Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made by James Wallis

Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made Reviews

• 
  Jenny GB

  What a book! I've been really into modern board games after watching Tabletop with Wil Wheaton and playing many of the new classics with my husband's family. We've since made our own collection and started introducing these games to my family and had many hours of fun together.
  
  This book really celebrates the fun of playing and it was a joy to read. There are pictures of the games, game components, and designers everywhere. This is a gorgeous coffee table (or game table) book for game enthusiasts. Each winner of the primary Spiel des Jahres receives a four-page spread detailing interesting facts about the game and designer, details about how the game is played, and the author's opinions about its worthiness as a winner. Little side boxes on the edges call attention to the game designers, game artists, similar titles, and explanations of terms, which adds a nice friendly element for those that aren't as familiar with game types or the history of designers. Each year the other recommended titles or other special awards are listed and sometimes given a brief description. I knew some things about the more modern games, but reading about the early years was new to me and really interesting! I even learned a lot about the games I've played so many times. Honestly, I left this book wanting to know even more, especially about the major designers and artists that play such a role in these games. I have so many games added to my list to investigate and possibly purchase and enjoy!
  
  I had to take away a star (I would have preferred to take away half a star) because whoever decided to print white text in yellow boxes made one section of the book very hard to read. It's an unfortunate graphical misstep in an otherwise beautiful book. There also seemed to be a large number of errors in the publishing copy that would hopefully be corrected in future editions.
  
  Overall, I love this book. If you love games this book will get you excited about ones you haven't explored yet or bring up fond memories of playing the games you already love. If you don't know about modern board gaming this is a great introduction and will steer you towards some wonderful games that were selected by the biggest game award.
• 
  Ashley

  James Wallis has done an excellent job explaining what has gone into the Spiel des Jahres winners for the past 40+ years (granted, he does have a fair amount of bias in his writing, some stronger than others in the descriptions which at times was off-putting). I read this book as a board game librarian, trying to get a better understanding for what has gone into game design, why certain games have won (or not), and ultimately use it as means to re-examine our own game library. Some of the Spiel winners are games we already have in the collection, and a handful of others are now officially on my list to research further. Overall it's pretty well written (though I still noticed a few typos) with some funny one-liners and for a 200+ page hardback book, I felt it easy enough to digest in multiple sittings. I definitely recommend it to anyone who is hoping to broaden their understanding or contextual knowledge of the board games industry or the Spiel des Jahres.
• 
  Tom

  James Wallis writes entertainingly and really is an expert on this subject so this was a fun and interesting romp through 40+ years of the Spiel des Jahres award and the culture of hobby gaming it exists in and helped to shape. I did have to strain my eyes to read some of the text boxes.
• 
  Sascha

  Pretty niche, but it got me to buy a game or two and to revaluate a few classic games. It does feel a little light, and given it started as a column in a games magazine I found I most enjoyed the chapter sections where he introduces some larger cohesive ideas into the grouping of games he's discussing.
• 
  Shawn White

  Wonderful book on the history of Spiel des Jahres winners. This prestigious board game award formed in Germany in 1978 and awarded its first famous red poppel in 1979 and has been doing so every year since. The book talks about the board games that won each year, what made them stand out, and whether they were truly deserving of that particular years’ award. The book traces this history from 1979 to 2022, with each game getting a three page overview and summary as well as a list of what other games and designers it was competing against and a recommended list of games from that year as well.
  
  Quite informative and well written, despite a typo here or there. If you are in the hobby of table top games, then you probably would enjoy this book.
• 
  Kate Lynn

  Wallis describes his own book best when we writes “you might have hoped that after examining more than forty of the greatest games ever made (and a few less so), we’d be closer to understanding fun… if anything, it’s the opposite: we’ve seen how working together can be as fun as competing, how games don’t have to be about rigid structures or who goes next, or carefully managing your resources or planning your next move.”
  
  I really enjoyed reading this exploration of the Spiel des Jahres, the German “Game of the Year” award that has anointed modern classics like Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Codenames with its laurels. The book analyzes each game that has won the award over the last forty years, describing their mechanics, their competition that year, and whether they have had a lasting legacy in the board game field. Each chapter follows a trend in the game industry, such as the rise of Eurogames or the return of the party game. It was interesting to see just how much board games have changed in the last forty years as the materials needed to make them have become more accessible and how the sources of funding for these games is slowly shifting towards crowdsourcing. The credit and recognition given to the designers is also something so important that is sometimes lacking in the game industry - like I found out that Forbidden Island and Pandemic had both been made by the same designer… who knew?? But by far my favorite part of the book was the descriptions of the games themselves as many of these games are ones that I have seen time and time again on the shelf. Now I know which ones are most worth picking up. Of course the games covered in this book are limited to the winner of the Spiel des Jahres award which in itself is limited to games that have also been published in German but it was nevertheless a comprehensive and entertaining read about one of my very favorite hobbies, because as Wallis reminds his readers that we are: I am a nerd who enjoys reading very big books about board games. 10/10 recommend to anyone who enjoys gaming or wants to learn more about a very specific German award.
• 
  Gary Bunker

  It's a "coffee table book," so it's filled with photos and sideboxes of facts and insights. For all that it is a genre leaning toward the lighter end of narrative, Wallis was able to fit a lot of interesting insights into Everybody Wins. If you're interested at all in tabletop gaming over the past forty years, this is a great overview of the places we've been and recent trends.
• 
  Greg Hovanesian

  This book was absolutely wonderful to read. I learned SO much about the world of board games, and in particular about the Spiels des Jahres award and winners, which was the focus of this book.
  
  Since picking up this I've attended my first gaming conference (PAX East in Boston) and was a part of a winning CodeNames team in a tournament at that conference. This book has opened up whole new realms to me that I was unaware of before, and it has strengthened my knowledge of a world that I already had been a part of for a few years. I am so happy I picked this up at a local bookstore.
• 
  Hwango

  I'm quite keen on board games, so this made for interesting reading. I particularly enjoyed that the
  book is about the games as they relate to the Spiel des Jahres award. That was interesting context. I did enjoy the book overall, but it had a few issues.
  
  There wasn't a lot of consistency in the articles - some entries explained at least the basic rules for the game, but not all. Some articles focused more on surrounding events, or the designer, or some other issue. Many of these asides were interesting, but every once in a while there was an entry that seemed to have lost its way.
  
  The are some sidebars with colored backgrounds, color-coded by which section of the book they're in, and the ones printed in white text on a yellow background were nearly illegible. It doesn't help that all of them had incredibly small type. I wish the book had made better use of its space.
  
  Also, I don't know if it was a joke or a mistake, but I noticed that the sample in-progress picture of Alhambra has a tile illegally placed.
• 
  John

  First, to editor Matt Keefe and/or ABC Design: never, ever use small, skinny font, white text on a color background again! I was sorely tempted to give this book one star instead of five for the nearly unreadable sidebars. The white on yellow was particularly egregious. How did you possibly approve these proofs!
  
  Fortunately, this history of the Spiel des Jahres winners is entertaining enough to persevere past the nearly unreadable sidebars. The author provides a short history of the origin of the award followed by a review of each year's winner, complete with whether or not the author felt it was a worthy choice.
  
  I didn't always agree with the author's view 100%, but it was always interesting.
  
  This book is well worth the read for anyone with an interest in the history of board games.
• 
  H

  There are books about a subject that the average reader will find informative; then, there are the books that do the above and that those experienced with the subject matter will find all the more. This is one such book. If you are knowledgeable about board games, you will get the sly references and the amusing jokes.
• 
  João Araújo

  The author never manages to be fully nice to the games or to the prize, he always needs to make some dumb joke or to point out a hundred supposed weaknesses
• 
  Christopher

  Great book. terrible color contrast and font in some of the sidebars. makes me want to play a lot of games.
• 
  Kim

  A good introductory history to the winners of the Speil de Jahres, board game award in Germany, and some board games that helped shape the hobby.