''Richard Berg's Review of Games'' was a
wargaming
A normal wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to st ...
review magazine edited by
Richard Berg
Richard Harvey Berg (1943 – July 26, 2019) was a prolific American wargame designer. He was inducted into the Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame in 1987.
Early life, army, student and lawyer
Richard Berg was born in New York City. A ...
and first published in 1980 by
Simulations Publications, Inc.
Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) was an American publisher of board game, board Wargaming, wargames and related magazines, particularly its Flagship (broadcasting), flagship ''Strategy & Tactics'', in the 1970s and early 1980s. It produced an ...
(SPI).
Contents
''Richard Berg's Review of Games'' was a slim professionally produced fanzine with over 20 issues published per year, dedicated to publishing game reviews.
In 1980, Richard Berg, then working as a game designer for (SPI), started writing and editing reviews of wargames, which SPI published as ''Richard Berg's Review of Games''. It began as a two-page standalone newsletter, published twice a month for 25 issues. SPI then converted it into a regular feature in the pages of SPI's ''Strategy & Tactics'' until late 1985.
In the fall of 1991, Berg started up a self-published fanzine, the similarly titled ''
Berg's Review of Games
''Berg's Review of Games'' ( ''BROG'') was a publication started by game designer Richard Berg. The magazine, which featured reviews of Wargame (video games), video wargames and board wargames, debuted in 1991.
Content
In 1980, Richard Berg, the ...
'' (or ''BROG'').
Reception
Steve Jackson reviewed ''Richard Berg's Review of Games'' in ''
The Space Gamer
''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the la ...
'' No. 37.
Jackson commented that "This is a good effort. I just can't pick it up without thinking 'Where's the rest of the magazine?' Recommendation: Subscribe to
'Strategy & Tactics''">Strategy_&_Tactics.html" ;"title="'Strategy & Tactics">'Strategy & Tactics'' [''Fire & Movement''], ''Dragon (magazine), Dragon'', and [''Space Gamer, The Space Gamer''] first. If you still have time and money, by all means get this."
In Issue 50 of the British wargaming magazine ''
Perfidious Albion
"Perfidious Albion" is a pejorative phrase used within the context of international relations diplomacy to refer to acts of diplomatic slights, duplicity, treachery and hence infidelity (with respect to perceived promises made to or alliances f ...
'', Charles Vasey commented "this 'zine purports to give accurate reviews that will save you the cash you might have spent on buying duff games ... In reality the magazine suffers from numerous problems." Vasey noted "it is manifestly stretching the ability of Berg to review games ... He admits in issue 14 to playing three games at once for testing." Vasey concluded, "About all one can say is that at least Richard is reasonably interesting whatever he writes, and his style is swift, easy and frequently witty even if somewhat philistine ... If only one could believe that the reviews were carefully considered it just might be for the hard-core addict-gamer."
Other recognition
Twenty-one of the twenty-five issues of ''Richard Berg's Review of Games'' are held in the "Edwin and Terry Murray Collection of Role-Playing Games, 1972-2017" at
Duke University
Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
.
References
{{reflist
Defunct game magazines published in the United States
Defunct wargaming magazines