Top 10 Board Games of 2007

About.com  Top 10 Board Games – the annual list of  the best board games released during the previous year.  Published by Erik Arneson on boardgames.about.com

Games 100 –  a list of the best games of the year as chosen by Games magazine

Each year, Games magazine publishes a buyer's guide with 100 of the games that, according to the magazine, "over the course of the year, proved to be the favorites of our editors and tireless playtesters". 

The iParenting Media Awards Program – provides a credible and objective method of determining the best products in the marketplace and then honors them with the most prestigious consumer award.  The iParenting Media Awards is the only consumer awards program certified by ISO 9001:2000, the internationally recognized standard of quality assurance.  Reviewers are a diverse set of parents, experts, licensed childcare centers and schools nationwide.

The National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval program is an independent testing procedure conducted to judge a variety of products introduced and marketed to the parent/child consumer market.  The testing involves a multi-step process conducted over an eight week period. Staffed by volunteers, the testing facility of The National Parenting Center gives parents, children, and educators the opportunity to examine a variety of submitted products. The testers are encouraged to play with, build, read about, and judge by the reactions of the children, each product's quality.

The annual Top 10 list presents the Chicago Tribune’s choice of games that will bring pleasure for children, adults and families for the gift-giving season. 

In 2005, the Chicago Tribune expanded its annual Top 10 list to 20 and divided them into 4 categories of 5 games each.

 The Major FUN Award goes to games and people that bring people fun…games that:

• make people laugh,

• are original, flexible, easy to adapt,

• are well-made, durable, easily stored,

• are easy to understand and teach.

The Toy Man™ Award of Excellence - The products which become recipients of The Toy Man™ "Award of Excellence”, are part of a limited number which rise to the very top in their evaluation. They demonstrate quality in design, safety, and value, and in their evaluation results they receive a rating of “5” which is the highest level available.  

"The Toy Man™ Editors Choice Award" (a.k.a. eChoice™ Award ) - This is more than just an award, this is the "brass ring" so to speak; the award that serves as an emblem of recognition for products/services which contribute substantially to positive productivity. This productivity is measured in the value of potential cognitive/critical skill growth and/or overall improvement in an individual or group.

"The Toy Man™ Seal of Approval" is an emblem of recognition for products which meet the high standards set forth by the International Parenting institute™ (IPi™). These standards are represented through strict product evaluation guidelines which were created by IPi™ for adoption and use by The Toy Man™ Product Guide.

Creative Child Magazine Awards – Each year between the months of February and April over 1,000 sample products are submitted for testing.  Each product is then assigned to a category and classified by age group.  In June, a panel of judges, which may include child psychologists, child educators and parents, monitors a pre-selected group of kids whose ages correspond to the various products that were submitted. The panel then evaluates each product based on four major factors: educational value, creative nurturing, creative play and overall value with respect to retail price.