Category Archives: stats

stats

Is it reasonable to expect…?

Game Design, Maths, stats, Stonemaier Games

One of the criticisms by some reviewers about games from Stonemaier Games is that they are unbalanced, not play tested enough.

But how fair a criticism is this?

For this post I’m going to look at Tapestry. Which is a game that has this accusation made against it. And recently had a pack of rebalanced civilisation mats released. I may also use the odd game from their catalog to illustrate a point.

Before I go any further I need to give a disclaimer of some sort. Firstly I have no idea how many play testers, how much play testing was done, or what the play test process is at Stonemaier games. And I’ve made no attempt to find out. I’m also not a mathematician or statistician. So there are likely major flaws in my maths and logic. Please feel free to correct me in the comments. For this post I’m going to ignore solo play testing because I don’t play solo, and I don’t want to look up the solo rules. Oh and I have been accused of being a bit of a Stonemaier Games fanboy.

In Tapestry and it’s three expansions we have 41 civilization mats broken down as follows:

  • Tapestry – 16 civilization mats
  • Plans & Ploys – 10 civilization mats
  • Arts & Architecture – 5 civilization mats
  • Fantasies & Futures – 10 civilization mats

So to look at how feasible and reasonable it is to play test Tapestry and its expansions I will be working out the number of combinations of civilization mats. For this exercise the order doesn’t matter. Hence combinations instead of permutations.

To work out the number of possible combinations of civilization mats I’m using the following Binomial coefficients formula:

Where n is the set size or in our case number of civilization cards, and r is size of sets we are choosing, aka player count for us.

What follows is the number of combinations for Tapestry and its expansions based on player count.

As expected it’s going to be a lot easier to play test all the combinations once at the lower player counts than the higher ones.

But you need to repeatedly play these combinations to make sure that what would appear to be an unbalanced civilization mat is in fact that, and not just appearing to be so due to other factors.

I would argue that at the higher player counts (4 and 5) it’s unreasonable to expect all the combinations to be play tested. Just from a time and number of play testers basis. Let alone any monetary factor. I’m almost tempted to add in 3 players with the expansions to this statement as well.

So how would you even attempt to spot unbalanced or as some like to call them broken or over powered civilization mats?

You could use feedback from the lower player counts to focus in on particular civilization mats. However this over looks the fact that certain civilization mats might be better against others at lower player counts, but when played in higher player counts actually weaker or on par with others. Or that certain civilization mats are better at higher player counts but poor at lower counts.

Plus in all of this we aren’t even factoring in the random elements of the game such as tapestry cards.

In reality play testing will not just focus on one player count but be a mixture of all of them.

I think the big take away from this is it’s just not possible to play test every combination at all player counts. Just on the base game approximately 8000 games that would need playing to do it once.

There has to be a certain point where you say “we’ve tested as much as we can”. Or the game would never get released or be so expensive to cover the increased testing costs it won’t make any money.

It’s only once the game gets out in the wild and in the hands of lots of players that things start to come to light. I do like that Stonemaier capture play data and feedback this into the design and provide updates to the games.

I can see a follow up argument that some of the civilization mats were obviously unbalanced, just too powerful. That I don’t have a response to. I’d need more info about the companies testing and feedback.

What are your thoughts on the feasibility of testing a game?

  • Elwes, R. (2010) Mathematics 1001: absolutely everything that matters in mathematics. London: Quercus.

What’s new pussy cat?

bgstat, by the numbers, Fenland Gamers, gaming stats, life, the universe, and everything, stats, still alive

January was a slightly better month for me gaming wise than the previous two months. But still the numbers weren’t great.

However I should be grateful that I got to play some games. Especially that some of those games were with Nathan.

Now I am hoping now that Nathan is driving, and has a new car. That Nathan will be able to navigate the British roads to find his way up to mine. Enabling us to play some of the bigger games that are not an option at his due to the clash between game foot print and the size of his table. Or in simpler terms his table isn’t big enough. To be able to at last share my favourite game of all time Scythe with him will be amazing.

My top 9 games for January 2024

What I do find incredible from last months stats is that I played 10 (not 11 as Knock Out Whist aka Trumps was not a new to me game) new to me games. That’s two thirds of the games I played in January.

I have ordered twenty new custom d6 dice for Fenland Gamers members to have. It’s a new design for the six face, that has the club name and year.

Like the previous design (which I still have some left) I’ll be giving them out to regular club members for free.

I even have a design ready to go for UKGE this year to give to club members that make it to the show and the annual club picture that gets taken there.

Plus I want to do a club poker chip. But I have to buy them in quantities of fifty to get them at a reasonable price. They are also a bit more expensive. So they will have to wait until later in the year.

There is only so much I can finance out of my own pocket for this sort of stuff. I’m not on some CEO banker salary.

I like being able to do stuff like this for members.

Whilst I’m talking about Fenland Gamers and this ties in with the last life, the universe, and coffee post, I am testing the waters on the viability of Sunday sessions. At the moment I have created one club event to gauge interest. I’ll write more on that in future I’m sure.

Payday was Friday. Which was just at the right time to enable me to order the latest offering from Stonemaier Games, Wyrmspan, along with the optional deluxe component kit. I’ll leave the neoprene playmats until the next payday, along with the Rolling Realms promo packs.

Interesting enough this release of Wyrmspan has an initial print run of 100,000 copies. That’s a crazy number. Usually (I think I’m remembering this correctly) publishers print twenty to thirty thousand copies of a game initially. Then if the game does well do a second print run.

We know Wingspan sold an insane number of copies (well over 1.5 million by now I would think). But does that incredible success translate to Wyrmspan?

I can’t wait to see the next state of the nation post/email from Stonemaier Games where they give the total number of copies sold for each of their games.

Until Wingspan, Scythe was the bestseller. I’m just curious to see if Apiary and/or Wyrmspan have it in them to challenge Scythe for that number two spot. I am expecting them both to do well.

When I was sharing with a friend at work Friday morning that I had ordered Wyrmspan she said my face lit up. I guess I’m pretty excited about getting the game.

2023 in review

bgstat, by the numbers, gaming stats, stats, Year In Review

We are two days into the new year. So it’s time to look back at my 2023 gaming.

This post is made possible by the wonderful app bgstats. I’ve been recording all my game plays in the app since 2017. That’s a lot of data. I’ll have to do a post using that data at some point.

So let’s start off with my most played games of the year.

My Top 9 Played Games of 2023

Obviously games like MtG or Dice Masters are going to be in the top spots. It’s nice to see Dice Masters back in the mix. It’s a great game that I’m glad I decided to get back into.

Dave is the new Jonathan!

It used to be Jonathan was the person I played games with the most. But since Fenland Gamers has taken off with more people attending in the last year, the opportunities to play have got less.

In steps Dave a new member to the club who joined in August! Dave has become a great friend and opponent in such a short time.

I’m glad I can call all those I’ve played with friends.

The Raw Stats

Ok here are the raw stats for 2023 as presented by bgstats.

Very Challenging

I didn’t complete a single challenge this year. I may let them roll over for 2024. I still find it hard to believe I have so many unplayed games in my collection.

Challenge Progress

I’m excited to see what 2024 brings gaming wise.

My GOTY for 2023 is…

annual awards, by the numbers, gaming stats, GoTY, stats

Happy New Year.

I hope 2024 is a better year than 2023 for everyone. Hopefully that will be the case when the Tories get obliterated at the ballot box.

After much deliberation I have finally decided which of the 43 new to me games that I played in 2023 is my game of the year.

It wasn’t an easy decision.

But before I reveal the results of that deliberation, last year I did a couple of “minor” awards. So this year I thought I’d repeat those two categories before doing the big reveal.

Roll & Write of 2023

I played 4 new roll and writes this year. A drop from last year. However these four new games were pretty good.

Here are the four contenders. They are a great demonstration of how varied this genre of board games can be.

The winner is Motor City.

Motor City is the follow up to last years winner Three Sisters. It’s definitely the most complex of the four games.

Like it’s two predecessors it can seem a bit overwhelming with its two pads. I felt it wasn’t as combotastic as Three Sisters. But it’s still a very nice ‘on the heavier side’ roll and write. It feels totally different to the previous two in the series.

Expansion of 2023

I didn’t buy many expansions this year. There were the promo packs for Rolling Realms. But I’ve not got them to the table. So ineligible for this award.

I think there can only be one winner for this award this year, and it feels a bit of a cheat. It is touted as a stand alone expansion. The winner is Dune Imperium Uprising.

I love Dune Imperium and I love the changes introduced in Uprising.

And now for the big decision, and the one you are really interested in.

GOTY of 2023

My game of 2023 is…

Lord of the Rings the living card game revised edition.

I think what swayed it for LoTR is Nathan. When I played it with him Nathan was keen to play the game and take on the next scenario. He asked to play it again.

And even though I’ve played one or two of the other contenders with Nathan also. It was that reaction and the fond memories of playing with him that contributed to the decision.

Plus as I’ve written in previous posts I’m a Tolkien fanboy. So I love the theme.

Even with just the revised core set FFG included a fun to play campaign with some nice variety in the scenarios. It was interesting to see FFG play with different mechanics.

What’s your game of 2023?

My 2023 GOTY Contenders

annual awards, by the numbers, gaming stats, GoTY, stats

Each year (usually a bit later than this post) I choose my game of the year (GOTY) from the new to me games that I have played throughout the year.

I’ve decided to shake things up a little this year by dedicating two posts to it.

There is this post giving you the contenders for this year. Which will be followed by a post announcing my GOTY.

Let’s start by using the cool 3×3 image the bgstats can generate of the top 9 played new to me games of 2023.

I should point out that being in this 3×3 is no guarantee that the winner will be one of these games.

My 3×3 of top 9 played new to me games of 2023

What surprised my with this 3×3 is Stonemaier Games account for a third of the games in this top 9 played.

Ok it’s time for the raw data showing all the new to me games played in 2023.

Technically I have only played 43 new to me games in 2023. Bgstats records Dice Masters as a new to me game. Which we all know it isn’t. But my plays of Dice Masters was before I had started using the bgstats app to record all my game plays.

I also shouldn’t include 51st State Ultimate Edition as a new to me game. It’s just a new edition (no changes to the game, it’s just a fancy version) of a game I’ve already played.

So excluding these two games narrows the field only slightly. It doesn’t make the decision any easier.

The 2023 stats for the new to me games I played

Which of these would be your GOTY?

My Gaming September 2023

bgstat, by the numbers, gaming stats, life, the universe, and everything, stats, still alive

I know it’s been a day or two since the last post.

But that’s the drawback of working 7 days a week and having currently 2 jobs. I just got to survive until the start of November. Then I’m down to one job and hopefully (shift dependent) more gaming.

I am going to be late or behind on posting.

Thankfully I know you will be understanding and supporting. So I feel less guilty on that front.

So how bad has the current normal hit my gaming?

Well as the 3×3 image and the underlying stats show pretty badly.

Long gone are the golden days of yester year when I was clocking up crazy gaming numbers each month.

But even taking into account the more subdued gaming stats of this year. Septembers numbers are very poor. Almost looking like my stats when the pandemic was finally taken seriously by the UK Government and we entered lockdown.

I’m not sure I’m going to beat these numbers in October. But whatever gaming I do get to do I will treasure and savour even more because I know it’s a rarity for the time being.

Back to the game ranking app

bgstat, coding, gaming stats, ranking, stats, tech

Finally after at least a couple of years I have returned to the rewrite of the ranking code I wrote.

I got a new copy of the data from the bgstat app that I use to record my game plays. The app also the master list of all the games that make up my game collection. And syncs all of that info back onto the bgg website for me.

The point I’m making is this new data file is different to the one I originally got from the app some six or seven years ago. Back then it was just a csv file of the game plays.

Now its a json file that contains all the apps data. So not only game results, list of games, locations, tags, etc.

Luckily using Python as the language of choice for this project means there is a nice json library I can import in to do all the heavy lifting for me to read in and process the json file I have.

Sadly for me the json used by bgstats is not a simple format. It contains arrays within arrays! A nightmare to code to get to the information that I need for this project, even with a json library.

Now if you had asked me before I had started this second attempt at a rewrite that the bits of data analysis I’ve been picking up (different projects) would be of use here. I would of been a bit sceptical.

However using the pandas library I found out I could use pandas to extract these arrays within arrays to get the data I want into a dataframe.

Having the data in a dataframe opens up all sorts of cool data analysis stuff I can do.

So not only can I do the paired comparisons, and top 10 lists, but also produce stats that not even the bgstats app currently does.

My May 2023 Gaming

bgstat, by the numbers, gaming stats, stats

Thanks to the car taking me out of action for two weeks my May gaming was pretty sad.

But to be fair those games I did get to play were pretty cool and played with friends.

  • Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game;
  • Letters from Whitechapel;
  • A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Second Edition);
  • Terra Mystica;
  • War of the Ring: The Card Game;
  • Amun-Re;
  • Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest;
  • Red Rising;
  • Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition.

I’m hoping this weekend at UKGE a couple of them will join my collection.

Oh and today saw the release of four more promo packs for Rolling Realms. Three are the standard based on third party games. With the fourth being a new solo campaign for the game that can be used with the majority of cards with the game (yes that includes promos too) called Beyond the Realmiverse.

And yes within minutes of them going on sale they were in the virtual basket and ordered.

Rolling Realms will be in my bag for UKGE.

Flashback to December 2016

bgstat, Blast from the past, by the numbers, flashback, stats

Before I bore you with the December 2022 stats post it’s time to bore you with yet another post looking back to 2016.

As per usual for this post we start off with the top 9 games played that month.

My Top 9 games played December 2016

Love Letter Batman, sadly no longer available for folks to buy. But it is my favourite version of Love Letter still. I love the theme, and the extra point for guessing what another player has in their hand when playing a Batman card, a nice rule change. Probably my favourite introduced by any version.

Ah yes Pandemic Iberia. The game ZMan was a limited printing. Yet somehow gets reprinted! It’s not a bad version of Pandemic. Don’t think I’ve played it since. However it is the version I’ve kept in the collection.

Braggart was a fun card game. But not one that held up to repeated plays over a short period of time. I gave this away in the end iirc.

We all know how I feel about Scythe. Nuff said.

Viticulture and Alien Frontiers both great worker placement games. Which I’m looking forward to getting back to the table as part of one of this year’s challenges.

I do need to get The Others (a great one vs many game, which soured how I feel about CMoN and will never back a project of theirs again), and Cry Havoc back to the table. I do really like both these games and they deserve more love.

Robinson Crusoe possibly the most brutal co-op game on the market. Also probably the most fiddly to setup also. Still a fun game with the right people.

Ok let’s wrap this post up with the raw stats for December 2016.

My bgstats for December 2016

Naturally the next post in these look backs will move into 2017. See you then.