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Each year, a panel of German journalists who cover the game industry for their employers – eleven of them, in this case – sift through hundreds of games released since the early part of the previous year to find the game they think will best "promote games as a cultural asset to encourage gaming amongst family and friends" for their German mainstream readership. On May 21, 2012, the SdJ jury had announced its three nominees for the award – Eselsbrücke by Stefan Dorra and Ralf zur Linde (Schmidt Spiele), Vegas by Rüdiger Dorn (alea), and the aforementioned Kingdom Builder – and now after weeks of speculation, they've individually voted on their choice from among these three nominees and settled on Kingdom Builder, giving Vaccarino his second Spiel des Jahres award after winning in 2009 with Dominion.
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Keep in mind that dozens of games – hundreds even – are released annually that are too complex for consideration for the Kennerspiel des Jahres, nevermind for the SdJ. After all, the SdJ is aimed at a mainstream audience that plays games infrequently, while the KedJ is meant for people who play games somewhat more frequently and who would not be daunted by a more involved game design. Out of the three nominees for the KedJ award – K2 by Adam Kałuża (Heidelberger Spieleverlag), Targi by Andreas Steiger (Kosmos), and the aforementioned Village – the jury felt Village was the best choice for the audience intended.
Congrats to Vaccarino, the Brands, and their publishers!
Updated with photos of the winners, courtesy of Caylyn Krizan, who attended the ceremony with BGG's Chad Krizan:
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Publisher Peter Eggert holds one of the awards; next to him is Inka Brand, with her husband Markus behind her
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Donald X. Vaccarino misses his second SdJ announcement; publisher Rajive Gupta holds the certificate and one award,
while developer Frank Thyben holds the other
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