BoardGameGeek wants the new game; Jev picks the classic

Enthusiast audiences have leans of their own: do BoardGameGeek users prefer newer games and BeerAdvocate reviewers stronger beers, and does Jev share those leans?

result11,886 questions

Choosing between two board games, BoardGameGeek users pick the older one only 29% of the time; Jev picks it 51% of the time, and picks the more-rated game 73% of the time where users do 57%. BeerAdvocate reviewers pick the weaker beer (less alcohol) 42% of the time, Jev 55%. On films, where the audience has no lean toward older titles (48%), neither does Jev (47%).

picks the older game51% · 29%

picks the older film47% · 48%

picks the weaker beer55% · 42%

picks the more-rated game73% · 57%

Jevaudience majority

How to read this: One row per lean. Grey (lower bar): how often the audience's majority picks that side. Magenta (upper bar): how often Jev does. Bars of equal length mean Jev shares the audience's lean; 50% means no lean at all.

older game: 4,724 pairs, Jev [0.501, 0.526] vs audience [0.284, 0.305] (90% intervals); older film: 4,651 pairs, Jev [0.463, 0.488] vs audience [0.468, 0.492] (90% intervals); weaker beer: 1,556 pairs, Jev [0.532, 0.574] vs audience [0.4, 0.441] (90% intervals). Jev's guess of 'most people' leans the same way as its own pick: older game 55%, more-rated game 71%, weaker beer 62%.

In short

Board-game hobbyists strongly prefer the newer game and beer reviewers the stronger beer; Jev shares neither lean.
Asked what most people would pick, Jev leans the same way it does for itself, most of all on beer (weaker beer 62%).
Jev goes by fame instead: it picks the board game with more ratings 73% of the time, where users do 57%.

What the data shows

Board-game hobbyists love new games; Jev doesn't. Users pick the older game 29% of the time (4,724 pairs); Jev picks it 51%.
Jev follows popularity more: it picks the game with more ratings 73% of the time, where users do 57%.
Beer reviewers favor stronger beers; Jev leans the other way: reviewers pick the weaker beer 42% of the time, Jev 55% (1,556 pairs).
Films are the control: MovieLens users show no lean toward older films (48%), and neither does Jev (47%).
Jev's guess of most people leans the same way as its own pick (older game 55%, more-rated game 71%, weaker beer 62%).

What it means, and what it doesn't

Jev doesn't share enthusiasts' particular appetites. Where a hobby rewards novelty (board games) or intensity (beer), Jev behaves like an outsider who goes by fame and familiarity. That helps explain why, in head-to-heads, it agrees with BoardGameGeek users less than with any other audience (see "Jev's own picks match audiences better than its guesses do").

It doesn't mean Jev "prefers old things" in general: on films, where the audience has no lean, Jev has none either.

Caveats

Older and more-rated overlap. Older board games have had more years to collect ratings, so "picks the older game" and "picks the more-rated game" are partly the same lean.
Some pairs couldn't be matched. To match each option to its year or alcohol content, the name and year printed in it were read. Pairs where that couldn't be done reliably were left out, more of them for beers.
Within-genre pairs. Pairs were drawn within a board-game subdomain or a beer-style family, so the differences are within, not across, kinds.

Jev on this experiment

Would a person find it interesting to read?: Yes77%
Does it describe you?: No60%
Would you have predicted it?: No65%
How fair is the comparison?: The comparison is reasonable
How much should a reader rely on it?: A little
Which caveat matters most?: Older and more-rated overlap97%

Why ask this

Enthusiast communities have tastes that outsiders don't share: board-game hobbyists chase the newest designs, beer reviewers prize strength and intensity. If Jev doesn't lean the same way, it shows which kind of judge it is: a hobbyist or a well-read outsider.

How this was done

The people and the data

Three enthusiast audiences, via public datasets of their ratings: BoardGameGeek users for board games, BeerAdvocate reviewers for beers, and MovieLens users for films as a control. For each pair of items, the audience's pick is the one preferred by most people who rated both. Games and films carry their release year in their names, every item has a count of ratings, and every beer has its alcohol by volume, so it's possible to check how often each side picks the older game, the more-rated game or the weaker beer. That leaves 4,724 board-game pairs, 4,651 film pairs and 1,556 beer pairs, each drawn within one kind of game or one family of beer styles.

What Jev was asked

Each pair as a simple choice:

Which board game would you rather play?
Alhambra (2003) · Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot (2002)

Once for itself and once for "most people", each with the options in both orders.

How it was measured

For each lean, the share of pairs where the audience picks that side, and the share where Jev does, each with a 90% interval. For example, among pairs of board games from different years: how often is the pick the older game?

Where these questions live

11,886 questions across 3 topics of the map. Each opens on the map with every question in it.

Leisure & Hobbies

Board Game Matchups4,980

Every question

All 11,886 questions behind this result, the telling ones first: the examples the analysis points to, then the ones where Jev misses, biggest gap first.

Jev’s own answer

Showing 0 of 11,886