The whole tracking thing took a wild spin with the appearance of Puerto Rico... the "900 Pound Gorilla" of the title. You couldn't hang out with gamers in 2002 if the game wasn't hitting the table.

64 different gamers (and two gaming groups) responded to the call for lists of games they played 5+ and 10+ times in 2002.

Interesting Observations:

Puerto Rico flew past the old record in it's first appearance on the Five & Dime lists (blowing away Carcassonne's 70% from last year). Not to ruin the suspense or anything, but it also won the 5+ plays category & got second to Carcassonne in the 10+ plays category. Wow. I'll predict that it settles into a Settlers-like position for the next couple of years, then drops after that.

Carcassonne, OTOH, amazes me. It only lost 10% after it's first year of release... which is very good, esp. for a game that has been "played to death". I made a lot of noise last year about it fading away - but no! The river expansion & the expansion set releases breathed new life into this tile-layer - in my case, saving it from being played simply once or twice a year. With the release of the newest expansion for Carcasonne in the spring, I predict another healthy year for it on the Five & Dime lists.

The OTHER new game in the Top Ten (besides the behemoth that is Puerto Rico) was the much-maligned Transamerica. All of us had to give it 5+ plays to see what the fuss was about... or maybe you were in my shoes & gave it 10+ plays before getting that "cotton candy" feel. (Transamerica is the cotton candy of euro gaming - it tastes great at first but after a while you find you've still got a lot of cotton candy left and you don't really want anymore.) This game will drop below 20% next year in playing time.

As usual, those who look down their collective noses at the "five & dime" method of comparing games (because of it's obvious tendency to favor shorter games), the top three games are all relatively "meaty". (As is E&T, which just missed the Top Ten).

This year, I'm at a total loss to explain the resurgence of Take 6. As you can see, it's never even been a blip on the Five & Dime radar prior to this year. It's certainly not me or my group that's bumping it up the charts - I didn't even play it last year!

On the good news front, Bohnanza is settling into a comfortable position near the end of the list - which is at it should be, as Bohnanza is a brilliant game.

Interesting Observations:

After two years of JUST missing this list, Bohnanza finally breaks in... surprisingly, Ra dropped off.

Interesting Observations:

Where the heck did Acquire come from? Or Take 6?

Interestingly, Web of Power has held onto a spot two years in the row. (It's role as "strategy game lite" haven't hurt it's chances of doing just that.)

And for the first time in a number of years, Liar's Dice didn't place (although it just missed.)

Interesting Observations:

Ouch. Wyatt Earp is a favorite and it pains me to see it drop this way.

Interesting Observations:

A weird little collection of games... I still can't explain the Take 6 blip. Or the (blech) Aladin's Dragons blip.

Or the oldie but goodie blips - Acquire & Amazing Labyrinth!

Vom Kap, Where's Bob's Hat, and Dvonn are primarily about release schedule (they didn't see much play in the year of their release.)

As you can probably guess, the "IN" CROWD did not include this year's releases.

Interesting Observations:

Of course, the juggernaut that is/was Puerto Rico showed up here as well. It'll be interesting to see which of these games "hang on" in the years to come.

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