The Unboxed Awards

It’s finally here. The very best Awards of the year because they are voted for by you!

Ok, first a little note on the nominations. Unboxed has always been about playing games so our awards are based on the best new games played by the panel this year. That means that older games may have been nominated for categories, I myself bought and played a lot of classic games for the first time this year like Carcassonne or Power Grid, but because they were new to me, that makes them eligible for the awards.

Right, without further ado, let me introduce…

The Panel

ME – The only nominations that matter right? I really only got into board gaming properly just over a year ago but I am always looking to expand my collection. I play on average 30 games a month and buy approximately 3 new games or expansions a month!

Mark Rivera – Creator of Board Games in Blighty and cofounder of the UK Gaming Media Network, Mark is a hugely influential figure in the UK Gaming scene.

Kevin Schlabach – Kevin is the mastermind behind the “news feed” over at Seize Your Turn, one of the first sites to start promoting Unboxed for which I am very grateful. However recently Kevin has been an even greater influence in the gaming world by starting the Play in Public campaign, seriously, if you haven’t already, check this out!

Paco Jaen – Paco is very communicative individual who is all about promoting gaming but especially about bringing great quality reviews and reviewers to the publics attention. He does this through G*M*S Magazine a very nicely produced publication with a focus on just about any kind of gaming you can imagine. Paco is also running the Play in Public campaign here in the UK with a free copy of Castle Ravenloft up for grabs! .

Paul Lister – Paul is the owner of Board Game Guru, a fine online purveyor of fun if you ask me! But Paul is also an avid gamer with access to all the new releases (I hate him!!!). Paul organises a London-based Club for all things gaming called London on Board. If you’re in the area check it out!

Michael J. Fox – Famous for his time travelling antics I managed to nab this famous film star and get him on board too, suck it Wil Whetaon… wait… what…? He’s not that MJ Fox? He’s just some two-bit podcaster? Ok, so I’m joking, I love the Little Metal Dog show really! Yes, Michael is the host of the LMDS, a regular podcast which focuses on interviewing prominent members of the board game industry. As well as being a talented interviewer and reviewer Michael enjoys a wide variety of games is always happy to help where he can!

Rob Harris – Finally we come to Robin Harris, Rob runs a London-based playtesting group and blog and writes occasionally for BoardGameNews.com. Rob was asked at the last minute to be part of the awards and he came through for me like a proper trooper. Well done Rob.

A Mathematical Discrepancy

Right, so that’s everyone… pheww…. Now those of you who are good at maths may notice that there are only 7 panel members and in some categories there are more or less than 7 nominations. I can explain this… They cheated!

No, in all honesty, in some categories the same game got nominated multiple times, in others people were torn between two games so I included both.

Voting

Ok, Voting is simple. Simply look through each category, choose your favourite game from the list and click it. I am hosting the polls here on Unboxed and over in the UK Gaming Media Network Forums on Board Game Geek. However some of the panel members will also be hosting polls. In some cases these may be linked to my polls and you will only be able vote once, in other cases maybe not. Regardless I encourage you to visit all the contributors and check out their sites because it’s well worth while.

So that’s it, let the voting commence, the polls will be open for one month and I will announce the results in January.