Tag: Feedback

Market prices

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When you look at buying a modern tabletop game, you will have a rough idea as to how much you think it is worth - or you will have some sort of budget in your head that you want to stick to, and which guides you to the sort of games that you think you can afford. Your price expectations will be based on things such as the quantity and quality of the components, replayability and probably also rarity or hotness of a game. Yet, the amount of money you're willing to put on the counter doesn't always match the real cost or value of a game and is either too much or too little in comparison.

Kicking it

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Let's not beat around the bush - Kickstarter seems to become more and more the de facto way to sell tabletop games. It used to be the domain for small designers to make their game become a reality, but now established publishers use the crowdfunding platform to bring their latest release to market. I don't want to discuss whether this trend is good or bad  - there are plenty of discussions on this topic already. Instead, I want to focus on how people use it to buy games and what their expectations are.

UK Games Expo is coming…

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UK Games Expo 2019 is around the corner now. In just over three weeks, 40,000 or so visitors and over 350 exhibitors will descend on the Birmingham NEC to explore the over 24,000 sqm's worth of exhibition halls, plus the dozen or so of rooms in the nearby NEC Hilton Hotel and probably other venues. From Friday, 31 May to Sunday, 2 June, the family friendly exhibition celebrates all things tabletop games and offers virtually everyone something of interest. I will be there on the Sunday and can't wait to see what's on offer.

Intelligent design

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Let me start by saying that I completely appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into thinking of, prototyping, designing, playtesting and developing a game. It takes hundreds of hours of playtest sessions to refine a game and very clever people to create a great game that flows nicely, is balanced and creates the intended player experience. So when people buy a game and change its rules without second thought, they disrespect the designers' and developers' hard work, time and effort. After all, your quick and hasty rule changes are unlikely to improve a game that has gone through years of development and been tested by many, many people. Yet, I think there are reasons why you would want to change a game, and I don't think there is any disrespect to anyone by doing so in those situations.

New arrivals

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For many of us it is easy to forget how we started with tabletop games. We have now played so many different games and followed the industry for some time that we forget the games we used to play and love. Of course, we have stopped playing some of these early games for good reasons. Our tastes will have changed and as we discovered more games we realized what it is that we enjoy more than the games we started with. However, that doesn't mean our early games are bad games. In fact, it will be these games that are great for introducing new people into the community.

UK Games Expo 2019

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I joined the tabletop games industry as a blogger only recently (less than a year ago actually) and my journey really started when I visited UK Games Expo in 2018. I had started to work on a little project that I thought might eventually make it onto Kickstarter, and I felt that by attending the event I could do a little research, maybe get some contacts and generally get a better feel for the tabletop games industry and community. I certainly wasn't disappointed, because the UK Games Expo is an amazing event, and the whole atmosphere is very friendly and welcoming. I would argue that my visit to the expo made up my mind about wanting to do more within this great community - and I knew I had to return for UK Games Expo 2019.

Friendly competition

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I was recently approached by Chris Anderson to be a judge in The Board Game Workshop Design Contest 2019, and I felt very honoured. After all, I'm not a well known game reviewer, nor am I a famous YouTuber with over 1,000 subscribers. However, the contest is open to anyone who is interested in tabletop games, which I think is really great. Here is a contest that aims to really help the community of designers and bring them together with real people who love playing games. It is these sort of events that we need more of.

Bling, bling

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Inspired by a recent video from Jamey Stegmaier talking about "overproduced" games (see here: https://youtu.be/PxRpL-JQMfI), I thought I'd share my thoughts on the topic. Please watch Jamey's video first, so you know what the word "overproduced" means in the context of his video and my article. The topic is quite broad, and I won't be able cover every aspect, but instead I'll discuss a select few areas that I think can help focus everyone's thoughts on the subject and allow you to be more constructive in your feedback to publishers.

Tabletop Player Profile – Updated

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It has been a couple of months since I last updated my tabletop player profile, as per Quantic Foundry's online form. So it's time to do it again and share the results with you. See the links at the bottom of this article to complete the form yourself, which I highly recommend, and my previous results.

Human beans

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In my view, the tabletop games community is generally a friendly, welcoming group of people. We seem to know that we are all human beings, and each of us has different skills, experiences, backgrounds, challenges and attitudes. We do our best to ignore stereotypes and prejudices and try to allow anyone join in the fun of escaping to another world, solving difficult puzzles or do whatever constitutes playing a game. Of course, our community isn't perfect, but I would say the trend is in the right direction. The same is true for modern games, and many designers and publishers are clearly doing what they can to allow more people to join in the fun. There is still more work to be done of course, but again the trend seems to be in the right direction.