[QuikSand]

Okay, so let's take the historical classics out of the definition, I'm good with that, and it avoids the debate about such widely disparate entries like mancala versus Trivial Pursuit.

If it's the more lowbrow/commercial meaning of board game, then I think you start with Monopoly. That's what I usually do with my MR thinking (and I do this over drinks a fair bit) -- start at the top, and then later on try to engineer some sort of balance or representation elements if I think it's necessary to do so. So Monopoly is in, it may not be the best board game ever, but it's indisputably the greatest.

Monopoly

Okay, then we get into other all-time popular games like Life, Scrabble, Candy Land, Stratego, and Risk. To cover every base is too many entries, so you have to decide how to whittle down the list. I rarely think the best approach is to simply rank in order of overall popularity, but rather to come up with entries that perhaps suggest genres or directions that the list of four can't really cover. (In the way that having T.R. on the mountain somehow gives you echoes of other "big stick" types, like Andrew Jackson, Harry Truman, and Ronald Reagan)

To me, this filters out a game like Life. It is widespread and popular, but the game basically stinks and adds nothing to the genre of any significant value. In the board-game-as-simulation-of-experience, Life is far lesser than Monopoly, and deservedly so. I say it's out.

On the other hand, look at Scrabble. Word games are an enormous subset of gaming in general, and general knowledge of the Scrabble game (things like the values of certain tiles, and the basic elements of the gameplay and strategy) is just a reasonable expectation of any sentient member of this society. Scrabble has a rabid following to this day, despite being around for a long, long time. There's a meaningful genre of word-based games, but this one remains the king. In.

Scrabble

Some people want the more complicated game, on beyond what you get from Monopoly. That argues for something like Axis & Allies, and I think that would be a defensible choice. However, in the overall war game genre, there is already one of the all-time greats in Risk. And again, you don't expect this sort of knowledge from roughly half of the population... but among "our" half, you can strike up a conversation with any random guy at a bar and ask him about defending Kamchatka or holing up in the four-part Australia, and if that guy doesn't suddenly have something to talk about with you, you know he's a martian or something. It's super-popular, suggests a major genre, and also has its own etching on pop culture. In.

Risk

Now, the last spot is the toughest, to me. I ten to look for balance here, or another representative of something bigger or broader. Trivial Pursuit was a revolution in board gaming in the 1980s (and I have no fewer than 8 versions in the game parlor at home) so I think that is definitely a viable candidate. I also have respect for the fairly recent European-driven renaissance among some more complicated, nuanced, and brilliant games. As mentioned above, the standard bearer in that genre is definitely The Settlers of Catan, even if it isn't my personal favorite or even the best game, it's fairly clearly the correct entry if that's what you want to pick up. In my mind, either of these two games would be excellent additions to round out the list of four. I also think that Candy Land, as the obvious selection among kid-oriented games, is a defensible choice. However, I think the kid-centered game really isn't a monumental segment of the board game universe - there's Candy Land and a few lame-ass pretenders, and that's basically it. You don't pick up other great games by reference by including it on the MR list, and here I think it loses out on those grounds.

In a fairly close call, I will acknowledge the greatness of the recent Euro revolution and pick the door-opener there, edging out a greater game itself, but one that didn't open doors to a lot more than sequels.

Settlers of Catan