Articles of Note
The State of Games, Ep. 188 – The One About Milk
Chris sits down with Josh Mills, designer of Milkman
The State of Games, Ep. 187: The One About Unpub 2023
Chris, Darrell, and TC talk highlights from the Unpub con.
The State of Games, Ep. 186: The One About Our Robot Overlords
Chris, Darrell, and TC talk the impact of AI on gaming
The State of Games, Ep. 185: The One About Crossing the Line
Chris and TC talk about games and bad behavior
The State of Games, Ep. 184: The One About Catching Up
Chris, Darrell, and TC catch up after a long hiatus
The State of Games, Ep. 183: The One About Works in Progress
Talk of upcoming projects; importance of adapting
The State of Games, Ep. 182: The One About Getting the Brand Back Together
Darrell, TC, and Chris talk the separation of DHMG and GTG
It’s that time of the year again – time to look forward by looking back! Yes, a new year is upon us but before we settle into the games of 2016, it’s best that we talk about what we loved about 2015. It was an interesting year; some gamers complained that there were few stand-out titles as in years’ past; to that I can only say it was tough for all of us not to have a list of honorable mentions a mile long that we wanted to honor! So settle in, listen up, and let us regale you with our best of 2015, and the holidays!
Sometimes a podcast member goes AWOL – this time it was TC Petty, even though we told him where and when we’d be recording. That’s ok, because Darrell, Jessica and I had even more opportunity to get a word in edgewise! This was a fun one with a rapid fire session, and lots of discussion about time and space. It’s almost as if we had a Time Lord present!
Tis the season to be gaming… and I’m here to help. That’s right, it’s time for my favorite annual tradition, The Dice Hate Me Holiday Gift Guide! In this year’s guide I’ve carefully selected an assortment of titles that will satisfy a particular appetite of just about everyone special in your life – whether they’re a veteran gamer or novice. Remember, the best part about giving the gift of a game is that you get to play it after they unwrap it! It feels almost like cheating, but it’s not!
So stoke the fire, grab some hot cocoa, and start your holiday shopping list with these great games. May all your rolls be sixes and your resource cubes plentiful. Happy Holidays and Happy Gaming!
As the year winds to a close, we focus on the last of the big shows – BGGCon, in Dallas, TX. Every hardcore gamer that has a forum handle in the hobby shows up for this particular convention, which always makes for an interesting time. This go-round, the whole core DHMG crew was here and Darrell, TC, and myself got a chance to experience the show together. This is our story. Dun Dun!
Greetings, dear readers! It’s been quite awhile since we’ve gathered around The Crowded Table, but thanks as always for stopping in! In this edition, I take a quick look at a few games that we played at The Gamers for Cures 24-hour Marathon at The Gamer’s Armory in Cary, NC. For those not familiar with the marathon and its excellent cause of raising money for The Turner Syndrome Society, check out gamersforcures.com and consider contributing to the cause next year!
Just a small note: Many of these titles are recent Essen releases, but they’ll be headed into U.S. circulation before too long.
Antarctica
Sometime in the not too distant future, Antarctica has become a hot bed of scientific activity, and several nationalities have started to mine resources, build kelp farms and power turbines, and just generally try to save mankind by monetizing the ice caps. You know, like you do. At its core, Antarctica is essentially an area control Euro but with a fairly interesting turn order mechanism that is a bit reminiscent of Expedition: Northwest Passage. Each round, the “sun” progresses counter-clockwise around the board, thawing ships that might lie in port and letting the player first in line there move their ship somewhere else to take an action. At that port, the ship will head to the back of the line (if any ships are there) and won’t be able to move again until it’s first in line and the sun has made its way back around again. This creates some extremely interesting placement decisions, as the more popular spots tend to score a bit higher because of all the scientists and buildings congregating there, but heading to a more open spot might allow you more actions and consecutive turns. Because of the variable turn sequence, downtime can be a bit unpredictable, so some gamers who like patterns and control might end up flipping the table. I quite enjoyed Antarctica, but I thought the end scoring was a bit crazy, with fairly large disparities between first and second place players in each area.
Impression score: 
4 out of 6
Over the years we’ve had many great guests on The State of Games, and we’ve been lucky to have become friends with pretty much all of them. Such is the case with Matt & Ben, designers of Dice Hate Me Game of the Year title Fleet. If any of you dear listeners get a chance to meet and hang out with these guys at a convention go for it – they are not only great designers, they’re also amazing and fun people.
We love it when fans of the podcast send us topic ideas, and this time around Nat Levan took over the show with a fantastic outline about game names. We may have gotten a little carried away, but we think you’ll all have fun, nonetheless. Keep sending us those ideas! After all, this is your show, too, dear listeners.
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