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Traditional Games 100 - Rating 2003's Boardgames
Thanks to OgreCave for pointing out The Traditional Games 100, the favorite board and card games of 2003, as voted by the editors and playtesters of GAMES Magazine. The site explains that "...each year since 1980, GAMES Magazine has published a Buyer's Guide to Games in their year-end holiday issue", and this year's overall winner is Alan Moon & Aaron Weissblum's New England from Uberplay. Elsewhere, "Face 2 Face Games tops our Family Games category with Sid Sackson's hilarious I'm the Boss! [and] Days of Wonder won the Family Cards category with Queen's Necklace", among many other category winners.
Board games rule! If you have other sufficiently geeky board game friends, it can be way more fulfilling than your usual FPS, racing game, etc.
I suggest checking out Board Game Geek, it's truly an awesome site. Of particular interest, the games considered the best by the BGGs are here.
There's also a German board game WORLD of sorts where you can play a heck of a lot of board games online. Check it out here.
The Games 100 is based on games that were released in the previous year (although I believe they take a few liberties and include some previous year's winners as well.) Fluxx has been around for a few years, and I believe it's appeared on their list at least once in the past. They do have a "Hall of Fame" of games that have been produced for 10 years straight and that are considered classics in some way. I wouldn't be surprised if Fluxx makes it to the list on its tenth anniversary. The Looney Labs people (creators of Fluxx) did get a game on the list: Nanofictionary, a very creative, random game of storytelling that I find "feels" a bit like Fluxx without the rules (which is interesting, since Fluxx is all about rules...) Nanofictionary is worth checking out, as is Aquarius, another of their games. Another amusing game that may or may not still be in print is Elixir, in which players collect components to "cast spells" that alter the rules. You can even cast a spell to make someone go get drinks and snacks. Fun stuff :)
I've been a GAMES subsciber since about 1978. There were 4 or 5 years on non-publication. The original publisher was Playboy. The current publisher keeps changing almost yearly. The GAMES 100 has been one of the few steady things.
GAMES used to include old games in the list, but they had several games repeatedly, so they retired the best to the "Hall of Fame." The board games are usually excellent games if you can find them. Many are foreign (not English) language, so make sure they're translated if you need it.
You used to be able to get many boardgames from Wizards of the Coast stores, but the last time I was there, they had cut their selection drastically because it's a niche market. Good boardgames cost $30 on up! I'm guessing that's why you can only find these at Funagain.
Something to be wary about, though. The games reviews are always upbeat and positive. The mini-reviews are doled out to their writers. Like any review, the games are to the taste of the reviewer. Try to research the game online before buying.
And finally, GAMES also publishes the Top 100 Electronic/Computer games. The list is the top video games for people who don't play video games regularly. Although they pick a lot of good ones, they always seem to pick flash over substance.