Stonemaier Games announced a new spinoff game from their wildly popular board game series Wingspan. The series is headed to the depths of the ocean with Finspan. Like Wyrmspan before Finspan, Wingspan’s original designer, Elizabeth Hargrave, is involved. And a funny thing tends to happen with Board Game Geek (BGG) and its review system whenever a Wingspan spin-off gets announced. The game gets an equal number of people who review bomb the spin-off (giving the game a 1 out of 10) and people who give the game top marks.

I came late to the party before I took the above screen capture of Finspan’s rating distribution. The numbers were almost perfectly even between 1s and 10s yesterday. Finspan truthers have more than doubled since then. But Finspan hasn’t yet been released. The game is scheduled for a January 22nd release date. This begs the question, should you rate a game that hasn’t been released?

Quick note: Board game companies do give reviewers advanced copies of games, but these numbers pale in comparison to video games (whose companies give out keys for downloads) because postage is involved. There’s a zero percent chance that the above numbers come exclusively from board game reviewers with advanced copies of Finspan.

To answer that previous question, no. You don’t have enough knowledge to rate a game that hasn’t been released unless you are one of the few board game reviewers with an advanced copy. Board game enthusiasts have been arguing about Finspan‘s rating for the past few days. Some argue that it’s too high. Others that it’s too low. Most people suggest that the problem lies with Board Game Geek.

I don’t buy that. Board Game Geek allows board game companies to upload their upcoming games to the site. This allows companies to lock in a name for a board game, so we won’t get a competing Finspan from some other company. BGG also allows people to write reviews for upcoming games because these games are seen before launch. Undoubtedly, Stonemaier Games brought some version of Finspan to a convention or two, and people demoed it. Some of the above scores may be legitimate.

Then, there’s the question of when does a game officially release? Finspan’s release date of January 22nd is more concrete than many other board games because of a lack of crowdfunding. Does a game’s release date coincide with when the first Kickstarter backer receives their copy? Or is it when the game reaches retail? Maybe the game never reaches retail. Does that mean that it will forever be unreleased, even though thousands of people own a copy?

Blaming Board Game Geek for allowing upcoming games on their site isn’t the issue. The issue stems from people who will rate a game unseen.

How often does this happen? Often. Make no mistake. Wyrmspan received the exact same criticism and scores before its release, and it became one of the most highly rated games from last year (2024). So, why do Wingspan spin-offs get all this hate?

Few other game series get the same vitriol as a Wingspan spin-off. Numerous games have introduced “Duel” or “Duet” versions (2-player variants) of popular games: Splendor, 7 Wonders, King of Tokyo, and Cosmic Encounter. No one bats an eye. Many other games have spawned countless spin-offs: Catan, Ticket to Ride, and even Gloomhaven. Review bombs do occur with these titles but not in the sheer number of a Wingspan spin-off. Why is that?

Not going to lie. Finspan looks cool; I’ll have to try it at least once.

Quick note: I’m not one of the board game reviewers who received an advanced copy; most board game reviewers who do receive advanced copies produce video content (note to self: start a YouTube channel or TikTok account).

I used to think that Stonemaier Games got flak for producing spin-off games because they’re a smaller company. If Days of Wonder released spin-offs during their years of producing one game per year, I would get upset about a spin-off for one year. But Stonemaier has a full slate of board games planned (far more than one) for 2025 that don’t include Finspan. Finspan is extra content.

Furthermore, Gloomhaven has received multiple spin-off board games, and most people cheer for those upcoming games. Cephalofair Games is a much smaller company and produces far fewer games per year than Stonemaier Games. So, “small board game company” can’t be the main reason.

I like to think the reason is closer to people respecting Stonemaier Games and wanting the company to innovate with each one of their games. This is the kind reason why Wyrmspan and Finspan received blowback. I mentioned Days of Wonder’s stretch of “one game per year” for a reason. Days of Wonder was the preeminent board game company at that time. When you saw a Days of Wonder title (this would’ve been about the 2000s and into the early 2010s), you knew the game was high quality. I would’ve been a little upset if Days of Wonder only released a spin-off game at that time because I would’ve wanted a different game to play.

Spin-off board games work like movie sequels. They tend to print money. Wyrmspan sure did last year, and I expect Finspan to do the same. While I can see why some may be disappointed with a spin-off game, Stonemaier Games needs to stay afloat financially. Finspan may be a spin-off game, but it affords Stonemaier Games to take other risks with different titles.

Again, Stonemaier Games has a full slate of games for 2025 that don’t include Finspan. If the innovation reason is why someone rated Finspan low, wait for the game’s release. Wyrmspan tweaked Wingspan’s base gameplay. I expect Finspan to do the same.

There is a penultimate group of people who review a board game on BGG before the game’s release. These folks try to affect the scoring’s bell curve. Some folks refuse to give an unreleased game a perfect or high score, so they tank the score to even out the final rating. This mentality can work the other way, and I think it did with people rating Finspan a 10, even though they’ve never played the game. These are Stonemaier Games truthers who believe in the company. To be fair, Stonemaier Games has earned that trust.

This behavior is odd. BGG doesn’t include a game in its ultimate Geek List until many people review the game or have logged plays of it. There used to be–and sometimes there still is–a time component. A game cannot be listed on the final Geek List unless it’s been released for several months. This does compensate for this odd behavior. Regardless of how BGG’s Geek List works, these games typically get aggregated sufficiently in the end.

In short, I wouldn’t worry about a minority of gamers who would rate a game before the game’s release.

Note: There was one person who claimed, “I don’t like Stonemaier Games,” so there are gamers who don’t like Stonemaier, and that’s fair.

Let’s swim into deeper waters here. Some of you may need a trigger warning for the following darkness. Fair warning, I’m not suggesting that most people who rated Finspan a 1 on BGG belong to this camp. Unfortunately, the number isn’t zero.

Elizabeth Hargrave is a woman. She’s even an outspoken woman who designs board games, and she has a megahit with the Wingspan series. Some people are jealous. Others don’t want to give credit to a woman trying to break into a predominantly boys’ club. I hope the number of people who review bombed Finspan belongs to any of the previous camps, but I’m going to be real. Most likely, at least one person review bombed Finspan because it’s a spin-off game from an outspoken woman board game designer.

So, what are our takeaways? BGG isn’t to blame for review bombing or inflating. Listing a game is great for publicity. I guess even bad publicity is publicity. Whatever the reason someone may review bomb a popular board game series release, people need to chill. Stonemaier will produce multiple games not named Finspan this year. BGG scores will even out after Finspan’s release. There’s room for multiple people of all kinds at the gaming table. Diversity makes our hobby great.

And if you’re picking up a copy of Finspan this month, you’re in the greater Omaha area, and you don’t mind teaching me the rules, I wouldn’t mind trying out Finspan. If it’s anything like Wyrmspan, I’ll play it once and then buy it later. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.