At long last I've managed to make all of Boardgames To Go's five and a half year podcast archive available on iTunes! They've always been available through this blog, but the process was cumbersome (at best). Now by getting all of the shows into the main podcast feed, podcast accumulators like iTunes (the 900-lb gorilla), iPodder, Podtrapper, Zune, etc. should all have the entire back catalog of

Whew! I hurried up and recorded Part 2 of my annual "Essen Anticipation" episode so I could get it posted before the Spieltage itself. Hopefully some of the people who wanted to listen to it before the show opens (even when traveling there?) will get it in time. This episode is more like my Essen shows from previous years. I talk a little about about general things, then launch into a long

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It's that time again. Time for excitement about the Spiel game expo (Internationale Spieltage) held in Essen, Germany every October. Even when my fall season gets busy with work, kids' school, and other activities, there's always this time when I start living vicariously through the pre-, post-, and (now) during-the-event reports. Over a decade ago we heard about the new titles debuting at

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Not only has the podcast not blown up yet (at least I think that's right), but this morning I managed to Undo something I fiddled with on the feed that I later regretted. Though it hasn't gotten me any closer to having all of the podcast archives in iTunes--that's still my major project--I'm hoping I've restored things back to their previously working condition. That's because a listener reminded

You should know that I'm still here. And by "blows up," I just mean that the feed may disappear from iTunes, or stop showing podcasts attached at all. Or it may be just fine. Either way, Boardgames To Go is still going strong, just publishing erratically as usual. All that's happening is that I'm transitioning the hosting location and blog/podcast feed details from a multi-site mess to

I grabbed two of my artistically talented friends (Greg did my podcast logo!) and put them on the microphone to talk about their hobby-within-a-hobby: handcrafted games. These guys have both taken a known, existing boardgame or two and hand made their own copies. It might have been to create something that's hard to get, or it might have been to make a personalized, deluxe version of a favorite

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For a while now, listeners of the podcast have asked for an easier way to access all of BGTG's archives. They've actually always been available, but it takes some work. You have to click on one of the archive pages, then find a show and click on its MP3 link to play it through your browser, or right-click it to save it to your computer for later copying to your player or importing into iTunes.

Got those acronyms? Now Boardgames To Go has its own existence on Boardgamegeek. This is in addition to this blog & website, which I intend to always be the podcast's true home. However, for some it may be convenient to keep up with the podcast from BGG, along with their other favorite boardgame podcasts. Like so many features that Aldie adds to that amazing site, its full potential isn't yet

At long last, another episode, and a long-winded one at that! These session report & feedback shows are supposed to be easier episodes for me to bang out--I need to remember that! Doing them more often will work through the response backlog and make them easier & shorter. We'll see how well I do at remembering that... :-) In addition to a lot of great comments about past shows, I talk about

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June was a crazy month at work (as I knew it would be), so I haven't managed to post shows even though I've still got a good one in the can . . . and I managed to record another one. I need to post some "normal" session report & feedback shows in between the featured episodes, though. I'll get to that. Despite all that, I still got in some great gaming in June, especially with one big

Themes in boardgames are a favorite subject of mine. I'm sure I've said before how interested I am in the themes these games of ours have. Some themes instantly attract me to a game, while others are an immediate turn-off. When I'm playing a game, I particularly enjoy historic theming on the cards, or historic notes within the rulebook. You'd think that makes me a theme-gamer. I certainly

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Yeah, I lost my old call-in number, the same one the show has had for five years. I haven't completely given up hope, and I may ask for your help in getting it back, but for the moment any audio feedback should instead go to 206-337-7401. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Now that the first decade of the new century & millennium is past, Dave & I reflected on what that ten-year span meant for boardgames. Back in late 2007 he & I recorded a "decade+1" retrospective for episode #75, but that had a little different focus. For that earlier show, we tried to talk about our own introduction and growth in the hobby, like what games we first learned about & played, how

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By the way, you can subscribe the comment feed in order to keep up with comments on all of this blog's posts without having to remember to check them.

The flurry of good comments & discussion following the recent podcast about boardgame theming was split between those posted right here on the website, and others on a Boardgamegeek thread. Though that's fine, it makes me wonder if it wouldn't be better to facilitate them more on one location than the other. And though I'd really prefer to have the comments archived here, with the podcast itself,

Hmm, I'm not sure. Since I set this site up in the prehistory of podcasting, it's built on a complicated mix of three different hosting accounts (libsyn for the podcast files, GoDaddy.com for my webhosting, and Blogger.com for the blog editing interface). Now after five years one of those tools has changed how it works, which means I need to tweak settings I haven't touched in that long. (And,

First of all, please consider bidding in my latest Geeklist auction. It ends mid-day on March 24, and has some great, unusual, and/or out-of-print games. Titles like Zoff in Buffalo, Basari (the good version!), Krieg und Frieden, and a pair of games from an original Chinese publisher & designer. I'm back with another session report & feedback show. These episodes are usually only about some

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For more than a decade now I've kept track of the games I played over the course of a year. For nearly as long I've reviewed those lists after each year passed. First I posted on Usenet or my own website, later boardgame mailing lists, my blog, and lately this podcast. Like a lot of you, I find it interesting to look back over the stats from the previous year, noting increases or decreases in

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I've been making little updates between major blog entries about boardgaming using Twitter. You can find those at twitter.com/BoardgamesToGo. This blog and its podcast will always be my main content, but if you want little tidbits in between the irregular episodes, that's where to find them. Just recently I also created a Facebook page for the podcast, at (you guessed it) facebook.com/

First show of the new year, and it's another session report & feedback episode. Though I originally just picked three games I played recently & wanted to discuss, as I prepped for the show I found a number of related points between them. That's why I mentioned this could also be called "The Crossover Show." Maybe I should ask Shannon Appelcline to produce one of his snazzy relationship diagrams

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