Sun, 1 January 2023
Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
Welcome to 2023, which happens to be the 19th season of my little podcast, Boardgames To Go. I'm as surprised as anyone to still be around, still with listeners. I do enjoy this, and greatly appreciate my small & loyal following. I'm thrilled to start the new season with a wonderful guest, Mike Siggins talking about his Sumo picks.
Direct download: BGTG_210_-_Games_of_2022_with_Mike_Siggins.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PST |
Thu, 1 December 2022
Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
Direct download: BGTG_209_-_Post-BGGcon_2022_with_Brian_Murray_and_Rick_Byrens.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PST |
Sat, 12 November 2022
Direct download: BGTG_208d_-_BGGcon_2022_Day_Four_with_Greg_Pettit.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:11pm PST |
Fri, 11 November 2022
Direct download: BGTG_208c_-_BGGcon_2022_Day_Three_with_Greg_Pettit.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:53pm PST |
Thu, 10 November 2022
Direct download: BGTG_208b_-_BGGcon_2022_Day_Two_with_Greg_Pettit.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:07pm PST |
Wed, 9 November 2022
Direct download: BGTG_208a_-_BGGcon_2022_Day_One_with_Greg_Pettit.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:16pm PST |
Tue, 1 November 2022
Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
Direct download: BGTG_207_-_Essen_Fairplay_and_the_A_La_Carte_Awards.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PST |
Sat, 1 October 2022
Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
Direct download: BGTG_206_-_The_Personality_of_a_Boardgame_Collection.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PST |
Thu, 1 September 2022
Opener: Royals Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. For boardgame publishers, I believe there's such as thing as "convention season." Of course game conventions happen all over the world, all across the calendar, but for the industry there's a special significance to Gencon in the US, and Spiel in Europe. Add in Origins, UK Games Expo, the Nuremberg Int'l Toy Fair, events in France or Japan...the list goes on & on. Especially for the domestic North American market, however, the summer season of Gencon and Origins means something for sales & product launches. Both events are located in the middle of the US. Designer (and friend!) David Thompson is also located in the middle of the US. I had the great fortune to stay with him for a weekend recently, and besides playing a bunch of games together, we also recorded a podcast. He'd recently been to Gencon & Origins, as well as Ohio's own Buckeye Game Fest. We sat on his back porch during a summer evening and recorded this podcast together. I hope you enjoy the discussion. Closers: I sat next to a guy on the plane who played a lot of Catan...but only on the app on his smartphone. He told me how the original game has too much luck, how certain Seafarers maps turn it into more of a game of "pure strategy." I showed him Azul on BGA, Iberian Gauge in a photo, and A Few Acres of Snow on Yucata. It's like we were speaking the same language, but different dialects that could barely understand each other! -Mark
Direct download: BGTG_205_-_Convention_Season_with_David_Thompson.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am PST |
Mon, 1 August 2022
![]() Openers: Root, My Gold Mine, and LAMA Dice
Direct download: BGTG_204_-_Where_Are_They_Now_A_Decade_of_Spiel_and_Kennerspiel_des_Jahres_Winners_with_Greg_Pettit.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PST |
Fri, 1 July 2022
Direct download: BGTG_203_-_What_Were_Playing_Online_with_Dave_Arnott.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am PST |
Wed, 1 June 2022
June 1, 2022 Please join my Discord server https://discord.io/BoardgamesToGo There you can find other BGTG (and WargamesToGo) listeners, introduce yourself, share some current gaming thoughts, find online opponents, and maybe even meet someone who lives within driving distance of you in the real world. It's happened!
Direct download: BGTG_202_-_SdJ_and_Kenner_Predictions.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am PST |
Sun, 1 May 2022
May 1, 2022
Please join my Discord server https://discord.io/BoardgamesToGo There you can find other BGTG (and WargamesToGo) listeners, introduce yourself, share some current gaming thoughts, find online opponents, and maybe even meet someone who lives within driving distance of you in the real world. It's happened!
Direct download: BGTG_201_-_Top_Ten_New_Games_with_Brian_Murray.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PST |
Fri, 1 April 2022
Opener: Please join my Discord server https://discord.io/BoardgamesToGo ! There you can find other BGTG listeners, introduce yourself, share some current gaming thoughts, find online opponents, and maybe even meet someone who lives within driving distance of you in the real world.
I almost can't believe I've made it to episode 200! Even though my boardgame podcast has been around a long time (the longest!), contemporaries like The Dice Tower and Garrett's Games and Geekiness are closer to a thousand episodes. "Newcomes" like Shut Up & Sit Down will be passing me very quickly in terms of episodes...they all passed me in terms of audience long ago. But that's ok--I remind myself that I do this podcast largely to make a contribution to the hobby and get my voice out there. That a loyal handful of you listen & enjoy it is icing on the cake. I should've asked my wife to take a photo of Dave Arnott and I recording this episode. There's a photo of us recording one long ago, perhaps the earlier retrospective we did about the hobby. That was episode 75, back in 2007, now 15 years ago! At that time we were reflecting on how things were different, mostly better, than when we both entered the hobby after Settlers and Siggins. We were looking back on a decade or so, feeling that we were "old men" in the hobby. Now we can look back on a quarter-century of boardgaming, and we're REALLY the old men now.
Direct download: BGTG_200_-_A_Quarter-Century_of_Boardgaming_with_Dave_Arnott.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PST |
Tue, 1 March 2022
Opener: 7 Wonders: Architects, France's Game of the Year winner (the As D'Or) Do you have a Top 100 list? How about just a Top Ten, and do you update it every year? I have a sort of list, but it's the same one I've had for over twenty years. In fact, I ran through it very quickly on the first episode of this podcast back in 2005! (No need to dig up that old fossil, but my show had to start somewhere. ![]() I've been thinking about a new top ten of more recent games, but I'm not ready with that. Perhaps that will be in a future show, because there ARE plenty of modern titles that I really enjoy. It would be fun to talk about them, in part to contrast them against the "hotness" on BGG and Kickstarter that I often can't connect with. Again...that's a future show. In THIS episode I thought my original top ten was worth discussing all over. In some cases they are games I love just as much as ever. Others are more sentimental favorites, not really making it to the table any longer. In a few cases I think the games represented of a type of game that I still enjoy, and there are newer examples. Closer: Fragility in boardgame mechanics -Mark |
Tue, 1 February 2022
February 1, 2022 My main thoughts are about The Adventures of Robin Hood, the Spiel des Jahres nominee from last year (in the podcast I mistakenly say Kennerspiel nominee). The story of Robin Hood is ok, I suppose, but what impresses me is the physical gameplay design of this one. I'm sure there are many great examples of this concept, but I struggled to find a good description or list anywhere. I don't just mean the bits, and I definitely don't mean sculpted miniatures (thankfully, this game doesn't have those). No, I mean gameplay that relates to the physical act of manipulating the boardgame as an object. Dexterity games do this, but they're in a different category. I mean strategy games that do this. I'd love to find more examples.
Direct download: BGTG_198_-_Getting_back_into_the_swing_of_things.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PST |
Thu, 30 December 2021
December 30, 2021 |
Tue, 14 December 2021
We all know last year's event was cancelled due to covid, but late in 2021 BGGcon was back on! I ended up having to cancel my own plans to attend, but "every-timer" Greg Pettit was there. And he's back on my podcast to discuss. What a good reason to finally issue another episode!
Direct download: BGTG_196_Post-BGGcon_2021_with_Greg_Pettit.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:06am PST |
Sun, 10 May 2020
A small, solo episode for me to talk about the boardgaming I'm doing during the coronavirus safe-at-home quarantine that so many of us are under. Mostly that means online gaming of one form another, whether a dedicated website or via videochat. My face-to-face gaming has been extremely limited, almost non-existent. I really miss it, as I miss hanging out with my friends.
Direct download: BGTG_195_-_Boardgaming_during_the_Coronavirus.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:59pm PST |
Sun, 5 April 2020
Direct download: BGTG_194_-_2019_Year_in_Review_with_Martin_Griffiths.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:51pm PST |
Wed, 18 December 2019
Opener: Skipped this part since all we're doing is talking about (mostly new) games played!
[/floatright]Another year that I didn't make it to BGGcon, but of course Greg Pettit did...he's an "every timer"! Since 2010 (a decade, hmm...) Greg and I have been recording this episode after the event, whether I was able to join him or not. Greg tells us about the event, its new location, and then about a whole lot of games played. Even oldtimers like Greg & I find ourselves playing new games as well as some old favorites at an event like this. Since these are often first plays of a new game, I like to solicit "1-5 star ratings" instead of BGG ratings. What's the difference? Maybe nothing, but in my mind, stars are more of a gut feel after an early play that measures excitement to play again, as well as (or maybe more than) an analysis of a game's long-term evaluation. As Greg says, it's easier to give 5 stars to a game you just had fun with than to say it's a 10.
Direct download: BGTG_193_-_Post-BGGcon_2019_with_Greg_Pettit.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:52pm PST |
Fri, 23 August 2019
Opener: Bukiet (Bloom) |
Sat, 8 June 2019
Armchair Dragoons Presents Wargaming Media: State of Play This panel featuring wargaming media personalities will discuss the current “Golden Age” of board wargaming and what can be done to ensure its survival. Location: GCCC - Apods - A210 Date: Sunday 6/16/2019 10am (2 hours)
|
Sun, 14 April 2019
Openers: KeyForge and Lost Cities Rivals
Direct download: BGTG_190_-_Grail_Games_with_David_Harding.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:08pm PST |
Sun, 10 March 2019
I pushed back an interview show I have coming next* in order to open the 15th year(!) of this podcast with a solo episode. In it, I reflect a little on the podcast and (re)tell some stories about it. Then I launch into a LONG list of games I've managed to play at three recent events: EsCon 2019, SoCal Games Day #76, and an extended weekend boardgame cruise with some buddies. In those events I played a mix of old favorites, some new-to-me superfillers like I prefer, a few longer games, and some that have some hype/hotness about them. See? Even I play those trendy titles sometimes, kickstarted or not. As you'll hear, I sometimes like them! |
Sun, 16 December 2018
Game designer, blogger, and real-life journalist Chris Marling joins me once again to talk about Essen. As he did two years ago, he had a new game launching at Spiel, so we get to hear about that. But he's also an enthusiastic game hobbyist like the rest of us, and he also talks about the event itself from that point of view. Chris loves the game fair, and has been going for quite a number of years. From that perspective, he's able to notice some shifts & changes in the hobby that affect the world's largest boardgame event itself. We talk about those, too.
Direct download: BGTG_188_-_Essen_2018_with_Chris_Marling.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:50pm PST |
Tue, 11 December 2018
No Openers or Closers this time, as we have so many games from the event to discuss!
Just about every year, my friend & frequent podcast guest Greg Pettit joins me to talk about BGGcon. In recent years I've enjoyed the event with him, but I missed 2018. However, another friend, Ryan Wheeler, does that job this year. Greg, Ryan, and I met around 15 years ago when we all lived nearby and played regularly in our little group, the Santa Clarita Boardgamers. Of those three, I'm the only one still in Santa Clarita, California. Greg's in Texas, and Ryan's in South Dakota. While it's too bad I couldn't join them this year, I'm so happy that BGGcon is around to draw old gamer friends together like a magnet.
Direct download: BGTG_187_-_Post-BGGcon_2018_with_Ryan_Wheeler_and_Greg_Pettit.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:54pm PST |
Mon, 26 November 2018
Doug and I have "known" each other via the internet for over twenty years. He, Joe Huber, and I were the three that started emailing each other to form the Desert Island Gamers (DIGers) mailing list that was a main source of boardgaming information before sites like BGG were around. Heck, we go back far enough that we knew each other from IRC chat sessions. Although the distance between California (me) and Australia (Doug) has prevented us from meeting in-person, we've kept up an irregular correspondence for all of those years. Doug was on my wargames podcast a couple years ago, and at that time I knew I had to get him on Boardgames To Go, too. He maintains his wargaming days are mostly behind him, and he's almost exclusively a eurogamer now.
Direct download: BGTG_186_-_Kniziathon_with_Doug_Adams.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:59pm PST |
Sun, 21 October 2018
Opener: Reef
|
Wed, 17 October 2018
Direct download: BGTG_184_-_Conventions_for_Boardgame_Players__Designers.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:21pm PST |
Sun, 22 July 2018
Opener: Nothing specific, since I discuss so many titles during the episode
|
Mon, 25 June 2018
You haven't heard from me lately (unless you subscribe to my wargames podcast), but I'm still here, still gaming. However, there HAS been a transformation in my engagement with the hobby. For the past half-year I've firmly been in the mode of downsizing my collection. Why, and why now? Well, that's some of what this podcast is about. I'm joined by three of my local gaming buddies, Dave, Greg, and Mike. Dave isn't exactly downsizing, but he's disciplined about NOT letting his collection grow. So as he gets new games, he sells off others. I'm actually shrinking my collection. The other two guys are in a different frame of mind. Greg is running out of storage space, but still wants all of his games (and more). Mike thinks anyone who wants to get rid of games is crazy. It all adds up to a variety of interesting opinions about downsizing a collection. |
Sat, 10 March 2018
Direct download: BGTG_181_-_Brewery_Roundtable_BGGcon_2017.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:03pm PST |
Tue, 6 February 2018
Opener: Welcome to Season 14 of my podcast! (Also family gathering gaming with Take Your Pick, Raj, and Codenames)
Direct download: BGTG_180_Post-BGGcon_2017_with_Greg_Pettit.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:37pm PST |
Sun, 22 October 2017
Opener: Startups
|
Sat, 30 September 2017
Openers: Innovation Deluxe and Ethnos
Direct download: BGTG_178_One_Year_After_the_One_Year_Purge.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:31pm PST |
Sun, 13 August 2017
Opener: Pack O Game (especially BOO and DIG from Set #2)
|
Mon, 29 May 2017
Opener: Aton
|
Fri, 17 March 2017
Opener: A light wargame! Miracle on the Loire: Joan of Arc My buddy DaveO has been on the podcast before, talking about euro gaming at Essen, or if any games are good for five players. Like most of us, he's played an overwhelming number of strategy boardgames over the years. The didn't include wargames, though he was kind of curious about them. In 2016 he was "tricked" into going to GMT Games' Warehouse at the Weekend, and found himself first horrified by and later part of the wargaming going on there. This makes him a good ambassador to regular boardgamers who don't think in terms of hexagons, Combat Results Tables, and lines of supply. He still remembers watching "pipe-smoking history professors" stick their noses in rulebooks while little happened on their gameboards, an activity that didn't look fun at all. That's not exactly the kind of wargaming he's doing now, but DaveO definitely HAS become a wargamer. Are you wondering what all the fuss is about Falling Sky, Churchill, or W1815?
|
Tue, 21 February 2017
Opener: Paris Connection A quick, solo show to catch up on some things. If you've been following my (sort of) weekly session report geeklists, or on social media (twitter, facebook), you'll know that I've been boardgaming with a group I created for Monday nights in Paris. It focuses on light/short games, and has an ulterior motive--it's a good outing for couples. My mostly non-gamer wife even goes with me to these! We're having a good time, and meeting good people. Besides that, I also want to share some of my other observations about being a gamer in France, now that I'm at or past the half-way point of my time over here. Links English-Speaking Boardgamers of Paris (Meetup, Facebook) Okkazeo (French used boardgame marketplace) TricTrac Festival International des Jeux-Cannes Closer: (Finally) figuring out the right kind of games for the players you've got -Mark
|
Wed, 25 January 2017
|
Mon, 19 December 2016
Opener: skipped this time, because we cover so many games in the main show Brian's Geeklist of the following games & star ratings Dave's Geeklist of the following games & star ratings
|
Thu, 1 December 2016
|
Wed, 23 November 2016
|
Mon, 7 November 2016
Opener: Bohnanza Das Duell Land in Zicht! (Dutch version of Entdecker), Saint Malo, Mont Saint Michel, Airborne Commander, Evolution The Beginning, Hanabi promo, Happy Salmon, Astronuts, Visby, Fünf Gurken, Romans Go Home!, misc game bits, Port Royal Unterwegs!, Jolly & Roger, Camel Up Cards, Las Vegas Card Game, X Nimmt!, Bohnanza Das Duell, Futschikato, Twins, Honshu, HMS Dolores, and my Spiel coffee mug!
|
Sun, 16 October 2016
|
Mon, 10 October 2016
Opener: I should've made it more clear in the audio, but the obvious opener is that I will be going Essen this year, and you can find me on Saturday afternoon at the NorthStarGames booth, Hall 3 P-103. It’s near a corner by a restaurant, and the same hall where Amigo, Z-Man, Pegasus, Stronghold, and others are. Please stop by and tell me if you listen to the podcast. I'll also be around on Saturday morning and all of Sunday, just taking it all in myself. I'm not wearing a BGTG shirt or anything, so just try to keep a lookout for this guy. Quote: By now we know the drill... Look through BGG's Spiel (and Gencon) Previews, and flag too many titles that catch my attention. How do they grab me? Theme/setting matters, but hints about the gameplay/mechanisms (especially playing time) matter more. So does the designer and publisher. Anything that has its roots in Kickstarter makes me instantly wary. It's not an automatic NO, but I'm so skeptical of that platform as a development tool (as opposed to merely funding), that I'll let others take the plunge first. Wait & see. Expansions rarely grab my attention. I'm just not an expansion guy, expect for a few rare favorites (e.g. Port Royal). Similarly with abstracts--not my thing, but there are rare exceptions. In general, my ranking of factors is 1. Publisher (which goes to development process & production quality) 2. Gameplay/mechanisms (looking for the types of games I know I like, though sometimes something unique & new. I steer clear of games rated at over 60 minutes--wait & see only, for those) 3. Designer (I'll let someone else take a flyer on a new, unproven designer...in most cases) 4. Theme/setting (I have distinct preferences toward real-world, historic subjects, and away from zombies/elves/spaceships. But I've learned from long experience that this is the least reliable indicator of whether a game will be a hit with me, alas)
|
Tue, 4 October 2016
Opener: Whoops! I recorded this little episode so quickly that I completely forgot about my new Opener/Closer framework! Ok, let's say that the opener was my intro en français. Vive la France!
|
Wed, 24 August 2016
Opener: Geeklists for the podcast Season 12, my Extra appearances, and Session Reports
It didn't take too much thought to come up with a unifying idea for this episode: changes. Of course my big change is the temporary relocation to France, which will have unknown impacts to my hobby. The other changes are to this podcast, which happened already--new shows are posted to the same old audio feed, but on the web they're at a slightly different location, in my Season 12 geeklist. You should subscribe to that. Also my "Extras" geeklist, which is where you'll find my guest spots on other podcasts and video shows. Finally, if you like this session report episode, then you really should be subscribing to my (mostly) weekly session reports that I post in geeklist form on BGG. Got all of that? Good! |
Sun, 24 July 2016
Openers: Evolution, Bruges/The Last Spike/Treasure Hunter (also EsCon) Greg Wilzbach (gawilz)
|
Wed, 22 June 2016
Openers: Trambahn, Animals on Board
|
Fri, 27 May 2016
|
Sun, 22 November 2015
Last daily podcast of BGGcon, this one a live recording with Greg in the main hall as it was closing down.
|
Sat, 21 November 2015
This daily podcast from BGGcon has my buddy Brian on to talk with me about wargames! Triumph and Tragedy, Wings of War, and Down in Flames
|
Fri, 20 November 2015
Outdoor, impromptu recording of a bunch of BGGcon friends at a local beer garden. Talks about games played & looking forward to.
|
Thu, 19 November 2015
|
Thu, 19 November 2015
Test recording to make sure I got the intro/outro music.
|
Wed, 18 November 2015
|
Tue, 17 November 2015
Am I back from my break? Not entirely, but I DO plan to post daily mini-podcasts from BGG.con 2015, where I'm headed tomorrow. This podcast is the first in that series, sort of a test of my new, minimalist podcasting process that I'll attempt throughout the convention. / / I also talk about two recent games, The Grizzled and Brass (the new app for iOS/Android). / / Comments on BGG are always encouraged, and look for me on Twitter & Facebook, too. If you're also attending BGG.con, please say hi if you see me & get a show button. / / -Mark (@BoardgamesToGo)
|
Tue, 9 June 2015
Ok, now I'm finally on my break from the podcast. I wanted this one last, odd episode as a chance to reflect on the 10 years I've been doing the show. (And as longtime listeners remember, I never really think of it as a "show." I like to think of it more as an "audioblog.") Yes, this may mean that the focus for writing & feedback shifts to these geeklists instead of this blog. That's ok. Blogs on BGG are nice, but they're just not as convenient for everyone as geeklists. I think this will work better for everyone. |
Sun, 3 May 2015
As you may recall, Stephen, Mark, and I already finished our countdown of 100 Great Games in an earlier episode. However, for a long while we'd planned to do one more episode together--this one--where we talk about our own picks, surprises, disappointments, trends, and so on. I foolishly thought this would be posted before Christmas! Will I never learn?! :-)
-Mark |
Mon, 20 April 2015
Just as we did a couple years ago, Dave & I recorded a podcast on the way back during our boardgame road trip to play with friends in Fresno. Recorded on a smartphone in the car, there's more background noise in this one, but listeners were ok with it back in 2013, so here we go again. We talk about some of the games played, but also some behind-the-scenes stories from GameNight!, as well as Dave's work on a couple word game apps, Noodle Doodle and Tuklu.
-Mark |
Tue, 24 February 2015
Like a lot of you, I keep track of the games I play, mostly to look back on and contemplate. The end of the year is the perfect time to do that, and I've been doing it since 1996. I don't track wins or much else--mere reflecting on the games played last year (total plays & unique titles) is what I enjoy. Even though I'd like to focus on my favorites, there are just so many new, interesting games that make their way to the table. You know I'm not a Cult of the New guy, but that's not true of all of my friends. |
Thu, 29 January 2015
ANOTHER episode related to BGG.con?! Well...yeah. But really, this is about a bunch of new games. In fact, this is as close as I get to joining the Cult of the New! Listeners know that's not really my style or preference, yet every year after Essen I would interview Greg Pettit about the new titles he played at BGG.con. This time, of course, I get to contribute to the conversation, too. (Actually I always do--we've been doing these shows for years--this year I just to say more.)
-Mark |
Tue, 23 December 2014
I'm glad I've received good feedback about all of these BGG.con episodes, because I have TWO more. There's this one with Davebo, a look back on the con after I'd been home for a while (which also serves as a look forward to next year--I hope to return). Then a little later I'll record my traditional post-BGG.con episode with Greg Pettit where we talk about the new Essen titles we played. We kind of did that already in the daily episodes during the con, but we've each had more time to play other titles, refine our opinions, and also look back a year to consider what happened to the 2013 titles. |
Sun, 23 November 2014
Today isn't even really a "day" at BGG.con. Most people sleep in (after late nights), then wake up, check out, and are heading home. That might have been me, too. The thing is, I'm not really a late night/sleep in kind of person. Definitely not the up-til-5am, sleep-til-noon variety. Not even the 2am/9am type of gamer, which was my pattern for most of the week. This time, on the last day, I wanted to try two new things, as a trial run for how I'd try to do more of BGG.con next year, if I'm lucky enough to return. |
Sat, 22 November 2014
Last full day of BGG.con. Last day at all, really, since tomorrow I check out of the hotel & head to my airport terminal/gate around noon. Apparently the Library will be closed. Though I have a few games of my own on-hand, it may not work out for me to play any games. Might just be saying my goodbyes and having last conversations with friends. |
Sat, 22 November 2014
Today was a full day where I'd planned almost nothing ahead of time. A full day of gaming, right? Actually, it turned out that I played very FEW games today, but had a whole day of fun nonetheless. We had our little BGTG/WGTG lunch at the hotel, I watched Artemis, went out for Texas BBQ dinner, watched the "World Series," and spent some time relaxing with friends at the hotel bar. Oh, and I also got to play Deus, Doodle City, Port Royal, and almost a game of Isaribi. (Hope to get in a real of game of that last one tomorrow.) |
Thu, 20 November 2014
My first full day at BGG.con, and it was a good one. This was the only day I had several scheduled activities, some wargame-ish titles early in the day (Gunslinger, then Pax Porfiriana), as well as the Virtual Flea Market, a Spiel des Jahres seminar by jury chairman Tom Felber, and finally (for me) a game of Panamax. Greg & I recorded this episode, and I'm about to collapse at 1am. I am not a late-night gamer. Meanwhile, Greg headed back down to the convention for the Werewolf games... |
Thu, 20 November 2014
A long day, starting with a 4am alarm clock in Santa Clarita, California, ending with a 2am bedtime in Dallas, Texas. I'm here, and taking it in. My roommate is Gregarius, the same Greg Pettit you've heard on the podcast. He's a native Texan (Houston), and has made it to EVERY BGG.con. Besides my roommate, he's also my able guide for this event. |
Tue, 18 November 2014
Just a test recording, really, to see if I can make a passable podcast with just the mobile devices (not a laptop) I'll have with me at BGG.con this week. Today (Tuesday) I'm still at home, but tomorrow I'm on the early flight out of LAX to go to Dallas. I've got a full schedule of events, people, and games to take in during my time there, and I'm very excited about it all. I was at the first BGG.con, but that was 10 years ago, and now the show has grown tenfold.
-Mark |
Thu, 13 November 2014
At long last, here are the Top Ten! As we count them down in reverse order, we stay true to form--having a few personal grumbles about these amazing titles. At the same time, we're honestly respectful and enthusiastic for all of these games. Several of them are in our personal top ten lists, too.
|
Mon, 13 October 2014
I don't even know how long I've been doing this. My window-shopping the Essen lists predates this podcast of nine years. Who else fondly remembers Mik Svellov's Brett'n'Board], Ken Tidwell's Game Cabinet, or all the other places we learned about Essen before, during, and after the fair? Now, of course Eric Martin does an amazing job here at BGG with the annual Essen Preview. It has nearly six hundred items when I finally stopped looking on Friday. Wow!
It took me two passes to get through these lists. For some reason, I found a LOT more games that interest me this year. Is that because there are more of the shorter, family strategy games that I like? That might be true. Not that there were a lot of the 45-minute "superfillers," but I think there were more filler/microgames at the low end--under 20 euros, under 30 minutes. The ones that are still Love Letter derivatives about bluffing & hidden identity don't interest me, but there several others. As before, we see more and more offerings from other countries, especially Japan, Korea, and Poland.
My first pass through that megalist came up with 30 I was really excited/curious about, and another 50 that had something that sparked my interest. Though that's 80 games (waaaay too many to discuss on the podcast), that's culling out more than 80% of the titles in the full preview. Then I squeezed it down to ten I put in my companion geeklist, and discuss on this episode, plus several other titles that work their way into the discussion. Wow!
Also, I can't resist some meta-analysis of the entire list, and how well my previous years' anticipation lists matched what became my keepers from those years.
Finally, this episode anticipates something else, too--my return to BGG.con! I'm so excited about this. I went to the first BGG.con a decade ago, but it's grown & changed quite a bit since that time. I'm coming up to speed with what to expect, doing some planning, but not TOO much. Hopefully I'll meet some listeners and play some games with them when I'm there next month.
-Mark |
Thu, 18 September 2014
"Mark hates games." Is that true? No, but it's a comment I've heard secondhand more than once! Brian Murray is a great gamer I've met at SoCal Games Days, and through our shared friend Davebo. He's the one who hears me critique a game, or just be completely lukewarm on it, or pick it apart, and thinks that I just don't know how to relax and have a good time with boardgames. Or something like that. I'm probably putting words (the wrong words) in his mouth, but that quote above is 100% from Brian. So it was time to have him on the podcast. Then his words can come out of his own mouth, and you all can decide what you think about it! (We recorded this at Dave's house, sitting in his living room during a Sunday in July. Partway through the recording a raven squawks outside, and keeps going for a while. But he eventually stops. Nevermore! Perhaps a more serious concern about the audio is that all three of our voices sound pretty similar. Good luck with that.) I've never been a Cult of the New guy, but Brian clearly is. Or, as he clarifies, he's a Cult of the New-to-Me guy. Lots of boardgamers are that way. Maybe that's you, too. Not me. I'd much rather play an old favorite. Despite that, I still play a lot of new games. And no matter what Brian says, I love some of them. Lots more are perfectly fine, just ok, but nothing more. I'd probably rate them a 6 on BGG and have no need to play them again. Brian is more likely to enjoy the experience of playing a new game just for its own sake. The excitement of seeing something new, how it's produced, the way it plays, new rules, and all the rest. The conversation inevitably crosses over into Kickstarter. You can imagine why. If you're excited by the newness of a game, then Kickstarter is heaven. There are so many new games there! But if you're like me, and prefer to wait until a consensus emerges through the community (& marketplace) about the tiny subset of "keeper" games, then Kickstarter doesn't really offer much. Honestly, I'm looking forward to the first "modern classic" that comes out of Kickstarter that even I need to own. It just hasn't happened yet. Call me up in 2016. :) -Mark |
Wed, 3 September 2014
Here are #11-20 on the list, counted down in reverse order as we discuss them on the podcast. I thought we'd have nothing but praise for all of these highly-ranked games...but perhaps I should've known that that the three of us would take turns expressing reservations about even these amazing games. (It's going to make my upcoming "Mark Hates Games" episode all the more relevant.) ;)
In my poll associated with the last installment of 100 Great Games, I asked about the theming--or lack thereof--in Knizia's landmark cooperative game, [thing=823][/thing]. The smallest portion felt this was a mechanical, pasted-on theme kind of game. Instead, most felt that the theme does come through from the cooperative gameplay (mechanisms), while several more credited the amazing artwork for evoking the theme.
This time I'm returning to Knizia for the poll. It just worked out that way. We discussed Medici in a previous episode (and I recently played the unfortunately-ugly latest edition), and now Ra has come up. We used to ask ourselves which of Knizia's "auction trilogy" was our favorite (these plus Modern Art). That's what I'm asking here, only Mark Jackson suggested I widen it to include several more of Knizia's excellent auction-based games (including Mark's favorite, as you can hear in the episode). Did I forget to include your favorite? Tell me so in a comment, below. |
Tue, 26 August 2014
Microgames are hot right now. It all "started" with Love Letter, when it burst onto the scene at Essen two years ago. Here was an game that was so inexpensive as to be an impulse-buy, so small it could fit in your pocket, so simple it was easy to teach anyone, and so quick it invited games whenever you had some spare time & friends onhand, like at a restaurant. Suddenly the game was everywhere, re-themes were ubiquitous, and other small games inevitably followed. |
Fri, 15 August 2014
Here are #21-30 on the list, counted down in reverse order as we discuss them on the podcast. |
Tue, 8 July 2014
It's a little crazy to finally publish this long-delayed episode, but I'm doing it nonetheless. A look back at 2013 is kind of ridiculous in July of 2014, but I think it's interesting nonetheless because we also talk about broader topics like gaming statistics (personal & community), gaming trends, and looks forward into the "new" year (that's now half-over!). |
Thu, 1 May 2014
Remember when I used to do "Session Report & Feedback" episodes? Me neither. These are when I'd just talk about some games I've played recently (not part of a meta topic, just a session report), and tack a segment on the end where I read & respond to some listener feedback. In theory these should be a show that's easy for me bang out every once in a while. They also have the [i]potential[/i] of being shorter episodes. At any rate, this time I stitched together some accounts of recent card games I've had on the table. The coincidence of a couple euro card games on the table recently sparked an idea for a future game group session that focuses on traditional card games. We haven't done that yet, but we're excited to try some titles like Euchre, Spades, 1000 (the marriage game), Cribbage, Pinochle, and so on. (I've also just joined an Up & Down the River card game group at lunch.) But that's for later. In this episode I'm still talking about modern, euro card games with their unique decks, rules, and mechanisms... |
Thu, 30 January 2014
Stephen Glenn and Mark Jackson rejoin me (Mark JOHNson) to continue this series. In 2012, these two guys polled a number of experienced gamers (a few designers, many reviewers, all enthusiasts) for their top games, consolidated their answers, and asked to come on my podcast to count down the results. I was pleased to be part of the poll, and doubly pleased to have them on Boardgames To Go. I really like how Stephen describes this: "a fun list to discuss over coffee & pie." The poll was for our favorite games, not necessarily the best games. We even got to submit a top fifteen, which took the usual tough request for a top ten and gave us more breathing room for five more titles. I know in my case, it made it easier to add some very recent games to my longstanding favorites. On each podcast we're counting down a bunch of titles until we get to a final show with the Top Ten. I'll be interspersing 100 Great Games countdown episodes with my other podcast episodes. Here are #31-40 on the list, counted down in reverse order as we discuss them on the podcast. This show was especially fun because BGG had gone down for maintenance when we did our recording! That meant that we had to go on our own knowledge and memories of the games' designers, publishers, and years, in addition to usual opinions about how they play. Fortunately, we're getting so high up in the list now that the games are very notable. I think we did pretty well without our normal reference material...but you tell me! Note: we had a little audio problem with Mark Jackson halfway through the podcast, but stick with us! I edited around it as best I could, and it gets better after the Ave Caesar/Ausgebremst/Q-Jet discussion. |
Sun, 12 January 2014
Have you ever played Bunco? I'm now in a couples Bunco group, a new thing for me. It goes without saying that this is not the kind of gaming group I normally have, and talk about on the show. These are not hobby gamers. They aren't even party gamers. They're just regular folks, all empty nest-ers (or close to it, like me), who get together to talk, have dinner & drinks. That we play a game or two at the end of the night for a few bucks' stakes is purely a social activity, absolutely not intended to be competitive. After Bunco kind of wore off, the group switched to LCR. Yikes! |
Wed, 11 December 2013
Who really believed me when I said I'd get Part 2 of the podcast out this week? I realize my credibility for prompt podcast publication isn't great. :) And yet--here it is! As I said in the first part, this is my now-traditional interview with my friend & BGG.con regular, Greg Pettit. He goes to the convention every year and plays a ton of new Essen releases. I'm quite jealous, and hope to finally make it back there myself in 2014. We pick up the podcast halfway through our discussion about these games. Towards the end I get to offer my opinions about some new ones Greg didn't get to. The conversation also meanders a bit sometimes about keeping versus selling/trading games that don't make it to the table anymore, etc. |
Mon, 9 December 2013
Although I've only made it to one BGG.con so far (the first one, I think), my buddy and frequent BGTG guest Greg Pettit is a regular attendee. For the past several years he's joined me on the podcast after the event to tell us all about it, especially the new Essen games he was able to play. I love hearing about them. |
Mon, 28 October 2013
Stephen Glenn and Mark Jackson rejoin me (Mark JOHNson) to continue this series. In 2012, these two guys polled a number of experienced gamers (a few designers, many reviewers, all enthusiasts) for their top games, consolidated their answers, and asked to come on my podcast to count down the results. I was pleased to be part of the poll, and doubly pleased to have them on Boardgames To Go. I really like how Stephen describes this: "a fun list to discuss over coffee & pie."
|
Sun, 13 October 2013
Session Report and Feedback episode with games I've played recently, as well as my experiences attending out-of-town Meetups. |
Thu, 26 September 2013
Last year I failed to do my annual "Essen Anticipation" podcast. It was just too much. This year, however, I got an earlier jump on it...and I enlisted the help of a friend. |
Sun, 14 July 2013
Do you know the term, Experience Game? I thought everyone did, but in prepping for this episode I found that it's used a lot less often than I thought. Not only that, but I learned it's a term that was used more often in the early days of hobby boardgames, by which I mean the 1990s. Well, let's bring it up to 2013. (Actually, it IS still used sometimes.) |
Thu, 30 May 2013
I've been doing this podcast now for more than eight years! I can't quite believe it myself. In the beginning, more than a handful of shows were audio session reports, which I then combined with feedback that I read "on-air." These are simple episodes, inevitably solo shows, and I often used them to go between episodes with a guest about a particular subject. Especially as those shows are getting more and more meta about the hobby itself, a simple "session report & feedback" episode is kind of a relief. I hope you like them, also. I particularly like reading feedback on the podcast, as it reminds me of the Letters section in Sumo, Counter, or other boardgame zines. Those were always the best part. |
Fri, 24 May 2013
Stephen Glenn and Mark Jackson join me for part 3 of our 100 game countdown series. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/19524 |
Tue, 12 March 2013
Have you ever gone a boardgaming road trip? I expect quite a few people might drive a few hundred miles to go to a game convention, but I've never done that. Games Days on Saturdays are local for me, about the same hour's drive I do on my daily commute. Recently, though, my buddy Dave Arnott drove the two of us halfway up California to spend a weekend of games, food, and conversation with other gamer friends. That was different, and a complete blast! This is sort of like a session report show--remember when I did those? The podcast goes a little long, but that's because we were having fun talking about games on the drive back. That's right, we recorded the podcast about the road trip while we were still on the road trip. Vroom! We got to play a whole lot of great games: a few new ones and several more old favorites. Jeff Myers is working his way through Spiel des Jahres winners on his blog, [url=http://gameguythinks.com/mississippi-queen/]Gameguythinks[/url], so we made sure to play a couple more of those classic titles, [thing=256][/thing] and [thing=54][/thing]. Other old faves we played were [thing=1315][/thing], [thing=73][/thing], [thing=261][/thing] (1994!), and [thing=5306][/thing] (1962!). The newer ones were [thing=123260][/thing] and [thing=103185][/thing]. I'll cheat a little and include [thing=357][/thing], too, since there was a recent reprint. In between is [thing=40769][/thing], which seems to have slipped past people but is really pretty great. Has EnderWiggin does one of his awesome photo-reviews of Valdora? Seems right up his alley. Besides the boardgames, we get to tell a couple side stories. We stopped at a thrift store where I grabbed a few bargains (or not--you tell me). Another of Dave's hobbies is [url=http://www.letterboxing.org/]Letterboxing[/url], which is described as "an intriguing pastime combining navigational skills and rubber stamp artistry in a charming 'treasure hunt' style outdoor quest." Perfect for a road trip! We did that, and we also got to stop at the warehouse for wargame publisher Decision Games. I picked up a couple items in-person, but also had the fun of seeing what goes on at the publisher of Strategy & Tactics, as well as many good wargames. |
Sun, 24 February 2013
Every year I like to look back over the previous one in boardgaming, and reflect on what happened. At the most basic level, this means reviewing my statistics, the number of distinct titles played, as well as the overall total of games played. For me that's typically about 100 titles, 300 total plays, but you'll hear how 2012 was a bit higher than normal. I'm not entirely sure why that was, though I have some ideas. I also talk through my "nickels & dimes" list of games played at least five or ten times. |
Wed, 6 February 2013
The guys join me for part 2 of our 100 game countdown series. |
Thu, 3 January 2013
Have you seen the latest video project on BGG? It's called GameNight!, literally hosted (i.e. in their home) by Lincoln Damerst & Nikki Pontius, as well digitally hosted by Scott Alden on BoardgameGeek's YouTube channel. On this podcast I got to talk with both Scott and Lincoln about GameNight!. At the time of recording they'd put out one show, but by now there are three episodes up. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/15465/bgtg-132-gamenight-with-scott-alden-and-lincoln |
Wed, 19 December 2012
Several years ago, Stephen Glenn and Mark Jackson polled a number of experienced gamers (a few designers, many reviewers, all enthusiasts) for their top games. I was pleased to be part of it. They consolidated the results, and published them with commentary in a blog called "The One Hundred." It carried the tongue-in-cheek subtitle "The Official & Completely Authoritative 100 Best Games of All Time Ever Without Question...So There!" Not everyone got the irony of that title, but if you knew these guys you'd know they never take themselves too seriously. Now in 2012 they felt it was time to do the survey again, adding some new people to the mix to get a broader range of input. I was happy to be asked for my input again, and then pleasantly surprised that they asked for my help with Boardgames To Go to get the survey results out via podcast. Hurray! This time around, I really like how Stephen describes it: "a fun list to discuss over coffee & pie." We were asked for our favorite games, not necessarily the best games. We even got to submit a top fifteen, which took the usual tough request for a top ten and gave us more breathing room for five more titles. I know in my case, it made it easier to add some very recent games to my longstanding faves. |
Tue, 11 December 2012
As he's done for the past few years, Greg Pettit joins me on the podcast to talk about the annual Boardgamegeek convention, BGG.con (do they still call it "dot con"? I always thought that was clever.) I didn't go to the convention. In fact, I've only made it to the first one, and I hear it's only gotten bigger & better since then. Greg, on the other hand, goes every year. I really need to make it back sometime. |
Wed, 28 November 2012
Do you read boardgame blogs? I mean, besides this one? :) My friend Jeff Myers is a boardgame blogger, and he joins me on this episode to talk about the subject, both as a reader and an author. In some ways, I think blogging is a lost art...and the literary form has only been around since the late 1990s. Perhaps that's because they've developed along with the Internet during that same time period. Though they started out as humble web-logs by quirky, individual authors who wanted to write about something, they exploded into the commercial and professional media world who displaced those private authors. Except that they didn't. While the New York Times, Huffington Post, Daily Beast, Wall Street Journal, and even consumer products such as Coca-Cola and Volkswagen have things they call blogs (and I guess they are), the blogs boardgamers care about are still around. I'm talking about individual authors with their personal point-of-view, writing style, and a talent for giving us good stuff to read. It's about the boardgames, yes, but it's as much about the author. You find a few you like, you subscribe to the blogs, and (hopefully) give the blogger some feedback. |
Mon, 19 November 2012
Greg Pettit must enjoy talking about meta topics on my podcast as much as I do. After helping me on my shows about game themes (for grown-ups or otherwise!), he told me he'd been thinking about the value of a boardgame. Not boardgaming, the entire hobby, but an individual title. And not in a strictly dollars & cents way, but more of a holistic, personal value of an individual game. Ever read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? It might be good background for Greg's thoughts in this episode. http://www.BoardgamesToGo.com |
Tue, 16 October 2012
Every year I look forward to Essen, both for the games that are being released, and at the analysis of the hits & misses from current & previous years. This time I tried to do the same thing, but was simply overwhelmed by the volume of information. It doesn't eliminate my interest & excitement for Essen, but it takes on a different character. Which is what's it's done a time or two already due to changes in the hobby (both "press coverage" and games published). http://www.BoardgamesToGo.com |
Wed, 8 August 2012
After the last episode where I complained about geeky games, I felt a little compelled to describe a few of those games I DO happen to enjoy. It's a bonus that I got to work in a reference to Curiosity, the Mars rover that just landed. http://www.BoardgamesToGo.com |
Thu, 2 August 2012
Greg Pettit returns to the topic of narrative themes in boardgames, except that it's mostly Mark that needs to unload his true feelings about geeky versus historical themes. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/12349/ |