And the nominees are...

EDWIN WONG lists down this year's designer games which are in the running for the coveted Spiel des Jahres award.

Much like the Academy awards, the growing legion of designer game enthusiasts are looking forward to this time of the year when the nominees for their own "Oscar" - the prestigious Spiel des Jahres - are named.

Commercially, it is enough to be in the final list, as most gamers would take it as an endorsement of the quality of the game, and where the "SdJ" seal on the box cover virtually guarantees high volume sales.

For the designer, well, it's almost like winning "Best Director", "Best Actor" and "Best Supporting Actor" all at the same time. Priceless.

Anyway, here goes...(Drum roll) The nominees for the 2009 Spiel des Jahres (Family strategy game of the year) are:

DOMINION

by Donald Vaccarino

Hans im Gluck/Rio Grande

THE game play of Dominion is similar to the construction and play of a CCG (Collectible Card Game) deck.

With 500 cards, you select 10 of the 25 Kingdom card types to include in any given play - leading to immense variety.

However, it is not a CCG, so you don't have to worry about endless spending to buy booster packs to find those "rare cards" that CCGs are infamous for.

It would be interesting to see how a CCG-type game fares at the Spiel des Jahres, where past winners have thus far been classic board games (which have much wider appeal than the love-hate type relationship that gamers...