My Woefully Incomplete and Wholly Inaccurate Best of 2018 Guide

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Much appreciated! I myself have never had the pleasure of finding it in a store. In fact, I’ve never found a store that had even heard of it.

Inis is special, glad to see it here. Also, Werewords is ridiculously fun and the game I've played the most over the past 18 months.

I'm curious how SEAL Team Flix will be viewed long-term. I think it may be forgotten due to its setting and subject matter, which doesn't appeal to the majority of tabletop gamers. I do think it's one of the best dexterity games ever made and I'd choose it over Catacombs and Flick 'Em Up at this point.

The way you describe Inis and your wife...are y’all playing Inis 2 players?

BillyBobThwarton wrote: The way you describe Inis and your wife...are y’all playing Inis 2 players?

No, it's always at least 3 player and usually 4 player. It's just that she loves playing it and will suggest it for game night, as opposed to Kemet or Cyclades, which she will play but never suggests.

I'm curious how SEAL Team Flix will be viewed long-term. I think it may be forgotten due to its setting and subject matter, which doesn't appeal to the majority of tabletop gamers. I do think it's one of the best dexterity games ever made and I'd choose it over Catacombs and Flick 'Em Up at this point.

I’m going to be completely honest here. The only reason I didn’t put the game on the top 10 list is the setting and subject matter. I stated this in the review too. I absolutely do not like playing US special forces on a search and destroy mission against ecoterrorists. It would be worse if it were full Call of Duty and they were Russians or Middle Eastern. And to be quite honest 10 years ago I might not have balked at it. But here in 2019, I don’t really want to play a game with a mostly realistic setting where government agents bust in with SMGs and assault rifles and kill “tangos”.

I do think this has handicapped the game to some degree- the implication of realistic violence is a big turn off for a lot of game players, and since it is not a consim (despite what Tom Vasel apparently believes) there is a pretty sharp disconnect.

I totally get and respect that Mark and Pete may not see it this way. But I can tell you from experience that the game raises some eyebrows in a not good way.

And yeah, it is true that if it were the exact same game with space dudes shooting up space aliens, it would be no problem. If it were cowboys busting into raid outlaw hideouts, no problem. I think those settings wouldn’t alienate players like Seal Team stuff does.

Yes, Seal Team Flix is a great title...but Seal Team is not a great concept for a board game. The moment you put realistic guns in a game and suggest political motives...things get a little yucky.

I think the game is awesome. It is far better than Catacombs and Flick ‘em Up. It’s innovative, cool, and unique. But I can’t play it with my kids and my main group is totally turned off by the setting.

I honesty think that if it had a sci fi setting, it would have a higher profile. Not that it’s failing or doing badly Mind you- but I think it would be more widely played and discussed.

I don't like dexterity games or the subject matter of Seal Team Flix, but I hope that Mark and Pete work together on other games.

I agree with you Barnes, good post, I'd be more into a sci-fi implementation of the system. But I would also raise the possibility it's *selling* better because of its theme even if it's discussed online amongst people who talk about "those games of ours" less. Call of Duty is amongst the biggest sellers every year. PUBG is huge. Seeing that sort of game on the shelf may have pretty big sales knock-on effects among a different crowd.

You know that actually points to another issue. Even though yes, Call of Duty and Battlefield continue to sell...culturally, the “now” games are the Battle royale designs (Fortnite/PUBG) and the lighter hero-based shooters (Overwatch/Destiny). The “let the bodies hit the flo’“ era of shooters is really over.

So that kind of puts STF behind the times in a sense. Imagine if this game were presented with Fortnite-style imagery...

I really don’t think the military shooter crowd is lining up to buy STF, regardless.

I'm sure a different theme would have gotten a warmer reception. And that's okay, we set out to make a military game, and we nailed it. I never expected to get rich off of this thing.

There's an audience for everything. I personally thought we drenched enough "goofy" on top to make it not feel overly realistic.

That said, it will be the last "realistic" game I ever make. It's my understanding that people really love zombies and Cthulhu, anyway.

I agree with you on fortnite, Barnes. But PUBG is very much a (quite slow) tactical bodies hit the floor military shooter.

Kinda like Shellhead, I'm not into dexterity games and I was/am put off by the setting. It simply sounded way too alt-right to me (Military Guys gun down Tree Huggers!) But my political activity makes me pretty conscious of stuff like that, so I'm clearly not the target audience. That's fine. I'm not the target audience for Agricola, either. I'm glad it's worked out so well for you guys.

FYI, I am very much ANTI alt-right. The expansion has narcos for enemies. Hopefully people feel better about putting virtual bullets into them.

Illuminati and paid mercenaries are my enemies of choice

I meant to say that the drug cartel hired (AND PAID) some mercenaries. But WHO KNOWS who is REALLY pulling the strings??!!!?