Sun, 31 December 2006
In addition to the games I've played with gamers to round out the year, I've continued to have more success with friends & family, too. Those are much lighter games, but that never bothered me in the first place, and of course those are much more approachable (and more fun) for people who don't enjoy learning new rules all the time. I had another chance to break out a few light games during some
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Sat, 23 December 2006
Like I said, no chance to do another podcast this year, but I can fill you in on some recent gaming via the blog. Last night I attended my last Santa Clarita game group session of the year, and we were joined by Greg Parker. He's a long way from home up in Redding, but has family down here so we see him once in a while during holidays. Podcast listeners should be familiar with Greg from his
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Thu, 7 December 2006
Remember how I said I planned on taking a planned hiatus from mid-November until after New Year's? Well, that was a good idea, because this is just a very busy time for me to work in some podcasting. Just the same, I wanted to catch up on some audio feedback, and my plan is still to put together kind of a "mash-up" show. Somewhere I've still got a recording made last August that was never
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Thu, 16 November 2006
My best chance for playing games with Molly is when she's bored, having exhausted all other options. That sounds bad, but when that happens she's not reduced to playing a boardgame with dad--she looks forward to it. She just looks forward to it after everything else falls through. :-) Hey, I'll take it. Recently her friends have been busy doing other things, so we've had several days over the
Category:kids
-- posted at: 9:45pm PST
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Nope, I didn't make it back to BGG.con this year. I never manage to be a regular attendee of conventions--even though I've been to many of them once. Last year it was BGG.con, the year before was the Gathering, before that was Essen, and before that was Kublacon when Knizia was there. A few years prior I was lucky enough to go to Gulf Games. All of these have been great fun, and hopefully someday
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Whew! Finally a new show. Like the last time I (unintentionally) took a little time off from the podcast, it was a little hard to get back into the swing of things. Last time I thought a simpler Session Report and Feedback show was the way to get back into the podcasting groove, but this time I wanted to try a theme show. That's because I'd been hearing the excellent series hosted by Eric Burgess
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Okay.That was a long break, wasn't it? Too long? I think so. In other words, I haven't quit the podcast. I want to do more... I will do more. But in this episode I explain how a combination of internal choices & external pressures has led to this major slowdown of Boardgames To Go.To be honest, I think I sound a little rusty in this one. But it'll come back to me. I'm looking forward to talking
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Just like last year, I can't help sharing some of my excitement about the Essen game fair happening this week . . . even though I won't be going. I was lucky enough to be there in 2003, something that may never happen again. But you don't have to GO to Essen to be excited about all of the new game releases. Some of them have already been available for purchase from vendors, but most are making
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I'm starting to catch up with some older feedback as I begin to do more Session Report shows again. I had a bit of a cold while recording this one, but I hope it still sounds ok. And I sure hope I edited out all the times I coughed!Something I forgot to mention was the information Gene Pool's designer posted about self-publishing his game. It's on the Board Game Designers Forum.-Mark
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Sun, 12 November 2006
As promised, here's the post-Essen followup show. A few weeks ago I talked about the games I was interested in hearing more about at Essen. Now here's Mike Siggins, coming on the podcast to give BGTG listeners some firsthand accounts of his time at the fair, and impressions of some games. Be sure to also read Mike's column (the "Gamer's Notebook") at Funagain on the same subject. -Mark
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I was getting set up to record another podcast tonight. Took the notes, did the research, printed out some feedback. Yep, I was all set. And then my kids asked to play a game before bed, suggesting Time's Up. Obviously, the podcast was backburnered and we had fun with the game instead!(Later I'll have to talk about how to play Time's Up with kids . . . and with only three players.)
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Sun, 12 November 2006
See? I told you I'd get a show out this week. Just had to ignore my family to get it done. (I'm kidding.) Don't know if I will, but I think I should try to knock out a couple more semi-smaller shows featuring session reports and some feedback. We'll see. This one starts with a smattering of news items and whatnot before I get into the discussion of specific games. Stuff like mentioning some new
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Once again, I hope people are reading the blog as well as listening to the podcast. Because I often think of things I missed after the podcast is finished. (It's not just me--the host for the highly recommended BBC Radio 4 program In Our Time does the same thing via post-show emails.)I really want to talk about the family gaming (and other non-gamer gaming) I've been doing lately, but that show
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Sun, 12 November 2006
During the All About Vinci show, my guest Dave Arnott thought to bring up something we'd failed to cover during our previous All About show, covering Medici almost a year ago. Rather than include that in the Vinci show, I clipped that part out to be used later. Something similar happened when Dave turned the tables on me for the "Dark Johnson" interview, when we got into some discussion about
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I've been playing play-by-web Hacienda for a while on Yucata.de. They even just started offering alternate maps (at least one). But now SpielByWeb.com also has Hacienda, and I like their game manager interface much better. For one thing, I'm able to create password-protected games just for my podcast listeners! You know the drill . . . go to the site, look for a game with Boardgames To Go in the
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I've been advised in feedback to stop apologizing for being late on my podcasts. So I won't do that anymore, but I will point out that I'm more disappointed than anyone. I think from now on I'll plan on taking a 6-week hiatus from mid-June to the end of July, and another from mid-November to the end of the year. In fact, I've done both of those now--the trick is to plan for that in the future.
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Just for curiosity's sake. Those of you with more interest in podcasting ought to at least lurk on the boardgamepodcasters Yahoo group.Measuring the number of folks listening to podcasts is an inexact science. The closest you can get is measuring downloads, but you never know how many people share a single download (such as with an audio CD), how many downloads are trashed without ever being
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I was on vacation last week. No, not at the Gathering of Friends, I was in Hawaii with my family. I thought I might catch up on a little podcasting backlog or at least spruce up the web page. Instead, I ended up doing what I should've planned on all along--relaxing! That's why this show recorded at the end of March is just being posted now.But here it is, the All About Vinci show. I announced
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Here's a shorter show that I've wanted to do for a while, talking about how I've ordered games from overseas. Up until just recently that always meant Germany--albeit from a few different webshops--but last week I placed an order through a Dutch website, too. I organize most of these group buys for the Santa Clarita Boardgamers, and there's something to learn from it. The websites are getting
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I wish I could be putting out more podcasts. I've got lots of ideas, some guests lined up (some have been waiting for months!), some partial shows recorded, and outlines for future shows. What I don't have is the time or energy to have finished them already.Actually, that's not true. I do have the time, and sometimes I even have the energy. However, my success in a personal goal for my hobby--
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Dave Arnott sprung this show on me, turning the tables on the interviewer. His plan was to expose me for the sinister, heartless gamer that I really am. Of course, the plan backfired and I come out smelling like a rose. :)No, he just asks some fun questions about my changing tastes and even behaviors in this hobby, touching on subjects like game themes, new games vs old, and short games vs long.
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Sun, 12 November 2006
[A technical complication meant this show took the longest to pull together, but I'm pleased to say it worked completely. If you want to read the audio editing story, check out the boardgamepodcasters mailing list. -Mark]This is a combination show, an interview with David Gullett that's about being a boardgame newbie, as well as about playing games with your kids. It's in the latter context that
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Apologies for taking so long to get these shows out. Really--they're very close. I'm proof-listening to the Gamer Dad episode with David Gullett now, and I've already recorded the All About Vinci show with David Arnott. Now, both of these shows are good, but long. Or maybe: good and long. The issue of show length is one I've brought up on the podcast a few times, and though most of the feedback
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I'm wrapping up some editing on a show I recorded with David Gullett (davebo on BGG) about gamer dads, as well as his relatively recent entry to this hobby. Fun stuff, especially when we got both his kid and mine on the air for a few minutes near the end. There's just a little technical stuff on my end to work out and I'll get it posted here. (We actually recorded that podcast the day before I
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Here's part two of the podcast, the one where Jonathan and I get into La Città in detail. By the way, be sure to check out Eric Burgess' podcast Boardgame Babylon, which also features periodic episodes where he covers a single game in depth. In fact, he calls them his In Depth features. He's already done Caylus as a solo show, and recently did Ra with a second person.La Città is one of the
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Sun, 12 November 2006
In prepping that last show I missed the fact that the one-year anniversary for this podcast already came & went! I'd remembered it was sometime in March, but hadn't taken the time to find out exactly when. Then I spotted a "happy birthday" to me from Naturelich on his blog. Turns out it was on March 3rd, 2005, that I posted my first, awful epsiode. Nowhere to go but up after that!Though I
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Finally! Another All About show, which are the sort that everyone seems to love best. This one was recorded with Jonathan Degann, who you may know from his opinions on mailing lists, his Game Theory 101 articles on The Games Journal, or most recently his own blog. Jonathan is someone I played with regularly for some time, when I was with the Left Coast Gamers. Then a few years ago I helped get
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Not really an assignment, but if you want to get the most out of the next All About show, maybe you'd like to refresh your memory about La Città. I recorded a two-parter with Jonathan Degann about his game analysis in general (part 1), and La Città in particular (part 2). It'll take me a day or three to finish it up.If I had a little better control of my recording schedule, I'd love to give
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Sun, 12 November 2006
This episode became my white whale. It was a struggle to get it recorded, edited, partially scrapped & re-recorded, and finally posted. Towards the end, I have to admit that I just gave up a little bit, posting it even though I'm still not happy with the audio quality. Also, I think I ramble on just a bit too much, though at least the second take was better than the first! The audio issues come
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Back to another Session Report & Feedback show, and back to my usual recording setup. This show focuses almost exclusively on play-by-web games, sharing some news about them, and talking about a few of the titles I played recently. Plus the feedback, of course.As I hoped, this proved to be a notably shorter show. Anything less than an hour is notable for me, now! :) Gives you more time to listen
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Listener Christopher Boothe took the initiative to create a geeklist of his favorite BGTG episodes, the All About shows. Thanks, Chris!
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I'm disappointed, too. I actually recorded a podcast three days ago. I was experimenting with a different recording setup, and after listening to it I decided the sound quality in the first half of the show was unacceptable. So I need to redo it, *sigh*. The better news is that I think the recording rig CAN work ok, and it gives me a little more flexibility in where & when I record a show. I'd
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Sun, 12 November 2006
In my 50th podcast I went over the single-CD show duration (about 78 minutes). Actually I've done that several times, but in all the other instances I split the show into two parts. This time I didn't . . . other than to make available a less elegantly hacked-into-two download. I just took a look at the download stats, and they seem to indicate the hacked-up show isn't necessary. They might even
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Sun, 12 November 2006
My fiftieth podcast! Wow, I really wasn't sure I'd ever make it this far when I started last March. The show has morphed a bit over time, mostly in response to some limitatation I want to address or opportunity I want to seize. The feedback has been pretty great the entire time, so I trust that I'm on the right track. In other words, I'm happy that my listeners appreciate the kind of shows I
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Sun, 12 November 2006
This has already been reported on Boardgamenews.com, but I also want to call your attention to Garrett's Games & Geekiness, a new boardgame podcast by Doug Garrett. Doug is probably best known as the boardgame organizer for the well-regarded Kublacon game convention. It's held in the San Francisco Bay Area over Memorial Day Weekend. A few years ago I got to go when Reiner Knizia made an
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Sheesh, around the same time I recorded an outgoing message for the Boardgames To go dial-in number (206-222-BGTG), the voicemail capability on my Skype account (username: boardgamestogo) went kablooie! But that's fixed now, too. Whew!
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Sun, 12 November 2006
It was pointed out to me that the BGTG voicemail line (206-222-BGTG) didn't have an outgoing greeting, making it a little weird to leave a voicemail. That's now fixed, so it should be more inviting to leave me a message. Now I need to do the same for my Skype account.Speaking of voicemail, I've received a few messages lately that were a few seconds of silence . . . nothing more. Recent messages
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Sun, 12 November 2006
This podcast won an Honorable Mention in the BGIA's Best Game Podcast or Videocast category! I appreciate the selection, and most of all the initiative of the Gone Gaming blog that dreamed up these awards. There are a lot of categories and they've all served to put a spotlight on some great content on the net about our hobby. There are blogs, strategy articles, advocacy articles, humor, and more
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I play a somewhat steady stream of play-by-web boardgames. If listeners want to join me, just pop over to one of thsoe sites and look for games called Boardgames To Go. On the sites that use passwords for games, I always try to use BGTG as the password to restrict the game to my podcast listeners. Right now I've got games of Reef Encounter and Through the Desert waiting for players.-Mark
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Though it's happening less often nowadays, in the past people have confused Mark Jackson and myself. Though that's mostly due to the similarity in our names, we have some similar tastes in games (e.g. original Entdecker), we've crossed paths a few times, and since Jackson moved here in 2003 we're both Californians. California is a big state, though, and we're not so close that we see each other
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I'm raising some GeekGold so that my logo designer (and onetime BGTG guest) Greg Wilzbach can get an avatar on BoardgameGeek. A nice listener spontaneously donated some GG to me last week--which was very nice--and now I'm running one of those BGG auctions where the currency is GG. The game up for auction is Alan Moon's Slow Freight, the gamekit exclusive Funagain. It's still for sale on that site
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Sun, 12 November 2006
This is more or less an update of the "intro to podcasting" show I did way back in May, 2005. It's especially intended for people who might start up their own boardgame podcast--whether they were thinking about it already or not! It might also be of some interest to general listeners of the show, who are curious how a podcast like this comes together. There's not much to it, really.-MarkLinksBGTG
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Sun, 12 November 2006
For a long time I've posted a retrospective on my past year in the hobby, first to rec.games.board, then spielfrieks, then my blog. This year, of course, I've shifted it over to a podcast episode. That's the first big shift. The other comes from not having kept track of my game stats last year. And yet . . . I still have things to say. :)-MarkP.S. As I mention in the show, the call-in number for
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Sun, 12 November 2006
A little note for those of you who download this show in iTunes (and hopefully read the blog, too, or else you'll miss this). For some reason, iTunes refuses to list episode 46A in its listing, even though other podcatching software sees it correctly (it shows up in the feed). So if you missed the first, larger half of my latest Session Report & Feedback show--the part with the news & session
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Sun, 12 November 2006
That hurt.
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Sun, 12 November 2006
In about an hour my alma mater, the University of Southern California takes on the University of Texas for the college football national championship. But get this--Texas is also my alma mater! Yeah, my two colleges are ranked #1 and #2, facing each other in the storied Rose Bowl today for all the marbles. Am I conflicted? (Everyone asks.) No! Grad school was more like a job--undergrad was where
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Jam Van Verth has just started a new boardgame podcast. It's called The Vintage Gamer, and he intends to cover the older games that are forgotten while we all play the "shiny, new" ones. And by older, he doesn't mean 1998 . . . he means 1978. Or 1958! Something like that, anyway. By its nature I think he'll end up covering boardgames more than any other type of game, but he's also thinking about
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Yea! I finally got to record a new podcast! I needed to do a fair bit of catching up, which meant the podcast got to be pretty long. With that in mind I split it into two parts. This is the first part, about an hour of me catching up for lost time and talking about some games I've been playing recently. The second part, which I'll post next, is the feedback segment.-MarkLinksBGTG Frappr
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Here's part two of this episode, just the feedback portion. Keep 'em coming! :-) It's good to be back.-MarkLinksSkype (my username is BoardgamesToGo)Naturelich Games (blog)(what did I miss?)
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Happy 2006! The holidays are just about behind us now, and my schedule will soon be returning to normal. With that will come a chance to get back into some podcast recording. I had no idea I would be out of commission for so long, and I'm eager to get back to it.In the meantime, another blog post. I borrowed this idea from Mark Jackson . . . who lifted it from Mark Haberman. A good idea worth
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Wow, I really thought I'd have the opportunity to record a show by now. But guess what? It's busy around the holidays. I'll do another podcast as soon as I'm able.In the meantime, Merry Christmas for me and Happy Holidays to everyone! This year I got several games as gifts. That's unusual, because even though I've been a gamer for 25 years, I don't often ask for games as gifts. Way back when (RPG
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Ok, at least some of my listeners are reading this site, too. So I can at least get the word out about some plans for upcoming podcasts. The in-laws left yesterday, my folks arrive in a week, and I'm going to two more Christmas parties in between. And no game nights. Ah well, that's the way it goes, this time of year. It's always busy, and I haven't had a "normal" week for the podcast since
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Sun, 12 November 2006
[Nothing went wrong when I published the last show without a full proof-listen beforehand, so I'm doing it again. This isn't supposed to be my regular practice, but the holidays are upon us, family is coming to visit, and I fear if I don't publish this show now it will be another week before I get the chance. So out it goes. As before, if something is wrong please let me know immediately and I'll
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Sun, 12 November 2006
The last in the series of BGG.con-related shows, this one's only connection is the fact that I first tried to record it on the way to BGG.con . . . and the fact that it features Texas (Austin, this time). That original recording took place while on layover at the Denver airport. Unfortunately, the background noise was too distracting, so I ultimately had to discard it. But I'd kept my notes, and
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Sun, 12 November 2006
...it's just that busy, holiday time of the year. I want to record a Session Report & Feedback show (but with some tweaks for both) soon. Right now we've got my in-laws visiting, so the podcast has to wait for a bit. Hmm, I suppose I could actually use this good ol' blog to start sharing some thoughts until I can record an audio program. I'm never sure how many of my listeners actually read the
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Sun, 12 November 2006
At last! Another All About show, and one I'd been planning to do for some time. My buddy and BGG.com roommate Greg Pettit has played the game a fair bit, and shared his opinions about the game's strategies, reputation, graphic production, and more. Also, we managed to play the newly-released card game adaption of E&T at the con, which gave us even more to think about.-MarkP.S. Pretty ridiculous
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Sun, 12 November 2006
[Against my better judgment, I'm posting this show before I've had a chance to listen to it. Someone please email me if there's something amiss, and I'll correct it ASAP. I don't have the opportunity to go through my normal recording-proofing-publishing routine, but want to get this out rather than sit on it. -Mark]Two shows ago I had an interview with Aldie & Derk about Boardgamegeek.con. At
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Sun, 12 November 2006
A bit of a delay last week, with family visiting and a conference. Just time enough to squeeze in one more show before BGG.con, which is in three days! This session report show enabled me to work through my backlog of feedback, positioned at the end of the show as always.Hansa is a game that might not be for everyone, but I still think is somewhat overlooked. (Was it really released in 2004? I
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Sun, 12 November 2006
My listeners will know that I wanted to record something at Boardgamegeek.con, and I finally got that chance in the final hours of the event: an interview with Aldie and Derk about the convention itself. Aldie had agreed to it as early as Friday, but those guys were just so busy throughout the weekend that we didn't get an opportunity until the very end. They were pretty fried, but probably
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Last night I got back from a great time at BGG.con. I'd write about it here, except that . . . well, you know . . . I'm going to record it in a podcast. I've actually got a number of podcasts coming out pretty soon. It'll just take me a little while to finish them off. Also, I think when I've got a bunch it's better to spread them out by a few days rather than broadcasting them all at once.
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Sun, 12 November 2006
The last podcast that went out had an unedited bit of messiness in it. Not a big deal, just a garbled description, gap while my thoughts cleared, then a fresh attempt. In reality, this happens in every episode of BGTG--I'm just usually sharp enough to edit those out later (that's also what the gap is for--spotting the edit points in the audio track). Well, I missed this one, and this morning
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Sun, 12 November 2006
No, I'm not going to Essen this year. But I managed to go once, back in 2003, and not going never stopped me from getting excited about the event. In this podcast I talk about what observed myself when I got to attend, explain why I (normally) don't get worked up for limited edition games, and share the names of some new titles I'm anticipating.By the way, there's now one more way to submit
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Sun, 12 November 2006
At last! A session report show! And these days, what's even more important to me than the session report about a couple games is the feedback section. I'm so pleased to get as much feedback as I do, and it's great fun to read & reply to it. Per my new format, all of the feedback is pushed to the end of the podcast, so those of you that only want to hear about games get to listen to the session
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I included a link to a file in my last blog entry, and it automatically went out like a podcast. It's not, of course, it's just the reformatted PDF file of Fairplay magazines Essen 2005 scouting report.
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Fairplay magazine's scout reports are tabulated from Essen 2005. Go over to the magazine's site to see the original data, and to also look at past years' results. Here I've reformatted their data into my own color-coded, sorted PDF file. I set the cutoff point at 20 votes total, then made separations into top, 2nd tier, middle of the pack, lower-middle, and bottom-dwelling games.-Mark
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Although this podcast will never be about wargames in a substantial way, I still play the occasional wargame and still consider myself a wargamer. Just an infrequent one. :-) Even though I don't play them so often, my interest in military history remains (all history, really). After hearing more about wargames on other podcasts, reading some Consimworld again, and generally experiencing my
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Listener, Siggins.Siggins, Listener.The oldtimers in this hobby will recognize the name instantly, as well as my play on Ken Tidwell's introduction of Mike Siggins to his new readers on the Internet. Mike was one of the earliest writers and savvy reviewers of the new crop of German boardgames. Starting in the late 1980s(!) with other mags, he's most notable for his decade-long, near-solo effort
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Mike suggested his own topic for this podcast: the elusive hybrid game that combines elements of Euro games (short play, elegant mechanics, nice bits) and wargames (real history, maybe nice maps). To a large degree, the games we want to talk about don't yet exist. But several attempts have been made to varying degrees of success, and that's what we discuss. Mike also speculates about the growth
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I think this is settling into a standard format for this podcast: an audio session report show with feedback/letters section tacked onto the end for BGTG-aholics. (The other standard format is the theme show, especially the All About shows featuring just one game in depth.) In this show I get back in the saddle again with a Santa Clarita Boardgamer session, though a bit too rambly at the
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Sun, 12 November 2006
You can tell from the date that I've had this show recorded for a week already. The "All About" shows are often my most well-regarded . . . by both my listeners and myself! So you know I didn't want to sit on this one, especially for one of my favorite games. However, the quality of the sound recording meant that I had to work a little harder to fix this one up. I hope you're able to hear it ok,
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Here's part 2 of the show, the longer part that is the in-depth treatment of Verräter. You know, I'd love to get a translation of Casasola Merkle's "Entsehung" page for the game. It tells the story of the game's development. I can understand part of it using an online translator, but those are always sketchy.-MarkLinksVerräterBrettspielwelt (where you can play Verräter and many others online in
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Sun, 12 November 2006
This was a fun show to record, sitting down with the local gamer & friend who designed the BGTG logo(s). After some general chat about how Greg's background, how he got into the hobby, and joined the Santa Clarita Boardgamers, we got into the main theme of the show: boardgame presentation. For a graphics and design-savvy guy like Greg, that value of a game's good presentation is obvious. For a
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Another All About show, another with a second voice, and another long one! This should be interesting... Though I normally prefer shows to be shorter, perhaps only half as long, this is also the kind of show I'd like to listen to. But does anyone else feel the same? An hour of two guys talking minutiae about Medici: whether you ever flip more than one card for auction, offensive vs. defensive
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Though I've missed the past three Santa Clarita Boardgamers sessions (drat), I've still had a few opportunities for playing games. Here are some opinions about those, including a new play-by-web offering, Torres.Also, I hadn't included any email (or voicemail!) feedback for a while, so it was starting to pile up. Rather than cut that short, I decided to move the feedback segment of the show to
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Ryan shows up in lots of my session reports because he's the most constant figure at Santa Clarita Boardgamer sessions. He and his wife Erin host most of our game nights. With that in mind, this show was intended to be about the "care & feeding" of local game groups: how to start one up and keep it going strong. That's pretty much what was recorded, though it also rambled through some fun history
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Sorry for the nearly 2-week break between podcasts. That wasn't my plan, but life sometimes gets busy. Fortunately, half of that was for a fun weekend spent winetasting with Candy when the kids stayed with my folks. We went to the Santa Ynez valley area made more famous recently by the movie Sideways.But this show isn't about that--it's about catching up on some older feedback (including another
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Sun, 12 November 2006
It's been a long time coming, but I finally got my wife Candy to join me for a podcast. Considering how popular and everlasting the question "How can I get my wife/girlfriend to play games with me?" is on discussion boards, this podcast should be of interest to many. Candy plays games with me, sure, but she's not an avid hobbyist like myself. Or rather, she's got her own avid hobbies--boardgames
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Finally! I've wanted to get back to a theme show for a while, and one on microgames has been on my to-do list. As I say in the show, this is really sort of training me for doing some shows about wargames. I'm not ready to do that yet, but it will come someday.This was another recording using the mobile device, a Treo 650, rather than my normal laptop & headset mic rig. There's a drop in audio
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Sun, 12 November 2006
A little bit longer podcast this time, as we played lots of games and had some interesting discussion to boot! Plus, I responded to feedback at the beginning of the show, something I hadn't done for a while.By the way, one of the reasons we played Tower of Babel at this session was to counteract the botched rules at an earlier outing. I wasn't at that previous session, so those forgotten/
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Chris Brooks runs a boardgame blog where he recently offered his assessment of "the three" boardgame podcasts, Geek Speak, Boardgames To Go, and The Dice Tower. I'm happy with his assessment of my podcast, which closes with...Think of Mark and Boardgames To Go as the the Jim Lehrer of Podcasts. A bit dry at times, but solid content worth tuning into.In my own comment to this entry, I mentioned
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I finally figured out how to make my older podcasts show up in iTunes. Now the bulk of my listeners should have access to the earlier material. A grand experiment in my podcast host and bandwidth limitations is about to start... :-/What kicked me into gear to finally "fix" this was the discovery that my pre-iTunes shows showed downloads/audience of only half what the more recent shows are getting
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Once again I included my son Sam on the podcast. This show is an audio session report for some games played with family over the 4th of July holiday weekend. So it's got some angst about getting family to play the sort of games I like, trying to pick things they like, and then worrying about how well they went over. :)Be sure to vote on the new logos using the webpoll in my right sidebar. Thanks!
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Sun, 12 November 2006
This show was something of a hybrid, an audio session report that had an overall theme: 2-player games. That's because the most recent Santa Clarita Boardgamer session just had two players! Myself and BGTG logo designer Greg Wilzbach. We got in some good ones, and once again it made me think that we ought to play these more even on nights when we've got more turnout.Speaking of those logos, the
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Over a week between podcasts, rats! Well, sometimes our lives get busy, right? Between a crunch at work . . . and a literal crunch at home (car crash--everyone's ok), there wasn't a chance to record anything recently. Hopefully I'll catch up soon.First up is another in-between show. I guess it's mostly an audio session report, but since it talks about SoCal Games Day, and especially dads playing
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I've been wanting to do this for a while, talk for an entire show about one game. And now I've done it, about one of my very favorite games Entdecker. I suppose this kind of show is really something of an audio game review, though I didn't plan it that way when I started talking. Entdecker is a game that's been published in two separate versions, has a well-known variant, another I prefer, and
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Greg Wilzbach's logos are now displayed at the top of this page. I had one idea, helped by some other friends, and Greg also came up with his own concept. The result is two nice logos. While I could use the both, probably one should be the main one--maybe the only one. And why not make it a new web poll!Take a look at those two logos, and then use the voting buttons in the right sidebar. I won't
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Sun, 12 November 2006
I wonder how long it will be until I feel like I know what I'm doing?! Seems like every podcast I learn a little something new. This time it's as simple as making the podcast and blog post title with the games listed NOT in the order we played them. Otherwise, Tonga Bonga leads every audio SR this month, and at first glance it looks like I'm podcasting about the same thing. In a way, I guess I am
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Sun, 12 November 2006
A quick little show, the shortest I've done in a while. Mostly I just struck while the iron was hot, but with a surge in subscribers due to podcast support in iTunes, it's proven to be timely. Welcome new listeners! As I say in the little audio aside, I encourage the new folks to check out the permanently linked shows at the top of the right sidebar: intro shows about podcasting and also strategy
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Now iTunes supports podcasting, and shows like mine saw an immediate surge in listeners. Boardgames To Go was one of the shows included in iTunes' initial podcast directory. So welcome, iTunes users! Go ahead and start downloading whatever you like, though if you're new to podcasting or new to strategy boardgames you might consider one of the intro shows permanently linked at the top of my right
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Sun, 12 November 2006
The show I just uploaded marks my need to bump up my podcast hosting subscription plan one level. I'm just recording too much! Even at the 32kbps (sound ok, by the way?), I'm running smack into the 100MB monthly storage limit. Now I've more than doubled that to 250, which should do me until I go to videocasts. (That's a joke, people--remember I'm motivated by podcasts you can safely appreciate
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Anyone who's a parent of multiple kids knows this rule: be fair to all of them. So after Sam got a chance to be on my podcast, talking about the games he likes, I knew that Molly deserved a turn. Actually, she had wanted to do it first! Molly just finished third grade, and was my little boardgame player even before her older brother. Although she plays the occasional video game, she's not into
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Sun, 12 November 2006
After a trio of shows sharing the microphone with someone else, I’m back to doing my solo show. That will still be what I do most of the time, I think. It’s back to a theme show, too, focusing on the history of Internet communication on our hobby. Mailing lists, newsgroups, websites, that sort of thing. I didn’t really get to all of the websites I wanted to cover—guess I’ll have to have a part 2
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Sun, 12 November 2006
As expected, my flurry of podcasting last week is being followed by 7-10 days of no podcasting at all. Was I right in deciding to just shoot those previous shows out as quickly as I recorded them? Or would you prefer that I dribble them out at a more steady pace...even though that means holding some back? (It's more hassle for me to work to a regular schedule, so I don't expect to do it. Just
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Last week I joked that Tonga Bonga would be our Game of the Month. Here we were, playing it again--by request! Maybe it's meant to be. This time was different in that it was a 3-player game, and I won big instead of losing big. Then I got to try Ryan & Erin's new Crokinole board. It's not theirs, really--they bought it as a graduation gift for Erin's cousin. This board is from Crokinole World,
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Sun, 12 November 2006
You asked for a second voice on Boardgames To Go? You got it!Ok, only some of you asked for a second voice. And ok, I won't have someone like Mike Mayer joining me on the podcast regularly. In fact, right now I think I'll still do the majority of the shows solo. But now that I've figured out how to patch in a remote collaborator for the show, I will do more of this in the future. I want to get
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Here's another show where I have someone else recording with me. Only this time it's my son Sam, and he's plugged in locally to the same laptop. (Technical aside: this was incredibly easy, just patching in a second microphone/headset using a five-dollar audio jack splitter! I need to do more of this with local friends.) Besides hearing from the horse's mouth about a 5th/6th grader's attitudes
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Sun, 12 November 2006
A show all about me. I hope this is still of interest to everyone--I figure it's important to know where your writer/podcaster is coming from. Once you're calibrated on who I am, you can interpret my reactions to different games a bit better. I start at the games I played as a kid, but then move through the microgames and roleplaying games that dominated high school and college. The boardgaming
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Sun, 12 November 2006
A nice, big session report. Last week's session wasn't any longer than the previous one, but instead of playing one big game (Struggle of Empires), this time we played several shorter games. These are always my favorite game nights, though I can handle a longer game once in a while.I also was able to open with several listener comments, which was fun. Keep 'em coming.Email Mark JohnsonGamesTonga
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Sun, 12 November 2006
The pattern continues--I don't have time to work on the podcast much during the week, and so it all piles up on the weekend. I actually recorded three new shows today. Partly that's because I'm still pretty excited about this thing, partly it's taking advantage of the time I've got (knowing it will evaporate later). I could hang onto these things and post one every few days, but I don't see much
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Sun, 12 November 2006
Am I posting too many shows? Can you keep up? You don't have to, of course, but I understand the desire to stay up-to-date with a website or podcast you follow. Turns out I've been uploading a little too much for me podcast host. That's no big deal--I can just lay low for about a week (the usual interval between shows that I record on the weekend anyway). Or, I can replace some of the existing
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