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Episode 3: Protecting My Games
148 Plays1 year ago
The Board Members discuss what they have been playing lately and roundtable the subject of game protection solutions, sleeving, and the various outlooks that exist out there amongst gamers looking to protect their beloved cardboard collection.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Corner Game Table Podcast
00:00:19
Speaker
Welcome back to the Corner Game Table, a podcast about board games, the people who play them, and the amazing experiences just waiting to be had when you sit down with other people around the game table. I'm Josh, one of your co-hosts here at the Corner Game Table, and I'm joined here around this magnificent game table with the other members of the board, Andrew, Heather, and Drew. Hello, hello. Hello. Howdy, y'all.
00:00:42
Speaker
We're doing okay. Just dandy, how's your momma now?
Busy Schedules and Conventions
00:00:48
Speaker
So it has been a busy couple of weeks for everybody. We've had a lot of traveling around and people being not in the places they normally are. I'm still traveling around, man. Yeah, still traveling. Oh yeah. Drew and I have been hopping to convention to convention. And it never ends, it never ends.
Game Experiences: Marvel's Unmatched Teen Spirit
00:01:07
Speaker
The fun never ends.
00:01:12
Speaker
So it was suggested by Heather, and a good suggestion it was, that we start by talking a little bit about something that we have gotten to the table since the last time we talked. So why don't we start off with Andrew. Andrew, you played anything good lately? Yeah. About three hours ago, I sat down on the floor of this little Airbnb that I'm in with my daughter, and we played some unmatched teen spirit. This is the Marvel set with Cloak and Dagger, Squirrel Girl, and Ms. Marvel.
00:01:42
Speaker
Oh, very nice. I played as Cloak and Dagger. And she narrowly beat me. But I think if I was paying better attention to my abilities as Cloak and Dagger, I might have had a better chance. I
Game Insights: Nexus Infernum and Not So Neighborly
00:01:56
Speaker
haven't played those before. Yeah, the Marvel sets are really interesting because there's three characters in them, not two or not four. All of them are like that. And this one's cool because Cloak and Dagger really play off of each other a lot. Neither one is like a sidekick.
00:02:12
Speaker
You know, a lot of the sets have kind of like a sidekick character, but you have two full minis for those two characters, and they're really pretty much, you know, balanced. I've had so, I've got so many copies of Unmashed yet to have played any of them. And I'm just like, I will. Wow, for shame, dude. I know. For shame. So you're like Josh with the Marvel United. Indeed. No, but I've played most of them. I don't know that he's gone down that rabbit hole. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:02:41
Speaker
Yeah. Um, I've been playing my, my game that I'm working on as well. I've been playing that a lot. Like every three days I play it again, um, continuing to refine that. So I'm almost ready to actually show it to a publisher, you know? So that's about it for me right now. Wishing you luck on that.
Convention Highlights: Dice Tower East and Game Canvas
00:03:01
Speaker
How about you, Drew?
00:03:03
Speaker
So the most recent games that I've gotten to the table, just two of them. My very first one that I got to the table was Nexus Infernum by Archon Games. It is an area control game combined with resource management as well. Basically,
00:03:21
Speaker
you're an acromancer and nothing better than raising the dead. Interesting. So there are other arcane powers that you're able to use in order to gain those resources and use them to battle against your opponent and get points. And the first person to 13 points is the winner of the game. And it was very quick. It was very, um, I just really enjoyed it. Let me just leave it at that.
Family Fun: Dice Throne and Forbidden Island
00:03:45
Speaker
Just really enjoyed it. Thought it was a really great game. I really like, um,
00:03:51
Speaker
I really like resource management, but I also, if I would have attacked more and done more of the area control, I would have probably won, but I lost and I take that. Um, speaking of take that, speaking of take that the other game had that mechanic and that was not so neighborly. Yes.
00:04:11
Speaker
So I have. I've heard of that one. I've played it before. I've played it before, but I got to play it with my lovely wife and it was just a whole lot of fun and just being able to be mean to one another. That's the whole point of the game. The game, the game is simple. You get to take two actions and you either draw a card or play a card. First player to 10 points is the winner of the game. You're building your neighborhood in
Game Protection Strategies
00:04:36
Speaker
order to protect the neighborhood and also sabotage other
00:04:40
Speaker
Neighborhoods which are the other players so it's a fun take that game. I'm gonna burn down your school You know that type of thing very dang very Very funny yet dangerous stuff when you think about it. Yeah poop on your stoop. It's a great one That's that was that was the most well-liked one. So yeah My kids love that game. That's it. That's an excellent one. Yeah, we had a we had a great time playing that it really is short it really was my you know, it's funny cuz
00:05:11
Speaker
My wife looks at that and she'll see the time and she'll go, Oh, it's going to take way longer than that. And we were done in about 10 minutes. So the first game it's quick. Oh wow. I even bought the player mats for that one. Cause I was like, I want the mats. The mats are so cool. I bought one. They look so good. So anyways, those are the games that I've played as of recently. Very nice. What about you, Heather? What have you gotten to the table recently?
00:05:37
Speaker
So since we have last met, I've gone to another convention. I went to Dice Tower East and I got to play a whopping 25 games. I brought my son with me. Wowzers. Yeah, we had a great time. I feel like the Dice Tower conventions are really good for gaming in general.
00:05:58
Speaker
We got a lot of just sitting down and playing done. The exhibitor hall is not quite as big and it's just really more of a community gaming convention. And so we had a great time. One of the ones that we played that was the highlight for both of us was Canvas.
00:06:18
Speaker
by R2i Games. I had never played that before. It's one that I heard of that one. I had wanted to play it just because the box art looks really cool. It's like a painting and you can even hang the box on your wall. I was just about to ask. Like it has a notch on the back of the box. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like. That's clever. Immediately, I was like, this is interesting.
00:06:41
Speaker
There's like a sequel or an expansion or something that you can all there is. Yeah, they have a second one out and I believe they're working on a third one. But it was one that that's the great thing about the conventions is going to them and getting to play the games to decide if you want to buy them yourself. And that was one that I was like, let's play so we can see if we like it. And both my son and I, it was a huge hit with us. You were basically just collecting these clear art cards.
00:07:07
Speaker
that have some kind of little picture on them. And then you have to get three of those to layer them together and put them on top of a background card, which has like a pretty, you know, mismatch of like colors. And that's your painting. And then you present your painting and it scores on the bottom with different icons and colors and symbols.
00:07:27
Speaker
So very easy to pick up, very easy to learn. And we just had a blast. Like we definitely busted it out a couple of times. And it's one that he continually talks about. Like a lot of people, it was his first gaming convention. So they asked him, like, what's your favorite game? And that was his favorite game. Like every time that was his response. So that's the first thing. And then the other thing that we actually played at home that I got at Origins,
00:07:52
Speaker
was Mother of Frankenstein. We played volume one and volume two. That's from Arcane Wonders. And it is a really great narrative puzzle story driven game. You're you're basically following Mary Shelley. It's like you've un unbox these Mary Shelley volumes.
00:08:15
Speaker
of hers that contain documents and letters between her and her husband Percy. And everything is directed toward her son Florence. And it's like she has a secret that she's trying to share with Florence, but she's hidden it in like puzzles throughout letters and things that you have to do.
00:08:32
Speaker
The first one comes with three envelopes. There's a poetry envelope, a music envelope, and an astronomy envelope. And they tell you just to kind of take your time solving the different envelopes, like just tackle one at a time, and just enjoy the story. And I will say, I think it's a really good balance of puzzles and reading.
00:08:53
Speaker
Because I've done a lot of different like escape room, puzzle-y games, and like Hunt a Killer is definitely heavier on like reading. But then like Exit, I think the Exit games are really good with
Repairing vs Replacing Games
00:09:06
Speaker
a good balance of that. And this one I think does a really good job too.
00:09:10
Speaker
So yeah, I would highly recommend that one. Volume two just kind of like amps it up even more and it's completely different. There's not like three envelopes that you're solving when we open volume two. I think the surprising thing was there was like a jigsaw puzzle that we had to put together like right away. I was just about to ask if you've done the exit ones with the jigsaw puzzles. I have. I have really good. I like them a lot.
00:09:35
Speaker
Yeah, I I really, really enjoy the exit exit series games. Cosmos keeps me keeps me in supply. I've got my fair share. That's awesome. Yeah. If you're Josh, your Marvel collection, I've got like quite a cosmos collection. Nice. Nice. I move on from those when I'm done with them. Like, yeah, I do, too. If I can typically trash, but.
00:09:58
Speaker
If I can typically reset, I'll pass it along to somebody. I know a lot of those, you kind of tear up things or write on things. The nice thing about that mother of Frankenstein is you can actually buy a refill pack and then reset it like for someone else. So I think I might do that and just as I could give away for my community. Yeah, that's always great when you can pass those
Playing vs Preserving: Board Games as Collectibles
00:10:20
Speaker
forward. You know, if you yeah, if they don't require enough destruction in them that they're that they're kind of done when you're when you're finished with them.
00:10:26
Speaker
Yeah, so we have one more volume to go. But it's been really cool so far. It's been neat to kind of hear the story of like Mary Shelley and this narrative and and all of that while solving puzzles together. What about you, Josh? Well, so I just spent the last two weeks on the road with my with my four kids and my wife. And so it has been a hectic couple of weeks, but not so neighborly.
00:10:54
Speaker
Right? Before we left, I got a chance to play with my son, Matthew, several rounds of Dice Throne, the Marvel edition, because that's one that he really, really likes. I got a story about that. Continue on, Josh. Go ahead.
00:11:13
Speaker
It's kind of a love hate thing for me because I've played several different versions of Dice Throne, and when I play them with with my sons, they trounce me pretty regularly on that one. But it's it's a good one that's easy to get to the table and and they enjoy it. And the head to head nature of it makes it a little easier for us to you know, when there's just a couple of us that want to sit down and play something, it's kind of a quick go to so.
00:11:37
Speaker
We got to play that a couple of times. And then while we were in Michigan, I brought along some family friendly smaller box games, hoping we'd get some opportunities to play some some games. And we did get to drag out a an old favorite Forbidden Island that I hadn't played in a while. That was kind of fun. I introduced my my family to that one and.
00:12:01
Speaker
In traditional Forbidden Island fashion, you know, a third of the way through it, we flipped over the helicopter pad card that said it sinks forever and you immediately lose the game. So we went in and said, let's just pretend that didn't happen and kept going. And went in and played the game to its much better conclusion that way. But that happens a fair amount in that series.
00:12:26
Speaker
And then apart from that i'm i'm like andre actually i've been working on a prototype that been working on for a while it's one that we've taken to several regional conventions it's a new game called hot diggity dog where you are a
00:12:42
Speaker
a hot dog vendor in a baseball stadium. And everybody's trying to outsmart each
Debate on Box Sizes for Sleeved Games
00:12:48
Speaker
other, working around the grandstands, trying to outsell each other in the innings of the baseball game before it's over. So I like the name automatically. You had the name. You didn't even have to tell me what it was about. I was like, right. So.
00:13:06
Speaker
So we've had a lot of good feedback, and we've been working on that. And so we're just kind of trying to get it tightened up and ready to cross the finish line with it. All right, that brings us to today's discussion topic.
00:13:33
Speaker
What are your thoughts about protecting your games for the long haul? A lot of people sleeve cards in their games. Some people choose not to sleeve cards. I've even seen people go as far as laminating game aids. What are your thoughts on that?
00:13:50
Speaker
Builds character. Let's just leave it at that. Don't need anything to it. This is gonna be great stories for my children to be passed down. Oh yeah, one time we got so angry at each other that we flipped the table and all the drinks went everywhere. It was just, it was, it was cool. Builds character.
00:14:09
Speaker
And also that means they can't get ads character. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It
Philosophies on Game Protection
00:14:15
Speaker
builds character because board games don't have character. So there you go. Anyway, I think it really is very dependent on the game, certainly for us. Right. Like if we have a game that's going to get a lot of play, we'll sleeve the cards for it. I have some very good friends who have every single ticket to ride.
00:14:35
Speaker
and they play a lot of ticket to ride. And so they've sleeved those cards because they literally at one point had to buy a second copy of the game because they wore their cards out. So when they did that, they sleeved those cards, right? I don't really understand the, like when I see a post on the internet and somebody like,
00:14:53
Speaker
opens a big cardboard box and it's got like 10,000 sleeves and they're like, I guess I know what I'm doing for the weekend. Like that is confusing to me. For me, that level of preservation is definitely something that is specific to a certain game or a certain set of games or whatever. I think the games are made to be played. And, you know, I don't
00:15:19
Speaker
I respect the, I mean we very recently talked about this on my show, but I respect that people like to collect things, but I am very much not a collector when it comes to board games.
00:15:32
Speaker
I don't need my stuff to be absolutely pristine in order to enjoy it. So I protect things when it's going to prolong the game. And the only way that it's meaningfully going to prolong the game is if that game is something that gets played a ton. So that's kind of my thoughts on it. That makes sense. Yeah, I think I'm I'm probably in the same same lane as you, I think.
00:16:01
Speaker
I actually haven't sleeved any of my games. It's something that I didn't see a need for. Honestly, personally, I was like, I don't know why you would. Since I've been going to conventions, though, I've noticed when I've been playing games that have been sleeved, like a lot of them are at conventions, I'm like,
00:16:24
Speaker
It's not bad. Like, I mean, so now I'm kind of thinking, OK, well, maybe if like there are some of my games that I like, you said, Andrew, like I play a lot or maybe if it's like a favorite game of mine, maybe maybe then I'll get some sleeves. I've been thinking about it more. I'm like, maybe one of my favorite games or like I'll upgrade it that way. Like it would be a way to kind of upgrade one of my games is to sleeve the cards. But honestly, I haven't thought about
00:16:51
Speaker
like long lasting, like the long run, like doing things to prevent, you know, damage to the games.
Upcoming Game Plans
00:17:00
Speaker
I know there's a lot out there that does that. And especially with kids, I mean, we can all understand like game components we we purely had there's a Minecraft board game.
00:17:14
Speaker
that we have that is just a play game at this point because the kids just want to bust it out and play with the cubes. Like they don't want to play the game. So is that the Ravensburger game? Yeah. Yeah. They just like playing with the cubes and like some like there are some games that obviously like are just for them to play. And so I don't really worry about it that much. But I do think I have been thinking about it more for like maybe with some of my favorite games, like sleeping, some cards.
00:17:40
Speaker
I have brought home several games that I intended to play with my kids and they immediately lost half the pieces and suddenly got relegated to toys instead of games. You know, Heather, I was thinking about something when you were talking about sleeving and stuff. And the thing that I thought was interesting, at least going on in my head, is like if I have a game that my kids are going to play, I guess I kind of have already accepted that that game is not going to survive. And so I don't really care about sleeving those games. But if I know I'm going to bring a game to like a party,
00:18:10
Speaker
With adults, I'm more likely to think about sleeving because they might have snacks at the table or something like that. But these are not people that are going to actively destroy my stuff. It's an interesting split. What is the decision point at which you say, I'm going to sleeve my cards?
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like we keep our kids games like on the lower part of the shelf. So like easier for them to grab the stuff that like my collector's edition of castles and like our my city with all the pieces. I'm like up on the top like exactly. Don't let them grabbing that. Yeah, my my harder to replace things are definitely up on the top top for me. Whenever I thought whenever somebody just introduced to the thought of sleeving or anything to help protect games,
00:19:00
Speaker
When that first came along, I was like, well, why do you do it? And most people were like, well, maybe I want to get rid of it eventually one day.
00:19:09
Speaker
And I thought to myself, I was like, well, number one, who says I'm gonna get rid of it? Number two, the other thing is, is I view it like, whenever you try to sell a game, everybody's gonna be like Rick from Pawn Stars. You're gonna say, okay, here's the price. And then they're gonna say, best I can do is, you know, that's how it's gonna be. That's how it's gonna be. And I just, I'm like, who has to say so on what really drops the price of this, you know, plastic cardboard wood,
00:19:37
Speaker
anything like that, you know, who, who's going to say just cause I played it one time or I played it, you know, a hundred times what, you know, what's the, what's the difference going to be? And of course, you know, people can argue, Oh, well, this card's bent stuff like that. Well, is that really going to drop it down?
00:19:55
Speaker
$40, $50. I'm just like, what really are you going to do with that and the benefit of that? And that's just my two cents. I just don't really see too much of a point when it comes to that argument and when people talk about that. But that was the very first reason someone told me, oh, you better start sleeving your cards and start doing better, taking better care of your stuff. And I was like, why? I personally never understood it.
00:20:25
Speaker
just going along with that topic of what y'all were talking about. I'm taking it from a different point of view and a different angle where y'all are asking, well, when's the point that you sleeve it? And I'm asking kind of the same thing, just in a different, I guess way is what absolute point is there that, you know, when it comes to if you're going to sell it or not, you know, who knows what, whatever you're going to do, you might take it to a Goodwill, you might throw it in the trash, whatever the case may be. It's just what's,
00:20:55
Speaker
Who determines that? That's just my biggest thing. I just laugh. Well, and certainly it takes all kinds, right? I mean, there's people out there who, you know, like was mentioned, want to keep something in pristine condition. So it looks like it just got opened that morning. Right. And then there's, you know, there's plenty of other people who feel like games are meant to be played. Right. And so a little bit of wear and tear so long as it doesn't make it, you know, eventually unplayable is is not a bad thing necessarily. Right. But
00:21:24
Speaker
Oh, and no offense to anybody who thinks that. Please, no offense whatsoever. I just have a different view of it. Someone out there immediately unfollows Drew. Yeah, that's right. Do it. I dare you, you cowards. That's right. Everybody's going to unfollow you now.
00:21:42
Speaker
But, you know, I mean, I've seen that taken to the I mean, you see people take that to the nth degree and go out and they buy the the plastic coin covers that are used in coin collecting to cover, you know, the the cardboard chits on a board. What? Yeah, it's never seen that. It exists. So and and the one that really gets me is I've seen that done by several people on Twilight Imperium.
00:22:10
Speaker
They take the the big
Closing and Social Media Information
00:22:12
Speaker
the big cardboard elements that move around the board and they put them in, you know, protective card or excuse me, protective coin holders. And I find myself sitting there thinking like nobody plays Twilight Imperium enough that you're going to wear that out. Right. I mean, you're lucky if you get that to the table once every six months.
00:22:30
Speaker
That's going to come out with a new edition anyway, and you're going to come out with a new edition before you play it four times, right? So the amount of time it takes to sleeve all of those, you could have played a game of Twilight Imperial.
00:22:43
Speaker
Well, sure. I mean, really, that's because that's the other thing to take into account, right? Is I mean, you see a lot of people obviously sleeving cards is the thing that you see that's more common, right? But right. But, you know, again, I've seen like like I've seen people take the thin cardstock tableaus that are often come in games and they'll laminate them, you know, so that they're thicker and and, you know, they're there.
00:23:06
Speaker
You can definitely go down that road and spend a lot of extra money on a game that you already own, right? So I will say, I will say that reminded me, print and play games. Like I have a couple of print and play like roll and write style games that I've gotten from publishers.
00:23:27
Speaker
that I did go laminate those. So I'm not having to print out another sheet. I was like, OK, I see the justification doing this, but that's purely just so I can save paper. That's different. That's eco friendly. That's a completely different thing. Like we have we have a lot of roll and write games in our family where once we play it like two or three, four or five times, we're like, oh, this one's going to stick around. We will laminate a few sheets so that you don't run the pad out to zero. Yeah, I mean, yeah, that makes sense.
00:23:57
Speaker
I've also seen people out there that, well, it might just be one company in particular, but I think I saw a company that makes some kind of surface thing that you can apply. Water droplets don't soak into the game board. I have seen that. I know what you're talking about. I forget what it's called.
00:24:16
Speaker
It's a shield or something. I know which one you're talking about. It's like a protective film. You can do it over your game board and cards and things like that. It's kind of cool because you just take it, you put it onto the surface of the board and everything, and then I would watch them absolutely take Coke and tea and all these other things and just pour it on there, but it would just come straight off. It would be nothing at all. That's cool.
00:24:43
Speaker
It's like right next to your boards. Right. Right. But again, I wouldn't put the time into that unless it was something like I really, really wanted to do. Well, yeah, because and like going back to what Andrew said, you know, it kind of depends on like, how are you planning on playing that game with the group that you're playing with? You know, are you foreseeing that that's going to be enough of a problem that you're going to spend the time and the effort to do it? I mean, do
00:25:11
Speaker
with those people at this point.
00:25:18
Speaker
They have no decency. There's been plenty of times I've had, you know, game nights where I've cracked out things from my my gaming library and I never really gave any thought to, you know, if somebody spilled something on and it wouldn't be. Now, I guess if I had something that was super hard to replace, it was, you know, an out of print game or something. I guess I might give some thought to that, but I still don't know that I wouldn't just put it on the table anyway. But great.
00:25:44
Speaker
But, you know, that's a concern, I guess, for some people. And I mean, obviously, when you're playing with kids, that's a whole other thing. Right. So. Yeah. Yeah, I just think it's really down to.
00:25:55
Speaker
preference I mean and yeah how you look at your gaming experience and what yeah what you want to use the games for because yeah I just don't sleeving in general I think to me I know there's companies that well and the specific publishers that will release sleeves that are very specific to that game which then to me that's just more of like an upgrade essentially if you buy those sleeves to sleeve the cards of that specific game
00:26:21
Speaker
Um, then really like protecting them in the long run, just like adding a sleeve that has the backing with the logo of the game or something, you know, like, that's more like an upgrade to me.
00:26:32
Speaker
I went down that road once with, I sleeved the game Aliens Legendary, which has like 400 cards, 500 cards in it. And for some reason I thought, oh, I'm going to need to sleeve this. And by the time I got done sleeving that, I was like, I'm never going to play this game enough to sleeve it. That it merits being sleeved, right? That's a beast of a game.
00:26:54
Speaker
It is a game. Well, and you don't handle the cards hard enough. I mean, I would have to play it 100 times to to show enough wear on the cards that. Yeah, but it's probably worthwhile. So I I don't know. After that experience, I I I slowed down on sleeping in general. But there are a couple of games. Ticket to Ride was a great example that came up earlier. You know, there's some
00:27:17
Speaker
Some of those card driven games where you're just constantly reshuffling. Um, I know I've seen dominion games where the base had just worn down haggard because it's, you know, the same cards have been used over and over again. And yeah, I mean, you could definitely make that argument, right? That if you're playing, if you're, if you're playing a game that requires you to flip through cards and reshuffle and reshuffle and reshuffle that, you know, that there comes, comes a point that makes sense.
00:27:43
Speaker
Those are our phase. We play phase 10 a lot with my siblings and our phase 10 decks always look so like run down. But I'm like, we play it all the time. So like when I look at it, that doesn't bother me. That just sure it's like great memories that we have. I mean, we it's our go to game where we just like bond together playing it. So it doesn't bother me that they're run down from like over shuffling handle.
00:28:07
Speaker
Exactly. That gives you, I mean, going back to what Drew said, right? It gives it some, it gives it some character. It gives it some. That's my point. There we go. Exactly. The friends along the way, you know. Right.
00:28:21
Speaker
It makes you remember how it got that way, right? Well, the very first game that I ever had ruined, I took it to a Christmas party and some friends of mine, their kids were there and accidentally spilled some of their drink actually onto the cards of my ticket to ride. And it was so funny in that memory because
00:28:42
Speaker
At the time, the guy who was the hosting the party, he went through and he was like, I really like this ticket to ride game. I really like it. I want to check it out because he wasn't really a gamer. And he went through and he was looking and he was like, God, this is so expensive to buy.
00:28:59
Speaker
and then that happened right after like he had said that like five minutes later and he felt so bad and I said dude don't worry it is 10 years old it is okay if it's been played to dust almost so it's okay so I again that's a funny memory in itself
00:29:21
Speaker
and having to be able to talk about that and communicate with that. And then he went and bought his own copy of Ticket to Ride. And that's how it was. And then you spilled your drinks all over his cup. I did. I spilled your drinks. Well, so Drew, you do raise a really good point, which I think our culture of games right now really feeds into this, which is the replaceability of these things, right?
00:29:49
Speaker
Like Heather, you said, oh, you know, we've worn out all these decks of phase 10. Yeah, that's because phase 10 is a replaceable game. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like a ticket to ride is more or less a replaceable game. But there's a lot of games out there like right over, you know, right over Josh's shoulder like.
00:30:06
Speaker
those cards in Marvel United are a lot more difficult to replace than a deck of phase 10 cards. So that's going to go into those kinds of thoughts as well. Not necessarily that the cards are going to get worn out, but the spill concerns or all that stuff, right? Because you think of the joke of the people who have the chopsticks on the fingertips or whatever they are to pick up tips. I've seen that. You know what I mean? That kind of stuff, right? Whatever that level is,
00:30:36
Speaker
that people want to go to to protect their stuff. I mean, fine. But the ability to replace things is definitely something that would come into that equation as well.
00:30:46
Speaker
For sure. Yeah, if I was going to drag out my copy of Battlestar Galactica, for example, I might think about it, you know, a little bit more knowing that it's several hundred dollars to replace, like, you know, if something were to happen to it. But also, I kind of personally, I kind of fall into that category of games are meant to be played. Right. And even the games that I have that would be very expensive to replace, kind of like what Drew said a minute ago.
00:31:13
Speaker
unless it was something that just completely destroyed it, right? You spilled black ink all over the board or something, you know? I would find a way to just repair it as best I could and move on, I think.
00:31:24
Speaker
But I do like how this discussion has been revolving around happy little accidents and not people who are purposefully going out of their way to ruin the game. Or, and maybe the fact that they didn't notice, but you noticed, you knew, you saw they ate some Cheetos right before they could come and play. That's right.
00:31:43
Speaker
Now, I will admit that I am one of those people and I do it on my kids more than my friends, but I've had some friends that I've done it to also that if they start fanning those cards or they start, you know, twisting their cards when they're fanned out so that it starts bending them and, you know, bending them out of flat. I'm like, hey, will you knock it off with the cards, please? The one that drives me nuts is the nails on the table to pick the cards up. And oh, yeah, it's like nails on a chalkboard. I'm like, ah.
00:32:13
Speaker
Hahahaha.
00:32:15
Speaker
Well, I mean, certainly it's one of the reasons I thought to bring this question to the table was that certainly from a designer and publisher's perspective, box size is often criticized if it's not big enough to include all of the cards in a sleeved state. And I've always found that to be an interesting concern, but it's certainly one that I think it's still a very vocal minority probably of people that consume board games.
00:32:44
Speaker
But they're very vocal, right? Oh, this box is terrible. I can't get all the cards in it because they're once they're sleep. Yeah. And, you know, I've run into that a few times with really small box games where for whatever reason, I decided to go ahead and put some sleeves on them and that, you know, that small deck of 40 cards suddenly makes the box lid lift a little bit, you know. So I mean, I get that to a point. But at the same time, we're also all prone to
00:33:10
Speaker
groaning about how big boxes are when they don't need to be too. I can appreciate a box design that's as small as it can get away with, so you're not taking up needless space, FFG style with big giant boxes that have a small pile of components inside. We in the tabletop gaming community are just never satisfied. That's
00:33:32
Speaker
That's just simply as it puts. If you want to join a great hobby, then this is a great hobby to be into.
00:33:44
Speaker
Just try not to become friends with the people here. No, I'm joking. Definitely become friends with them. They're good people. I think anybody's going to... There's always going to be someone who's going to nitpick about something. It's just going to happen. But I don't think it's a requirement that then people need to incorporate that in every single game out there. I definitely think that still needs to be a choice.
00:34:10
Speaker
Well, I think I think we've really seen, right, that this is definitely something where there's people that land kind of all over the spectrum. Right. I think that a lot of us like Heather, you and I kind of fall into the there are certain situations in which it makes sense to leave a game. And Drew and Josh are like, screw that. I'm not slaving crap. Like we are perfect. Like four spectra. Right. It's it's fantastic.
00:34:39
Speaker
I reign in the chaos realm area, so. Well, one of the things that came to my mind as we were talking was I had a friend who used to come to regular game nights that I used to put on. And this topic came up. Somebody was complaining that somebody had Cheeto fingers. And we got to talking about how important that was that you don't eat your snacks while you're touching things.
00:35:08
Speaker
And he said something that really resonated with me, which was that this this is the same kind of thinking that you see with a lot of collectibles. Right. Some people keep them in the box forever, tucked away in a shelf and some people take them out and enjoy them. And you just got to figure out what kind of person you are. Are you the kind of person that has to have it, you know, behind protective plastic and you look at it from afar or do you want to get your hands dirty and enjoy it? Right.
00:35:36
Speaker
Yeah, I was actually I was thinking of that too that as we were talking about it I was like it really kind of speaks to are they really a Gamer an active gamer or did they just want the game on the shelf like you're just collecting it in the best way possible Yeah, I mean it's growing up my parents used to give us the holiday Barbies and we couldn't open those things and
00:36:00
Speaker
You know, they would collect, they would just give us those. And as a kid, you know, that's something so hard that now as an adult, I'm like, I've got like boxes of these Barbies that my parents gave me that they gave me as a kid that I could never open because they were collector items.
00:36:16
Speaker
Now's the time to sell them. Now's the time. Cash in. Marco Roby made them valuable. Go do it. It's time. To the moon. To the moon. But there's so many of them. They're just random Barbies. It's not even like a collector, like a collectible one, but it was such a thing that got instilled in me. It was like, oh, I can't play with this. I can't play with it. And now with my girls, I'm like,
00:36:40
Speaker
I bust from those out every Christmas. I'm like, here you go. Go at it. And they have the best enjoy it. It's meant to be played with, you know, like it's not I look at it. I'm like, I would rather them enjoy playing with it. And it's the same with the board games. You know, I want to play the board games. I want to get them out and use them as much as I can. For sure. Yeah. But, you know, again,
00:37:05
Speaker
There's no right answer, right? It's not like we can say, like, this is the way it's supposed to be, you people. Like, it's very, it's a personal, totally a personal decision. Yeah. For sure. And then, you know, just as with so many issues in board games, right, it takes all kinds. There's people out there who run the complete spectrum from wanting to be very collector oriented to being, you know, just focused on enjoying it the next time they get it off the show.
00:37:32
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. Totally agree.
00:37:49
Speaker
Well, before we get out of here, we're going to talk real quickly about what we have in front of us. What what do you want to get to the table between now and the next time we get together around this magnificent mahogany table? Well, I will start.
00:38:06
Speaker
I actually we're going out of town for a week on vacation to go visit family and We're actually gonna bring Disney animated with us Funko games Disney animated Yeah, I have only gotten to play it once before but I'm excited to teach it to my husband and my son And I'm gonna get together with my sister who loves to play board games So I think it'll be a great one to just get around the table and try it out You're basically just trying to
00:38:34
Speaker
You're all different animators. You're working on different Disney movies between Snow White, Fantasia, Aladdin. And it's really cool. You're trying to build the background with these little polyamino shapes. And then once you've got your background built to a certain point, you can lay down the clear character on top of it, the layering with old Disney animation. So it very much plays into the theme. But it's very collaborative, which I love. I think it's a really good one to introduce to new gamers
00:39:03
Speaker
So I'm excited to try that one out some more and introduce it to my husband and my son. Awesome. How about you Drew? So the ones that I do know that I'm going to be getting out next week, I will be going on vacation with my in-laws and it's going to be just a good time with the little ones being there because we're going to play games like my little Everdale.
00:39:28
Speaker
And as a whole group, I'm excited because I get to play this for the very first time. It's a game that I just purchased this past week and that is Green Team Wins. That's a good one. So excited. That's what everybody keeps telling me and I'm like,
00:39:48
Speaker
It's a good one. I remember Andrew pumping that up on the last podcast. Did you get it at Target or did you get it from 25th Century? So that was the story I was supposed to say earlier, but it's fine. I've missed so much of that Target sale and I'm so mad at myself. And then there's apparently a sale at my local Walmart. Wingspan was $27 and they have been sold out every single day and I'm so mad.
00:40:18
Speaker
Anyways, but to answer your question, Andrew, I got it at Target. Okay. So the only reason why I ask is because the Target version only goes up to six players, whereas the version from 25th Directly goes up to 12.
00:40:34
Speaker
Yeah, I mean yeah, you can just have other people you can just have paper like it doesn't really yeah Yeah No, but it just it doesn't have 12 boards and it doesn't have 12 of the cards that flip to orange to green That's such a fun game. You're gonna like it drew Okay, that's what I'm gonna have to take okay. I got it. I got it, but that's easy enough
00:40:53
Speaker
That's easy enough. But yeah, I'm so excited to play it. That one. And I get to introduce my niece to Everdell. So with my little Everdell. So that one's going to be... That's a good one too. I played that with my son at Dice Tower East and made me think of you, Drew. Oh, thanks.
00:41:11
Speaker
What a weird thing to think about for me, but okay. Anyway. You taught me Everdale. There's the backstory. Sort of taught you. Just remember, I was like. You happily taught me Everdale. I ended up asking somebody else. I was like, is this how you play it? Is this right? Have I been playing this wrong all the time? No, my little Everdale is really cute though. We enjoyed it. I look forward to it.
00:41:35
Speaker
How does that compare to regular Everdale? I mean, obviously, there's some simplification. It's definitely more simplified. You are just purely moving your little characters, collecting the resources, then using your resources to buy one of the cards and adding it to your little home area.
00:41:56
Speaker
and then activating it if you can or whatever. And then it goes through, I think, like four seasons. But that's pretty much it. Like there's no there's nothing else. There's no other like objective things you can get on the tree. You're like, it's very simplified. So it takes out some of the combinations and the the building from A to B to C that that Everdell has ingrained in it.
00:42:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's really just placement. Get your berries or whatever you're going to pick up. And then you can use that to then buy a card, add it to your home, and then that's the end of your turn. Interesting. Looking forward to it. What about you, Josh?
00:42:38
Speaker
So I have a couple that I have set aside that I'm looking forward to. I got in the mail not long ago, a Kickstarter I backed a while back called For Glory by Spielcraft Games, and it's a gladiator combat game.
00:42:54
Speaker
I got a chance to back the expansion because I missed the original when it came out and I went ahead and was able to pick up the original game with it, which is fantastic. But it looks like a fun little small box game that I'm hoping is something that resonates well with my sons and I. And then apart from that, the other one that I was hoping to get to the table soon is funny enough,
00:43:22
Speaker
I've had the I've had the larger version of Everdell. I got the the newest expansions of Everdell that I have not had a chance to play. And I was hoping to introduce my wife and kids to that because I've played it a couple of times, but but they haven't had a chance to. So I'm hoping to get that to the table. How about you, Andrew?
00:43:47
Speaker
I have this beautiful game in front of me. I'm going to hold it up for everybody who's on this cam here. Have you seen this game? I have seen that game. This game is Bonsai from DV games. They actually send it to us a couple of months ago and I played it a couple of times. I haven't played with my wife yet and I really want to play with her and I want to play with my daughter also. But we're gearing up to release a review of this because the game comes out at Gen Con.
00:44:14
Speaker
It's a really fun hexagonal tile placement game to build your bonsai tree. It's really neat. I played it solo a lot, and it's just a nice kind of calm experience. So I'm looking forward to playing it at higher player counts. Yeah, that's the one for me, Bonsai. Yeah, that one looks really cool. I think I saw Ruel and is it Thinkertamer? Thinkertamer?
00:44:40
Speaker
their YouTube channel. Oh, they played it at Dice Tower West. I got to see it played. It's a good game. And yeah, it's beautiful to be. What's the player count on that one? It is one to four, one to four. So, you know.
00:44:59
Speaker
We are always in search of that elusive one to five player game in our family with three kids, but usually one kid doesn't want to play games anyway, so whatever. I've been there. Yeah, absolutely. I lose my oldest to VR gaming most of the time when I try to try to find something to play. I feel it. I feel it.
00:45:23
Speaker
All right, so we are going to go real quickly through where everybody can be contacted, starting with Heather. Heather, how can everybody get a hold of you on the interwebs?
00:45:34
Speaker
So you can find me at Bored Gaming Mama across all social media sites, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. I stream on Twitch twice a week, Wednesday nights and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. And I am uploading live Twitch playthroughs to YouTube and creating short form content and posting it all over.
00:45:59
Speaker
along with kind of daily things when I go to conventions trying to upload videos and let you know what's going on. So that's where you can find me and follow. Excellent. How about you Drew? You can find me at welcome to boredom on all social media platforms, whether that may be Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter,
00:46:20
Speaker
And my most recent one, threads. Come and follow me over there. I'm a little more unhinged over there. I forgot about threads. If you want to see some fun, I'm beefing with Mark Zuckerberg right now and challenging him to a board game every single day. So please come tag along for all the fun and chaos that I'm throwing at you. It's a fun time. Yeah, he's terrified. So that's what everyone at least tells me.
00:46:47
Speaker
so as he should be of course of course i've even offered to pay his ticket to jenkan so you know it's it's getting real jenkan said they would sponsor it so but part of part of me we'll see we'll see what happens next time we talk we'll see all right anyways he can't ignore me for too much longer so anyways
00:47:10
Speaker
That's where you can find me, all the silly content, all the fun that I like to have, as well as any reviews and thoughts on games that I've recently played and or received, where we can just talk about my thoughts on them or how to play or anything of that sort. So feel free to give me a follow, a subscribe, a like, whatever it is you want to, over on any of those sites, whatever your preferred method of social media is. Excellent. And you, Andrew.
00:47:38
Speaker
Oh, it's me. Um, yeah, you can find me and, uh, and my wife, Anitra at the family gamers.com. Um, you can join our family gamers community on Facebook. You can find us on all the social media at family gamers. AA stands for Andrew and Anitra. That's, you know, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook threads.
00:47:56
Speaker
TikTok, blah, blah, YouTube, all that stuff. So at Family Gamers AA or head over to thefamilygamers.com where you will soon see a review for Bonsai. Nice. Fantastic.
00:48:09
Speaker
And you can find the stuff that I'm working on with Salamander Games at salamandergames.com. We are on social media platforms as Play Salamander. You can find the podcast out on the interwebs as Corner Game Table. We just started getting that on threads as well, because I saw Drew was out there, so I had to up my game too.
00:48:34
Speaker
Absolutely. It is chaos over there. Just come and join. It's fun. It's the Wild West, right? Right. So you can find the show out on most of the social media platforms. You can also, if you want to leave us a message out on our website, CornerGameTable.com, we have the ability for you to leave a message for us now. We would look forward to any listener feedback that you might want to leave for us.
00:49:00
Speaker
Ask us a question. Tell us a joke. Whatever you want to whatever you want to leave us, we'll see if we can do something with that in future podcast episodes. Copy and paste a rule book and they will all read it to me because I don't read those. If there's a topic you want us to cover, if there's something you want to hear us talk about. All right. So with that, we'll put this episode in the can and. What's our sign out going to be tonight? Anybody have a good one?
00:49:31
Speaker
Bye. Everybody take care. Bye, everybody. Bye.
00:50:16
Speaker
We'll cut this part out. Oh, yeah, that was tremendous. I thought I was the only one that saw that I was. Yeah, apparently tapping me with a wand is not not bothering me, which is what I asked for. Kid logic. Anyway, so that's probably a good transition point to cut.
00:50:34
Speaker
Hold on, I have kid issues. We all saw the wand, it was amazing.