The State of Games, Ep. 162 – The One About a Promising Future in Sales

From time to time here on the podcast we let TC take over the reins and dip into his ever-growing bag of industry insights and wistful shower thoughts. This time around, we take another look at past subjects like the possible market and Kickstarter bubbles, but also dig a bit deeper into what it means to sell a game and what it means to sell a product. Are board games that are created and marketed solely as products a good or bad thing for our industry? You’ll just have to listen in to find out! Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 161 – The One About the Year That Was

Another year of gaming has passed, and it was bigger than ever! The hobby saw a record number of new releases in 2018 numbering in the thousands, and we’re here to honor some of the best and brightest of those. Bear in mind, of course, that there are only so many hours in a day and days in a year, so we weren’t able to play all the games. Just the best ones – you can trust us. So sit back and enjoy the year that was, and maybe you’ll even get some sneak peeks at a few games that will make up the year ahead! Read More  Read More

The 2018 Dice Hate Me Holiday Gift Guide

Seasons Greetings, Dear Readers, and welcome to the 8th annual Dice Hate Me Holiday Gift Guide! This year’s guide comes to you a tad late as it has been one busy season here at Dice Hate Me HQ. But there are still two full weeks and weekends before Santa drops off that copy of Fireball Island for you, I mean the kids! Ahem. I’m getting ahead of myself. Grab your Dice Hate Me mug, fill it with cocoa, and enjoy this carefully curated list of awesome treats for under the tree. Happy Holidays and Happy Gaming! Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 160 – The One About Unplugging, Again

Sometimes our gaming podcast is less about games and more about experience. We hope you’ll indulge us a bit this time around, Dear Listeners, as we chat about what it was like to attend PAX Unplugged for the second year. Yes, we talk a great deal about the amazing food in Philadelphia, we debate the greatest cheesesteak, and we gripe about metal detectors, but we also try to convey the awesomeness that surrounds a convention that is now quintessential to the hobby. We hope to see you all there next year! Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 159 – The One About Played Out Games

Although the meat of this podcast might apply more to those gamers who have been punching cardboard for a few years, it’s still pretty clear that plenty of us have some games that – while they are still really great designs – we’d rather not hit the table as much anymore. And if you truly can’t relate to that we still have almost two hours of impressions for a ton of new hotness that you’ll want to know more about. It’s a big one to be sure, but we promise it won’t disappoint. Happy listening! Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 158 – The One About The Doctor’s Advice

There are certain creative leaders in the game design hobby that pop up from time to time with interesting nuggets of wisdom – Dr. Reiner Knizia is one such creative. With over 600 games and books credited to him over his career, he definitely has the experience and chops to lay down some knowledge, and a lot of that knowledge is extraordinarily valuable. On this particular show we decided to take a couple of his more recent – and infinitely intriguing – statements and break them down for discussion. Should you file them or flush them? Come on in and find out! Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 157 – The One About Just a Little Filler

Last podcast we pulled out all the intellectual stops and dove head deep into the rabbit hole of Game Theory. Judging from the listener numbers that wasn’t exactly what all you dear listeners wanted to hear. Oh well, at least we had fun discussing it! We wanted to get deep again with a chat about rules, if they’re getting worse in board games, and what we might do to fix them, but we decided to table that one for another time, return a bit to formula, and focus on something a little less… filling. Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 156 – The One About Mutually Assured Destruction

Most of the time on the podcast we’re just riffing on games we’ve played, or conventions we’ve gone to, or the best game with so and so mechanic, but occasionally we like to tackle something a bit heavier. This is just such a podcast. In this episode we brought in some extra brains from Matt Riddle to help us dive deeper into the math and rational thinking behind Game Theory. It wasn’t an easy topic to dissect but we think it was worth it. We hope you do, too. Enjoy! Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 155 – The One About Gen Con 2018

Welcome, dear listeners, to another podcast about the biggest show on astroturf (really) – Gen Con! Even though Gen Con has become almost nothing but business, business, business for most in the industry, it’s still a fun, amazing, and exhausting spectacle that we look forward to every year. Let us know if you have some great tales from the show, or, if  you played something awesome participating in GenCant. We’d love to talk about your adventures on the podcast! Read More  Read More

Gen Con 2018 Pictorial Recap!

Hello, dear readers, and welcome to another year of Gen Con coverage! This year’s show had record attendance, and I was just as busy as always showing off awesome games and taking meeting after meeting after meeting with designers. But I did get a chance to escape the job from time to time and check out some really cool stuff. So settle in and enjoy this brief look into the good time that is Gen Con! The first part of our trip involved a stop in Nitro, West Virginia – a five-year tradition! This year, Dan Halsted of The League of Nonsensical Gamers flew into Raleigh all the way from Copenhagen just to make the drive with us! Yes, he’s... Read More