain @recommend.games! 🤓

Maybe it's a good idea to explain *how* you make that request... 😅 Simply ask for recommendations as usual but typing your BGG user name into Recommend.Games. If there's no collection yet in the database, you'll see a prompt to make the request. It's easy!

Recommend.Games – board game recommendations Top-rated board games as evaluated by our recommendation engine. Find the best board and card games with personal recommendations for your taste!

With the latest update of #RecommendGames you can now request to have your collection added to the database and hence enjoy the recommendations in their old glory! 🤩 Head over to recommend.games#/ to request your collection 😎 #BoardGames #BoardGameGeek

Recommend.Games – board game recommendations Top-rated board games as evaluated by our recommendation engine. Find the best board and card games with personal recommendations for your taste!

Those who have been using #RecommendGames in the past few months will have noticed that the recommendations looked somewhat broken because they were full of games you already own or have played. This because in order to make hosting more affordable, I had to remove collection items for most users.

Reverse engineering the BoardGameGeek ranking TL;DR: BoardGameGeek calculates its ranking by adding around 1500-1600 dummy ratings of 5.5 to the regular users' ratings. They called it their geek score, statisticians call it a Bayesian average. We...

It's Saturday night and I'm waiting for the kids to fall asleep, so I thought I'd take the time to highlight an article I'm proud of. If you ever wondered how the #BoardGameGeek ratings are calculated (and why it is done the way it is), you should check it out: blog.recommend.games/posts/revers...