About Shelf Gamer

Joel of Shelf Gamer sitting at a table with his shelf of games behind him

I'll tell you if a game is worth your shelf space.

I'm Joel, a mid-30s board gamer outside Philadelphia. I've written 100+ reviews since December 2023, with a lot of them scoring below 3.5 out of 5. I'm dead honest with my opinions. I'll tell you when a game earns a 5.0, and I'll hand out a 0.9 when it's deserved.

For most of my life, I was a digital addict. A typical weeknight was dinner, then a controller, then Netflix with Reddit open on my phone until bedtime. I once sank a whole month into Terraria and felt nothing but eye strain and regret. Board games got me away from screens and gave me real time with my wife. We now end most weeknights around a table instead.

I started Shelf Gamer because I was burned by too many overhyped games and too many vague, shallow reviews. So now I write the kind of reviews I've always wanted to read: deep, honest, and backed by table evidence.

This site has no sponsored content.

Start Here

Not sure what to read first? These reviews show the range of how I score:

Tag Team (5.0) — One of the best I've played.
Harmonies (3.2) — A hyped game that didn't land.
Take Time (1.9) — Another crowd favorite that fell flat.
Taco Loco (0.9) — One of the worst I've played.

And check out my most popular articles:

What I Cover (And Don't)

I review modern hobby board games, both classics and new releases: 2-player, family, party, light-to-medium strategy, solo, and co-op.

I don't cover tabletop RPGs, miniature wargames, abstract strategy games, Kickstarter campaigns, or video games.

My Gaming Tastes

A review is most useful when you know the reviewer's background and tastes. So let me give you a sense of who I am as a gamer:

I mostly play at 2 players. My wife is my main gaming partner and we play several times a week, but I also enjoy everything from solo up to 6 players. We play with one or two friends every so often, while higher counts only happen when we meet with family. Solo games are a bit too fiddly for me to play every day, but I like them from time to time.

I prefer light to medium weight games. The heaviest game in my collection is Viticulture: Tuscany Essential Edition. Between the stresses of work and adulthood, we shy away from fiddly and overly complex games.

I'm equally happy with Euros and American-style games. I'll get just as excited for Las Vegas Royale and Dice Throne as I do for Wingspan and The Castles of Burgundy. I'm an omnigamer in this sense.

I've been board gaming since the 1990s. I grew up on Monopoly and Pay Day, but it was my first encounters with Carcassonne, Citadels, and The Resistance in the 2000s that won me over. While my tastes have changed since then, and I'm sure they'll keep evolving, I owe much to those games and what they showed me: that there's more to board games than Cranium and Life.

Ethics & Review Policy

I never accept payment for reviews. That's a hard line I'll never cross.

I score every review using a 5-star scale. That score comes from four weighted factors (Fun, Design, Production, and Value) and lands in four possible buckets (Excellent, Recommended, Decent, and Meh). A full explanation of my review scoring system and star ratings is on my review scoring page.

I always disclose how I sourced a game in a review. Most of the time, I bought it with my own money or traded something in my collection for it. Occasionally I'll get a free review copy. When I do, my review process remains unchanged and my opinions remain 100% honest.

I only review games with retail releases. I hate when reviewers gush about games that haven't been released yet, and I have no interest in participating in Kickstarter culture.

I only review physical playthroughs. Online board gaming platforms change the experience—sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.

I play at least 3 times before reviewing a game. Some games only open up when they've been played a few times; others are exciting at first but soon lose their luster. I've found that 3 plays is enough to judge this aspect. (Exceptions made for one-time experiences like Chronicles of Crime.)

I update or unpublish reviews if major issues are found. I do my best with rulebooks, but I get things wrong sometimes. When mistakes unfairly impact the game experience, I'll re-evaluate as necessary or take down the review if re-evaluation isn't possible.

Earnings Disclosure

Earnings are mainly used to offset operating costs (domain, web hosting, games to review). Whatever's left over lets me invest more time in writing.

Ads. I use Google AdSense to supply ads. I try to minimize how intrusive, distracting, and annoying those ads are. I don't partner with publishers to push specific products or services.

Affiliate links. Every review has shop links in its summary block, and I also link out to products I recommend in my articles. If you click a link to a product and end up buying it, I may earn a small commission. Commissions never influence my scores—a game I trashed pays me the same as one I praised.

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Contact Me

Want to tell me something? Ask me something? Send me something? You can do all that and more using my contact page.