The New York Times recommended a number of games in its 'online shopper' feature last Thursday, including several that are stocked by many game stores. They are Blokus (Educational Insights), the Carcassonne series (Rio Grande Games), Elfenland (Rio Grande), BuyWord (Face 2 Face Games), and Rat-a-Tat Cat (Gamewright). The article also quotes the marketing director of Funagain.com on the fun of German board games. 'The leaders in the industry are the German games,' he said. 'In Germany, their view of board games in general is that it's something you do with the family....There, you see entire families playing board games three or four times a week.'
The Times has been aware of the German-style board game phenomenon for some time (see 'New York Times Notices Board Game Phenomenon'); this article provides a more practical approach, recommending not only specific titles that consumers may be looking for at local game stores, but the entire category of German-style board games, which includes, of course, the best-selling Settlers of Catan series.
