Epic Food, Gaming Love Languages, and Games We're Itching to Play

0:00 Hey Mitchell, it's good to see you.

0:02 Hello Jamie. It's great to see you. It's It's been a hot minute. Welcome to Positively Board Gaming. And if you just joined us, welcome. Thank you for joining us. This is our podcast where we talk about the world of board gaming, the hobby, the business, the people who are a part of it. Like my wonderful partner, aside from being a great designer and publisher, he's a great friend and a great person, Jamie Stegmire. I thank you for doing this with me every week. And we've been doing it every week.

0:27 Every week. Yeah. including some weeks where we do two if we can. I guess there have been a few weeks where where life has gotten in the way a little bit and we've had to take we had to space it out a little bit. But I am excited to be chatting with you.

0:38 Me too.

0:39 And uh this is episode 39 for those who who are keeping track. So maybe at the end of the episode we might talk about

0:45 episode 40. What we might do for that or should we talk about that right now? What what do you think? Should we do a live episode? Should we do a ask us anything episode? What do you want?

0:53 I I would I would love both of those things. Live episode and ask us anything. I think that's fantastic.

0:58 Okay.

0:59 It'll be on [clears throat] December 26th, which Oh, no. No, it won't be.

1:04 Uh, okay. We'll have to figure out this timing because we're recording this one.

1:09 You know, it would be the 19th. Yeah. Okay. Let's do this. So, people who are listening to this,

1:14 yeah,

1:14 you're listening to this on Thursday, potentially Thursday, December 18th.

1:19 Yes.

1:21 Why don't we do a live show tomorrow? That seems more timely than planning really far ahead. tomorrow. Uh, your time as you were listening to this. December 19th, our regular time. Are you with me?

1:33 I'm with No, I got it. I'm I'm with you.

1:35 I'm I'm working out dates here.

1:37 No, no, I'm actually not medicated yet. So, we're good. We're good.

1:42 So, yeah, December 19th. Friday, December 19th at our normal time. We usually record at 3:30 St. Louis time. It's 1:30 Mitchell's time in California.

1:51 Um, I'll put stuff on social media. Mitchell, you can too. and we'll do uh a live show and if if no one shows up, we'll just have a good time talking to each other.

1:59 You know what? It'll be like any other any other show. We're talking to each other, having a good time, making each other laugh, thinking we're hilarious, and knowing we're hilarious. Actually, that's not true. No, no. We always have we always have a good time together. And that's the whole thing. I mean,

2:11 you know what that my little joke with you brings up something interesting because at the end of the day, you want to do things that bring you joy in life. And if you're lucky, if you're fortunate, other people will also get joy from that as well. But it's like anything else. It's like if you don't enjoy what you're doing, odds are anyone that's a part of it around you watching it, doing it with you, they're not going to be enjoying it either. And this is again, this is like no great, you know, realization. But, you know, we do this because Jamie and I do this because we really enjoy board gaming. We really enjoy hanging out and talking about it and thought that maybe people might get joy from jumping into the topics, being a part of it with us. So, at the end of the day, it really is something that we don't we're not just, well, we have to do this because we're, you know, we have to do this. We do this so we want to do it. And we're hoping that, you know, we get, you know, we get a nice response that people are also enjoying it that they see something in it that they can relate to or that they want to chime in with as well. So, yeah, we do we do we do it for us, Jamie. But thank you everyone who enjoys it. Thank you for that, too.

3:14 So, Mitchell, do you have uh I do you have a treat of the day or anything that that you've enjoyed indulged in recently? Yeah. Uh yeah. So again, I don't want to be all about me boy, but uh I had surgery a couple of weeks ago, and I'm not quite back. You can almost hear it in my voice still. It's like I don't have that normal that richer tone that I sometimes have. I don't I don't have a deep voice, but that that tone is sort of missing. I think it hasn't quite come back yet. So I apologize if my voice sounds a little scrunchy. Um, and one thing that happened after surgery and part of it is, you know, just that the inner child, like whenever you're not feeling your best, you want comfort things. And part of that is comfort food. So, since the surgery, and again, I think today is Tuesday when we're recording this. Tomorrow is Wednesday, will be officially two weeks out.

4:00 And I have just been craving the most basic childhood garbage you can. Like burgers and pizza is all I've been like my body. Now granted, I've mixed in some good meals with salads because you have to also flush your but your body needs to flush out after after any kind of surgery, anesthesia, all the medication they give you. Your body is constantly flushing out. So you don't want to obviously fill it with more stuff that's going to just make it harder to flush out, right? So I've been craving pizza and burgers and treats. So Tracy went to the market. We had a really nice dinner the other night, a healthy dinner, which has been weird for me the last two weeks because I haven't been eating the most healthfully, you know, the health healthful meals around, healthy meals. So, there's Gellson's is a grocery store here. Really, I think I've talked about it before. Really nice grocery store here in Southern California. A little fancy, a little expensive, but really good. And each Gellson's I think we've talked about this before. Tell me to stop me. Has its own bakery built in. It used to be called Victor Bennis, a chain of bakeries within Gelson's, but now I think they're all individually owned and operated. They might have changed the way they do it, but the the cookies, the treats are still exactly the same. So, they always have these great holiday cookies. Some are like Hanukkah based, some are Christmas-based, some are like platform agnostic based, just great cookies. And Tracy brought home a box and surprised me the other night. Um, I'm surprised I don't look like, you know, like like with like white powder under the nose like an old junkie from 20 years ago in a movie. I'm covered in powdered sugar, chocolate in the corner of my face, like

5:31 the jam from inside the cookies. That is so good, honey. Thank you. So, this bakery

5:37 so good, Jamie. And I keep on going back to They have like a rugal, which is like a Jewish um baked good. It's like almost like a a small rolled baked cookie with uh it's like moist in between. You could have either apple or chocolate or cinnamon like in between. It's really good. Uh and it's a you know, people have it on the holidays. So, I've been eating the rugal. I mean, it's Oh, amazing. So, there's a good chance that people will be rolling me away from the desk after this episode. My family will come in and move me. But what about you? What What about your tree of the day?

6:07 Well, I I I'm so happy that you're at a at a point post surgery that you are uh enjoying these type of indulgences because I'm sure there were a few days where maybe you didn't get to enjoy all that much at all. So, I'm glad you are.

6:18 Thank you. Um, I spent the last weekend at Universal Studios in Orlando and I meant to send you some f some food photos while I was there and then I remembered it a little bit after the fact and I was like, why don't I show it to you live?

6:30 Oh, yeah. As we're recording and that way anyone who's following the video version of this, I'll try to describe it out loud a little bit, but I'll show you some of the delicious food that we ate. Let me see if I can pull this up properly.

6:39 I'll put my glasses on. Oh, those French fries look so good.

6:42 I think this view will do. Yeah. So, I'll go through these really quick. This was and part of this is I'm showing the food. I'll show one of the better views. It looks like a regular table here, but we were in in this one, we were in one of the Harry Potter worlds, and it really felt like we were in

6:57 uh one of those, you know, old English uh uh taverns that that they go to in in Harry Potter. That was maybe even bigger a bigger part of the experience than the food.

7:09 Um I had I don't actually see the food that I had. I must have taken a photo of the rest of the table. This is like a fish and chips. There were a couple like pot pies. Um,

7:18 that looks so good, Jamie.

7:19 Gravy bread bowl thing. The highlight here to stand out though is that we got butterbeer. We got cold butterbeer. And then I was like, you know, hot butterbeer sounds like the weirdest thing. Butterbeer is one of those drinks in Harry Potter. I um I was like, I'll get hot butterbeer. And I actually ended up enjoying the hot butterbeer more than any other butterbeer. It was really good. Have you had any of these? Uh, I've had the butterbeer at the at the New York. There's a Harry Potter experience store in New York City, not far from where I grew up, and they have it's like a multi-level. They have different souvenirs, but one thing they do really well is they do the butterbeer there. They do it cold, but the the foam they put on top is not like a regular foam. It's almost like a thick like a schllo, I think they call it in England. It's like a thick whipped cream that's like this tall. So, I see the butterbeer gets me crazy. But Jamie, those look delicious. How is the food? Because usually when you go to a theme park, food is not something unless it's, you know, procured specifically like they do at Disneyland in the, you know, in their area for Star Wars. But how was the food?

8:13 It looks good.

8:14 It actually was pretty good. Um, yeah, I was surp I mean, we were, you're you're kind of paying a premium, so I I was hoping it would be good, but uh pretty consistently from like those sit down meals that we had. Uh, here's a here's another quick glimpse. Here's Eric and Alex. Um, this is a thing from the how to your train how to train your dragon world. Okay, which is essentially like it's not a waffle cone. It's like a garlic bread cone filled with mac and cheese.

8:40 Oh my god.

8:42 And it's so it's indulgent, but it was delicious. Uh, that was legitimately good, especially when we were walking around really hungry. There also all these little bakeries. Um, this is one of the bakeries full of like little chocolates in one of in the French Harry Potter world. Um, we didn't get any here, but we did get a a butterbeer fudge while we were walking around.

9:02 Oh my god.

9:03 Um, let me see. I have a few other photos here before I get to the end. Uh, oh, actually this was pretty neat. This is one of the ways that I think they add just a little bit of thematic touch to the experience. Um, so another candy case here from How to Train Your Dragon, but they had these eggshaped chocolates. So this was like a cheesecake fil egg. This was a key lime pie filled egg, a brownie filled egg. I don't know if you can see them all that well, but

9:26 Oh, yeah.

9:27 It was neat that they,

9:29 you know, dragon eggs loose connection here. The delicious treat. I have one more to show you. Actually, a couple couple more. Can I show you a few more real quick?

9:37 You were asking me. You could This whole show could be this. What are you talking about? Keep going, dude. Don't stop.

9:42 Here is in the French Harry Potter world, which is the newest one. This is at Epic Universe.

9:46 Okay.

9:46 We ate breakfast. So, we we raced into this world in the morning um and stopped at this French bakery right at the entrance and everyone else kept racing on cuz they were getting in line for one of the big rides that ended up having a delay. So, we had this restaurant to ourselves for a little while in the morning. This wonderful French bakery where Megan got yet another butterbeer thing. She got the butterbeer uh it's not it's actually off camera. This is a Nutella banana crepe. It was delicious. She got a butterbeer crepe that was also quite tasty. Um, and what was the other one? There was one other one that we had that was quite good.

10:21 Amazing.

10:22 Um, we had a fancy meal at the at the uh Oh, actually, yeah, we had a good soup here. There's one more. I was going to show you what one of the food halls looked like.

10:32 Okay.

10:33 Because this was a big part of the experience. This was um we went to the uh we went back to the How to Train Your Dragon world and had dinner in this place called the Mead Hall. Oh, I love it already.

10:46 And oh, here we go. And uh

10:50 Oh my.

10:51 Yeah, it looks it looks like a giant old uh Viking. Not a not a tavern. They have a name for it.

10:57 Yeah. No, no, I know what you're talking about because I've seen these in when I play Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Okay.

11:04 No, it's like a gathering point.

11:05 Yeah.

11:06 Um

11:07 and there's usually a boat house like right near this structure. Exactly.

11:10 So I know I know what you're talking about.

11:12 Yeah. It's funny that I get some great history lessons from playing video games. See, Mom, they do help. For every mother that said or mother and father that said, "What are you getting out of video games?" I know what Jamie's showing me right now. So, yeah. And this place was great, too. Like, we this was at the point in the trip where I was like, "I really need a salad." And so, I had a giant salad with salmon on it and also a a kind of a chocolate hot chocolate with cinnamon was their distinct drink. Kind of like their butterbeer here.

11:41 Oh, that sounds good, too. Anyway, I've gone on and on about this, but I I really I I like culinary experiences when I travel. We've talked about this. It was neat to visit these other worlds and feel like I was in these worlds and eat the good food, the food from those worlds. I had a great time doing that.

11:54 And by the way, can we just not miss the, you know, not bury the lead here. Uh while everyone, and let's really focus on this, folks, while everyone at opening bell, it isn't just for stock market, it's also for amusement parks. When those ropes open, when people go running for a ride, my friend Jamie runs for the food.

12:14 I went running for a crepe instead.

12:15 You know what? You know what? That's my boy. That's all I can say. That's my guy. I think that's fantastic. Everyone's like, "What are you doing?" The smart thing. You go on that ride, I'm eating a crepe. Don't you judge me. Um, I think that's wonderful. Those looked amazing. And that's the, you know, that really is I I I I'll leave it with this. I know we have to move on away from food, although it's really hard for us to do sometimes. When I watch the original Harry Potter, to this day when I go back and rewatch it, because that to me, the Harry Potter movies are endlessly rewatchable. Love them. When I go back to the original one, when they first go to the train station, they find the gate, uh, they get on the train and they're going, and when they're sitting in when they're sitting in their in their car, and the treat cart comes by with the chocolates.

12:58 Uhhuh. I even get goosebumps thinking about I know this sounds ridiculous. There's something. It's one of the most magical moments in any movie for me. I don't know what it is. It's the mixture of the magic, the treats coming to life, the frogs hopping away trying to eat the the beans. I just It's like I want I want to I want to sit in that train and eat the treats with them. They look so delicious and fun, too. There's something so magical about that. So, mixed in with the deliciousness and you like there's there's a little bit of magic mixed in with that, too, that I can't I always feel even retelling it. can feel it, you know. So, the fact that you were there and, you know, doing all that cool, that is awesome. I'm glad you had a great time. That is wonderful.

13:35 Yeah. Um, yeah, thanks for letting me share that. Hopefully, for those listening and not watching, that wasn't too uh too boring. But Mitchell, what is your what is your main topic today?

13:47 So, yeah, if if you've never joined us before, Jamie and I each bring a topic to the table. Uh Jamie does not know what I'm going to talk about. I don't know what he's going to talk about. And a couple of times we've had crossovers unknowingly. Uh maybe it'll happen again. I don't know. Um this this is a sort of a more generic topic for me.

14:04 Uh so there's more chance for crossover, I think, because of the the more specific you get, the tougher it is to have a crossover, I think.

14:11 Um but it occurred to me from watching videos, from my own collection, from me just being at PAX Unplugged, there there are games that I'm actually excited to get to the table. And I thought I'd talk about games that most of them I have. I think one or two I don't. But these are games that I'm anxious to get to the table right now that for some reason are we have a crossover again? No. Do we? Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. You know, usually

14:36 I'm smiling at the word anxious. It's an interesting word to use. Like is it causing you anxiety or is it more excitement?

14:42 No, you're right. I should be more careful with my words. No, it's not anxious as an anxiety inducing, which I guess is the

14:49 official definition. excited to get to the table and and really thinking and I've been thinking about that have been on my mind for one reason or another and there are different reasons. Um let's start with the first one. I'm just going to go over and Jamie I'd like to hear if there are some that are sort of sticking out in your mind as well. The first two are kind of Jamie related. Um Sushi Go or Sushi Go Party. Um there is no there is no downside to any of the Sushi Go or Sushi Roll games. Um so much fun, so accessible. And I guess again we're talking on the topic of food. If you like food and you like fun and games and you like a visual representation of something in front of you that really makes sense and makes it easy to track and easy to table, easy to learn, the Sushi Go Sushi Go Party System. So much fun. And I know you've talked about it on your videos a lot, Jamie. I know this is something that's close to you as well. Something about the magic of the Sushi Go Sushi Go universe. It's going to be like its own universe. There's so many games in it now that I feel like its own universe.

15:45 That's one that's been I think between your view videos and me just wanting to bring that to a new group that's been on my mind. And of course the new mand by the way I didn't tell you after packs unplugged I did look for the Mandalorian uh expansion for the Star Wars deck building game. Couldn't find it but of course mine has already arrived. Did yours already arrive?

16:03 Um no. My game store said that they have it incoming. So be any day now. Yeah.

16:08 It's it's so weird cuz certain stores get them at different times. I just got mine. Haven't tried it yet. But of course, since we both love the Star Wars deck building game, that is one that I'm anxious to add to it. Also, just being a Star Wars fan and particularly loving the Mandalorian television show, the you know, integrating that into a game I already love. Again, I don't see much of a downside. So, that's one.

16:28 Um, Invincible the card game.

16:30 Invincible the card game, which is one that Have you played it?

16:33 Oh, I've played the the bag building game. Is this is this different?

16:37 Yes, this is the card this is like a card building uh uh um deck building game basically. They call it Invincible the card game, but it's a deck builder. It's based on the Astronaut system cuz Astronaut's the same company who made it. I think it's Indie Boards and Cards. Yeah.

16:50 And I think they made Astronauts. And it's a Oh, it's a great deck builder. So much fun. And um I think Astronauts also has like sort of like a mini campaign built in that you can play as you go along. And uh if you're a fan of Invincible and if you like the Astronauts deck building system, uh again, this to me was like a natural sort of like a natural perfect storm for me. Um the game Mistwind. Have you heard of Mistwind?

17:15 I Does it have a big flying whale on the cover?

17:17 It has flying whales. It does.

17:19 Yeah, I love that aesthetic. I haven't I've seen it, but I haven't played it.

17:22 You know, I don't know if we talked about this when I went I think the company is First Fish Games, the publisher. Uh when I went to PAX Unplugged, I passed by the booth and I saw the latest game that they I talked with the owner who's also the lead designer who designed um Mistwind and al also the new game which she said is a heavier version of that game. And usually heavy games sort of I get a little frightened of because I'm not a heavy gamer like you. It's not my it's like my go-to. I will play them but it's not my go-to.

17:51 And she was saying, "Well, this is she said off the bat, this is kind of heavy." I was like, "Okay, I get it." and she started explaining to me and yeah, there was a lot going on, but it all made sense to me. And she said, "Well, if you gravitate toward this, this isn't coming out until probably the end of next year or next year. If you're gravitating towards this, I have another game that I designed that's already out called Mistwin. Come take a look at that." I see.

18:09 And it was such a great way, it was such a great way to approach something, talking to the designer. It's like talking to you about one of your games. You know, who better to talk to you about something than the person who created the world, right?

18:18 So, I I looked at this game. It's sort of a pickup and delivery mixed with area control where your main mode of transportation is these flying whales. Again, you think about that and go, "What? What do you mean flying whales? Why should Hey, if we can have vampires in games, why can't we have flying whales? What's the difference? Flying whales don't suck blood from people. They're harmless. They can fly." Um, and it g aesthetically it looked gorgeous on the table. That's what drew me to it. And they happened to have Shock, a deluxe version there that I Shock had to have. And uh so I picked it up and it was so beautiful and I I so appreciated the time they spent with me um explaining the game and the joy that the designer that she had both with her newest design that isn't out yet and you know sort of showing me well if you like these ideas in a simpler easy to access I'm like oh heck yeah. So, um, that is one has I mean, I know we've talked about this, but sometimes, you know, you'll meet somebody, they'll talk about a game and you'll instantly you'll instantly be drawn in. You'll instantly be drawn into that world and it's such a great

19:17 And I'm sure you had this because you have a lot of friends that are designers. Do you have that a lot where a friend of yours who is a designer will start explaining something to you and it just that type of game or something about that game clicks and you're like, "Oh, I got to play this. What? Don't tease me. Is it out? Yeah. When's it coming out?" I'm sure you have that reaction, right?

19:32 Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

19:33 I mean, how could you not, right? Um, the next one I have here and I only have a few more. Just speak briefly on them. Uh, Malia Lands of Legends. Have you heard of this one? Kind of a

19:42 Malia.

19:43 Malia. It's big box adventure/ RPG type of game. Um, where a lot of a lot of effort went into the the story and the world building and what happens when you are off the beaten path, the people that you meet. Uh, some things are only accessible to you depending on the time of day. If you go to a merchant early in the morning, they might not have something to sell for you because they're not fully set up yet. Or in the evening, they'll give you a better deal because they're closing shop and they want to make some extra coin before they clo. So, there's so much thought put into the the the time dynamics, the story dynamics, and um I'm very I'm very excited to try this one. And I just got it about a week and a half ago. Unfortunately, now after back surgery, I genuinely can't lift the box. Um this is a problem for me right now. I can't lift more than 5 or 10 pounds for like the first month or two. And it's something you again when you when it's spine surgery, you have to be super careful.

20:34 So, I like to move my collections around and reorganize. And I'm like, uh,

20:38 I can't cuz a lot of my games are over five or 10.

20:41 Yeah.

20:42 It's like, shame on me and my Kickstarter love, right? It's like, you told you 20 pound game was going to hurt you somehow. So, I I might have to get someone else to lift it to the table, but I'm looking forward to getting it to the table. Uh, [snorts] and the same goes for the next one, Jamie, which is Gloom Haven, second edition.

20:57 Oh, right, right, right. Yeah.

20:58 Um, have you played first edition Gloom Haven? Have you played regular?

21:01 I played that in Jaws of the Lion.

21:03 Okay. Okay. Have you played them all the way through?

21:05 No. No.

21:07 Oh, that's too much of a commitment for me. I No, no, no. I'm not a saint. I'm a good person, but I'm No, it is that this is an investment. It's an investment of time, money, everything. Um, so I've had the original Gloom Haven for a while. I've been playing other RPGs, as you know, other campaign games. I never managed to get to this this to the table. Then, of course, I see second edition comes out, which not only fixes some of the issues that they acknowledge, not fans, but they said, "Okay, we want to we want to streamline this and that we we want we see that there are certain things that could be streamlined." And I love when I love when publishers and designers do that. You know, it's great. That's something you always do. It's like, "Look, we figured out something with a card that'll work better. We're going to here's the new card." And I love that because it's always it's it's a living breathing thing to an extent you know for for a lot of companies. For some companies it's a one and done once it's out but you know for you know for a lot of companies people that care like yourself. So second edition fixed up some stuff but also added a lot of content and added more story to the point where my buddy Jack Jack and Eric are my main heavy game heavy gaming partners or campaign partners were like you know what Jack was like you know what I played Gloom Haven all the way through. I think Gloom Haven Second Edition is different enough that I play that all the way through, too. I was like, "Oh, really?

22:21 You would?" So, I I sold my copy of Gloom Haven. I reinvested that money into Gloom Haven Second Edition, and I'm just waiting for that to arrive. I feel like I'm I'm being mature. I'm recycling, and you know what I mean? Some games I give away. This is one that I traded in, and I use that money to buy. So, yeah, I felt like I was being very mature about it.

22:40 Uh, really quick, next one is Rove. game called Rove, which Oh, yeah. Yeah. The people that did the unofficial Gloom Haven, was it Crimson,

22:48 what was the name of that?

22:49 They did like an unofficial expansion for Gloom Haven, but they put out their own game, which is sort of loosely based on the Gloom Haven, you know, duality of the card system.

22:58 Uh, again, story is supposed to be really strong, great character development, which I love. Looking to get to that to the table. And the last thing is,

23:05 you know, Dice Throne Outcast just arrived, my pledge for it, which means four new characters. They're Halloween themed, headless, they're right here. What do I have? Headless Horseman, Pale Lady and Werewolf. Uh, what is it? Ravenous and Necromancer. So, and they look so good. They look like so much fun. I can't help it. If there's new content for Dice Thorn, you know, I'm going to try it. You know, I said a while ago, "Oh, I don't I have enough now. I don't need anymore."

23:28 I was not truthful. I I don't know. I don't think I No, no, I'd take that back. I was truthful at the time that I said it.

23:34 It just didn't stick.

23:36 Yeah,

23:36 it didn't stick. It's hard. It's It's hard for me. So, do you have any do you have any that you were looking forward to?

23:42 Well, first I first I love that list. I was not taking notes. So, maybe for the show notes you could write those down for me. I could include because I think people are going to be curious to see those in the description. Um, I have two that I'd like to play before the end of the year.

23:54 Sure.

23:55 Um, I'd like to play I have a game called Holiday Hills

23:59 on my shelf. Okay.

24:01 And designer friend Chris Porter put a lot of love and a lot of work into this game for many years. So, I'm excited to play that. And then Emberleaf is from Frank West. He is known for Isisle of Cats. Um he has this Ember Leaf game that came out earlier this year and I am going to play it I believe this Friday before we record on Friday actually. So I'm I'm really excited to to get that to the table. Emberleaf is a game of like little critters, little anthropomorphic animals.

24:27 Yes.

24:27 Um it uses a mechanism called car dancing that looks really cool. So yeah, I'm I'm excited to play that one.

24:32 I saw that at PAX and that that caught my eye as well. It's like I was trying to be good and not go overboard, but that is one that definitely caught my eye.

24:38 Yeah, I've heard good things.

24:40 All right, so that was my extraordinarily long list of things I want to get to the table. Some quickly, some not. So, but Jamie, you have a topic that you would like to bring up. I have no idea what you're going to bring up, but I'm very much looking forward to hearing what it is.

24:53 Well, I wrote recently an article about um so we're in the holiday season. We're which is we're put into this mindset of buying gifts for other people often times in this holiday season. But I like to remind myself every year that uh not not everyone's love language, the way that they feel cared for and loved are physical gifts. There are other ways they feel loved as well. I really I really love the idea of these love languages. Are you familiar with that concept? I can talk about

25:21 Yes, we've talked about this. Absolutely.

25:23 We have Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

25:24 Yeah. Um, and so I wrote a blog post about the other ways that uh uh the gamer in your life or the person who loves games or was curious about games in your life might feel valued beyond just giving them a game. Um, and so I thought I'd talk a little bit about them today and maybe use this as maybe a slight personality test for you.

25:43 Sure.

25:44 So I'll throw some of these at you and you can let me know which one resonates the most to you. Um, so for words of affirmation, this one traditionally is like you feel the most love when someone says nice things about you or kind things about you,

25:54 right?

25:55 And um to make it kind of authentic, my my suggestion for this category or one of my suggestions for this category is to simply play someone's favorite game with them or a game that they are really really good at and so that they can feel good about playing the game that they really love and also maybe take the time to talk about the game afterwards and talk about the highlights and the and the big moments of it. um maybe on a quick like scale from one to 10, how how how would that make you feel loved if you if you got to pick a game that you were really good at and then we spent some time talking about it afterwards?

26:28 Well, you know what? Um I think I relate more to what you said first is a game that I really want to play rather than a game that I'm super good at.

26:36 Yeah.

26:36 Because games that I'm I'm good at, I

26:39 that for some reason that doesn't that's not like a driving force with me.

26:42 Yeah. It's not a driving force like playing game that I'm good at because I'd rather just play a game that either gives joy at the table that we all enjoy playing cuz that's what that you know that's you're going to have the best time with the most people liking it, right? So for me that's a bigger point. But the fact that someone would want to get something to the table to make me happy because I think that's the bottom I mean that's the bottom line that I'm getting from this. you know, getting something to the table that would make someone else really happy, whether it's the game they're great at, their favorite game, what they, you know, something they've been looking forward to play. And that's huge. That's huge because basically you're giving

27:16 the most precious thing of all, which is your time,

27:19 right?

27:19 That's the one thing that you can't, you know, everyone talks about value of money and the value of time is probably one of the most valuable things in the world because they ain't making more of it and it's very limited and all we can do is partition what limited time we have, right? So for me, that gift of time and caring about what somebody else likes, that is huge. That would be that would probably be a nine or a 10. That's just I mean, who wouldn't love that?

27:40 Well, that kind of lead that's interesting because I I think people might I I think you highly value time. I do, too. I think maybe people value it in different ways because two of the categories that I have on the love languages are quality time and quantity time.

27:53 Okay.

27:54 Quantity time I have like uh for a longer game. So one of these is for quantity time is play a longer game that you love but maybe you rarely rarely get to play. You get a big chunk of time with someone that you value and playing a longer game that you really enjoy. And there's quality time which is more about bonding with someone over a an activity that really connects you with that person. And so some examples I gave for this would be to like go to a game cafe or a store with someone else and you know play a game, have a have a cup of coffee. um or to devote time to playing a game that you both love to find that game that like you both really love. Um so which of those two which one sounds more like the the Mitchell? [sighs]

28:35 So going quantity?

28:37 I would go for quality because quantity does not necessarily guarantee quality.

28:45 True.

28:46 Wow.

28:46 Wow. Write that down Jamie. We are just like we are pumping out these quotes to put a hashtag on that. No, because I mean, you know, the quality is going to be a lot more important. Obviously, listen, you know, especially as we get older, our our loved ones, our parents, family in general get older, you start thinking about time a lot more and cherishing that time with people because nothing is guaranteed. I'm not trying to get morbid here. It's just the reality. Um so having as much time as we can with the people that we love whether it's great friends at the table or family whoever whatever that that becomes hugely important but at the end of the day the mo the things you remember the moments you remember is not the length of time but the quality of it. You you remember moments those great moments and those great moments can happen in a in a half hour session they can happen in an 8 hour session. So, at the end of the day, regardless of the time spent, I think the quality is probably I if I sit down with my friends and we have a great hour and a half game session, I'm just like

29:46 and I'll I'll get online talk about with you. I'll say, "You met Jamie, I just played this game. I think you love it." Because then it starts this whole thing. It starts this whole domino effect of joy where you have a great experience. You're not thinking about how long it took. You're just thinking about the great time and then you want to share it and so on and so on, right? So, I would have to go with quality over quantity.

30:04 I like that. And I can see this is one where I I I I can see people choosing different ones. Like one of the other examples I gave for quantity time is to

30:11 um to host a game day for someone else or for a bunch of other people, but especially for someone that you know loves a lot, like a long time for gaming. Maybe that person doesn't have time to play games on a weekly basis, right?

30:23 You're like, "Okay, I'll host a game day." You could just come and play a ton of games on one day versus maybe playing one game with that person that they really love. I can see people picking both in different

30:32 Well, now you give me the better example. Now you now I already chose you. Give me the better example. What kind of what what is that? What do you

30:38 So if you live Yeah. If you live here in St. Louis, you would like Yeah. Yeah.

30:42 I like them both. I like them both. I think

30:45 my snap judgment is quality. But then you talk about something like that where it's like, "Hey, we have this whole day. Remember you wanted to play Twilight Imperium. You wanted to try it once in your lifetime.

30:55 Let's do it." I'd be like, "Yes." So I I get that, too. You're right. I mean, it could it could definitely go either way. My first judgment is what it was and I'll stick with it. But I could totally see that too, Jamie.

31:06 Well, I I'm going to skip over tangible gifts because that is somewhat of the the obvious one for for this is like the thing that I'm not avoiding because I I want people to buy our our games and our expansions, our accessories, all that stuff. I want that. But umame.com. Sorry. Go ahead.

31:22 But I did want to highlight my top love language. Sure. um by far, and I think some other people might resonate with this too, is acts of service, which is when you do something that saves someone else time or saves them an inconvenience. And so for me, the number one way that someone can make me feel uh appreciated or care for it or loved is if they learn a game that I don't know and they take the time to teach it to me. That is far more valuable to me than a new game. It's while I love the quantity time, I love the game days, I love I love playing a game, I love I love all that stuff, but this is the way to like really get to me and make me feel cared for. Um, so

32:01 I love that. Yeah,

32:02 I absolutely love that because there is there is stress associated with learning a game

32:07 and how you learn the game

32:10 um and a responsibility. Uh but to have someone willing to shoulder all of that and just let you come in and reap the rewards of the time that they put in. Uh and again it's like you said like the gift of time. It's it's wonderful. It's wonderful. I absolutely love that. And uh Yeah. Yeah. You know what it makes me wonder like if you know something it's like you know what as a gift this year I'm going to do your taxes.

32:35 What I'm going to do what? That's crazy. Oh yeah. I'm going to come clean your house for a month. It's like there's something like

32:42 what do you mean really? Cuz there listen whatever it is that you dread. It could be learning a game on your own. It could be it could be anything. Doing your taxes, whatever it is. And if someone's willing to come in and say, "Hey, I got you. I got you. We're good. There's something there's something so amazing about." So, yeah, I get that. I 100% get that. That's wonderful. And the thing I love about this whole concept of these love languages, whether they apply to games or otherwise, is that it it I think it leads to deeper connections with other people. It it means that you're looking outside of yourself. Because for me, um my if I didn't know about this concept, I would assume that other people feel the most loved if I go out of my way to do something for them, if I save them time or inconvenience. But that might not be that might be way down on someone else's list. They might love to get a new game under the tree or, you know, as a gift.

33:33 They might love to have that that game day or that time at a game cafe. That might be very high on their list. So, it it's really helped me to pay attention to how other people feel valued and to learn more about them in that way. So, I wanted to share this with you to see if you had one that stood out and I wanted to throw out the question to anyone who's listening. If you have one of these, what is it? What is your gamer love language? the way that someone in your life can make you feel the most loved this holiday season.

34:00 I really I really love this topic, Jamie. This is amazing. I'm so glad you brought this up. The uh again, the whole thing the time thing really resonates with me for whatever reason, especially these days. So, someone taking their time to and giving that time to me freely and saying here, whether it's let's do whatever you want, let me do this for you. Let's have that is such a that is such a gracious gift. I'm not saying giving something tangible is is bad or who doesn't love getting a game? Who doesn't love someone thinking of them and saying, "Hey, I knew you wanted this game. I you know, I think here I wanted to get you through the That's also the thoughtfulness that goes into that." Uh it it's lovely. It's so wonderful. Um, but the time thing, uh, again, because it is so it is so precious and it's such a it's such a gracious gift to give to somebody that really re I'm trying to like, you know, keep it together that really resonates with me. And that's the other thing. I'm not on pain medication right now. The the stuff that I took before the show was just like the normal like uh the nerve stuff. So, I'm not on any pain meds. But I will tell you while I'm on pain medication for those few times that I have to take it or when I take it, I become an emotional mess. I watch a commercial and burst into tears.

35:09 It's terrible. I'm I can't watch Instagram videos. 2 seconds in, I'm balling and Tracy's like, "Oh my god, I'm I'm like, I just took my pain medication. Don't you judge me." So, I I feel like hyper emotional anyway lately. But um yeah, I think that's beautiful and it's definitely something for people to think about because I think people sometimes feel pressured into the the routine and the sort of the accepted way of showing love through the holidays, which is gift giving. And again, I'm not I like getting gifts as much as the next person. It's a lovely gesture. I think it's wonderful. Um, but there are other ways to show your love and to show your affection and how important someone is to you or what they mean to you than just by simply giving them something tangible. Sometimes giving them a part of you, whether it's your time, you know, your attention, um, them wanting to give you joy through something that you love. Uh, that's that's huge. That's huge. Yeah. And in a way there's as as you were talking about that I realized there's there's kind of one of these that connects a bunch of them a bunch of love languages which is uh to potentially give the gift of going to a game store with someone to spend that time with them to let them pick a game or an accessory or an expansion they want and then you learn it and then you play it together. That scratch that checks a bunch of these boxes. You know what? You might have had just hit the trifecta, Jamie.

36:36 Yeah.

36:38 Because even I would enjoy that. Like even though I'm gifts are maybe lower down on there to Right. Right.

36:43 There are always new games that I want to play or new expansions that I want to play. So that would

36:47 that would be really neat. I might maybe I'll talk to Megan about doing that this holiday season.

36:51 I think that's that's the perfect combin Not the perfect combination. That is a great combination.

36:56 That's sort of uh you know what? We have a couple of good friendly local game stores around, but it's not like anything I see on the interwebs. Like I see game stores in your area all over the country that are just and Los Angeles is like a big county in a big city. Although, did you know that did you know that San Bernard San Bernardino County

37:20 out here is the largest county in the country?

37:23 Oh, wow.

37:23 It's weird. Not just California. Little bit of trivia for those listening to positively trivia. San Bernardino, largest county in the country, folks, in case you're wondering. Um, so I I I I love watching videos of game stores and people going shopping at game stores. And I haven't found one out here. And that's not to diminish the few that I've been to in my local area. They're lovely and the people are lovely, but I think they focus more on tabletop like Warhammer type stuff um and, um, Magic and even Pokemon and those Yu-Gi-Oh and those things. So, which is great, but for me, I'm looking more for the traditional board game stuff and I don't have a store out here. How about this?

38:01 If you're in the greater Los Angeles area or if you've been out here visiting a friend or if you know of some, let us know with a comment below because I would love to. It doesn't have to be like in directly in my area, but anywhere in like the LA County, Ventura County area, I would love to I would love to know because I'm always up for just going into a friendly local game store and just so I don't even have to buy anything. I just look around and I'm like I just feel I feel the love in the room. But I love that idea going into one and picking out a game or an expansion with someone and say, "Hey, let's this is for you. Let's go play it." I'd be like, "Really? Are you sure this isn't a joke? Where's the camera?" That that would be my first response. That genuinely be my first response.

38:40 Well, Mitchell, thanks for talking about these love languages. I appreciate that. One of my favorite topics. Um

38:45 it's a great one.

38:46 Yeah. And thanks for sharing all the games that you're excited to play and uh hopefully you get to play them in the near future. I'd love to hear that from other people, too. If there's something that you are excited to play or even anxious to play, if you're feeling anxious, that's okay, too. Um, to get that to the table, let us know in the comments below.

39:00 And what about love language? You like just someone giving you a massage for 20 minutes or talking to you about your favorite topic, whatever it is.

39:06 Physical touch is the only one that I couldn't find a gaming connection for. That is like one of the love languages to get a massage.

39:12 How about getting a massage while you're playing a solo game? There you go.

39:15 There you go. your partner, your significant other gives you a massage while you're playing a solo game

39:21 while a New York Rangers game is on in the background. Maybe that's just my fantasy. I don't know. But I'm like, "Oh my god, life does not get better." One of my eyes start to close and I'm watching the hockey game trying to play my Yeah. So, there you go. We're always trying to combine things that give us joy. So, yes, J. I absolutely love that topic. That is not one that I thought about, but I'm hoping that it inspires people to share their love language. And uh yeah, like Jamie said, games that you're dying to get to the table, whether you own them or not, what is something that sticks out in your mind? So there you go. Episode 39. We will turn 40 very soon with hopefully several of you out there, whoever wants to join us, Jamie. So I know we'll post on our socials. So definitely uh check that out. And we look forward to seeing you all in a few days. Jamie, I will see you soon.

40:03 Take care, Mitchell. Bye.