News You Can Bruise for 2011 August 15

Last month I downloaded a bunch of data from BoardGameGeek's web service for use in an art project. I'll be announcing the art project soon, but today I'm announcing "Loaded Dice", a data-mining project using the same data.

I've been writing scripts that analyze the BGG data and produce interesting charts and tables. I'll keep adding stuff to these pages until I get bored with this data. I've put up thirteen experiments so far. Here are some highlights:

• "What does a rating mean?" and "BGG Decoder Ring". You should read these two sections if you want to use BGG ratings to make decisions about game quality. The ratings are not evenly distributed! A 6.0 game is not above average: it's right in the middle. A 7.5 game is not just good, it's really good.
• "Are games getting better over time?"
• Unfilled gaming niches. Do you dare to create a wargame about farming, or a horror-themed game with a stock market mechanic?
• Types of games that don't work very well. "Abstract Strategy/Paper-and-Pencil", you betrayed me! "Religious/Roll and Move", I kind of expected you'd be on this list!