Brass: Birmingham Now Ranked #1 on BGG — Does It Matter?

On February 18, 2023, the game Brass: Birmingham from Gavan Brown, Matt Tolman, Martin Wallace, and Roxley became the #1 ranked game on BoardGameGeek, a position achieved by fewer than ten other games. What does that ranking mean? And should you care?

[Vital_Velocity]

I wish there was some way to verify someone has actually played the game before they can rate it. The ratings start to lose their meaning when people put 1's or 10's on a game and also tag it as unplayed.

[itsGabrielaCristina]

You made some great points here. I think rankings and ratings can be a good point of reference once you know the types of games you like. I know that Gloomhaven isn’t for me, but I actually think I would like Brass. I wouldn’t know that when I first got into the hobby.

[Valkien]

I always think that the list of most played games in the month or year is important, to the point that I wonder how the rank would change if were included in the algorithm

[maxnix]

For me the bgg rateing is very important. It allows to screen games fast. Still the exact spot is not so important. It is more about the average rating what people say in their rating. If I see lots of ratings without a meaningful description, I will give it a pass, simply because of the up- and downvoting to get a good rank.
But I like the idea of checking what people like, who rate my favourite games similarly. I will definetly have a look at it and see if I can find some new games :-)

[CasperSpanggaard]

I just checked and Brass Birmingham is still #1. By more than it was yesterday 🤔

[EHngelic]

The number rating a person gives a game is helpful for a cursory glance. I prefer reading the comments the person gives a game for the more in depth reason behind their number rating

[checkrazor]

It's time for a change. BGG needs to let people rank their favorite games 1 - ??? And give them a point value. After an account is 1 year old that users top games are added to the database to determine the actual rankings of games. I know people say the rankings dont matter but they do, a lot. It helps sales, it brings attention to top games and it gives people a reference for many questions. There is a reason why the top games videos are always every channels most viewed. It works for videogames so make it work for board games.

[ZoidbergForPresident]

No, especially not the BGG one, usually if a game is low rated there I tend to have my curiosity tickled, because the bgg audience don't like the same games as I...

[wibby]

I think a family system would fix almost all problems people have with the ranking system. All the pandemic games, the brass games, or the gloomhaven games would be put onto a "family" and only the highest rated game of the family would represent the family on the rankings.

Some great games are actually free mods done out of true passion e.g. "Tammany Hall - Machine Made".

[Markus.]

I don't bother with the rankings of games anymore. The list is community driven and therefore biased. Far too many games get 1s and 10s with the excuse to counter the other, plus I don't see why people can give 1s and 10s to games that aren't even out yet. Also, the fact that when a new version of a game comes out which has a few rules tweaks, new artwork etc, some of them get their own entry to the list and others get merged. There doesn't seem to be a defining rule on what gets it's own entry or merged.

[yogibbear]

Rocky is so good. Better than 99% of the crap produced today.