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
The State of Games, Ep. 154 – The One About the Top 5 Games EVER
We love when listeners get involved with the podcast and, because of comments and feedback from all of you, this podcast was magical. We’ve revisited our favorite games of all time occasionally but never within the context of a listener-curated list. And, oh, what an incredibly varied list it was! It just goes to show that all of you love so many different games in this hobby and that, dear listeners, is a truly wonderful thing. Happy listening! Read More Read More
The State of Games, Ep. 153 – The One About Origins 2018
It’s summertime and that means it’s time for the biggest gaming conventions of the year! It’s always great to kick off the season at one of our favorite gaming conventions, Origins Game Fair, and it’s hard to believe that this is the 7th year we’ve covered it on The State of Games. Both the podcast and the con have grown and changed through the years but the focus for both has, thankfully, remained the same – let’s get together and play some awesome games. Read More Read More
The State of Games, Ep. 152 – The One About the Fate of the Galaxy, Pt. 2
Five years ago on Memorial Day weekend, six gamers gathered to duke it out for galactic supremacy in Twilight Imperium: Third Edition and we recorded the whole thing for The State of Games. Ever since that incredible 12-hour slugfest we had wanted to do it again and the release of Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition gave us all a perfect excuse. And, so, I convinced two of the veterans of the old game and two TI newbies over to the house, threw a pork butt on the smoker, and got down to business in figuring out who would reign supreme. Spoiler alert: It was awesome. Enjoy! Read More Read More
The State of Games, Ep. 151 – The One About the Axis of Not Misrepresenting Your Product
When TC volunteers to handle an upcoming topic and tackle the show notes I never say no. Not only is it a welcome break for me but it’s inevitably like that ol’ box of chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get. This time around it ended up with all three of us talking about best and worst of game aesthetics for about an hour, but the conversation was far more engaging and encompassing than I expected. We start at the fall of the video game industry in 1983 and don’t let up until we’ve covered the latest all-flash and no-substance projects on Kickstarter. So break out your smoking jackets, it’s... Read More
The State of Games, Ep. 150 – The One About Going Back to the Well
Every now and then on the podcast we like to have a special guest, and it’s especially special when the guest not only wants to be on but also proposes a salient topic. This time around we have Seth Jaffee, who is not only a game designer and head of development for Tasty Minstrel Games, but also a long-time listener of the podcast. We’ve known Seth for about seven years now, and it’s awesome to be able to catch up with him somewhere outside of Twitter and the big conventions. Join us as we go deep into all sorts of territories – this is a long one, but it’s chock full of meat! Read More Read More
