BrettspielWelt (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

: Boardgame World; often abbreviated BSW) is a German online gaming site. It contains online versions of over 70 classical and modern

board games Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a co ...

and

card games A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...

, such as

Backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...

Bluff Bluff or The Bluff may refer to: Places Australia * Bluff, Queensland, Australia, a town * The Bluff, Queensland (Ipswich), a rural locality in the city of Ipswich * The Bluff, Queensland (Toowoomba Region), a rural locality * Bluff River (New ...

Carcassonne Carcassonne (, also , , ; ; la, Carcaso) is a French fortified city in the department of Aude, in the region of Occitanie. It is the prefecture of the department. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Carcassonne is located in the plain of the Au ...

, Can't Stop, Go,

Settlers of Catan ''Catan'', previously known as ''The Settlers of Catan'' or simply ''Settlers'', is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber. It was first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag (Kosmos) as ''Die Siedler von Catan''. Pl ...

, and

Tichu Tichu is a proprietary card game; primarily a shedding game that includes elements of Bridge, Daihinmin, and Poker played between two teams of two players each. Teams work to accumulate points; the first team to reach a predetermined score (usu ...

. A

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

-enabled browser is required to play, and registering with the site is not required (though recommended, as many players will not play with unregistered users). All major aspects of the Java client, games and website are also available in English. The site is independent and free from advertising, except for indirectly advertising the games themselves. As a result of the site's popularity, some board game publishers have presented new board games on BrettspielWelt before they are first published. All players begin (by default) in the game manager, which is used by players from many countries. New players having difficulty getting started can introduce themselves to one of the English-speaking communities for advice and help. BSW offers a system for implementing translations.

History

BrettspielWelt started in 1998 as a project by Alexander Zbiek to play board games with his friends over the internet. The first version ran on a workstation in the Leibniz computing centre in Munich. Zbiek then teamed up with Regina Michl, Tobias Lang and Sebastian Mellin. After making the program more stable and expandable, it was released to the public in 2000. It was merged with Copco company in 2008 and eventually became one company.

Community

BrettspielWelt has an optional meta-game for its members, in which each game played earns

experience points An experience point (often abbreviated as exp or XP) is a unit of measurement used in some tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's life experience and progression through the game. Experien ...

, credits and resources for the player. The metagame facilitates the building of smaller communities, set up as towns, in which players can meet, chat and play. As a player increases in rank and their virtual wealth increases, they may build a virtual home in the online "world" that includes games that earn credits and resources for the community. There is a large contingent of English BrettspielWelt players, and several towns aimed primarily at English speakers. These include Concordia, EnglishTown, Smallville, BurgundyRidge, and The.Great.White.North (primarily aimed at

Canadians Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

), as well as the multilingual Emerald.City, Whitechapel and PiratesCove. There are also a ChinaTown for

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

players, Japanese-Isle and Samurai-Village for Japanese, KoreaTown for

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

ns and LionRock for

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

players. Other European language groups include DeLageLanden for

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

and CarcassonnePlage for French players.

Games

The games available on BrettspielWelt are, for the most part,

German-style board games A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, (generally just referred to as board games in Europe) is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical componen ...

, with a few exceptions (

, Go, Can’t Stop). Among the games available are several

Spiel des Jahres The Spiel des Jahres (, ''Game of the Year'') is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence ...

winners: * 7 Wonders * Cafe International *

(Liar's Dice) *

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Thurn und Taxis The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis (german: link=no, Fürstenhaus Thurn und Taxis ) is a family of German nobility that is part of the ''Briefadel''. It was a key player in the postal services in Europe during the 16th century, until the en ...

and

Deutscher Spiele Preis __NOTOC__ The Deutscher Spielepreis (, ''German Game Prize'') is an important award for boardgames. It was started in 1990 by the German magazine ''Die Pöppel-Revue'', which collects votes from the industry's stores, magazines, professionals ...

winners: *

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

6 nimmt! ''6 nimmt! / Take 6!'' is a card game for 2–10 players designed by Wolfgang Kramer in 1994 and published by Amigo Spiele. The French version is distributed by Gigamic. This game received the ''Deutscher Spiele Preis'' award in 1994. Summary T ...

* Caylus *

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

Awards

BrettspielWelt was nominated for a

Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories includ ...

in 2004. It won the People's Voice Award for best Game site.Webby Awards

References

External links

BrettspielWelt
official site (English-language version)
BSW Games
List of games on Brettspielwelt *{{bgg par, , section1=geeklist, id1=4239, name1=Brettspielwelt Primer , section2=geeklist, id2=3662, name2=a list of volunteer tutors
Emerald City
Town Home Page Browser-based game websites Internet properties established in 1998