Sun, 1 June 2025
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The Wayback Machine is back. One more time, a friend joins me to go back in time to an earlier Spiel des Jahres, looking at the winner but also the other nominees and recommended games. In addition, my guest helps me think about the earlier time itself, and how the games, the hobby, and the community may have changed over the years. This time it's my longtime friend & listener from San Diego, Jonathan Takagi. In fact, he's from a bit north, in Escondido, and Jonathan is another one of the people behind my favorite regional con, EsCon. I'll be going back there in a month!
Direct download: BGTG_242_-_Spiel_des_Jahres_Wayback_Machine_for_2005_with_Jonathan_Takagi.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT |
Thu, 1 May 2025
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Tue, 1 April 2025
The annual voting/predicting competition called Mark Madness is now finished. The results are posted with the rest of the updates for episode 239, and here co-host Eryn Roston returns one last time to share the winners. Unconscious Mind was our collective favorite for game cover art, and Adam Brocker is this year's winner. The plan now is for Adam to help me run next year's Mark Madness, in 2026.
Direct download: BGTG_240_-_Mark_Madness_2025_Champions_with_Eryn_Roston_and_Dice_Tower_West.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:30am PDT |
Fri, 28 March 2025
The Championship is now set!
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/354557/mark-madness-2025-game-cover-art-with-eryn-roston |
Sat, 22 March 2025
Be sure to go vote at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/354557/mark-madness-2025-game-cover-art-with-eryn-roston?itemid=11634552#11634552 |
Wed, 19 March 2025
The round of 32 is finished, leaving us now voting on the Sweet 16 of game cover artworks. The choices are getting more difficult.
And we have a new leader in our prediction contest. #Davecember celebrity loofish is representing his namesakes with a currently-in-first-place position for his guess...but with others on his tail. |
Sun, 16 March 2025
Eryn is back to talk with me about the results of the first round voting. Half of our original 64 game cover art entries have now been knocked out of the contest. Now successive voting rounds keep halving the remaining contestants every three days. What have we seen so far? No ties, though a couple matchups were close. A few more were blowouts. Are there common threads? Surprises? Plus...Eryn teaches me how to look at art more critically...by SQUINTING. Achievement unlocked.
-Mark |
Thu, 13 March 2025
If you're playing along with Mark Madness this year, the time for predictions is over and you'd better start voting. Whether you've done a prediction or not, the link below takes you to the place where you can choose your favorite game cover art as 64 titles square off against each other in one-on-one matchups.
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/354557/mark-madness-2025-game-cover-art-with-eryn-roston |
Mon, 3 March 2025
Play along and predict the winners at https://challonge.com/MarkMadness2025 Predictions must be submitted by March 12 to be in the contest ![]()
Once again, the month of March give me a chance to bring back "Mark Madness," my podcast-hosted voting contest. Like its namesake sports tournament, Mark Madness is where 64 games are pitted against each other in successive rounds of single-elimination votes. As before, I took the winner of llast year's contest, Eryn Roston, and asked him to co-host this year's contest. Furthermore, Eryn has helped define the special nature of the contest this year. It's still about boardgames, of course, but it's about boardgame art. Specifically, we're voting on the best boardgame cover art.
Direct download: BGTG_239A_-_Mark_Madness_2025_with_Eryn_Roston.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:10pm PDT |
Sat, 1 March 2025
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![]() One of the only photos I have of me recording the podcast. This was from way back in 2006, when Dave & I recorded an episode about Vinci. We were at SoCal Games Day at the time, upstairs at the Burbank Moose Lodge. You may be able to see that I just have my laptop nearby, with a "Y-cable" audio splitter allowing us both to have headset mics piped into it. That's as fancy as I ever was for this podcast. |
Sat, 1 February 2025
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Opener: Everyone knows Aldie, right? Feels like we do. Scott Alden, the man behind BoardGameGeek, is one creative entrepreneur, let me tell ya. Anyone could've thought to make a central website where boardgamers come for information and community, but it takes more than a good idea for something to be reality. For 25 years Aldie has been adding features, listening to comments, growing the hobby, and doing way more than most to enhance boardgaming around the world. I can't believe it's been so long since I've had him on the podcast. I'll be sure to do it again soon.
Direct download: BGTG_237_-_BGG_Hall_of_Fame_with_Scott_Alden_plus_EsCon_report.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:45pm PDT |
Wed, 1 January 2025
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Direct download: BGTG_236_-_End_of_One_Year_Beginning_of_Another.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT |
Tue, 24 December 2024
I know a lot of Daves, and many of them have been on my podcast. With that in mind they're helping me celebrate a new holiday, Davecember, when each of them joins for me a mini-episode sprinkled randomly this month into your feed. I'll ask each of them similar questions, and each David also gets a bit of time to bring up something they want to share with my listeners. Enjoy! Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
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Sun, 22 December 2024
I know a lot of Daves, and many of them have been on my podcast. With that in mind they're helping me celebrate a new holiday, Davecember, when each of them joins for me a mini-episode sprinkled randomly this month into your feed. I'll ask each of them similar questions, and each David also gets a bit of time to bring up something they want to share with my listeners. Enjoy! Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
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Sat, 21 December 2024
I know a lot of Daves, and many of them have been on my podcast. With that in mind they're helping me celebrate a new holiday, Davecember, when each of them joins for me a mini-episode sprinkled randomly this month into your feed. I'll ask each of them similar questions, and each David also gets a bit of time to bring up something they want to share with my listeners. Enjoy! Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
Direct download: BGTG_235D_-_Davecember_2024_deacondavid.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:50pm PDT |
Thu, 19 December 2024
I know a lot of Daves, and many of them have been on my podcast. With that in mind they're helping me celebrate a new holiday, Davecember, when each of them joins for me a mini-episode sprinkled randomly this month into your feed. I'll ask each of them similar questions, and each David also gets a bit of time to bring up something they want to share with my listeners. Enjoy! Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
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Tue, 17 December 2024
I know a lot of Daves, and many of them have been on my podcast. With that in mind they're helping me celebrate a new holiday, Davecember, when each of them joins for me a mini-episode sprinkled randomly this month into your feed. I'll ask each of them similar questions, and each David also gets a bit of time to bring up something they want to share with my listeners. Enjoy! Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
Direct download: BGTG_235D_-_Davecember_2024_David_Harding.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:27pm PDT |
Sun, 15 December 2024
I know a lot of Daves, and many of them have been on my podcast. With that in mind they're helping me celebrate a new holiday, Davecember, when each of them joins for me a mini-episode sprinkled randomly this month into your feed. I'll ask each of them similar questions, and each David also gets a bit of time to bring up something they want to share with my listeners. Enjoy! Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
David Corbin joins us next, doubling our count of North Carolina based Davids...but he's not our last. He comes offering David's Aphorism, as well as David's Dictum. Heady stuff...
Direct download: BGTG_235D_-_Davecember_2024_David_Corbin.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:21pm PDT |
Sat, 14 December 2024
I know a lot of Daves, and many of them have been on my podcast. With that in mind they're helping me celebrate a new holiday, Davecember, when each of them joins for me a mini-episode sprinkled randomly this month into your feed. I'll ask each of them similar questions, and each David also gets a bit of time to bring up something they want to share with my listeners. Enjoy! Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
Direct download: BGTG_235D_-_Davecember_2024_David_Thompson.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:48pm PDT |
Thu, 12 December 2024
I know a lot of Daves, and many of them have been on my podcast. With that in mind they're helping me celebrate a new holiday, Davecember, when each of them joins for me a mini-episode sprinkled randomly this month into your feed. I'll ask each of them similar questions, and each David also gets a bit of time to bring up something they want to share with my listeners. Enjoy! Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
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Sun, 1 December 2024
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As he's done many times, my friend Greg Pettit joins me for a mega-episode discussing all the games we played at BGGcon. Greg's an every-timer to BGGcon, while I went to the first one (2005), then a decade until my next in 2014 (first year I was an empty-nester), and sort of every-other-year since then. Looking back, I see I also went in 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, and now 2024. I enjoy myself every time I go, but it's difficult to swing it every year.
Direct download: BGTG_234_-_BGGcon_2024_with_Greg_Pettit.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT |
Fri, 1 November 2024
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My friend Steve Paap returns to his set of interview questions for me. A year and a half ago, back on episode 214, Steve turned the microphone around on me. Now he's back with more questions for yours truly.
Direct download: BGTG_233_-_Dying_on_a_Hill_for_Entdecker_with_Steve_Paap.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT |
Tue, 1 October 2024
Opener: Noli
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Sun, 1 September 2024
Opener: Wayfarers of the South Tigris
Direct download: BGTG_231_-_Online_Game_Club_For_Two_with_Dave_Arnott_and_Mike_Mayer.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:02am PDT |
Thu, 1 August 2024
Openers:
If you've followed me for any time, especially on our Discord server, you've heard me talk about a couple things: my appreciation for the "new" podcast Board Game Hot Takes, and my observations of how the energy of our hobby has shifted from when I joined it. I get to combine both of those topics into one episode by inviting one of the three BGHT hosts, Tim, to join me on the mic and use him as a representative of the "next generation" of boardgame hobbyists. He chuckles at that characterization, pointing out he's not that much younger than me, and has been playing boardgames for a few years. But that still makes him the New Kid on the Block compared to an old fart like me, and I think it shows in the types of games he & I both love.
Direct download: BGTG_230_-_Next_Gen_Boardgamers_with_Tim_Dolloff.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT |
Mon, 1 July 2024
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It'll be no surprise to any listener that I care about the Spiel des Jahres. In addition to its decades-long strong & beneficial effect on our boardgaming hobby, these awards are a better predictor for me than any other. Predictor of what? Of the games I'll actually continue to own and play with family & friends. True, they skew more toward lighter games, but that's ok with family. And truthfully, that's the preference of myself and several of my longtime gaming friends, too.
Direct download: BGTG_229_-_SdJ__Kenner_nominations_2024.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:14am PDT |
Fri, 31 May 2024
Openers: Knarr, Faraway Recently I asked my listeners for more feedback about this old podcast. What I heard back was very encouraging--thanks for that. Most of you just tell me to keep doing what I like & want. Good, I will! Some other comments called back to the All About… episodes I used to do, deep dives into individual games. Others remembered the 100 Great Games series fondly, a collaboration I did with Mark Jackson and Stephen Glenn. More ideas came up, too.
Direct download: BGTG_228_-_Spiel_des_Jahres_Wayback_Machine...2019_with_Mark_Jackson.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:32am PDT |
Wed, 1 May 2024
Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. In my last episode's Closer I asked for feedback. Really, all podcasters ask for feedback in every episode. I'm no different. Well, I'm only different in that I've been podcasting forever, and many of my listeners have given me feedback over the years. Other than comments on Discord, however, it had been some time since I received much feedback, which is why I asked for it specifically. And if you'll indulge me, this episode's second half is all about that feedback, and my responses to it.
Direct download: BGTG_227_-_SR__Feedback_Heat_Caravan_Basari_Versailles_1919_A_Gest_of_Robin_Hood.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:40am PDT |
Mon, 1 April 2024
Opener: The final winners for Mark Madness! Castles of Burgundy and
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Wed, 27 March 2024
Go vote for the championship! (And the 3rd/4th place consolation match) https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/328714/boardgames-to-go-season-20-2024?itemid=10561730&commentid=12087718#comment12087718
Direct download: BGTG_225F_-_Mark_Madness_2024_Championship.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:33pm PDT |
Sun, 24 March 2024
It's the Final Four. Go vote now at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/328714/boardgames-go-season-20-2024?itemid=10561730&commentid=12083072#comment12083072
Direct download: BGTG_225E_-_Mark_Madness_2024_Final_Four.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:46pm PDT |
Thu, 21 March 2024
It's the Elite Eight! Get your votes in before March 24 at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/328714/boardgames-go-season-20-2024?itemid=10561730&commentid=12079786#comment12079786
Direct download: BGTG_225D_-_Mark_Madness_2024_Elite_Eight.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:23pm PDT |
Mon, 18 March 2024
Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
Play along and predict the winners at https://challonge.com/3abpsej6 Predictions must be submitted by March 12 to be in the contest ![]()
Last year I ran my first "March Madness" style, 64-game, single-elimination vote, with a contest to submit predictions for the entire bracket. If you've got a pool for the famous college basketball tournament in your office, or with your friends, then you know what this is. Actually, these days many other copycat tournament prediction contests exists--there's a big one on BoardGameGeek, my favorite movie podcast (Filmspotting) does one for films, and so on.
Direct download: BGTG_225_-_Mark_Madness_2024_with_Patrick_Pence.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:36pm PDT |
Mon, 18 March 2024
Get your Sweet Sixteen votes in now! https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/328714/boardgames-go-season-20-2024?itemid=10561730&commentid=12074798#comment12074798
Direct download: BGTG_225C_-_Mark_Madness_2024_Sweet_Sixteen.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:36pm PDT |
Sun, 17 March 2024
Micro-episode for the next round of voting.
Vote here! https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/328714/boardgames-go-season-20-2024?itemid=10561730&commentid=12070025#comment12070025 |
Thu, 1 February 2024
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Mon, 1 January 2024
Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.
I didn't make it to BGGcon last November, but several of my buddies did. Two of them, Greg Pettit and Dave O'Connor, join me on the podcast to talk about their experience there. For almost half the time we talk about about everything BUT the games (the venue, the crowd, the bazaar, the puzzle hunt, etc)...and then we get into a lot of games. We talk about Heat, Anunnaki, Wandering Towers, Bristol 1350, 1902 Melies, Blood on the Clocktower, Oak, Tricky Badger, Match of the Century, That’s Not A Hat, Rebel Princess, Rollet, Armadillo, At The Office, Voodoo Prince, Gang of Dice, Babylonia, Havalandi, Pax Pamir, Turncoats, Cosmoctopus, Nemesis, Cosmic Frog, and The Thing! Whew!
Direct download: BGTG_223_-_Season_20_and_the_BGGcon_Recap.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:25am PDT |
Fri, 1 December 2023
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However, it IS true that I have an inner monologue, and it can be frustrated with the aspects of our hobby that I don't like. Even worse, I think those aspects are detrimental to its wide enjoyment and acceptance with many people. You know how I open every episode by saying my podcast is about "family strategy boardgames"? Because that's what I like best, and it's what's most important. They're most important to me, and I'd say the wider success through mass market channels (Target, Amazon), plus increased role of our hobby on the culture...well, those things emphasize that family strategy games are generating the most joy for players and the most success for the industry. |
Wed, 1 November 2023
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After hearing Ken Tidwell in last month’s podcast, both Dave Arnott and I were impressed with his enthusiastic, optimistic, and forward-looking perspective on the boardgame hobby…despite being an old timer like us. Even older, I think! While neither of us can fully match that, it was inspiring and I asked Dave to consider the topic with me in an open discussion for THIS episode.
Direct download: BGTG_221_-_Old_Dogs_New_Tricks_with_Dave_Arnott.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT |
Sun, 1 October 2023
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If you entered the hobby as I did pre-2000, you didn't have BGG, podcasts, YouTube, or even a good way to buy games online. You often didn't have English rules in the box for what games you had in your small collection. But what you did have is The Game Cabinet. This was probably the very first boardgame website that ever existed. It was created by Silicon Valley boardgamer Ken Tidwell, who was at the leading edge of the hobby and the Internet. Thanks to Ken's website we had our first access to game reviews, letters columns, information about where to buy games, and online versions of Mike Siggins' famous boardgame zine, Sumo (fullname Sumo's Karaoke Club). I cannot properly convey how important and influential this website was to those of us getting started. Although it was a website, it was presented as an online magazine with numerous "issues" as it was periodically updated with a batch of fresh content. Its last issue was published in 2000. But it's still online! Go visit it at gamecabinet.com. As an oldtimer myself, I've wanted to get Ken on my podcast for many years. Finally I managed to do it. I was delighted and surprised to have Ken tell the story of The Game Cabinet...but it turned out not to be a story stuck in the past. We definitely spend a good chunk of time talking about those early days, but when Ken disappeared online over two decades ago he didn't stop playing games. Not only that, he maintained his fascination with the leading edge of creativity in game design. In a nutshell, he's no curmudgeon like me! He's still got an enormous collection, goes to conventions, plays lots of games, is fascinated with the innovations of the Tokyo Game Market...and even Kickstarter. He's on a number of Discord servers and stays plugged in. He's even up on the indie RPG world that I keep hearing about, too.
Direct download: BGTG_220_-_Ken_Tidwell_and_The_Game_Cabinet.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:24pm PDT |
Fri, 1 September 2023
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Tue, 1 August 2023
Closer: Ennui about the SdJ, which is surprising/disappointing Solo boardgaming is big, and getting bigger. At least, that’s my impression. It’s not something I know a bunch about myself. I’ve dabbled in solo boardgames for many years, and I’ve done solo wargames extensively, but there are euro boardgamers who play a lot of solo boardgames. There’s a whole community for this slice of the hobby, and publishers are serving them. There are games exclusively designed for solo play, and lots of “regular” multiplayer games that have a solo option. On our Discord server I posted some of my explorations and questions with solo boardgames, it got some response, and soon we had a separate discussion channel to continue to conversation. From there I found a few gamers happy to join me on this episode of the podcast to talk about solo boardgaming. In true BGTG style, we name-drop a number of titles, but most of the episode is a higher level meta-discussion about solo boardgaming as a hobby-within-a-hobby. What types of solo boardgames are there, why do you play solo boardgames, and what is the community of solo boardgamers. 1 Player Guild Solitaire Games On Your Table (most recent monthly compilation) 2022 People's Choice Top 200 Solo Games -Mark |
Sat, 1 July 2023
Direct download: BGTG_217_-_Moving_to_New_Places...and_Boardgaming_with_Dave_Gullett.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT |
Thu, 1 June 2023
Opener: Ark Nova...on BoardgameArena |
Mon, 1 May 2023
Opener: Votes for Women |
Sat, 1 April 2023
Direct download: BGTG_214_-_Turning_the_Mic_Around_on_Me_with_Steve_Paap.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT |
Sun, 26 March 2023
We're just about finished now. Azul emerged victorious from the SdJ division voting, Terraforming Mars from the Kenners, The Crew Mission Deep Sea from the A La Cartes, and Brass Birmingham from the Golden Geeks. Now that I step back and look at those, they seem like wonderful, fantastic, even inevitable champions from each of their respective divisions...not that I was smart enough to predict them all for my bracket. These four champions now face each other, though you'll hear not quite the way I'd originally intended. It all works, though, and before long we'll have the top two vote-getters in the Mark Madness Championship for 2023.
Direct download: BGTG_213E_-_Mark_Madness_2023_The_Final_Four.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:59pm PDT |
Sun, 19 March 2023
This micro-episode shares some overview of the Rounds 1 & 2 voting, such as blowout wins and close calls. I get to share the Sweet 16 and imagine which of the four games in each of the four divisions will emerge victorious to battle against the others. Hint: don't bet against The Crew (any version!) Please remember to keep voting. Each round of voting is open for a few days, and I keep adding to the same geeklist to do it. Scroll down to find it. https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/312399/mark-madness-2023-bgtgs-battle-award-winners?itemid=9636466#9636466 |