Episode 199: Kennerspiel des Schpiel 2014 - Part 2

Release Date: July 7, 2014

Running Time:  108  min.

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Decision time. We review Istanbul and Rococo, the final nominees for the Kennerspiel des Jahres, and try to predict the winner.

Kennerspiel des Jahres Nominees: Concordia, Istanbul, Rococo 

Complete Show Notes continue after the break.

News & Notes  

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Kennerspiel des Jahres Nominees

Istanbul  BGG  |  Pegasus Spiele  |  AEG

Rococo  BGG  |  Eggertspiele  |  Eagle Games

Concordia  BGG  |  PD Games  |  Rio Grande Games

Music

Music credits include:

Istanbul  by Four Lads  |  the song

Winke Winke  by Peter Schwarz  |  the album

My Favorite Game  by  The Bosshoss  |  the album

So What  by Nils Landgren Funk Unit  |  the song

Errata

I'm sure there are some goofs in there somewhere

Let us know if (when?) you find one:

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Comments

sconway - Mon, 07/14/2014 - 15:08
And the winner is... Istanbul!
 
Congrats to designer Rudiger Dorn and Pegasus Spiele and AEG! 
 
My favorite of the bunch was Rococo. I really enjoy all three but for very different reasons. I think based on the criteria for the award, this year the jury actually selected the game that fit the best. 
 
Episode 198 has a good discussion of the identity crisis the Kennerspiel faces, but if we keep in mind the real motivation behind the award is for it to occupy a difficulty spot one notch higher than a SdJ game (a SdJ+), Istanbul stands out clearly as the game best fitting that model.
 
Another telling sign occurred during the livestream of the awards ceremony. There are videos played for each award highlighting the gameplay. In the case of Concordia and Istanbul these videos were made with fairly young kids (10 year olds I would guess) playing with their parents. Only Rococo featured a table full of adults. I think we can infer from this choice that the jury still wants Kennerspiel games to be playable by many families (just like the SdJ).