This notebook provides some basic exploratory analysis of games on boardgamegeek (BGG) in support of my work [predicting ratings for upcoming games] and [predicting games for individual users].

For this write up, I examine games published through 2021 that have achieved at least 30 user ratings by the time of writing.[^ I have additionally excluded some games that were cancelled or never released, or have data quality issues with their profiles on BGG.]

What kinds of mechanics are there on BGG and how do they relate to community ratings?

1 Mechanics

1.1 Top Mechanics by BGG Outcome

What are the most frequent mechanics on BGG? How are games with each mechanic typically rated?

I’ll then plot the distribution of games with the 25 most frequent mechanics. What types of mechanics are typically associated with heavier games? What mechanic is the highest rated (on average)?

Finally, the following interactive table displays the mean of each BGG outcome by mechanic.

1.2 Combinations of Mechanics

What are the most frequent pairings of mechanics in games on BGG? The following visualization displays an upset plot of the most frequent combinations of mechanics used in games.

The bar chart on the bottom left indicates the number of games with a specific mechanic. The bar chart on the top indicates the number of games with a combination of mechanics. That is, the most common mechanic in games is Dice-Rolling, and there are many games in which Dice-Rolling is the only mechanic. The most frequent combination of mechanics is Simulation + Hexagon Grid + Dice-Rolling.