Reiner Knizia controversy over Spiel des Jahres?

Thurn Und Taxis, the new hit from Andreas Seyfarth (Puerto Rico, #1 ranked game in the world), has received the award of Spiel des Jahres, the German game scene's most prestigous "family gaming award".

Greg Schloesser has written a fine review of TUT, if you want to check it out - and it's only $22 at Thoughthammer, so I would think many of us should own this one based on the author alone.

There's a bit of a controversy, as there often is, about who was passed up for the award, again after his 16 years of releases and 15 games: Reiner Knizia.

Considered perhaps one of the best ever game designers, Knizia is know for some of these incredible titles: Tigris and Euphrates (#2 in the world), Lost Cities, Medici, Merchants of Amersterdam, Modern Art, Palazzo, Rome, Royal Turf, Samurai, Taj Mahal, Through the Desert, to name just a few of his 202 titles). He had a few games nominated for the Game of the Year award, but never won.

Larry Levy of www.boardgamenews.com explores whether there is a conspiracy to exclude Herr Doctor of the international fame and sales that comes with winning the award in an article he calls The Truth is Out There. Here's an excerpt from the discussion on Tigris and Euphrates that gives you a taste.

1998
More outrage from the Knizia fans, as his insanely great design Euphrat & Tigris loses out to Elfenland. I could make the same speech about family friendly games that I made for Modern Art, but there’s more to consider this time. The SdJ’s were in the midst of a six-year period where they seemed much more receptive to gamer’s games. The conspiracy theorists ask, with some justification, if Torres could win an SdJ, why not E&T?

This is a reasonable question and deserves consideration. First of all, the Jury was not handing out awards to heavy designs left and right. The only real aberrations during the period were El Grande and Torres. True, Settlers was a little more complex than the previous winners, but it was also a once-in-a-lifetime gaming phenomenon, played and enjoyed by countless families in spite of its complexity. It didn’t belong to gamers—it belonged to the world. Mississippi Queen and Elfenland were standard SdJ-type games, the latter perhaps on the heavier side, but really not much more complex than Thurn und Taxis. Tikal is indeed a gamer’s game, but in 1999 it was also very popular with families. The game is very easy to learn—just follow the player aid cards—and can be successfully played at whatever level the participants desire. El Grande, on the other hand, was a somewhat surprising pick in ’96, as many thought it too heavy for an SdJ award. And Torres is probably the least family friendly game to win the prize.

Okay, so gamer’s games were the exception rather than the rule. Still, why couldn’t the exception also extend to 1998? Was Euphrat & Tigris that much more of an unreasonable pick than El Grande or Torres?

Good stuff. Check it out.