Import your data

myData <- read.csv("../00_data/boardgames_details.csv")

Define question

What year were the most board games published?

Explain data and variables

My data is all about board games. There are 23 variables in this data set. A few variables in the data set are: description of the board games, the year they were published, minimum and maximum number of players needed to play the game, and playing time. The variable I am focusing on for this project is year published. This data set was collected with data from the Board Game Geek website. The data set is original from Kaggle where it has even more variables and observations, but the data set had to be cut down in order to be uploaded to the Tidy Tuesday Project as it has size restrictions. My data set has character data and integer data. ## Analyze data to answer the question

What year were the most board games published?

First, seperate yearpublished variable from the rest of the data set

count_yearpublished <- myData %>%
    count(yearpublished)

bar chart

count_yearpublished %>%
    filter(yearpublished >= 1975) %>%
    ggplot(aes(yearpublished, n, fill = yearpublished)) +
    geom_col(fill = "pink") +
    
    
    labs(title    = "Board Games - Year Published",
         subtitle = "The data set starts with year 3500 BC, but for neatness and presentability the graph starts with year 1975 and beyond.", 
         x        = "Year Published",
         y        = "Number of Board Games Published per Year")

Next, sort data from highest to lowest

high_low <- count_yearpublished %>%
    arrange(-n)

Display only top 10 results so that it is easier to see.

top_10 <- high_low %>%
    top_n(10)
## Selecting by n

Interpret results

2017 is the year that the most common board games were published. This year had 1,325 board games published, which is just 4 more than the second highest year which was 2018. I am really surprised by this, because I feel like after 2010 things like computers, phones, and tablets started to take over. Kids really like to download new apps and play games on their electronics instead of playing board games. When I was a kid, I liked board games but then I started to become interested in the Nintendo DS, WII, X-box, etc. These electronic games had much more capabilities than a board game and could keep kids occupied for much longer while also allowing them to play in the car on road trips, individually, or with others in a different house hold or state via the internet. I would have thought that board game production would have been really high in the 1990’s to the early 2000’s and then begin to plateau or even decline in publication after about 2010. I hope that board games do not become a thing of the past as technology improves like CD players have, as they can be a great way to connect with friends and family without the distraction of notifications or harmful blue light. They are also great for when the power goes out during a storm!