[VLM]

I believe there's also a narrowcasting / local maxima / monopoly (in the .biz sense) effect, where Hasbro and friends hyperoptimized for American 6 year olds, leaving a gigantic empty unserved market which the eurogame folks never abandoned, so someone translates from German to English, the games hop the Atlantic with the help of internet publicity and online stores, and take the country by storm.

To help the HN readership, WRT board games, Germany is more or less the Silicon Valley of board games.

[logfromblammo]

And to extend that analogy, Klaus Teuber, Reiner Knizia, and Wolfgang Kramer are like the Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of board games.