What GAME ARTICLES/REVIEWS are you WRITING?

Today I did something very different: I published an interview with Cole Wehrle about his habits as a player, the impact they have in his game designs and other interesting jucity tibidts that I think you'll enjoy!

Interview: The player habits of Cole Wehrle, designer of Root

Excellent, insightful article Erik!

You went in some quite interesting directions in this article. His thoughts on negative player interactions jumped out at me.

I really enjoyed the phrase "we are trying to make someone’s favourite game" to stand in contrast to making "everyone's favourite game". Polarising and unique games are fantastic, even if they're not for me. Amabel Holland described Union Station with the quote "I'm certain ... it's going to be divisive. But me? I like weird. I like divisive. We need more of that in the world and on our tables" and I couldn't agree more. I'm glad to see Cole and Leder Games are of the same opinion!

Gary Sax wrote: You went in some quite interesting directions in this article. His thoughts on negative player interactions jumped out at me.

I'm glad to hear that! I just think there's so much to ask that isn't the usual slate of boilerplate questions. To me his design philosophy is the most interesting part. In fact, I drafted an outline and planned to ask him more about his influences but the moment the conversation shifted into somethng more interesting I decided to throw away my notes and focus on that.

sornars wrote: I really enjoyed the phrase "we are trying to make someone’s favourite game" to stand in contrast to making "everyone's favourite game". Polarising and unique games are fantastic, even if they're not for me. Amabell Holland described Union Station with the quote "I'm certain ... it's going to be divisive. But me? I like weird. I like divisive. We need more of that in the world and on our tables" and I couldn't agree more. I'm glad to see Cole and Leder Games are of the same opinion!

The thing is, as you make a game better, it will probably become more divisive as well. For example, if you make a horror game scarier you'll probably lose people who don't like being scared. But it's probably better as a design.

Above all, I think trying to please everyone just results in games that are shapeless.

My top 10 of 2021 was just published: playerelimination.com/2022/01/06/theels-feels-a-2021-top-10/

I found this year to be fantastic overall. I had several strong games I wanted to include on my list but didn't have the space.

I wrote an article talking about the effort we need to put in to have a great game experience and I wonder what you guys think. I always think we talk a lot about buying games and which ones are better but very little about how we actually play at the table and all that entails.

The cost of a good game experience - Erik Twice

Yes, ultimately our enjoyment of games is contextual and dependent on the effort we put in.

I debated for a very long while on whether I should write it or not but I finally did: Today I published a negative review of Gloomhaven. I've talked about it here before but I think it was time to come out and write seriously about it. I think I did a great job and that it might be insightful even for those who enjoye the game far more than I do.

Gloomhaven ★ - Erik Twice

Interesting. Given its raging popularity, is there room to suspect that it hit with a bunch of gamers who actually haven't played RPGs before and simply hadn't experienced that kind of play and were, thus, impressed by it? I haven't played, but my initial look was that it had the same approach as Descent (as you say: advance as fast as possible toward the enemies, roll dice, kill them) with the bookkeeping of a full set of Arkham Horror (Track the first, monsters move, Innsmouth track advances, etc.) It wasn't that I thought it didn't look entertaining. It's just that I'd been there before. But, like you said, most dungeon crawlers have this mechanical constraint essentially because of what they're trying to be (RPGs on a board.) That's probably why the only crawler currently in my house is The Others, for some tactical reasons, but also theme.

I think it's safe to say that most people who are into Gloomhaven haven't played RPGs. As I've gotten in contact with more people through my club and my blog I've noticed that very few boardgamers have experience with them. In fact, the same goes with Magic. It's easy to think most know about it, but I've found it's not true! I do think many would enjoy RPGs if they had the chance, they are simply not exposed to them.

I started playing D&D in sixth grade (2e) and didn't get into boardgames until my senior year of college. I picked up Jaws of the Lion cheap and my girlfriend was excited to watch the campaign story develop, but I think we got a total of seven scenarios in before we packed it back up. I won't be surprised if I never get around to playing it again.

I think your take on Gloomhaven also depends on what kind of roleplaying you're used to. I'm definitely biased; my groups have always been game to fudge or completely hand-wave the rules in favor of a great narrative, and Gloomhaven takes what for me is the most boring part of tabletop RP - the bookkeeping - and strips away everything else.

I've read that Gloomhaven was originally intended to be a video game before they made it into a boardgame that was eventually released as a video game. They did not factor in how mind-numbing and messy it is to manipulate all the little bits of the AI. The Magic board can go right to hell.

I know I've been sharing a lot of stuff here lately, but I must know what you think of my latest article. It's the strangest piece I've written so far and you are the perfect target audience for it. Let me just ask: Do you think movies can ever be art?

If we talked about films like we do about games - Erik Twice

That's a solid parody and a perfectly valid question. I think there's room to suggest that games are like any other form of media, in that there's stuff that's obviously strictly commercial, stuff that aims a bit higher, and even more stuff which are a mix of the two. The "problem" is in discerning between those spheres or, for that matter, questioning if those distinctions are even necessary, since different games will say different things to different people. Yes, just like art/films/books/whathaveyou.

I certainly don't object to the idea of suggesting that games are a type of artistic expression. I think it's foolish to do otherwise. I still think it's fair to point out that the 27th expansion for Cthulhu Wars may have departed from the realm of making an artistic statement, whereas games like An Infamous Traffic basically can't be removed from it.

I'm glad you enjoyed it Jackwraith. I had absolutely no idea about how people would take it and so far it seems everyone is liking it!

For me the key is what you say, the idea that games are like any other form of media. While it's fun to reinvent the wheel, I think looking at other art forms gives us some necessary perspective. The debates about whether it's wrong to "gamify" WW2 are a good example. And I know the comparison between killing Hamlet and backstabbing someone in Diplomacy is provocative but I don't think they are very far off.