Podcast Episode 85: A Conversation with Dan Thurot on Board Game Criticism

Dan Thurot has been reviewing board games for a number of years now, and for my money he’s the best in the business. I had the pleasure of sitting down with him to talk about games criticism, and in the course of the discussion we touched on history, economics, literature, and more. Also, lots of Cole Wehrle games.

Find Dan’s writing at spacebiff.com 

1:24 — Dan’s start in board game criticism
6:35 — “Fun”
14:10 — Changes in board game criticism over the last few years
18:43 — Misunderstandings about criticism
26:24 — Board game criticism is still young
29:16 — Overspecialization of critique
36:18 — Shared language
48:28 — The value of historical games
1:00:27 — Challenges posed by abstraction
1:13:49 — Civilization games and accidents
1:18:50 — Playing as the villains

Music: Sailing The Solar Wind by Abstraction

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