It must be just about time for a boring show with just me on the mic, but you're spared once again! This time I have fellow podcaster Eric "Boardgame Babylon" Burgess with me to talk about another of my favorites, Big City. Turns out it's one of his, too, and when I made a half-serious request for someone to do this episode with, Eric responded right away. We live somewhat far from each other,
Part 2 of my discussion with Dave Arnott was about game awards. There are a bunch of them, from the Spiel des Jahres to the Golden Geeks. We talk about a whole range of them, and also consider how game awards are similar or different from other artistic awards, such as the Oscars. (By the way, I did go see Slumdog Millionaire that night, and though I liked it I wouldn't have called it the Best
What started as one show with two topics ended up being two shows. This is the first part, where Dave Arnott and I reflect on 2008. That means talking about our games played, totals as well as "fives & dimes." We also consider which were are favorite releases or discoveries in 2008. Along the way are some inevitable discussions about online plays, whether realtime (e.g. brettspielwelt, Game
My buddy Ryan Wheeler is part of our local game group, the Santa Clarita Boardgamers. In fact, he's the driving force of the group, hosting most of the game nights, always adding to his collection, and infecting the rest of us with his enthusiasm and sense of humor. When schedules conflicts led to only two of us showing up for games one night, I pressured him into recording another podcast with
I've posted another auction on Boardgamegeek. Help me get rid of some games so I can trick myself into buying more, immediately overwhelming the storage space I'm trying to recover! :)Auction ends on Friday, March 6. See the instructions at the top of the page.
I'm doing that again (never stopped, really). Go to the usual sites (SpielByWeb, Mabiweb, MichaelSchacht.net) to look for games I've started for BGTG podcast listeners, and the password for each is bgtg.Also, if you go to the realtime sites Brettspielwelt or GameTableOnline (or the hybrid pbw/realtime site Yucata.de--which just added Arkadia in beta test), be sure to see if I'm online. I always
Someone just did, and I'd like to respond on a future episode, but unfortunately he must've been calling on a cell phone with a poor signal. The audio drops out during all of the important words of his message, like his question why I don't do more shows about my ______ games. What was that? Or his name--that also dropped out.If you're out there, please try again!
Before I can post any new shows, I wanted to clear the decks for some accumulated feedback, as well as follow-through on my previous blog entry about family gaming over the holidays. Again I brought I bag full of specially chosen games, and again we played some of them. Just a few, really, but I knew to expect that. This year my gaming was mostly confined to playing with my young nephews, which I
This Thanksgiving we packed up the car to drive 300 miles to my folks' house. My brother did the same with his family, coming from the other direction. (California is a long state!) As usual, I packed up a bunch of games, knowing full well we wouldn't play all or even most of them. But we've got room in the minivan, and so why not pack different games so we have options. :-)As it turned out, I
This is a session report & feedback show . . . but without the feedback. The reason for that is that I had to record this podcast in the car. I say had to because I spent too much of my at-home podcasting time playing Dominion instead! I started playing this game on brettspielwelt, and then got my own set to play face-to-face games. Hype is a turnoff for me, even buzz makes me suspicious, but in
As usual, your best bet to find me is on a play-by-web game. I've recently started the following, all of which can take more players as I write this. The password is the same as ever, BGTG.On Mabiweb: In the Year of the Dragon, Samuari, Kreta, In the Shadow of the EmperorOn Spielbyweb: Amun-Re, Hoity-Toity, Reef Encounter, SantiagoOn michaelshacht.net: Hansa (two of these)On Boardgamegeek: Tigris
Essen is behind us now, and the Fairplay scouts & other reports are settling in on the better titles. Remember two years ago when I insisted I'd buy Die Saulen von Venedig? Then the mediocre reports came in, and I got to play it once. It wasn't a bad game, but it didn't shine for me. I didn't buy it. (Though I'll probably play it again some day.)This year the game that fits that description this
I mentioned it in the last podcast, and more than ever I recognize how influenced I am by the look of these games. I like reading the Essen first-impression reports, but I like seeing the photos even more. These days, you'd think you could do a search on "Essen spiel" in Flickr and find tons of photos, both from BGGers and average Germans who took photos & uploaded them. I've found a few that way
As promised, here's my annual episode running through the new Essen games that have caught my eye. There are games I'm pretty sure I want, others I'm pretty sure I don't, and a whole bunch I need to know more about first (hopefully by playing).Essen opens its doors to everyone tomorrow, and the press-only day has already started. Folks like me will be checking internet sites repeatedly through
Essen is now right around the corner, but I'm going to try to squeeze in an "Essen Anticipation" show, as I've done in previous years. I got a few requests for this episode, and that's the best inspiration for doing it.-Mark
This blog recently received a great comment from Tristan who re-listened to the 2.5-year old All About Vinci episode after finally getting to try the game in-person. Vinci is still a great favorite of mine, and now I'd like to see if any other listeners would like to join me in a play-by-web version. Now, I'll warn you that the website is all in German, so if you've never played pbw (or Vinci),
As promised, here's another All About show, my first in a long time. The way these shows work, I usually employ a guest, and the two of us talk about one game in great detail. This time, that guest is David Gullett, who you've heard on BGTG before, and the game we're talking about is Harry's Grand Slam Baseball.Now, HGSB is a rather small, light game to spend more than an hour talking about. That
Hurray! I've wanted to do another "All About" show for some time, and last night I recorded one. It wasn't about Big City, though, as I'd hinted in my last podcast (that's another I still want to do). No, for this one I got my buddy Dave Gullett (BGG's davebo, aka the Big Red Rock Eater) to share the mic with me and talk all about Harry's Grand Slam Baseball. That might seem a little game for a
You're in luck. The carcast I recorded earlier about some games played at a recent Games Day was also destroyed accidentally, so I just had to re-record it at home. This way it ends up with better audio quality, and I got to tack on some recent email feedback, too.These are all games I played at a recent Games Day put on by LA's famous Stephanie. You've heard about her on other podcasts, and
Anmelden
