loading . . . Welcome to Board Game Beat! <p>I’m your host, W. Eric Martin, and I’ve been writing about board games and card games full time since 2006, first as editor and head writer of BoardgameNews.com, then for fifteen years as news editor at BoardGameGeek — and now I'm starting something new.</p><blockquote>Normally Boardcasts — audio narrations of the weekly article — are available only to members at the Prototype+ tiers of membership. But for our first week we want everyone to have access to the gated goodies. If you haven't already, please consider upgrading to a Prototype or higher membership starting at just $5/month!</blockquote><div class="kg-card kg-audio-card"><img alt="audio-thumbnail" class="kg-audio-thumbnail kg-audio-hide" /><div class="kg-audio-thumbnail placeholder"><svg width="24" height="24"><path d="M7.5 15.33a.75.75 0 1 0 0 1.5.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.5Zm-2.25.75a2.25 2.25 0 1 1 4.5 0 2.25 2.25 0 0 1-4.5 0ZM15 13.83a.75.75 0 1 0 0 1.5.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.5Zm-2.25.75a2.25 2.25 0 1 1 4.5 0 2.25 2.25 0 0 1-4.5 0Z"></path><path d="M14.486 6.81A2.25 2.25 0 0 1 17.25 9v5.579a.75.75 0 0 1-1.5 0v-5.58a.75.75 0 0 0-.932-.727.755.755 0 0 1-.059.013l-4.465.744a.75.75 0 0 0-.544.72v6.33a.75.75 0 0 1-1.5 0v-6.33a2.25 2.25 0 0 1 1.763-2.194l4.473-.746Z"></path><path d="M3 1.5a.75.75 0 0 0-.75.75v19.5a.75.75 0 0 0 .75.75h18a.75.75 0 0 0 .75-.75V5.133a.75.75 0 0 0-.225-.535l-.002-.002-3-2.883A.75.75 0 0 0 18 1.5H3ZM1.409.659A2.25 2.25 0 0 1 3 0h15a2.25 2.25 0 0 1 1.568.637l.003.002 3 2.883a2.25 2.25 0 0 1 .679 1.61V21.75A2.25 2.25 0 0 1 21 24H3a2.25 2.25 0 0 1-2.25-2.25V2.25c0-.597.237-1.169.659-1.591Z"></path></svg></div><div class="kg-audio-player-container"><audio src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/media/2026/01/WELCOME-TO-BOARD-GAME-BEAT.mp3" preload="metadata"></audio><div class="kg-audio-title">WELCOME TO BOARD GAME BEAT</div><div class="kg-audio-player"><button class="kg-audio-play-icon"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M23.14 10.608 2.253.164A1.559 1.559 0 0 0 0 1.557v20.887a1.558 1.558 0 0 0 2.253 1.392L23.14 13.393a1.557 1.557 0 0 0 0-2.785Z"></path></svg></button><button class="kg-audio-pause-icon kg-audio-hide"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><rect x="3" y="1" width="7" height="22" rx="1.5" ry="1.5"></rect><rect x="14" y="1" width="7" height="22" rx="1.5" ry="1.5"></rect></svg></button><span class="kg-audio-current-time">0:00</span><div class="kg-audio-time">/<span class="kg-audio-duration">397.21825</span></div><input type="range" class="kg-audio-seek-slider" max="100" value="0" /><button class="kg-audio-playback-rate">1×</button><button class="kg-audio-unmute-icon"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M15.189 2.021a9.728 9.728 0 0 0-7.924 4.85.249.249 0 0 1-.221.133H5.25a3 3 0 0 0-3 3v2a3 3 0 0 0 3 3h1.794a.249.249 0 0 1 .221.133 9.73 9.73 0 0 0 7.924 4.85h.06a1 1 0 0 0 1-1V3.02a1 1 0 0 0-1.06-.998Z"></path></svg></button><button class="kg-audio-mute-icon kg-audio-hide"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M16.177 4.3a.248.248 0 0 0 .073-.176v-1.1a1 1 0 0 0-1.061-1 9.728 9.728 0 0 0-7.924 4.85.249.249 0 0 1-.221.133H5.25a3 3 0 0 0-3 3v2a3 3 0 0 0 3 3h.114a.251.251 0 0 0 .177-.073ZM23.707 1.706A1 1 0 0 0 22.293.292l-22 22a1 1 0 0 0 0 1.414l.009.009a1 1 0 0 0 1.405-.009l6.63-6.631A.251.251 0 0 1 8.515 17a.245.245 0 0 1 .177.075 10.081 10.081 0 0 0 6.5 2.92 1 1 0 0 0 1.061-1V9.266a.247.247 0 0 1 .073-.176Z"></path></svg></button><input type="range" class="kg-audio-volume-slider" max="100" value="100" /></div></div></div><p>Board Game Beat is an independent site where I will post game announcements, industry news, previews of upcoming games, convention coverage, articles on game-related topics, and videos that will occasionally be a game review, but will more frequently be...something else.</p><p>To give a bit more detail, each month on Board Game Beat I'll choose a game-related topic and explore that topic in weekly deep-dive articles. In February 2026, for example, I'll be talking about the relationship between games and puzzles: Where do we draw the line between the two? And how meaningful is that distinction?</p><p>Some game announcements, previews, and news items will relate to the monthly topic, but most will not. After all, hundreds of game publishers around the world are unlikely to co-ordinate their releases to match whatever I'm focusing on in a certain month.</p><p>You can read these posts on the website or on <a href="https://www.wericmartin.com/follow/" rel="noreferrer">various federated social media sites</a>. If you want to get posts emailed to you — either individually or in a weekly digest or both — you can do so by <a href="https://www.wericmartin.com/#/portal" rel="noreferrer">subscribing to Board Game Beat</a>. You don't have to pay anything to do so, but if you want to support the site and facilitate more convention coverage, you can choose one of the paid subscription tiers, which range from US$2 to US$20 per month, with discounted annual prices and with perks at each level, such as:</p><ul><li>Participation in semi-weekly reader polls.</li><li>The Boardcast, which is audio versions of the weekly articles.</li><li>A hand-knitted dice bag created by <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/CrochetCleric" rel="noreferrer">an artist in the U.S</a>.</li><li>Access to the Press Room, that is, posts about what's coming on the site, what I'm playing, and what goes into creating Board Game Beat.</li></ul><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/Dice-Bag-Side-1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Teal, coral, and gray crocheted dice bag with granny square design, with colorful dice spilling out." loading="lazy" width="1600" height="1200" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/Dice-Bag-Side-1.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/Dice-Bag-Side-1.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/Dice-Bag-Side-1.jpg 1600w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">This is the 2026 perk for our Deluxe Edition members, created by </span><a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/CrochetCleric" rel="noreferrer"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">CrochetCleric</span></a><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">! (Dice not included.)</span></figcaption></figure><p>And what’s the goal of Board Game Beat? To help people find games they’ll love and to explore the work of those who create games and other objects that inspire play. Thousands of new games are released each year, and while most of them won’t be to your taste or mine, that’s okay. You can be sure that somebody loves each game that hits the market, and I hope to be a matchmaker — using images, text, interviews, and videos to make connections, while also exploring aspects of games and game design.</p><p>In the decade prior to BoardgameNews.com, I wrote full-time on a freelance basis, often on business topics like how to improve your catering business or better serve your reprographic printing clients, but I also pitched game coverage to a variety of magazines. I wrote about the game <em>Primordial Soup</em> for <em>Discover</em>, about <em>Reef<strong> </strong>Encounter</em> for <em>Tropical Fish Hobbyist</em>, and about <em>Shear Panic</em> for <em>sheep! </em>Why? Because the number of people who play board and card games dwarfs the number of self-identified gamers, and I want to introduce all game players to titles that they might never have heard about otherwise.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/Sheep-Magazine-Cover-1100x1100h.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front cover of sheep! magazine from Nov/Dec 2014 showing Santa Claus feeding sheep" loading="lazy" width="834" height="1100" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2025/12/Sheep-Magazine-Cover-1100x1100h.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/Sheep-Magazine-Cover-1100x1100h.jpg 834w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Hundreds of magazines exist for specialized hobbies and careers, whatever they might be</span></figcaption></figure><p>I have favorite games, yes, but I’m not proselytizing for those favorites — at least not most of the time. Instead I’m proselytizing for gaming itself. I'm dumbfounded that each time I look at, say, <em>Parents</em> magazine, I see reviews of books, movies, video games, and other largely solitary experiences, with games getting only a token mention in the annual holiday buying guide instead of being centered as a way for parents and children to spend time together.</p><p>Games are a vital way to connect with others, giving you a framework for interaction and allowing you to discover one another in myriad ways: how you reason, how you’re creative, how you explore, how you solve problems, how you partner with someone, how you think like your fellow players...and how you don’t. The designer uses rules to create a structure for play, then you join others in exploring that framework and filling it in with your personalities.</p><p>In a larger sense, games are just toys with rules. If you give people a bunch of blocks, they’ll treat them like toys: stacking them, arranging them into images, lining them up, throwing them at one another, and so on. If you challenge people to do something specific with the blocks, you’ve given them a puzzle to solve. If you attach conditions to that challenge so that they can judge how well they do, you’ve transformed that puzzle into a game.</p><p>In short, play is a continuum, with games being one way that we can engage in play with others — or on our own. Ideally, however we're engaging in play, we do what we can to ensure that everyone at the table has a fulfilling and satisfying time. On Board Game Beat, I'll do what I can to help make that happen, and I invite you to join me in exploring all that games have to offer.</p>
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