Of course, it could easily be argued that the SDJ isn’t about honoring serious hobby-oriented games in the first place and that’s absolutely true- it’s focused on promoting European family games more than anything else, despite special (and irregular) awards that honor more complex and detailed games.

It could also be argued that any award nominated and selected by industry insiders and parties with vested interests in certain titles, publishers, or designers is really irrelevant and invalid in light of what Joe Gamer is actually playing and enjoying- the open nominations of wargaming’s Charles S. Roberts award make it a much more interesting and volatile affair than the SDJ has been over the past few years and they also seem much more appreciative of innovation and change- they even have electronic gaming categories. And although the Origins awards is much more inclusive and comprehensive it is largely discredited and questioned by many hobbyists due to the bizarre inclusion of marginal games that seem to have neither sales momentum nor popular opinion to support their nomination. That being said, the Origins awards are where popular games with broad, global appeal like STARCRAFT, LAST NIGHT ON EARTH, and CUTTHROAT CAVERNS (all three nominees this year) will receive their highest honors.

However, even with the diasporas of opinions and the pretty wide variety of board gaming and hobby gaming awards out there- ranging from a random blogger listing his armchair picks for the year to magazine staff-selected lists such as the Deutscher Spielepreis- it is disappointing that the most prestigious and highly regarded industry award in the hobby is so specifically geared toward a particular type of game (the European family game) and even more disappointing is the fact that the genre has become less and less interesting and more homogenous over the past several years. Even among hardcore Eurogamers, a general feeling is beginning to set in that mediocrity and repetition is rampant and it could very well be that the SDJ jury just doesn’t have the really significant, interesting, and innovative games to choose from any more.

Could it be that the SDJ jury and selection criteria are simply out-of-date and out of step with the rest of the gaming world? It’s become an award that has international attention yet it still remains stubbornly focused on its particular vision that excludes more than it includes. Even hugely popular and well-regarded Eurogames like RACE FOR THE GALAXY was snubbed in this year’s nominations and the celebrated AGRICOLA was relegated to a “special award” for complex games- although gamers outside the Euro bubble would likely find the description of that game as “complex” pretty laughable.

The really innovative, daring designs these days are games that are bridging the gap between classic American-style themes, narrative, and depth with the more accessible rules, gameplay, and efficiency of the European designs. Yet a game like STARCRAFT that does so brilliantly wouldn’t have a chance in hell of a SDJ nomination, let alone a win. As for promoting the hobby, what could promote it more than a huge, attractive, and extremely well-designed game with a license that appeals to millions of gamers worldwide? Certainly not the kinds of simplistic games with esoteric “family” themes designed to appeal to thousands of German gamers and a small fraction of the worldwide hobby community.

The whole affair is as if the major, most high-profile award in another industry or medium were entirely focused on one genre or style while ignoring the rest of the hobby world. And that makes the SDJ almost completely irrelevant, I think, to forward-thinking gamers aware that the gaming spectrum is much broader than a canon of games published by Days of Wonder, Hans im Gluck, Queen, Ravensburger, and Kosmos. But there again, the SDJ award isn’t really for them anyway.

So then, this week’s announcement of the SDJ nominees fell with a muffled thud as far as I’m concerned; a quaint reminder of when I actually used to care about that stuff, keeping an eye out for “SDJ quality” games throughout the year and trying to predict what the short list was going to feature, and inevitably purchasing the winning game to add it to my now horribly dismantled sub-collection of SDJ-winning titles. They’ll announce the winner in a couple of weeks and I’ll probably take note of it out of habit and then move on without further comment.

I’ll keep an eye on the Charles S. Roberts awards since they really do provide a very nice sampling of what the better wargames were over the past year (expect to see awesome games like WORLD AT WAR: EISENBACH GAP and NAPOLEON’S TRIUMPH on there) and I still like to see what all wins at Origins. But as it stands, there just isn’t an award with the vision and scope that I think this hobby deserves. And it may very well be that boardgaming has become so broad and so divided along many different lines that one set of awards could never speak for- or to- the hobby as a whole with any degree of authority or credibility.