Boardgame Babylon

Mon, 27 March 2006

BGB Volume 14 - Rectangular Table Discussion on Women and Gaming

Okay, here is a format I’ve been promising for a long time – a Rectangular Table Discussion on a topic with three other guests. My guests on this show are my lovely wife Christina, my dear sister Isabel Simrak and my good friend Lisa Mason. They join me for a discussion of gaming from the female perspective and from the point of view of a reasonably serious gamer (Lisa), a seasoned casual gamer (Christina) and a novice new to the hobby (Isabel). I ask them a few pertinent questions (and some completely useless ones) and they spill their guts in the interest of trying to express why this hobby need not be dominated by men.

As you can see from the notes below, we recorded this twice and even the second time, the sound isn’t perfect. I’ll admit I liked a lot of the energy of the original recording just because the questions were fresh and the responses were more immediate. But then, this time, they knew some of the questions so they came up with something good straight away. And we had a lot of fun - I hope you will, too.

Although you can always send me an e-mail at: sheylon@gmail.com, I’m asking for listeners to post comments here on the site so Christina, Isabel and Lisa can see them, too.

Thanks for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon!

Next up: The marathon session review for our 12+ hour St. Patrick’s Day Game Session.

Show Notes:

Games Mentioned:

Werewolf (we have “Lupus in Tabula”)

Apples to Apples

6 Nimmt!

10 Days in the USA (or in Africa, or Asia or Europe…)

Monopoly

Peanut Butter and Jelly Board Game (I’d like to think this is the one Christina mentioned, but it dates only to 1993, which wouldn’t work chronologically – although I’m not allowed to discuss my wife’s age…)

Peanut Butter and Jelly Card Game (this is the one we play with our kids – and that one picture is our family room table…)

Pretty Pretty Princess

Ticket to Ride: Europe

Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper

Diamant

Kahuna (not mentioned, but Christina later couldn’t believe she didn’t mention how much she loves this one!)

Jyhad (which they now call “Vampire: The Eternal Struggle”, which was a shame – even though I can understand why…)

Descent: Journeys In The Dark

Head-to-Head Poker (which I just bought this weekend for about $3 at K-B Toys, pretty much just as a joke)

War of the Ring

Memoir ‘44

Commands and Colors: Ancients

Battle Cry

Der Untergang von Pompeji

Other Links:

Collectible Card Games

Vampire: The Masquerade

Tom Vasel’s Interview with Ken Koury, Monopoly Champion

Dogs Playing Poker

Neon

More Lovely Poker Decor

Pompeii

The Godfather (and the new video game, which Christina really wants…sheesh!)

Failure to Launch (that movie with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey)

Pizza!

Polyps

Buy a “got shrimples?” shirt from the Meeple People

Essen

SoCal Gamesday

Getting Your Husband To Do The Dishes

Cadbury Cream Eggs (send some to Tom Vasel, who covets them like I do)

Irkutsk

Strategicon

My stint as Geek of the Week

At the end, Christina mentions that she’s planning a drive to raise money for Cancer research through the local (to us) City of Hope by introducing new games to other people – see this space for more information. We’re planning that for June on a specific day when we’d like to encourage anyone interested to invite friends to join them to learn about designer games and give a donation for Cancer research. Stay tuned!

Direct download: bgb_v14.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 2:05 AM

Comments[7]

Sun, 26 March 2006

BGB Quick Update for 3/26

A couple of quick items for a Sunday evening:

We successfully re-recorded the Rectangular Table Discussion: Women and Gaming show Thursday night. There is a slight echo on it but it isn’t too bad. I have some ideas on how I will do the next Rectangular Table Discussion that will help improve quality. Thanks to my wonderful guests for being willing to do this all over again. I’ve finished the edit and I’m just waiting for my guests on the show to give it a listen. It will probably be posted tomorrow some time.
BGGer Naturelich, a person of undeniable refine and good taste, has put together an admittedly brief Geeklist on Boardgame Geek of the Boardgame Babylon In depth shows. While the list is only two items long, it was nice of him to put it up there and another kind soul (the uniquely gifted and highly respected Jonathan Allott) also added links to the files themselves. I expect to give them reason to expand the list in the future with shows on Power Grid, Taj Mahal, Clans, Wiz-War, Attica, and more.
We got our order from Meeple People and the materials these folks are using are nice, high quality and lots of fun. I expect to sport my “Invoke Ra” shirt a week from today at the regular monthly meeting of the Orange Country Boardgamers (having missed yesterday’s SoCal Gamesday due to my wife’s illness). Although, I have to admit – my sister Isabel got the shirt with gold lettering and it is cooler…

Category: Blog Update -- posted at: 8:35 PM

Comments[0]

Tue, 21 March 2006

Or not...

…ugh, okay – I blame myself for recording a show with a house full of people but the boom mic I used just picked up the folks in the next rooms playing games. While I plan a marathon Session Review for the great game day we had, recording a show in the living room when people were playing TransEuropa in the kitchen and Power Grid in our big game room (not to mention the army of kids running about) and there is just too much background noise.

After the cold reception from a couple of listeners I got on the RA: In depth show for my admittedly annoying breathing into the mic, I’m not going to release another substandard audio quality show if I can help it (unless I warn you that it’s a show I recorded while driving – you’ll have to deal with that – it’s my schtick!)

So, I’m planning to re-record the Rectangular Table Discussion: Women and Gaming show with my three lovely guests this week. If they are as smooth as they were the first time, it’ll be out pretty quickly since they spoke so clearly and well that there was little editing to do on the first take. We shall see. Stay tuned.

Category: Blog Update -- posted at: 11:57 PM

Comments[3]

Sun, 19 March 2006

Rectangular Table Discussion: Women and Gaming coming soon

I’m excited to release the show I recorded at our massive marathon game day yesterday – Women and Gaming. I recorded this show with not one, not two, but three guests and it sounds like it worked with the boom mike thing since the people at Radio Shack gave me an audio splitter that works only for headphones, not microphone. Who knew you can’t trust the Radio Shack Nerd? Anyway, my wife Christina, my good friend Lisa, and my sister Isabel all joined me for a discussion about what games they like, a little of their experience in gaming as young people and what they really think about the hobby. I enjoyed the discussion a good deal and, hopefully, it will be enjoyable listening. I’m editing it now and expect to have it out later this week. Thanks for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon. Comments and feedback to: sheylon@gmail.com

Category: Blog Update -- posted at: 2:01 PM

Comments[0]

Thu, 16 March 2006

BGB Volume 13 - Session Review with Alexandros, Money! and Pirate's Cove

This is a return to my roots in recording on the road. I taped this show a while ago while driving back from work in Pasadena, California. I think it’s pretty good for a show on the road, although there are some flubs here and there. There is a little traffic noise and I had thought I might throw this one out. But upon listening to it again, I thought it was okay for release (hopefully, others agree) since I am very busy at a trade conference this week and don’t have time to record a new show. It is an older session review that covers more games my wife Christina and I played with our friends Clark and Lisa last month on one of our occasional weeknight game sessions.

This weekend, I’m hoping to record some special shows at a marathon game day we’re having with lots of our friends in attendance. If I can manage it, I may knock out two themed shows with some guests I’ve been trying to get on the show for a while.

Thanks again for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.

Show Notes

Games Mentioned:

Alexandros

Money! (nominated for the Spiel Des Jahres in 1999)

Other links:

Good list of Essen 2003 Releases

Meeple People – Buy an “I’d Rather Be Playing Reef Encounter” shirt!

Direct download: bgb_v13.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 10:44 AM

Comments[3]

Fri, 10 March 2006

BGB Volume 12 - RA: In depth

Well, here it is – RA: In depth, which finally features another voice – my good friend of many years, Mason Rourman. RA is, of course, Reiner Knizia’s auction masterpiece and probably my favorite game. This is certainly the longest episode of Boardgame Babylon so far and I definitely found that I had some production issues with doing a two-man show. He’s kind of low, I’m kind of high – oi! And, yes, despite agreeing that we should not talk over each other ahead of time, we did it (okay, I did). It was also insanely long.

So, I edited it quite a bit and hopefully it sounds okay. I really would appreciate any feedback since I have a series of guest shows coming up.

Also – check out of the left sidebar for my affiliate link to the wonderful Meeple People online store, which sells all kinds of cool stuff for Euro Gamers including Meeple pillows, license plate frames and shirts (including the dazzling “Invoke Ra” shirt). If you click the link on the left side and buy something, I’ll get some store credit so that’s much appreciated.

Mason also had some queries about Medici (another Knizia auction game we mention on the show) so if you know the game, see his comments below and please answer his questions.

Thanks again for listening to Boardgame Babylon.

Show Notes

Games Mentioned:

High Society (which is a good game, but I think For Sale is more fun)

Merchants of Amsterdam

Power Grid

Empire Builder

Ingenious (which is a great game, despite lacking any kind of theme)

Other links:

Reiner Knizia

Reiner Knizia Interview on Funagain

Meeple People – Buy an “Invoke Ra” shirt!

Beyond Monopoly!

Kim Novak

Direct download: bgb_v12.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 3:50 PM

Comments[7]

Mon, 6 March 2006

RA: In depth coming soon

I've recorded my first guest host show with my good friend Mason Rourman and it's "RA: In depth". RA is, of course, my favorite game so we rambled on for an awfully long time. In the interest of making the show accessible to those burning a CD, I'm editing it down a bit but it should be posted some day this week. Sorry for the delay but this comes right as I'm going through a job transition that is keeping me enormously busy so that's why I'm just a little behind (not that I have a schedule around here). I'm also working out my schedule this week to record "Power Grid: In depth" with my friend Matt Grimaldi, so that should see the light of day soon, too. Check out the link on the side and order cool stuff from Meeple People's website, including the very fashionable "INVOKE RA" shirt.

Category: Blog Update -- posted at: 9:36 PM

Comments[3]

Tue, 28 February 2006

"Geek of the Week"

I've been honored with the title "Geek of the Week" on Boardgamegeek.com and my part-time job for the week is answering questions.

Seriously, though, extraordinarily talented artist and game enthusiast Mike Doyle, who does eye-popping redesigns of game art (check out his glorious work here), was kind enough to pass on the title after he was similarly honored last week.