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[Board games] I choose poorly.

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  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    All reviews are garbage.

    (Except for the ones I like.)

  • RendRend Registered User regular
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    All reviews are garbage.

    (Except for the ones I like.)
    (Those ones are good)

  • psyck0psyck0 Registered User regular
    What are their shitty attitudes? I know Vassel is a pretty strong Christian, and I am an atheist who doesn't much like religion, and even I never notice it come across in his reviews.

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  • Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
    I also just bought a copy of Takenoko for my common law niece's birthday. The key is going to be teaching her the rules without her grandmother being present because trying to explain anything to hero's near impossible, she would no doubt declare she is playing as the Panda and then find some dice to roll (based on my experience of Amel Cup with her)

    Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
  • ArcSynArcSyn Registered User regular
    Darric wrote: »

    How do these hold up? For it's size I can imagine it would get quite heavy when loaded with games.

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  • TimFijiTimFiji Beast Lord Halfway2AnywhereRegistered User regular
    ArcSyn wrote: »
    Darric wrote: »

    How do these hold up? For it's size I can imagine it would get quite heavy when loaded with games.

    I considered these but this was my concern, too.

    Switch: SW-2322-2047-3148 Steam: Archpriest
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    • DarricDarric Santa MonicaRegistered User regular
      I actually only just discovered the zippered ones, but I've been using the regular ones for some time. Honestly, yeah, if you're carrying as many games as I often am, they get pretty heavy, but I've just sort of gotten used to it. I'm sure you could manage with less if you just didn't fill them to the top.

    • ArcSynArcSyn Registered User regular
      I'm concerned with the straps ripping off the fabric. If that holds, whatever, I'll load it up.

      4dm3dwuxq302.png
    • CantidoCantido Registered User regular
      I use a small, wheeled suitcase, just larger than a carry-on, because I love my joints.

      3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
    • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
      edited March 2018
      I don't honestly understand how Zee fits in with that group. He always seems to be in a different head-space and is far more tolerable.
      But in general the dice tower is best avoided once you're past the baby steps into the hobby, unless you find that you share a lot of their viewpoints (or beliefs).

      Aside from the rules explanations, I think they're the most consistently watchable board game vloggers outside of SU&SD, and their top 10 lists have some interesting topics that expose me to different stuff I might be interested more quickly than other content.

      It's just a shame that each one of them has this huge flaw.

      Tom is the best presenter, but it's all this ADD nervous energy. You get the feeling all that positivity is covering something up, so he seems to downplay a lot of negatives just to keep the positive train chugging.

      Sam is a grump and control freak. The kind who gets all moody during a game if you don't let him play the game for you in a co-op or make any kind of move against him in a competitive. But, he's also the one with good taste who will call out bad games that Zee's terrible taste or Tom's need to be positive will ignore. I'm totally on board with his idea that games need a fun theme, and that party games are the devil's work. On the other other hand, he's also the most overboard Christian of the group and dismisses a lot of games for silly reasons (will not touch The Others for encouraging sin, loves the mechanics of Sons of Anarchy but avoids it for the crime and drug use (what was he expecting from Sons of Anarchy?)). His constant "throat punch" comments begin to cross over from joking to uncomfortable.

      Zee...I'm honestly not sure why he's there. He hates any game over half an hour and loves abstract trick taking card games. He's like someone from your grandma's Bridge club wandered into your board game night.


      Back to the explanations, here's how Tom's style would explain Scythe:

      "Scythe is a game that's sort of area control, sort of worker placement. You start around the board your workers and leader. Your leader can move onto these spaces and get an encounter card. Your workers can move, but can't cross rivers unless you're the Nordic faction who can swim. Your leader and mechs can cross rivers once you get your riverwalk mech. Your workers can produce resources on their space when you take the produce action, but if you attack someone and force their workers to flee, you lose popularity. Your popularity is a score multiplier you use at the end. It makes your stars worth more. You can get stars by completing objectives, winning battles, or getting all of your bottom row pieces of a certain category. You get coins for all these cross referenced with your popularity but you also get bonus coins according to the structure bonus card that's drawn during the game setup, during which you also construct a deck of factory cards according to the number of players plus 1."

      Now that I think about it, he's a real life Ben Wyatt explaining Cones of Dunshire.

      MrBody on
    • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
      edited March 2018
      Apparently Z-Man Games is doing a new edition of History of the World, which is a personal favorite of mine.

      I looked at the rulebook and honestly I feel like I would have to play it a few times to decide if I like this new version more than the old Avalon Hill edition I have. Which means I probably will just stick with the Avalon Hill edition.

      I would probably recommend anyone who wants to play it buy the new version rather than track down an Avalon Hill one for as much or more than the new edition, though.

      DarkPrimus on
    • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
      Terraforming Mars is getting a digital version on Steam, supposedly within the next 3 months.

      Just in time for me finally giving up on digital Through the Ages :(

    • ArcSynArcSyn Registered User regular
      I dunno, I feel like he does a decent job, considering how many games they cover, and probably studying the rules for a very short time.

      If you search YouTube for a board game, you generally find their review, and about 1-5 other videos of dimly lit, poorly mic'd, stammering and unscripted attempts of reviews or rule reviews of the game by people who want to be board game reviewers.

      I've tried watching many different people, and man, they are difficult to even get through the first two minutes.

      I feel like Rodney of "Watch it Played" is probably one of the best, but has so little content that most of the time he hasn't covered the game I'm looking for.

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    • GvzbgulGvzbgul Registered User regular
      I definitely prefer the vids where the three interact with each other. They balance each other out.

    • DarricDarric Santa MonicaRegistered User regular
      edited March 2018
      ArcSyn wrote: »
      I'm concerned with the straps ripping off the fabric. If that holds, whatever, I'll load it up.

      They're pretty sturdy; I have two, and I probably spread the load between them depending on which one's in reach, but I've been using mine pretty much every weekend, fully loaded, for two years at this point - no noticeable wear.

      Darric on
    • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
      psyck0 wrote: »
      What are their shitty attitudes? I know Vassel is a pretty strong Christian, and I am an atheist who doesn't much like religion, and even I never notice it come across in his reviews.
      I wish I could answer this, but I have a lot of second hand information, and no first-hand to actually confirm anything for myself.
      ArcSyn wrote: »
      I dunno, I feel like he does a decent job, considering how many games they cover, and probably studying the rules for a very short time.

      If you search YouTube for a board game, you generally find their review, and about 1-5 other videos of dimly lit, poorly mic'd, stammering and unscripted attempts of reviews or rule reviews of the game by people who want to be board game reviewers.

      I've tried watching many different people, and man, they are difficult to even get through the first two minutes.

      I feel like Rodney of "Watch it Played" is probably one of the best, but has so little content that most of the time he hasn't covered the game I'm looking for.
      I'm biased towards Rodney because he's a friend of friends, and I've worked with his daughter at length. They're good people, and I at least know that first-hand. As far as his volume of content, something-something about quality over quantity. :p

    • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
      Dammit, Fantasy Flight. Why do you keep making these big games with impossible to put back in the box components once everything is punched out/put together? BattleLore 2E is giving me a panic attack for this very reason, and I haven't even gotten to sleeving the cards yet.

      Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
    • Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
      MrBody wrote: »

      Back to the explanations, here's how Tom's style would explain Scythe:

      "Scythe is a game that's sort of area control, sort of worker placement. You start around the board your workers and leader. Your leader can move onto these spaces and get an encounter card. Your workers can move, but can't cross rivers unless you're the Nordic faction who can swim. Your leader and mechs can cross rivers once you get your riverwalk mech. Your workers can produce resources on their space when you take the produce action, but if you attack someone and force their workers to flee, you lose popularity. Your popularity is a score multiplier you use at the end. It makes your stars worth more. You can get stars by completing objectives, winning battles, or getting all of your bottom row pieces of a certain category. You get coins for all these cross referenced with your popularity but you also get bonus coins according to the structure bonus card that's drawn during the game setup, during which you also construct a deck of factory cards according to the number of players plus 1."

      Now that I think about it, he's a real life Ben Wyatt explaining Cones of Dunshire.

      You can see for yourself exactly how Tom explained scythe...

      https://youtu.be/fNHPLX4IU9A

      I dunno I think he does an alright job at giving a brief overview of a very intricate game in a compact time frame there personally. What would you like instead?

    • Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
      Post rising sun thoughts: neat area control game. not sure how many times I would want to play it but it's got a lot of really neat ideas. The role selection and alliance stuff is really interesting top to bottom. The battles are super tense. Seems like it could really bog down and get annoying if people leaned into the negotiate everything aspect. Would like to play it a few more times and see how it plays out, but I don't think I need to own it or anything.

    • ArcSynArcSyn Registered User regular
      edited March 2018
      I'm biased towards Rodney because he's a friend of friends, and I've worked with his daughter at length. They're good people, and I at least know that first-hand. As far as his volume of content, something-something about quality over quantity. :p

      Oh, I agree, quality over quantity has it's benefits, but he's done six videos on SW:Legion so far, and if you don't do very many videos, that's killer. Though he's been killing it the last six months and making a bunch of various game videos.

      I missed seeing him at PAX Unplugged due to his busy schedule and not staying through Sunday. Was upset when I realized I missed him. I met most everyone else I wanted to.

      Glad to hear he's good people, and makes me feel bad for missing him all the more. Hopefully this year's PAX may remedy that.

      ArcSyn on
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    • jergarmarjergarmar hollow man crew goes pew pew pewRegistered User regular
      edited March 2018
      Ah_Pook wrote: »
      I think Tom vasel is good at giving a quick overview of how a game plays and generally having an opinion about it that makes sense, and also having generally consistent tastes so you can apply his preferences to whether or not you might enjoy a given game based on his take. Obviously he puts out so many reviews that any individual one might be better or worse in these regards. But I think him and zee are the best video content producers around as far as covering a lot of stuff, being to the point and me gleaning enough information to see if I want to look into a game further. Sam and a lot of the other contributors not so much, but eh.

      Edit: I agree they're basically the anti susd, but that's because dice tower videos are generally useful and informative ;)

      I watch Dice Tower videos often, but likewise skip ahead, because I want his impressions of the game. I very much agree that his tastes are consistent, the benefit of which is hard to overstate, and his top 20 games have a really good mix of newer gems and established classics. And obviously there's some harmony between his tastes and mine.

      But he's not my favorite reviewer. His reviews tend to sound like a guy hurrying to get the rules explanation out before a game... which probably is where he gets the style, and which he's done countless times, and allows him to get a lot of videos out, which I do appreciate.

      For a long time I thought less of SU&SD because of some of their more "artistic" and experimental reviews, some of which simply don't work for me, but I've come to realize that they are really quite good reviewers, especially in the past couple years. In just a few minutes they can describe how it works, compare it to similar games, try to connect you to how the game "feels" when playing, and all while throwing in some hilariously appropriate skits. They are also not afraid to pan a popular and/or highly-rated game.

      They are also board game advocates, and do presentations about the hobby. They like games that push the hobby in new and interesting ways. Their recommendations adhere to this as well, and they seem to take it pretty seriously. They also get involved with mega-games, and share their experience. Hard not to like 'em. Hard to think of people who attempt so much and do it so well.

      jergarmar on
      When I was a child, I had a fever...
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    • EpimerEpimer Registered User regular
      My favourite reviewers (SUSD, Rodney, formerly Starlit Citadel) have one thing in common: scripting. They respect their viewers' time. Really can't be bothered with the semi-coherent ramblings of basically all the other video reviewers.

    • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
      Watch it Played is lovely, their Canadian accents are the best.

    • Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
      edited March 2018
      Just rehashing old discussions now so I'll keep it brief, but SUSD I personally have found to have wildly inconsistent tastes and their videos have proven to be wildly inconsistent as far as indicating whether I would like a game or not. Theyre not great at articulating why they like or don't like things in ways that are useful for me to decide if I would like or dislike the thing. So for me they make entertaining videos but fail completely at being useful board game reviewers.

      Ah_Pook on
    • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
      That's probably because the cast of SU&SD have varying tastes exactly like the cast of Dice Tower. I know that Quinns and Matt tend to be excited by novelty and creativity, and that's an easy flag to pick up on in a review. I tend to have a really close view to Paul and take his comments at face value (and also really miss him being more regular in appearance :( ). The only big outlier I can think of was when they didn't like Brass seemingly because it was a "board game classic" and thus not sleek and modern, but also ... eh, I've probably looked at games I've played exactly the same way.

    • Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
      I thought they loved Brass? It's one of the few reviews I've watched. Either way they sold me on the game

      Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
    • jergarmarjergarmar hollow man crew goes pew pew pewRegistered User regular
      Ah_Pook wrote: »
      Just rehashing old discussions now so I'll keep it brief, but SUSD I personally have found to have wildly inconsistent tastes and their videos have proven to be wildly inconsistent as far as indicating whether I would like a game or not. Theyre not great at articulating why they like or don't like things in ways that are useful for me to decide if I would like or dislike the thing. So for me they make entertaining videos but fail completely at being useful board game reviewers.

      The funny thing is, I don't think I can strongly dispute your points. My game purchases are not greatly swayed by them, especially compared to Tom Vasel (e.g. his glowing recommendation of Adventure Land). But the SU&SD guys do make me want to play certain games. I would love to get into a game of TI4, or Sidereal Confluence, or Captain Sonar, based on their reviews. Or even a mega-game! They get me enthusiastic about games, or even make me think about the hobby as a whole.

      That being said, their recent reviews have been really good all around. They definitely got me to buy Azul.

      When I was a child, I had a fever...
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    • Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
      edited March 2018
      That's probably because the cast of SU&SD have varying tastes exactly like the cast of Dice Tower. I know that Quinns and Matt tend to be excited by novelty and creativity, and that's an easy flag to pick up on in a review. I tend to have a really close view to Paul and take his comments at face value (and also really miss him being more regular in appearance :( ). The only big outlier I can think of was when they didn't like Brass seemingly because it was a "board game classic" and thus not sleek and modern, but also ... eh, I've probably looked at games I've played exactly the same way.

      Specifically I mean the same people will like and dislike similar games, and not provide useful commentary on why. Which is fine in a vacuum, but doesn't give me much to go on when SUSD puts up a review and I'm trying to figure out what it means wrt my personal tastes. Hence my conclusion that they make entertaining videos that I don't find useful for figuring out if I would like a game or not.

      Ah_Pook on
    • Joe DizzyJoe Dizzy taking the day offRegistered User regular
      I've always found SUSD very easy to figure out and found their commentary very useful. Unlike Tom Vasel whose commentary seems purely object-driven and whose tastes are all over the place to me, with little to no coherency.

    • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
      I find both of them easy to use as datapoints.

      Though I don’t listen to either of them these days, or any game reviews for that matter anymore.

      I largely find them a waste of time, I usually just skim a rulebook or watch a couple minutes of gameplay and have a good idea of if a game interests me or not.

    • schussschuss Registered User regular
      Terraforming Mars - so good

    • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
      psyck0 wrote: »
      What are their shitty attitudes? I know Vassel is a pretty strong Christian, and I am an atheist who doesn't much like religion, and even I never notice it come across in his reviews.

      They very frequently ( at least back when I watched) like to mock and insult there detractors (even the sane ones) and other reviewers. They still frequently takes swipes at Man Vs Meeple.

      The only reviewers I bother with at all are the ones who play the game. That will show me if I'll like the game, not someone else's opinion. Rahdo, Slickerdrips and Ant Lab are the best, Watch It Played second but only because he goes so damn slow.

    • ArcSynArcSyn Registered User regular
      Slower than Rahdo?! I thought Rahdo was the slowest of any I've seen. Though he also will spend the time showing you every move you could make and why you would.

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    • Joe DizzyJoe Dizzy taking the day offRegistered User regular
      edited March 2018
      I still find it weird that some people get offended by reviewers getting paid for their reviews, but don't raise an eyebrow at paid playthroughs. The latter are so much more potent and effective at selling you games while still claiming to be objective about it.

      Joe Dizzy on
    • SageinaRageSageinaRage Registered User regular
      I agree that SUSD can be very erratic in what they recommend or not, but I like them more than most other reviews because they move way beyond the 'Did I have fun y/n' format that so many other reviewers follow. They dig deep into the experience and all of the components of that, such that even when I disagree with them, I can tell from watching whether I would like it, even if they didn't. They blend together the rules explanation and the review in a way I haven't seen before.

      sig.gif
    • Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
      ArcSyn wrote: »
      Slower than Rahdo?! I thought Rahdo was the slowest of any I've seen. Though he also will spend the time showing you every move you could make and why you would.

      But each one with a rules error included that may be corrected via an annotation

      Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
    • Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
      Anyway, apparently there's a Knizia auction/set collection game from 2016 called Yangtze which is supposedly a blend of mechanics from Medici and Ra and some other stuff, and which is really good? It's called Yangtze and it never came out in English. So I definitely ordered that. It was only $34 shipped from Amazon.de and boy let me tell you I'm excited! I gotta know if Knizia still has some beans left in him, and like you couldn't describe a game that would pique my interest more than this I think.

    • KetarKetar Come on upstairs we're having a partyRegistered User regular
      Speaking of Knizia auction games, we played Modern Art for the first time a couple of weeks ago and really dug it. Looking forward to playing it again in a week.

      It's fairly amusing to have someone explain the various auction mechanics in terms of other Knizia games. "Ok, when this auction comes up, the auctioneer declared Ra. It works just like that." Still surprisingly fun despite the obvious same or similar mechanics at times.

    • CaptainPeacockCaptainPeacock Board Game Hoarder Top o' the LakeRegistered User regular
      Megagame next week. Very excited. :D

      Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
    • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
      edited April 2018
      My FLGS had a big sale today. I walked out with Kemet and Lovecraft Letter. I could probably spend hours playing with just Lovecraft Letter's poker chips. Everything outside and inside the box feels so premium.

      Dashui on
      Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
    This discussion has been closed.