Games - Internet Top 100 Games List

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	Games - Internet Top 100 Games List

The Internet Top 100 Games List is a ranked list of non-computer games, mostly board and card games. The list is maintained by Aaron D. Fuegi at Boston University, who publishes, weekly, both a list of all rated games and a list containing the top 100.

The rankings are generated by ratings sent in by Internet users, who give each game they wish to rate a score between 1 and 10. Rankings are not determined according to average rating-- as this would allow a single '10' vote to place a game at the top of the list-- but according to a score measuring both the average rating and the number of ratings given (since a game receiving more ratings, if not necessarily a better game, is at least better known and has therefore somehow achieved better market penetration). Specifically, each game is given, in addition to ratings sent in by contributors, 5 ratings of 3.25. This prevents games with very few ratings from achieving high scores that could corrupt the rankings. As a game accumulates more ratings, its score asymptotically approaches the average of the ratings given to it.

As of December 2005, 727 contributors have submitted 79,537 ratings.

Controversy

One of the greatest problems with such a list is verifiability. Though it is not known to have happened in this particular case, it is possible for contributors to "cheat" by voting multiply by establishing multiple anonymous email accounts. Fuegi retains the right to reject suspicious contributions for this reason, in order to prevent such behavior.

Similarly, as preferences of the gaming community change over time, there is no expectation that the rankings will be stable. Indeed they likely will not, with new games being created all the time.

Finally, the unexpected high or low positions of certain games call the validity of the rankings, as a measure of game quality, into question. For example, Chess is ranked only at #234, with an average rating of 6.20. Some would argue that it, by its sheer longevity and ability to captivate the minds of those who play it, is deserving of a much higher rating, and accuse that Chess and Go have been seemingly underrated simply because few people play these games often enough to understand them at even the most basic level.

Most of the games in the top 20 are German-style board games, and none is more than twenty years old.

Some games featured on the list

As of October 31, 2005 (note that this information is expected to change over time):

The top eight

Puerto Rico is listed as #1, with 225 ratings averaging 8.65.
Tigris and Euphrates is #2, with 402 ratings averaging 7.94.
Princes of Florence
is #3, with 228 ratings averaging 7.85.
Settlers of Catan
is #4, with 575 ratings averaging 7.79.
El Grande
is #5, with 404 ratings averaging 7.57.
Modern Art is #6, with 284 ratings averaging 7.59.
Power Grid is #7, with 36 ratings averaging 8.01.
Ohne Furcht und Adel is #8, with 266 ratings averaging 7.51.

Ranks of well-known games

Bridge is #28, with 190 ratings averaging 7.16.
Go is #64, with 209 ratings averaging 6.75.
Chess
is #228, with 341 ratings averaging 6.21.
Scrabble
is #366, with 318 ratings averaging 5.91.
Backgammon
is #622, with 254 ratings averaging 5.49.
Reversi
is #961, with 185 ratings averaging 5.11.
Monopoly is #2668, with 368 ratings averaging 3.96.

At the bottom

Chutes and Ladders is #4874, with 103 ratings averaging 2.26.
Candy Land
is #4876, with 93 ratings averaging 2.13.
Bingo is #4878, with 50 ratings averaging 2.04.
War (card game)
is #4879, with 92 ratings averaging 1.76.
Tic tac toe is last, at #4880, with 132 ratings averaging 1.49.

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