Thursday, November 12, 2009

What constitutes a new edition of a game?

Specifically: a board game. I have a reason for my rant, which I'll get to in a second. First, let's ponder the question. What makes a new edition of game "new"? Is it new box art? Different playing pieces? A new set of rules? Is it the fact that a game manufacturer says it's new?

What if just the box is different? I'm looking for input here people.

Here's why: I was noodling around on Board Game Geek and saw a gap in the database--that is, I saw a game that didn't have an fairly prominent edition listed. I won't go into specifics in this post, but sufficed to say that the game is very well known, and considered a family type board game.

I submitted the game (three actually) for entry into the BGG database--even had dozens of photos of my copies at home ready to upload. The answer was swift, it took less than 24 hours: Denied!

Denied? The reason? Why it's elementary--there's really no reason to have multiple entries for these was the response I got back. I did my best to present a rational argument that several games have different pages for each edition--including the ones I'm proposing--why what's up with the denial bro?

VS.
VS.
So, what say you gentle readers? Am I off base here? Is an edition an edition an edition? Or should a game get one entry no matter how many times it's been reprinted....in the last 65 years?

*Photos: Board Game Geek; and no, these were not the ones I was proposing.

2 comments:

Aaron E. Steele said...

Seems unusual to deny recognition of one game's various editions, but permit others. Did you already point out that inconsistency to them?

WV - Chestine: the bustier sister of justine?

Jay said...

I did in fact. But I got a blase response to "take it up with the other admins". I'm sort of surprised to see that the pat response is "no" and even with (what I believe) is a reasoned argument it's "we're too lazy to approve it".