Reviewing Children's Games
With having 2 little girls in my household, I plan on reviewing several children's games over the next many years. Up to this point, I've been basically using the standard 10-point BGG scale to review them, but have been soing so with a sensitivity to playing them with children. The more kid's games I play, though, the less relevant I think a scale like that really is.
So, both to seperate children's game reviews from everything else I talk about and to hopefully give a little more concrete direction to other parents out there reading these reviews, here's how I'll be rating these games from now on:
= I think that there's something really special about this game. It either has rather universal appeal or has been exceptionally fun for me and my family. Definitely pick it up! 
= This is a solid game, and I would recommend it to most parents, usually with some guidelines about what kind of children I think might enjoy it most.
= There's something about this game that makes me a little uneasy about it. It may still be interesting or fun for some children, but be cautious in picking this up unless you're confident that your child will like it. 
= This game is broken, stupid, and/or boring; do not buy it!
I certainly welcome any thoughts or questions about this scale, and hope that it will better reflect my overall feelings about the children's games I play!
Chris, I think this is a good idea. I already feel like I'm modifying the BGG 10-point scale 'on the fly' for a lot of games; how often do you hear me preface my rating by saying 'for what it is, it's a [blank]?' Making this switch formal, at least for this subset of your reviews, makes perfect sense.
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Yep. And I guess that it's really less of a rating than a recommendation. It's similar to On Board Games' "Stoplight" ratings or Game On with Cody & John's "Buy, Try, or Deny" system, but I've also added in the double-thumbs-up for games I really like a lot.
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I think this focus is an awesome idea! Of course, I could be biased as I mostly play with my kids.
I completely agree that the BGG scale is not applicable to kids games. Indeed when I talk about any Eurogame and its appropriateness for children, I use a broad "rating" system. I explain such on a separate page of my blog. If you're interested, check it out and let me know what you think.
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Wow, I love your blog! (and just linked to it on my sidebar...)
I like how your system clearly identifies the game's appropriate audience, which I guess that I try to do in my comments somewhere, but may not be as easily identifiable. But your kids are of a better age to get that kind of differentiation (since you can play almost any game with them), unlike my 3-year-old who's just getting started with gaming.
I also wanted to focus more on the "would I recommend the game" aspect of the rating system, since so many children's games are so terrible. I think that I would like to find a more formal way of rating the parental enjoyment factor, though...
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Wow, thanks for the compliment and the link! Yeah, I'd agree your situation warrants a different type of rating system and I like it. In fact, with a 4-year old daughter, I'll be paying attention to your kid game reviews with an eye for new games when the budget allows!
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Cool. I'm going to put together a mass-review of a few other children's games that I've played lately probably next week, so keep an eye out!
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