About
Counter magazine is a quarterly magazine devoted to board and card games. Each issue contains dozens of reviews, articles and commentary from gaming enthusiasts from around the world.
Counter began publication in 1998, but had its origins in the classic Sumo’s Karaoke Club magazine published from 1989 – 1997 by Mike Siggins. The idea was and still is to provide an in-depth examination of board games. Counter has grown to be one of the most respected journals in the gaming industry. Contributors to the magazine read like a “Who’s Who” in the world of board gaming, and include knowledgeable and respected gamers from around the globe.
Beginning with Issue #67 (January 2015), each issue of Counter is now online and available for download! This has allowed us to expand each issue, include more use of color and graphics, and provide more exciting features. You can download each issue from the BoardGameGeek store at:
http://boardgamegeekstore.com/search?q=Counter+magazine
Counter also has a presence on various internet forums. You can join the discussion concerning games and Counter magazine and keep up-to-date on all Counter news and happenings at the following locations:
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
SUMO / COUNTER HALL OF FAME
Procedure for Determining Hall of Fame Election Winners
We are excited to once again conduct an election for the Hall during 2015, for the first time in four years. Anyone who purchases Issue #67 will be able to participate, so please check out our first online issue, which can be downloaded at:
http://boardgamegeekstore.com/products/counter-magazine-issue-67-january-2015
The procedures for voting and the list of nominated games are given in the issue.
This year’s election will be special for many reasons: an unusually large group of nominees (because of the long gap since the last election), the first election using yes/no voting, and the first electronic election. Because of all the uncertainties these changes introduce, we are trying to be flexible when deciding which games should gain entry to the Hall. Here are the goals of this latest vote.
First of all, we’d like to see about 4 new games enter the Hall. In previous years, 2 was the usual number selected, but given the number of great games which have become eligible since the last election, a larger number seems more appropriate. A minimum of 2 games will be voted in, but we’re hoping the results will allow us to select more games than that.
Next, we need to figure out what an appropriate threshold for election will be. In other words, what percentage of the votes will a game need to get in order to get elected. With so many new variables in play for this election, it’s anybody’s guess what that level of support will be. So here’s how we’re going to do it:
* Any game which gets at least 75% of the vote will gain entry into the Hall of Fame. That’s a very high requirement, so don’t be surprised if no game achieves it.
* A game needs at least 60% of the votes to be considered for election. The only exception to this is if fewer than two games reach that level. In that case, the top two vote getters will be elected.
* For games receiving between 60% and 75% of the votes, we will work our way down the list until we get to the desired number of games to be selected (so this year, that will be 4 games). If several games are bunched together in the voting, we’ll try to arrange things so that there is a natural break between the games that get picked and those that don’t. That means that we might select more than 4 games or possibly fewer than 4, if the voting supports that.
That’s the procedure for now. We may change it if we get some unexpected results. But we’re hoping to hear from a whole bunch of you and elect some really great games to the Sumo/Counter Hall of Fame!
List of Hall of Fame Games
The readers of Sumo and Counter magazine have been selecting entries for the Sumo/Counter Hall of Fame since 1997. Here are all the games that have been voted in, together with the year the game was elected:
1829/1830 (1997)
6 nimmt! (2008)
Acquire (1997)
Age of Steam (2007)
Airlines/Union Pacific (1998)
Bluff (1997)
Bohnanza (2002)
Britannia (2008)
Can’t Stop (2006)
Carcassonne (2005)
Civilization (1997)
Cosmic Encounter (1997)
Crude/McMulti (1998)
Die Macher (1999)
Diplomacy (1997)
Dungeons & Dragons (1999)
Durch die Wuste (2003)
Elfenroads/Elfenland (2004)
El Grande (2000)
Euphrat & Tigris (2002)
Funkenschlag/Power Grid (2006)
Hare and Tortoise (1997)
History of the World (1997)
Lost Cities (2006)
Magic: The Gathering (2003)
Medici (2000)
Modern Art (1997)
Puerto Rico (2007)
Ra (2004)
Railway Rivals (1997)
Robo Rally (2009)
Taj Mahal (2010)
The Princes of Florence (2005)
The Settlers of Catan (2000)
Tichu (2008)
Ticket to Ride (2009)
Tikal (2010)
Web of Power (2008)
Win Place & Show (2002)
There are also nine additional “classic” games, which predate the age of modern gaming, which have been added to the Hall:
Backgammon (1999)
Bridge (1997)
Chess/Shogi/XiangQi (1997)
Clue (1999)
Go (1997)
Mancala (1999)
Monopoly (1999)
Poker (1999)
Scrabble (1997)
Counter Magazine Online 