Despite my attempts not to acquire any new games until after I move (happening very soon), I was given Labyrinth as a going away present at the same party at which my Tsuro board was split in twain. Labyrinth is published by Ravensburger, who added a nice feature to the back of the box that I hope catches on. On the back are the normal vital statistics about the game: age range, number of players, and duration. But also included are five categories that are ranked by little dots on a scale from 0-5:

• Luck (3)
• Strategy (4)
• Communication (2)
• Knowledge (0)
• Creativity (1)
• Action (0)

I presume, based partly on its accompanying graphic, that Action includes any kind of potentially difficult physical interaction or skill, like being able to flip a coin into a cup or react before your opponent.

I can’t take much issue with breaking down the elements of gameplay into these categories, and they go a long way toward letting the consumer know what kind of game they’re getting themselves into if they’re just casually browsing at the store. Unfortunately these descriptions don’t seem to be available on Ravensburger’s website, which is ironic because that would be an even more economical (if less convenient) place to make that information available to the public.

I’m not even sure whether Ravensburger does this with all its games, but I hope it becomes more common in the board gaming industry and community to classify games by these or similarly partitioned elements.