Unsettling Catan by J. Rey Lee isn't a book just about Catan, but about eurogames and their characteristic features. This is me trying to talk about its most pertinent arguments. #boardgames

I sometimes wonder if self-promotion without feeling self-conscious is something I could still learn to do.

The slasher is an awesome little gem. I am happy that I could review it for the ginger nuts and present it to the horror community :)

I cosign every single word of this anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

This is the greatest trailer of the year. I will brook no argument. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ0f...

In a twist, I did not see coming, reading Unsettling Catan has made me genuinely want to play Arcs again. Namely, to examine what the seemingly polar opposite of detached design feels like, when intentionally approached this way.

Game critiques are paratexts and I think we don't talk enough about the responsibility this puts on critics writing them.

I've only just started reading Unsettling Catan by @jreylee.bsky.social but the introduction already includes bangers like this one. While also bringing up player *complicity*. I can't wait to get through more of its pages.

I played Bohemians last night. I did not dislike Bohemians. I did dislike the German rulebook.

Intriguing.

We often play together to be mean to each other. The "why" we come up with for doing so is worth talking about.

This might have been the Ghibli film I've enjoyed the most. Very entertaining.

Watching Porco Rosso for the first time. An unexpectedly cool Ghibli movie, it seems. 😀

To depict something means to reconstruct it in a different medium. Doing so means incorporating the limitations and characteristics of that medium. It follows that all depiction is a distorted reconstruction within a medium. The way a movie distorts reality through editing. (1/3)

I'm starting to suspect that people welcome AI in their job exactly as far as they believe their job to be bullshit. Nobody who believes their work has actual value will allow AI into it.

There is such a thing as good board game satire. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4odB...

We from spielbar.com need to open new revenues of income so, we have decided to market a calendar with some of @georgiosp.bsky.social finest work as motivational posters. We will be taking preorders for christmas @spielbarcom.bsky.social

An opaque design is only interesting, if players understand enough to want to explore it further. Otherwise their first play will just be random non-sense: a bad experience they won't revisit. First plays don't need to be fun, but they make the case for what further plays will be about.

Player agency is not a synonym for player control. Limiting player control is the whole idea behind games. Agency is a product of these limitations, it doesn't stand in opposition to them. #boardgames

'Cult of the New' is a pejorative that has been embraced because people have understood on some level that content creators 'promoting the hobby' are inadvertently promoting conspicuous consumption. Too many podcasts are effectively audiobook versions of loot pics. #boardgames

Then they wrap up with "Games are always a proposition to players. They choose what they enjoy about it and do that." It's great listening to people who not only like games, but also understand them.

This is yet another example of how you beat the far right. By beating them, not trying to be them. By having your own agenda, not aping theirs. With courage and conviction - and humour - not fear and timidity.

I'm listening to a German video game podcast when one of the hosts casually drops the line "Games are agency generators". Finally, somebody who gets it!

Board games are art. That's uncontroversial by now. Art is successful when it is engaged with, not merely consumed. This is also uncontroversial. With board games that engagement is literal, not figurative. We have to articulate the ideas play brings up. This is where criticism begins.

I think I'd enjoy many eurogames more, if "amount of victory points" was the first tie-breaker as opposed to the winning condition. #boardgames

Hey all, you can read Unsettling Catan: Detached Design in Eurogames free online right now! Stay tuned because instead of my typical monthly blog post, I'll be doing an AMA on BGG in a week or two. #boardgames #NewBook @pbooth81.bsky.social @aarontram.bsky.social @uofmpress.bsky.social

I've just unpacked my copy of Thunder's Edge, and I kind of like what I'm seeing. It seems to expand Twilight Imperium's width more than its depth, which is exactly what I want from an expansion for this game. Let's see when I'll get it played, before giving Prophecy of Kings another look.

No one should ever be a billionaire for any reason. Billionaires existing is an indication of the failure of the social order. There are no alternative points-of-view.

I think there are at least two games that have become practically unplayable because of their reputation: Twilight Imperium Paranoia (the role-playing game) The former is assumed to last 9+ hours whenever it is played, while the latter is assumed to be unhinged PvP nonsense.

Right before the internet is flooded with first impressions and excited loot pics, a quick review. Star Wars Memoir '44 style: it's Battle of Hoth #boardgames

A letter article between Chase and Thomas wonders how The Dice Tower mistook punching down on small games as having professional standards.

Seven Prophecies by Hinata Origuchi is a neat entry-level trick-taker, with cute illustrations. You don't just predict how many tricks you will score, but how you will rank in each trick. Great way to practice reading your hand, anticipating other players' hands and obligatory card-counting.

Boss Fighters QR has a similar disconnect between presentation and gameplay as Ethnos 1st edition had. It looks like a fantasy skirmisher, but it doesn't play like one. It's closer to Pokemon TCG than it is to Descent.

Spiel Essen is when you can run into your favourite board game critic/influencer/personality and ask them about any cool game they've seen, and they will all tell you that they just haven't had the time to play anything. It's the factory reset for people who feel obligated to "promote the hobby".

Where The River Flows seems to be an IP-based game, which crosses a one-vs-many deduction game with a traitor mechanism. One twist is that you may not have a traitor on the detective team. Really looking forward to trying this out with a 5-6 player group. #Spiel25

Die #Spiel2025 in Essen ist vorbei. Aber wir haben noch ein bisschen Messe-Flair, sozusagen live und in Farbe. Mit Udo Bartsch, Carol Rapp, Julia Thiemann und vielen mehr. #brettspiele www.beeple.de/bt278-road-t...

This game is creeping up to be one of the positive surprises of #Spiel25 It's The Slasher by K. Takahashi from Jelly Jelly Games. 2-player cooperative trick-taking game with a neat 80s horror schlock theme. Cleverly tense, even for a newbie like myself.

Not accepting a game's framing is key to understanding what it actually does.

Generally speaking, I think it is wrong to claim that people don't play a lot of games at #Spiel25. But it is true that the majority of play opportunities are in service of selling you the game. To look down on this as some kind of mindless consumerism seems pretty snobbish and gatekeepy to me.

One question I haven't asked anyone while there... was the long queue at the Arclight booth for Railway Boom or for Tornado Splash? Or was it both? #Spiel25

Right before the internet is flooded with first impressions and excited loot pics, a quick review. Star Wars Memoir '44 style: it's Battle of Hoth #boardgames

Saying goodbye to #Spiel25. Exhausted and kind of drained. It was nice seeing friends old and new, even if most interactions were pretty short. But my bags are fuller than I expected them to be, and I am looking forward to explore what's in them with family and friends.

Umm... guys? @ithayla.bsky.social @hellenus.bsky.social

Not only did I catch this toss of Dee's, I caught @ithayla.bsky.social 's toss as well. 😅

SPIEL - FRIDAY! 🌟  Today was more about the people than playing games. We met up with so many old friends and some new ones! 🥰 Shoutout to @meepleuniversity.bsky.social @panda8ngel.bsky.social @ithayla.bsky.social @hellenus.bsky.social and @luzapalooza.bsky.social youtube.com/shorts/zrq7J...

Had some time left, so I hitched a ride on the hype train. #GhostLift

Ghost Train is getting a lot of hype, it would seem. It's the old content creator reflex that if you can't have it now, you must have it NOW! #Spiel25

please watch movies and read books and play games and look at art, please view it with your own eyes through a lens you made yourself and not just through video essayists and ending explained videos please im begging you

Playing a game that has absolutely no reason to not be a modern card game classic.

Things that may get me cancelled: As I'm packing may bag to go to Spiel this year, I kind of feel that I already have enough games.