Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Maybe some hamsters shouldn't be so furious...but if they weren't would we love them as much as we do?

This is just a short post people to plug something I've found and enjoy greatly. The Happy Happy Board Game Love In podcast. Hosted by Luke Morris aka Hamster Of Fury on BGG. He's got a fresh smarmy take on podcasting.

As with a blog I've often thought of doing a podcast myself but like a blog I know I'd ignore it too much not have a following listening to my podcast just like I don't have a following reading my blog. Of course the fact that I don't advertise my blog or even tell anyone about it. . .well that might have something to do with it. Mind you I do still consider making a board gaming podcast because WTF I can do with it what I do with this blog and just make a new one whenever I fucking feel like it...be it weeks or a month apart.

But I digress....

Luke has churned out 5 podcasts so far so there's a little bit of catching up for you guys. His podcast is low budget as a good B-Podcast sould be. Check it out at:

http://happyhappyboardgames.blogspot.com/

THoiA

I'm not a league, I'm jus zis guy, ya know?

The "Mad" Gamer aka Steve Weeks and his game group now goes by the ominous title of The League of Untouchable American Gamers. Reviews have been posted (and removed) from the BGG database and I disagree with this action. While I don't always (actualy rarely) agree with Steve's opinion on the game I do applaud his attempt to write creative and thought provoking reviews.

One of Steve's main claims of fame is that he never accepts free games to review and all games are purchased by the league and proof is on file and able to viewed by those interested through Bubbles McFadden the leagues honored treasurer.

I understand where Steve's coming from but I feel he went about things wrong. I fully agree that BGG tends to be a bit uppity and slam games for the wrong reasons and certainly exhaults games for even more wrong reasons. Still his approach was negative review after negative review after negative review....his reviews are pretty harsh I might add so it's no wonder he's made some enemies there. So what. He has recently posted a positive review (for Wyatt Earp which I hate...it's JUST Rummy people!) but there should have been more of an ebb and flow of positive/negative reviews.

So in my own little response I intend to begin writing my own meger reviews here for the troves of no one's who frequent my blog and read my drivel. Expect brutal honesty on all game aspects and both in favor of and against games. These will be slow coming...as do all my posts here but they will start to rear their ugly heads and will have the word •REVIEW• in the postings title.

So thanks Steve for the inspiration.
THoiA

02-27-2007 •UPDATE•
Alright well his original attempt at bringing a bit of humor and truthfully a different take on most games to the snobbish world of designer board games has waned. Seems he has overly embraced his own image and become the thing with which he hates...granted he's on the other side of the fence but still he's not being very fair. Steve has created his Podcast for his little "league" and it sucks. Granted he's got podcasting "skills" and uses nice equipment to create his casts but the content is what's important here and we are being fed the same form of rhetoric that Steve railed against and indeed still rails against only he's using the opposite side of the argument. He's pompous and arrogant on his casts his opinions are not being delivered in a precise and formulated format like they were in his reviews. Sure the humor is still there but now it's humor just for humor whereas before you actually got humor and a good review.