As a small retailer we are always left to wonder how we compare to the rest of the country.  How are our sales compared to similar stores?  How are our sales compared to the regional average?  Are we doing as well as the entire country?  Are we managing to stay ahead of the big chains that can crush us if they simply roll over?  Or are we falling behind in any of our critical categories?  In a way being a small retailer is akin to “Keeping up with the Joneses”.

With National Games Week effectively over, a question that we received was how do the games we sell stack up against the list that we published.  That’s a great question!  And the answer is that we’re nowhere near being average.  It seems that a lot of our sales are far more specialized and that’s probably a reflection of the many quirky and eccentric customers that we have the pleasure of serving.

Here’s our list of best selling games. While there are some striking similarities, there are also some significant differences and the order, without a doubt, is very different.

Our goal is to serve the needs of our customers.  Often we will will go on a hunt to find the right vendors to deliver the products our customers are looking for.  After all, we are here specifically for our customers.  Thank you for shopping with us on Small Business Saturday and on all other days of the year!

[whohit]2014-11-29 Small Business Saturday[/whohit]

After discussing the top five games, the question which remains is what are the other great games that Beaumont Enterprise, List Challenges, Ranker and The Richest had on their lists?

That’s a fair question and we are happy to share our research.  The four surveys generated a total of 32 games that were in the top 20 category.  Obviously simply combining the lists isn’t very scientific, but it gives some really good results for the top ten games and a descent ranking for the next ten.  And the remainder are potentially questionable in their overall ranking, but clearly high up on the list for a lot of people.

Here are the complete results:

Really, it’s hard to go wrong with any of these games!  Break out your favorite today and give it a spin while there’s still a little bit of National Games Week left to enjoy!

[whohit]2014-11-29 Other Great Games[/whohit]

A basic chess set.

The top rated game wrapping up National Games Week is Chess. It is by far the oldest game on the list and arguably one associated with geeky youngsters with pocket protectors and elderly gentlemen hanging out in the park. It’s hard to make chess sound sexy. Nonetheless, the game has a long and colorful history of culture and politics and technology.

Xiangqi players by Sigismund von Dobschütz.

Chess traces it direct roots to the Gupta Empire of India in the 3rd century where it was called chaturaṅga. Merchants and traders going to India brought the game back to their own lands in the 6th and 7th centuries. In the east the Chinese evolved the game into xiangqi. In the west the Persians passed the game to the Islamic world where the game was called shatran. By the 10th century chess made it to Russia and in the 11th century it had spread into Western Europe.

Chess was imported into Europe initially for the ornamental pieces used in the game by sailors and traders who knew little about the game. The rules were different depending on the import source of the game and gaps in the rules allowed for local modification.

The original game of chaturaṅga represented a battlefield supported by the four basic divisions of the Indian military – infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots. The king was sometimes a general. The queen was a vizier (advisor or minister). Much of the movement of the pieces was different.

The Chess Game by Sofonisba Anguissola (1555).

As the game spread throughout Europe, it became clear that not everyone was using the same rules. Standardization of the rules progressed slowly. It was not until the 15th century that the game started taking on the rules that we are familiar with today. The first book to truly describe the game and explain the rules was Luis Ramirez de Lucena’s “Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez”. The race of the chess masters was then on to develop strategy, create opening elements, establish middlegame tactics and finalize endgame stages.

By the 18th century chess was a thinking man’s game. It was a game for sophisticated intelligentsia, the teachers, leaders, clergy and the upper crust of society. It was a game of gentlemen, where a “chess duel” was enough to satisfy honor, equal to a duel of pistols or swords.

As the 19th century dawned, chess became more mainstream. It was played in coffee houses. Books and journals about chess became popular and chess clubs started to form. Chess clubs held tournaments for their members and would travel to other cities to challenge other chess clubs in the game. Tournaments evolved to be a showcase of the best of the best and chess masters became celebrities.

Chess Tournament by Mikel Larreategi.

Chess became more than a game. It was a science. There was strategy and planning, understanding the thinking and play style of your opponent, the ability to play a current move while understanding what it would result in five moves later. Chess became math in motion. And it became everyman’s game. There were no barriers to entry and in a chess club or a tournament the mixing of social classes was perfectly acceptable because the game relied on intellectual prowess and foresight and not on social status.

Besides the functional and entertainment value of chess, the game also stood out for the artistry of the board and the pieces. Ornamental chess design has always been held in high regard and many collectors would seek out or commission games or pieces that held special meaning or value to them. Popular culture also took advantage of chess. Sets have been designed with pieces based on historical figures, movie lore and cultural themes.

Star Trek Three-Dimensional Chess

Chess has had a lot of innovation in the second half of the 20th century. Star Trek introduced and made popular three dimensional chess. TSR introduces Dragon Chess, also played on a three dimensional board. A number of companies introduced variations on three player and four player chess games.

Jewel Royale Chess Set from Boodles, made of gold and platinum and decorated with rubies, sapphires and diamonds. Yours for $9.8 million.

And chess has not been immune to ostentation. Throughout history many sets have been designed with gold and silver, diamonds, rubies, sapphires and pearls. You can easily find a functional chess set for $20 and if you have the cash, you can find one for $20 million to make your insurance agent cringe.

Army-Navy Chess

Scooby-Doo Chess

A more modern take on chess has been computers as opponents. Early chess playing computers date back to the 1970s. Back then memory and CPU power were limited and the computational process simply had not reached the point where it could effectively play a human. Early chess programs were prone to errors and failure and could not “think” more than just a handful of moves ahead. In 1968 international chessmaster David Levy made a bet that no computer will beat him in the next decade. Even though there were takers, no computer beat David Levy and in 1978 he won his bet. But Levy also acknowledged that as technology improves, it will become harder and harder for man to beat machine. As Levy predicted, his Waterloo came in 1989 when IBM’s Deep Thought beat him in an exhibition game. In 1997 IBM’s Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov.

World chess champion Garry Kasparov defeated by IBM’s Deep Blue on May 11, 1997 by Peter Morgan.

Over the last century psychologists invested a lot of energy into the study of chess players. There is a cultural belief that smart people are better at chess and that the super smart are the best at winning games. Multiple studies have shown that while there is a correlation between smart people and chess, there is no correlation between IQ and the ability to win chess games. Likewise, there are many high IQ individuals who simply have no interest in the game. The studies did identify that good chess players tend to be more disciplined, more structured and more analytical. They are more likely to be introverts. And a disproportionate percentage of chess lovers tend to be left-handed.

[whohit]2014-11-28 National Games Week Countdown – #1 Chess[/whohit]

If there was ever a board game that went viral, it’s Monopoly, and it’s a game that has deep roots in politics and economy.

Political economist Henry George.

Back in the late 1800s political economist Henry George wrote and lectured about land rights and the relationship between rent and poverty – a topic still current today. His philosophy held that a wealthy few could squeeze the economy and the cost of living and push those struggling to make ends meet into poverty. He was opposed to tariffs and supported free trade. And he was a major proponent of secret ballot in elections, which did not come about until the 1890s. In 1879 George published “Progress and Poverty”, which was the first popular economics text in the world, selling over 3 million copies. Franklin D Roosevelt referred to Henry George as “one of the really great thinkers produced by our country” and Albert Einstein wrote that “men like Henry George are rare unfortunately. One cannot imagine a more beautiful combination of intellectual keenness, artistic form and fervent love of justice. Every line is written as if for our generation. The spreading of these works is a really deserving cause, for our generation especially has many and important things to learn from Henry George.” Helen Keller noted in her writings that “Henry George’s philosophy [is] a rare beauty and power of inspiration, and a splendid faith in the essential nobility of human nature.”

Elizabeth Magie Phillips’ The Landlords Game.

It is with great inspirational references like these by many prominent members of society that in 1903 Elizabeth Magie Phillips created a game which she hoped could be used as a teaching tool to illustrate Henry George’s single tax theory and how land monopolies negatively impact the economy. The Landlord’s Game was never a great success, although many copies were sold.

In 1936 Monopoly was the Rage of America.

Charles Darrow was a salesman who lost his job following the stock market crash of 1929. In the depression that followed he could not find steady employment. He saw the popularity of The Landlord’s Game among people he knew and decided to redesign the game and market it under the name Monopoly as his personal invention. He sold rights to the game to Parker Brothers in 1935 and the game started to be mass produced at a rate of a million copies per year. It quickly became the best selling board game in America and made Darrow the first game designing millionaire. Adjust for inflation, a million dollars in 1935 is the equivalent of $17.4 million in 2014.

Monopoly was always a strong seller, but did not see much evolution under the ownership of Parker Brothers. In 1991 Parker Brothers was bought by Hasbro and shortly thereafter the game started seeing a multitude of variations. Editions for individual states, cities, schools, companies, movies and more were published with dozens of editions flooding the market every year. A good economist would argue that over saturation of the market is a great way to kill a popular brand, but Hasbro struck a nerve with the pubic. Monopoly was produced to reflect the popular tastes of the time and a hit movie edition was guaranteed to fly off the shelves.

Under Hasbro Monopoly also saw a lot of spin-offs, including card games, computer games and even slot machines. There was a shot lived Monopoly game show. One of the most famous promotions for Monopoly has been the McDonald’s Monopoly Sweepstakes to attract customers by giving them a chance to win prizes. There are also regional, national and world championships for Monopoly where participants earn tens of thousands of dollars for their play.

Around the same time that Parker Brothers started selling Monopoly, Milton Bradley published a redesigned version of The Landlord’s Game under the name of Easy Money. In 1936 Parker Brothers sued Milton Bradley for patent infringement, even though their own version of the game infringed on the patent held by Elizabeth Magie Phillips. Milton Bradley responded by making some basic rule and design changes to the game and marketed it as a “new and improved edition”.

Easy Money never made the same impact as Monopoly, but continued to be a popular game. Ironically, Hasbro purchased Milton Bradley in 1984, finally bringing together the two surviving siblings spun off from The Landlord’s Game.

Brew-Opoly is one of the many esoteric Monopoly variants from Late for the Sky.

In 1984 Late for the Sky Productions started publishing Monopoly-like games under the brand City-in-a-Box and later expanded to include college campus versions and other specialty games that focused on popular lore, fiction, animals and themes.

Make-Your-Own-Opoly puts creativity in the hands of the consumer.

In 1998 TDC Games started publishing Make-Your-Own-Opoly, allowing individuals to design their own one of a kind Monopoly versions.

Today Monopoly continues to be one of the cornerstone blockbuster games in the Hasbro portfolio. Millions of copies are sold every year around the world.

[whohit]2014-11-27 National Games Week Countdown – #2 Monopoly[/whohit]

Back in 1931 architect Alfred Butts invented a game called Lexiko. It was based on an older game named Anagrams and was modified to use English language letter frequencies in the letter pool. While a sound idea to make the game more realistic and more fun, Lexiko was never a commercial success.

In 1938 Butts made significant revisions to his word game by adding a game board. He used the same 100 letter tiles, but instead of simply creating words out of a random set of letters, the words had to be played on the board in a crossword style layout (left to right and top to bottom). The letters each had a numerical value, roughly proportional to the frequency with which the letter appears in the English language. The 15 by 15 square board also had spaces which would magnify the value of the tile placed on them or magnify the value of the entire word. This new game was called Criss-Crosswords. Like its predecessor, Lexiko, Criss-Crosswords did not find its market and game manufacturers showed no interest in buying the game.

Scrabble

In 1948 James Brunot purchased the rights to Criss-Crosswords from Butts. He renamed the game Scrabble and mass produced it, but public interest in the game remained elusive. Then, in 1952, Jack Straus, president of Macy’s, played the game and immediately fell in love with it. He placed a large order for Macy’s to carry, forcing Brunot to license the game to Selchow and Righter, a game manufacturer, to produce the required quantities of the game.

With Macy’s backing it, Scrabble became an overnight sensation and in the first two years four million sets of the game were sold. In 1972 Selchow and Righter bought all rights to Scrabble. By now the game was a household name and also sold internationally. In 1986 Caleco Industries purchased Selchow and Righter and in 1989 Hasbro purchased the primary assets of Caleco.

Scrabble tournament by Cham.

Today Scrabble remains one of the most popular games of all time. There are national and international Scrabble tournaments with winners being awarded prizes as much as $25,000. The game was made into long running television contest shows (Scrabble and Scrabble Showdown) and has been made into countless computer and internet game versions. It is estimated that today one in three American households owns a copy of Scrabble.

[whohit]2014-11-26 National Games Week Countdown – #3 Scrabble[/whohit]

Coming in at #4 is a relative newcomer among the other games.

Settlers of Catan by Klaus Teuber.

Settlers of Catan was conceived by Klaus Teuber, a German game designer. It was first published in Germany under the name Die Siedler von Catan in 1995 and immediately began its meteoric rise to fame. The year the game war released, it took the gaming world by storm, earning top awards from Spiel des Jahres, Deutscher Spiele Preis, Essen Feather and Meeples’ Choice Award. In 1996 Settlers of Catan came to America and landed the prestigious Origins Award for the Best Science-Fiction/Fantasy Board Game.

The game sold well over a million copies per year over the next decade and was translated into more than 30 languages. People around the world fell in love with Catan and Klaus Teuber churned out new expansion sets virtually every year, building out the world of Catan and gaming options and special rules. The four player game was expanded to six players and included historical scenarios, including Cheops (Pyramids of Egypt), Alexander (Alexander the Great), Troy (Trojan War), Great Wall (Great Wall of China). Game set rule expansions included Seafarers of Catan, Cities & Knights of Catan, Traders & Barbarians and Explorers & Pirates.

Esoteric expansion sets included The Volcano of Catan, The Great River of Catan and The Fisherman of Catan. These sets added specific tiles or game pieces which enhanced the game’s rules.

Star Trek Catan

Catan also included a number of spin-off games: Starfarers of Catan, Star Trek Catan, Starship Catan and the religious themed Settlers of Canaan.

Over the years a multitude of Catan computer games also became available.

Settlers of Catan progresses with players cultivating natural resources – brick, lumber, wool, grain and ore and using these resources to build settlements and towns, roads and ships. Scores are based on the size and strength of the “empire” that a player creates and the game usually lasts until a predetermined score is reached.

The allure of Catan is the novel way in which players participate in the game. Catan allows players to decide where on the game board they focus their resources by removing the traditional structured elements of die rolls to determine the move along a sequential track, such as in Monopoly and Life. Players are also encouraged to barter with each other, trading resources and establishing personal monopolies.

Twenty years after being released, Catan remains a popular game with many play options that evolved over the years. Catan fans participate in annual tournaments at large gaming conventions such as GenCon.

[whohit]2014-11-25 National Games Week Countdown – #4 Settlers of Catan[/whohit]

Clue was invented in 1944 by Anthony Pratt.

We will start the National Games Week board game countdown with the #5 place selection, the classic detective game Clue.

Clue, or Cluedo in England, is a murder mystery game with the objective of identifying the murderer of Mr. Body in the United States or Dr. Black in England. The sleuthing must include the identity of the killer, the instrument of the murder and the location of the deed. Three to six players take on colorful roles of the sleuths – Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, Colonel Mustard and Mrs. White – attempting to solve the mystery and out one of the sleuths as the killer.

The 1985 movie “Clue” was released in theaters with three different endings.

The game was invented in 1944 by Anthony Pratt and was originally titled Murder! It was published in England in 1949 under the name Cluedo and in the United States under the name Clue.

Over the years Clue had numerous spin-off and themed games, including video and computer variations. There were several standalone books and book series based on the game. There was also a 1985 movie, released with three different endings, a 2011 television miniseries, a 1985 stage play and a 1997 musical. Both the play and the musical required audience members to randomly select three cards from a game deck and place them in an envelope. The cards determined the ending of the show, resulting in 216 possible resolutions.

Clue also inspired humorous parodies on the game, such as 13 Dead End Drive and its sequel 1313 Dead End Drive, where players attempt to murder their competitors at the mansion of the recently departed Aunt Agatha in an attempt to be the last one left in order to claim the inheritance.

13 Dead End Drive is one of a number of Clue parody games.

[whohit]2014-11-24 National Games Week Countdown – #5 Clue[/whohit]

National Games Week takes place over Thanksgiving week, from the Sunday before Thanksgiving to the Saturday after. The event is the brainchild of Mark Simmons, former publisher of the now defunct Games Quarterly magazine and the Executive Director of GAMA, the Game Manufacturer Association, a non-profit trade organization dedicated to serving the tabletop game industry.

The idea behind National Games Week was to step away from electronic single player games and engage in traditional game play with friends and family. Thanksgiving was chosen because this it is the time of the year when families and friends tend to come together.

Since its inception in 2004, the National Games Week has grown by leaps and bounds. The rules of the holiday are simple. Put your Xbox away. Hide the PlayStation. Pretend like there are no games on your computer, tablet or smart phone. In short, if it’s electronic, pretend that a massive solar flare took it out. We know that this is hard for some people, but keep in mind, this type of game play is fairly new. The early versions of electronic games came in arcades in the 1970s and migrated into the home via Atari, Apple and Commodore computers in the early 1980s. Just give it a try. Grab a beer and relax. It’s okay. The world has not ended. By turning all these electronics off, you’re saving on your electric bill. That’s a good thing.

Here’s the good news. Electronic games as we know them today have been around for about forty years and while they have evolved massively over that time, they are still relatively new. People have played games since the dawn of time. At least forty centuries worth of documented historic time and while we can argue that traditional games have evolved very slowly, they have been around for nothing short of forever.

National Games Week is easy to celebrate and is very inexpensive. All of us have a stash of traditional games in the back of the closet or under the bed. It’s time to pull them out, dust them off and invite friends and family to gather around the table to partake in tradition. The tradition is family and community and traditional games are the means of bringing everyone together to play, talk and laugh.

Over the next week we will profile some of the most popular games of modern times to celebrate this family oriented holiday.

[whohit]2014-11-23 It’s National Games Week![/whohit]