News & Week In Review - CMON Again, New Content for Arnak, MTG Makes Records & More!!!

0:00 Hey, I'm Alex Radcliffe from BoardGameCo, and this is News and We Can Review, where we're going to dive into a variety of news pieces, the videos of the week, the games I've played, all of that and more. Links and timestamps to everything down below. Before we dive into this video, Gen Con is next week, which means a few things. Number one, I don't know what the next week's Week in Review will be like. Sometimes I have one when I'm traveling, sometimes I don't. We shall see. Something might go up next Saturday. Maybe I'll do a vlog, who knows? I never really know what will happen. We'll see what this week's schedule is like. And number two, Allplay is a channel sponsor. If you are at Gen Con, make sure to go ahead and check out their giant Allplay booth with all the various cabinets of full of games and bags and all those things. Uh check them out. They have a big presence at every convention. The games tend to be flying off the shelf because they are very affordable, very cheap, lots of different games at a lot of different price points, and a lot of different partners. With that, let's go ahead and dive into the News and We Can Review, starting off with CMON. Yes, CMON is back in the news because they are scrapping their $2.1 million NFT game maker investment. If you head over to BoardGameWire, you can read the breakdown. The long and short of it is CMON kind of is saying, "Hey, you know, we're not really going forward with it."

1:05 Uh reasons are a little undefined, so um they're not going forward with it. Is it because of, you know, not enough data, not enough um what's called uh what's the word for it? Um this thing that we're saying the disclose the the conditions had not been satisfied as to they did not disclose which conditions not been satisfied. Is it because of all the public followed around a company that's, you know, not in the greatest shape investing in NFTs? Who's to really say what's going on? Uh the way I put it to a friend uh is that it is fascinating that when even the right choice feels like an embarrassing thing to make, that's that's not a good sign for your company. By all accounts, CMON backing out of this NFT investment, given how much uproar there was when it happened, by all accounts, this is the right move. But even this makes it seem like it's a ship without its rudder. Makes it feel like they don't really have a direction.

1:52 Even good news being bad news is kind of strange. It's so weird. My relationship with CMON is weird. Like I I was such a fan of the company for so long for so long. But like I don't know. I don't know whether the team is totally different. I don't know what's happened over the time over the years. All I know is it feels They It feels harder and harder to take them seriously. And once upon a time they were the biggest crowdfunding creator in the space. Weird times, man. Weird times. Anyways, with that over on BoardGameWire, you shouldn't not BoardGameWire. Over on the BoardGameBeat, W. Eric Martin's BoardGameBeat, you shouldn't sleeve your cards. Now, this isn't really news. This is an opinion piece. But while I'm crawling the various sites for the various board game news, I saw a why I avoid game sleeves and why you may want to do the same. It's actually a really good read. I don't agree with his conclusion, but that's because I sleeve sleeve I sleeve my cards for a different reason. The long and short of it is he talks about how the vast majority of games that you would sleeve, you don't actually need to. And so his approach is, I don't sleeve my games and when the game wears out, I buy a new copy and then I sleeve that copy because that game is clearly getting the plays needed that I should sleeve the cards.

3:02 Everything else, not worth it. And so in doing so, he saves time, money, and all that. And once in a while, like I think he said three times he's had to like buy a replacement game and sleeve it. I think actually two times he bought it. He sleeved three games, only bought two replacement games. He's just saying you don't need to sleeve your games. You're kind of trying to avoid a problem that doesn't exist but creating a problem by doing so. Uh the logic of that is on point. Everything he says is completely on point except for one major issue. I personally prefer a sleeved deck of cards. I just prefer. I prefer the feel of a sleeved deck, especially shuffling large stack of cards. If you have a ton of Well, not really Dominion so much cuz that's more manageable. But if you have like a large stack of Terraforming Mars or Dune Imperium and then you have large stacks of cards, I find being able to uh synchronize piles of sleeved cards together is just more satisfying and easier to do. Holding them feels more premium. Uh Uh, and some of the logic is even though cards only wear at a certain point, uh, just the idea that you see that visual wear on cards, something he didn't talk about and experience that I have had over time, is when you have a game that's been played a reasonable amount of time, and then you get an expansion, sleeves can absolutely make the difference. Uh, you'll the the the the difference between new expansion cards and cards you've played 30 times, not even a ton, but like 30 times, is notable. It is evident. You may not have to replace that deck, but the difference between new, there's a lot of reasons I sleeve my cards, and the very least of them is because I'm actually worried of them being damaged and trying to protect them. There's a lot of smaller facets that go into it, and I just enjoy the process of sleeving. Should you sleeve your cards? Not necessarily, but I do think it's a good read. I think his logic holds up. It just depends on why

4:33 you sleeve your cards. Over on Board Game Wire, we have Magic the Gathering. Uh, it's crossed $500 million in quarterly revenue for the first time, which is an insane number. It's an insane number. For context, the entire tabletop company market every single year is something like, uh, I think it's like, you know, $350 to $400 million for the entire tabletop market for a year, and they have $500 million in a quarter for MTG. Once again, a reminder of just how small the board game space is relative to everything else. It's actually funny. I was reading this article after I had already written an initial draft. There's a video subject I have coming soon about how tiny tabletop is. And this is inspired by a bunch of other numbers I've seen. Uh, the $500 million quarterly is just another number that's going to be in that video. Tabletop board games are tiny relative to so many other ecosystems out there. I will be doing an entire video on that subject. But in the meantime, Magic the Gathering, it's on the upswing, which is fascinating cuz this whole universe is beyond thing. As someone who used to play Magic the Gathering, I find it such an off-putting concept that Magic feels like it's lost its identity, and it's just spiraling into all these different IPs. And like, when it was just like Lord of the Rings, fine-ish, even that I didn't love, the more it spread out into different IPs, the less I feel that actually feels like there's any sense of identity. The problem is, I'm not their target audience. I used to love Magic, don't play Magic anymore. They're not losing me as a customer. I wasn't a customer anyway. And the Magic turnover in general, like the general Magic turnover is already high before they got into Universes Beyond, which means to a large extent they're dabbling with collectors, the absolute hardcore players, and then a giant amount of

6:04 turnover either way. And Universes Beyond, this new thing where like they used to have like six sets a year, whatever it is. I think they had four sets a year. They had They had a reasonable number. And now they're like, "We have seven sets a year, of which three of them are regular and four are Universes Beyond, these IP crossovers." And that's only growing. And so it's interesting because they're pulling in a lot more new blood. And yes, the existing fan base is a little bit more like, "What's going on here?" And the turnover is a drop higher. But since their turnover was already so high, being able to pull in that many more new people while still catering to the collectors, long story short, Magic's doing fine even as people grit their teeth and say, "This might This isn't what it used to be." And some of them stop playing and some of them continue playing. Lost Ruins of Arnak surprise shipment. This was a surprise, mostly. I kind of knew something was coming. I Long story short I short at Essen last year, I actually got to see the designers, Min and Elwen. And I I was like, "Please, I hope there's more content." They're like, "No, not really.

6:58 Like we said there's no more content." Or whatever it was, no more something. I don't know. I was like, "But I need more characters. I want more asymmetric characters for my Lost Ruins of Arnak. I love the game. I want more for it." And they were like, "Well, there might be like stuff, like small stuff, like card stuff. But there's not going to be like any big more content." So this is I guess the stuff that was being hinted at back then where they have cards. They have more tiles, more cards. It's a surprise shipment for Lost Ruins of Arnak that will be at Gen Con, I believe. And it's, you know, I think it's at Gen Con. I believe it's at Gen Con. I think it's at Gen Con. I'm not sure. It does fit into the adventure chest, I know that. But it's basically some extra cards and stuff without like making any major changes. So like if you were looking for a new character or a new mode of play, it's none of that. It's just more Lost Ruins of Lost Ruins of And speaking of Essen, over on BoardGameGeek, they have the Essen preview list is up.

7:47 If you are sick and tired of all those content creators covering the BGG and Gen Con preview list, well, now you can go ahead and pay attention to the Essen preview list. It's already at 465 titles, and we are already months out from Essen. So, there's plenty of time for more things to get added. If we sort by thumb, let's see anything exciting to uh start off with. We have Avalon. Ooh, Avalon. Avalon's going to be at Essen. Awesome. Queen Alice over here from Combo Games. Uh we have uh 60 - 60 from Alexander Pfister and Peter Prince. This I've heard about this one. Don't know much about it. We have Ashes: Kingdom Come Deliverance. Okay, I think that's a coming to Gen Con already, if I'm not mistaken, but I could be wrong. We have God of War and Beer. Lots of games over here. Uh these are all going to be at Essen already, and we'll see a whole lot more. I'm sure I'll be doing lists around this, but that's not going to happen just yet. And that's basically everything we have for the news part, which brings us to the videos of the week. Videos of the week, we had, speaking of all the Gen Con lists you've been uh you know, oversaturated with, we had three this week. We had a Gen Con recommended games. That's a video I did together with Ryan from How I Roll. Uh basically, it's all the games we recommend that we have played, and we tell you we're telling you check them out at Gen Con. There's also a Gen Con anticipated games, games that we are personally looking forward to that will be at Gen Con. As well as personally I did, and that was over on his channel.

8:58 And then personally I did a video of Gen Con expansions. Uh 10 10 I think it was 10 Gen Con expansions that I recommend checking out. Some because I already know them, and others because I'm interested in them, but basically, expansions and stand-alone versions of games that you can see at Gen Con. And then lastly, I did a video on Wednesday of 10 people that were an important part of my board game hobby. In different ways, whether because they introduced me to board games, whether part they played along the way, various people who are I'm still I still know, people who I don't know as much anymore, I'm not close with. There's a variety. Basically, it's 10 people who have been an important part of my board game experiences over the past 5 years, I guess, 6 years, whatever you want to call it. Some longer than that, but it's kind of a so it's a little personal story time video. That brings us to the uh videos we covered that the games we covered this past week. We had a bunch. We had a preview and play through for Alexandrio. Alexandrio over on Game Found. It's basically an asymmetric role game, a Euro game of uh trying to basically build a city sort of. You have one player who's uh you know, producing goods, one player crafting goods, one player is building buildings, and one player is defending the city from raids.

9:57 Uh overall, the gameplay itself was fine. Uh for me, the biggest issue I had with it was I felt that the asymmetry aspect to it and also the rules overhead for the asymmetry and how you have to you know your factions and how each faction works. I just didn't feel that level of asymmetry paid off in the strategic differences between the factions. So, the game was fine, but possibly when you're going to ask players to learn that much differences, I wanted there to be a bigger payoff at the end of it, and I didn't personally feel that. There's Sky 5 from uh Jude from Sky from Jude City Games. Sky 5 is a fast-playing game that's clearly a riff on Flip 7, but manages to be very different just leaning into that style of push-your-luck gameplay, and I think they did a great job with it. I give it a 3.5 out of 5, which is the same review I give up Flip 7, but it is fast, catchy, fun. I I really enjoyed it and definitely recommend it. There was a Codenames Critical Role review. Uh I like Codenames Codenames Critical Role Adventures. I like Codenames a lot. I've liked the various versions over the years, and Codenames Critical Role Adventures is not just a re-theming of it. It's an entirely new way to play the game, and I definitely think you should check it out, especially if you are a fan of Codenames Duet or if you're a fan of Codenames in general, uh check it out.

11:01 Do not let the theme pull you in or push you away. I think it's just a good version of playing Codenames. There's also a Rosalee review. Rosalee, uh this is from Michi Koyama, who also did Sweet Land. Rosalee is another game of uh you know, adorable theming, but a heavier gameplay. Plays out across seven rounds as you plant various blooms. I reviewed that and gave it a four out of five. I really enjoyed the over- I well, I enjoyed the overall game. Um my biggest issues with it were What are my biggest issues? My biggest issues were first of all, the game time, the components, and also the small choices they made along the way as far as a feel good versus feel bad moments. Then there was A Place for All My Books review that also went up on Thursday, I believe. A Place for All My Books is charming and light and interesting. Rosalee and A Place for All My Books are both like very, very charming accessible games, but on the opposite ends of the spectrum as far as the actual gameplay. Like Rosalee's very heavy, A Place for All My Books is very light. I like A Place for All My Books.

11:50 My biggest issue with it is the variability just isn't there in my opinion. It is a very charming game being held up by the charm and the theme of it, but the gameplay experience doesn't really change game to game and that kind of holds it back for me a little. As far as games played this past week, overall this is just a small smattering of the various games I played. I got Five Tribes done. Five Tribes is a game I haven't played in a bit, uh but it's one that shows up, uh you know, once every six months or so or what not, but it is consistent that every time I play it I enjoy it and think I should play it more. It has lasted so long in my collection. It's honestly kind of impressive that it's been around for as long as it has. Like I got it when it first came out and it's still a game that I enjoy and find myself turning to. Dune Imperium: Uprising got several plays this week, both Dune Imperium: Uprising with the with some of the expansions mixed in, uh but overall Dune Imperium is absolutely phenomenal. I recently have been getting more of some of my favorite games that I don't play as often to the table and it's been very, very fun to do so. And then also got uh some plays of Alibis. Alibis from All Play. It's kind of my rotation of fun to play games these days are things like Alibi fun to fun to play like party group games. I like, you know, Codenames, So Clover, Alibis. What else?

12:53 I feel like something else that I'm missing. I feel there's another one that I'm missing. I'm playing Sidewize a bit these days, but like oh, Decrypto. Decrypto. I've been playing a bunch of Decrypto. There's a lot of these excellent games out there that are very satisfying and Alibis has been getting a bunch of play recently. Which brings us to today. Today we'll have a few things going up. We're going to have a review for Patchwork Tetris going up on the channel, as well as a five review roundup going up. This is a video with five different five different games covered in the same video. Both those will be going up later today. And next week there'll be a bunch of things. There'll be an Enchanted Ivy solo gameplay going up on Sunday. Check that out if you're interested in checking out at Gen Con if you want see what the game play's like. There'll be a Six Suspects review. I mentioned this a few times, but that will be going up this week, hopefully, the review. I mentioned how much I like the game. The review will be going up this week. And then there's also going to be a vlog showing up this week. It's something that I started last year and did it for like 5 weeks, and it's starting again. I don't know how long it'll last, but until as long as it keeps going, it will it will go. It might be a few weeks. It might be 1 week. We shall see. But uh the first iteration of it will be going up this week, in case you're interested in uh seeing me jump back into just, you know, like the universe and everything. Which brings us to the games on the table. I have no idea how many of these I will actually be able to get tabled because I have like 2 days. I have 2 days. My entire week is 2 days, and then I'm off to Gen Con. So, um this isn't too ambitious, is it? But I hope to play Abomination uh in those 2 days. I hope to be playing Cascadia Alpine Lakes in those 2 days. This just showed up. I'm very excited. I want to dive into it fully solo cuz like now they have the full like proper finished game and like all the scenarios. I want to Well, this one This one should be easy. I hope to play this one. Maybe I'll film it. Maybe I'll even film it cuz you know what? I like this game a lot. Uh I like Yeah, I

14:23 like it a lot. We'll see. It'll play the first one off camera, next one on camera. We'll see. Uh Trick to the Future and Zombie Princess, both of those I hope to get tabled. Should be easy. You know, I have 2 days to get a game game night in and play them. And in that game night I hope to be playing uh Shackleton Base as well. This is the expansion for Shackleton Base. I played the first game the the Well, I've played the the base game multiple times. I have not played the expansion at all. I've had it for a few weeks now, and I'd love to get it tabled. I think Shackleton Base is a phenomenal game, and diving into more corporations, well, that's just that's just has me excited. Anyways, until next time, that has been your week in review. I'm Alex from BoardGameCo. I hope you enjoyed this video. I hope you have an excellent time at Gen Con. I'll say the same things I usually say. If you see me at Gen Con, by all means stop me, say hi, all of that. I'll be at the Game Found booth half the time, but the rest of the time I'll be running rapidly from meeting to meeting. If I am in a rush and I just say hi and then run, I apologize. I'm not trying to be rude. Gen Con does have a lot of meetings to meetings, but uh if you see me, stop me, and if I'm not in a rush, I will definitely say hi uh for much longer than I'm so sorry, I'm going. Bye. We'll see. But, uh either way, hope you have an excellent Gen Con.

15:25 Until next time, I'm Alex Radcliffe from BoardGameCo. Hope you have an excellent week, and as always, I hope you have a good one.