Commentary

In 2017 the Game Developers Conference hosted a number of board game designers and publishers for the first time to talk about tabletop games. Across the board the talks were wonderful, and you can see my thoughts about them here. … Continued

The house always had a funerial sense about it–the smell of camellias mixed with stale cigarette smoke when I was young; the sense of void after my grandmother passed. Knowing that I was there to say goodbye somehow made the … Continued

I’m ⅔ of the way done with this article and I’m realizing that this is less a structured argument and more a collection of loosely related thoughts. Restructuring it as a more coherent argument would probably require tearing it down … Continued

People love narratives. We love not just the narratives we get in the form of designed stories in books and TV and movies. We love making narratives full-hog out of nothing. If we see even the slightest hint of a … Continued

At the risk of outing myself as a gamer who doesn’t play “enough” games, let’s talk about my gaming stats for 2017. I started logging my plays on Board Game Geek late 2015 and I’ve found that I’ve enjoyed the … Continued

“Cult of the new” is an unfortunate phrase I hear a lot around the board game community to describe behavior where people get excited only about the newest, most talked-about board games and compulsively buy those games. It’s a pejorative, … Continued

As we enter the advertising onslaught that we call the “holiday season”, I’d like to both shamelessly use this time to recommend some cool games and remind everyone that board games are actually a nice, healthy way to spend time … Continued

Back in highschool my friends determined that my future career path was going to be a critic. It didn’t so much matter what I’d be criticizing, so long as I was criticizing it. Turns out they were fairly prescient. I’ve … Continued

For some reason today is a day of reflection for me. I suppose it’s because I’m preparing to launch on Patreon and trying to line up interviews at PAX Unplugged (like a “real” member of board game media–what a strange … Continued

The hard part, of course, is that this kind of post is now cliche.(1) It’s also tremendously hard to formulate. I mean, what’s my point here? What’s the thesis? Why do I feel pressure to create a singular thesis here, … Continued