Broken Meeple Podcast 139 - What's Hurting Conventions Now?

0:29 Hi everyone. Welcome to another Broken Mele podcast. That's been a while. Yes. Uh the last time it was on, I can't actually remember what it was. I think I was ill. Yeah, I think I was ill because of the heat waves. And thankfully, the weather has kind of died down a little bit. Not enough. I mean, we're still in the mid20s and we're going to get another heat wave in Wednesday and partially tomorrow. But, you know, we are at least at a temperature now where it's bearable. And by bearable, I mean I'm not like, you know, wanting somebody to like kill me, you know, like like right now, you know, it's still going to be hot. I'm still going to be sweating while I do this podcast because it's going to be hot in here cuz I got to close the door and the windows for noise and stuff. So, it's going to be a hot podcast as always, but at least it's not as bad as the what was it the 38°ree one we had for a couple of days. And then it's not as bad as the continuous 30°ree one that we had for about 10 days straight. you know, it's getting ridiculous. But we're almost into August and even though the seasons have kind of shifted forward one month, you know, so September is kind of always summer as well. September is never as bad on the temperature front. It's usually low 20s, in which case low 20s is perfectly manageable. Um, and August hopefully won't be crazy hot, but who knows?

1:40 Global warming, everything. You know, the summer is just horrible now. Uh, but um, we're getting there. Sooner or later, we'll be in a position where we can go back to normal temperatures. You know, I can put on my big wool coat. Uh I can, you know, I don't need a fan everywhere I go. You know, AC will be a optional extra, not a mandatory requirement here. So, we're getting there. We just got to bear with it. But, um, yeah, generally fine. Job's fine. Everything else, uh, I've done the podcast today on a Monday, Monday the 27th, because I've been at two conventions the last two weekends. So, haven't really had the chance to be able to actually do any recording, you know. So, this is about the only time I can get and that's only because I'm not at my normal games club tonight because, well, I've played in two conventions last weekend. I'm kind of gamed out, you know, only to a point, but I just don't need to be at a club right now. You know, I thought I'll choose use tonight to get on with some recording. And there's a few things I want to talk about today. So, we'll just crack on. Uh firstly, you know, it's been a while since I've updated on the whole channel and that 27894 215 extra in the last month, you know, so we're doing pretty well actually in the last few weeks. You know, the subs have gone up quite a bit. We're almost at the 28,000 mark. So, you know, another milestone reach. And some of that has been down to the last few videos that have come out. Oh, god blam me. I lost my freaking mind doing this one. The top 10 more overrated games.

3:02 So, basically, I think this is the third maybe fourth. I think it's the fourth time I've done a top 10 overrated games list, hence more. And I called it you have been warned. All right, because I knew I was going to get flack from some people for it. But actually, surprisingly, despite somebody sharing it on Facebook, which I was not happy about really, cuz I mean I I don't know. I I like my content being shared on Facebook and I do say do it, but that list is a dangerous one to put on Facebook because, you know, we do have this problem in the hobby of toxic positivity. And so you get the people who know what you like. You get the people who, you know, respect what you say regardless of whether they agree with you or not. And then you get the trolls who literally just want to take any excuse to fire their shotgun rounds at you. And believe me, there was a few on the YouTube comments, but not that many actually. Most of them were on the Facebook post, you know, and there's not a lot I can do about the Facebook post.

3:54 I can't, you know, delete them or anything. But you know the I was actually kind of surprised that 95% of everybody who was uh you know on the you know YouTube channel uh comments were actually pretty good. You know whether you agreed or disagreed with the stuff I put in there. You were reasoned. You had your own counterarguments. You were polite about it. You were civil about it. And that's what I like to see. You know we don't have to like the same things. You don't have to agree with it. You can happily disagree with all 10 items on the list. some of you did, but you can tell me what yours are and I'll agree or disagree with those, you know, but it's good to chat and discuss. And even though I lost my mind doing it, cuz I certainly went off on a bit of a uh like mental breakdown with it, it was a fun video to do. And 21,850 odd subs, sorry, subs, views, you know.

4:46 So, it's uh it was worth doing. Worth doing despite the uh problems there. But yeah, the people who sort of go, "Oh, you're only like doing it to get clicks and all that stuff." It's like, for crying out loud, you lot really do need to, you know, load some different ammunition in your gun. Because frankly, that is such an old tired argument. It's unreal, you know? I mean, talking being critical of games and criticizing, being negative, and that doesn't help the channel, okay? It doesn't help it. People think that if you're negative about stuff, you're suddenly the most famous person ever. If that's the case, why do Rado, Dice Tower, and all them lot exist, all right? Cuz they're not hyper negative about games. Dice Tower's last 10 reviews are all seven plus, you know, they're mostly 8.5 plus reviews. And we know what Rado's opinion is on games and stuff like that. They don't talk negatively about games and they're some of the most loved people in the industry. So, no, talking negatively about games does not help you, you know, become more popular or more, you know, or get you along in this industry, especially with publishers because publishers have to know what you're like. If they know that you are honest about games and you will talk good and bad about them, most of them are less likely to send you stuff. You know, I I have to personally request a lot of copies regardless of whether they know what I'm like. But, you know, there are people out there who because they're really positive will get sent stuff without even asking for it, you know, and for me, I'm lucky if I get it in the first place. So, it's not a you it's not like a oh, you're just doing it for this. No, shut off. It is really is not.

6:18 I'm doing it because I enjoy it. You know, there is a difference. Um, but then after that, we got free and also, yeah, this argument of you don't like heavy games. Well, Revenant, World Order, and the World Order expansions and solo mode review are the other three videos. 5,000, 5,000, 2,000, you know. So, pretty good on the views there as well. My World Order opinion is decent, but it's hampered by some major issues, mainly to do with its length, because its length really doesn't justify the gameplay. Uh, but the, you know, it's still a decent game or above average. And Revenant I actually really enjoyed. I like Revenant. Revenant's on my shelf. I mean, hell, you want to know, you want a bit more proof? Look, there's the Lord games I keep talk, sorry, that I keep talking about in uh most reviews, but I've been doing a bit of Brenn and buying lately in that. So, if I turn the camera this way, you see uh Revenant, Tracarion Collector's Edition, and Hegemany. Okay, that's like, you know, free Mine Clash games there, you know, in that shelf. And Hegemany. Oh, sorry.

7:17 There's I do like heavy games, people, for crying out loud. You know, that that argument. Usually, if somebody says that argument, I just delete it. you know, I just get out of my memory because frankly, it's such a tired argument. You, you know, it's literally staring them in the face what my games are like and they still resort to the argument. I mean, well, actually, no, that would get too political, but uh, you know, there's certainly examples of this you see in real life and it's just gez, how closed is your bubble that you have to think that that argument still works? I don't know. But oh well, it's just what I have to deal with. This is what you deal with as a content creator. So, or at least if you're a um critiquing content creator, put it that way. Uh but yeah, you know, five videos there. And in terms of what's coming soon, uh we're looking at Neon Hope. I'm playing through that right now. I should be able to do a review of that very shortly. I'm almost done with it. Uh I've done a review for Bunny Kingdom Home Town or whatever it's called, the uh the two player only version. So, that one I will put out later this week, maybe like Wednesday or something, you know. I'll put that out cuz that is ready to go. Um, but other than that, there isn't really any other content like like review copy games wise for me to talk about. But I do want to do a video about some small games that I played at the games expo which I think are better than the big games that are at the expo. So, I want to do a bit of a shout out on that. And of course, I should probably do another top 10 list.

8:39 And given that I did the top 10 overrated games, it makes sense that perhaps I should do a top 10 underrated games. So, that is the likely one that I will do. you know, let's go to a bit of positivity. Although, somebody did give me a very good idea um with a potential list. I need to see if it's viable or not where basically the idea is is that uh I take the 10 games that I put on my overrated games list and then do the 10 games you should play instead of those. So, when I'm saying, "Look, this game is overrated. I don't think you should play this one," I then say which one I think you should, even if they're not necessarily the exact same game. that could work. I mean, for example, I don't think I don't enjoy Voidfall anywhere near as much as a lot of people. My go-to space game is Empires of the Void 2. You know, that's the one that I play when I want a long space game that feels that's got a little bit of euro euroness to it, but mostly is about the theme of the space game and that. So, without taking 8 hours to play or, you know, 3 hours to learn or anything. So, you know, there's examples like that. I don't know if it's viable, but it's worth a shot. So, I will consider that one. But definitely we need to get a top 10 underrated games in to balance the books, shall we say? You know, because less people are willing to get on your case and try and cancel culture you when you're talking positive about stuff. Go figure. Uh but uh yeah, so that's kind of what's on the horizon for a bit and of course Essen will come in October and we'll chat more about stuff then. Uh but yeah, I think that's generally about it

10:10 for that. So what have I been doing lately? Well, I've been to two conventions as I said. So, I've been to one called Hexacon, which was basically uh one in Basing Stoke. This is a brand new one. I wonder if I can get the Yeah. Can I get the uh Love Basing Stoke? Uh Love Basing Stoke is a a site that just talks briefly about stuff. What I need is I need a hexagon. It The problem is it's on Facebook. That's the slight issue there. But, uh Okay, let me bring it up just briefly. There you go. I can bring up the Facebook post, I guess. Why not? Um, but yeah, this one is in Bazing Stoke, uh, in a Holiday Inn. It's the first time, I believe. Yeah. Brand new board game convention. And it was wasn't expensive.

10:57 It's local. It's only 45 minutes drive away from me. So, I decided to go there on both days and see what was what. It's your typical, you know, board game convention. So, go there, play games. One person is selling games. Uh, some events may happen. um you know, get your food and drink there and that. And I wanted to see what was what. This one is obviously brand new. So, there's definitely a case of right, okay, this one is uh brand new. It's going to have some issues, but it will get on its feet. For the most part, it's fine. It's it does what it says on the tin. You go there and play games. You know, any faults to do with getting into games and that are kind of the same here as they are at other conventions. But a few things did prop up. Firstly, the venue itself. Good that there's air conditioning. Could blame me. I actually felt chilly at times. It was so nice to be in there, but the food and drink at that Well, the drinks all right. You know, they they do standard drinks and they do discount on things like coffee and that, so that's fine. Um, but man, I have seen better food discarded from the back of shoddy takeaways in dumpsters.

12:05 The food in that place is horrible. I or I paid10 pound for a jack of potato and chili, right? And that's already more expensive than pretty much any other place I buy a jack of potato and chili from, right? And I got it and it I I swear it was looking up at me as if its mother had died. You know, it just had it might as well have had a frowny face and tears because it was a sorry ass small potato with a dollop of what must have been recycled microwave chili. You know, like really horrible stuff. Not proper chili, not salt I would cook for a kickoff, but not even remotely good chili. I mean, this is like microwave crap chili. And it was there and that was it. Not even a salad. No salad with it at all. Literally just that and a few beans shoved on top of it. Oh, no. Not no, sorry, not beans, chili, you know, spoonful of chili and a bit of potato.

12:56 That was it for a tenor. The food sucks. You know, they're next to an Asda Express. There's other stuff in Bazing Stoke. And after 7:00, you can order in anyway. So, why the hell would you buy from the site? So, honestly, yeah, the food sucked. That was a waste of a tenor. But, um, the the site itself is fine. I mean, its main problem is numbers. There's only three rooms and the it's they said they sold out. I swear there wasn't more than 100 people at that convention on any day. And I thought they had something like 200 tickets sold, but I swear there was only about 100 people tops. And I think 25 of them consisted of, you know, demoers, you know, some play testers who wanted people to try out their games and the staff, the ones in the t-shirts. So probably only left about 75 people actually playing games, maybe a 100 tops. And it was difficult to get into any games if you didn't come in your own clique group, more on that later, and play yourself. God help you if you were just trying to jump into a random game.

13:56 I mean, I got lucky because I met a friend who was there and we got to play some Spirit Island, which was great. and also got very lucky that two uh men very kindly, you know, said hi and introduced themselves to me and we played a few games together, you know, Great Western Channel New Zealand and a couple others and that and even saw them again at Manacon. So, you know, that was, you know, perfect. But then on the Sunday, I tried to uh say, "Look, here's a few games that we could play, you know, some heavy and light ones here. Who's interested?" And everybody just came in their own little groups and there was barely anyone there. And so, I just went home. you know, there was no point sitting around waiting to see if anybody else would come out of a game. And unfortunately, there was no slots available for me to jump in in any way. Even if I wanted to jump into a game, people were playing stuff like Concordia and Container um and other boring stuff like that. So, it's like, you know, no.

14:44 So, I just basically went home and wrote off Sunday. You know, it was a wasted trip going there in the morning, frankly. So, well, apart from the bring and buy, I did manage to sell Scythe. Yeah, Scythe is actually out of the collection now. I have sold my big legendary box of scythe. The game is still fine, but I'm done with it. I've burnt out on it. It's no longer in my collection, which means that the only Stonemire game left in my collection is Vidiculture. Yeah, Vidiculture is the only one left. And if I get burnt out on that one, that will go as well, you know, just like any other game. But yeah. Oh, no, sorry, Wingspan. Of course, I've got Wingspan. So, Wingspan and Vidiculture. So, I had three games, now I've only got two. Okay, so those are my two choice ones from Stonemire. But yeah, Exxagon is fine, but it you you need to take your own food. Be ready to order out in the evenings. Don't order the food there. You know, just order some alcohol or basic drinks there. That's fine. And go with people you know or be prepared that you might not get into games. It's it needs to boost its numbers. And it is its first con and it's a small one. So, give it time. All all conventions start off bad, you know, or dodgy or with flaws when they first begin. You never get it perfect the first time out. It never happens. I mean, hell, there are still problems with every con I go to in some respect. There will always be something wrong. And that's after the con's been happening for like 10, you know, 10 plus years. So, you know, UK Games Expo, how long's that been going on? Do you think that's anywhere near perfect? Hell no.

16:12 So, you know, there are definitely issues with every convention. And this one just basically just needs to keep going. Just keep going. You know, if you're going to stick to that venue, then people just need, you know, maybe have a chat with them about the quality of their food or just maybe say, "Look, you know what? You know, if you can order out in the evenings, people can come prepared." But, uh, other than that, keep the air conditioning on, keep it in basing stom drive is nice. Um, and you know, nice to have a convention actually reasonably close to me. And maybe just get some more t I mean, the table space was fine. I mean, there wasn't too much draw for that, but then there just wasn't enough people playing games. So, I don't know. We'll see. That one I'm sure will boost in the time to come. And then the other one I literally got back from yesterday, you know, literally got back from there.

16:58 And that is uh one that's becoming uh quite a good little favorite for the UK in that one. And that is Manacon. Manacon used to be at Leicester, Leicester Uni. Back then it was okay, but it wasn't the best venue. It was definitely like a 3 plus hour drive, so it took ages to get there. And in the summer, it was an absolute furnace, you know, absolutely horrible with bad student accommodation and that. So, I wasn't a fan of going there ever again after the first once or twice I did. But then it's now moved to Northampton University. So, this is the second year it's there and it's a lot better. Yeah, the venue is definitely sounds better than Leicester Uni. Now, there are still some problems that repeat. The student accommodation still sucks. It may be cheap. Oh, man. But I pity the students who have to live in those furnaces. They are, you know, they are hot. Most of the stuff's broken. You know, they are pretty shoddy halls. And I think they've actually, you know, they've been in the media about that sort of thing as well in the past. So, yeah, not great. But I stayed in the hotel about 20 minutes away and drove in each day. Cheap parking. You can prepay parking for two quid a day. Nice and cheap.

18:08 Unfortunately, because the f the convention clashed with some festival that was on, I don't know what festival, but something big was going on in Northampton area, the hotels, including stupid stuff like travel lodges now, were charging like three-digit figures per night. It was ridiculous. So, I had to go into a hotel about 20 minutes away, the Colombia in in arms or something like that. It was run by a Colombian family. And um yeah, uh for that much a night, which was still the cheapest around, I expect better. Yeah, wasn't the best of night sleep or even the best of quality food or anything. I mean, yeah, it was pretty but it was adequate for two nights. I just didn't get a lot of sleep. Um, but the other other than that, you know, Manicon itself again, go there, play games. There's a retailer, there's a bring and buy, there are events, you know, but most people are there to play games and there's a decent amount of space uh throughout the whole thing really. I mean, getting tables is not usually too difficult, but uh it's, you know, you got a wide selection of games. I mean, I was there playing Hijgemony and you can play Arkn Nova, you can play Vitala, but you can also play something as easy as Flashoint if you really must. You can play Darwin's Journey. I don't recommend you do, but you can if you want. Uh, and you know, there are some light games as well, some 18Xs if you're into that sort of thing. But yeah, it's it's a good area. You know, the Brin and Buy. God blam me. I thought I was only going to take a couple of things to the Brin and Buy. I then found stuff on my shelf and ended up taking about 10 15 games. I sold all but one. I brought one game back. I made a killing on the Brin and buy stuff to help me repay my mortgage

19:39 next month. But yeah, um it's it was still good. I mean, this back room here does to Oh, wow. That's a picture of me. I'm on it. I didn't realize there was a picture of me on one of these Manacon ones. All right. What am I playing there then? Ah, I recognize this. This is when I was teaching free people how to play WFarers of the South Tigris. Yeah, they walked away liking that one. And that was a good that was a good fun session. Um but that room does get quite hot. They have opened this back wall um here which is essentially made a double room which helps but that room still gets quite hot in the summer. So if you want to be in there, you don't mind the heat, fine. But the table size is good there though. That's the thing. But yeah, other than that, that room is a little bit hot and I'm not the biggest fan. I usually like to be somewhere here in the main hall or I quite like to be uh these oval tables are a pain in the butt when it comes to their shape but otherwise it's quite a cool area in terms of the um heating but yeah there are some tables in the sort of main hall area that are you know in this area that are nice and chilled nice and big and it's a good friendly atmosphere here you know people are generally you know on the best behavior no problems the food is great um because it's a Northampton Uni campus You know, food's pretty decent.

20:54 It's good value, nice and cheap. They have uh craft beers and ales on. So, I was drinking a couple of those throughout the thing. There's complimentary tea and coffee. So, if you've got the two big coffee containers, you could get free tea and coffee. I didn't even know that was going to be a thing. But, thank you for getting that arranged because that is one of the best things I can ask for at a convention. Free tea and coffee. You know, if I want a fancy cappuccino or something like that, then yeah, I'll go to the bar and order myself a fancy cappuccino. But if I just literally need a pickme up white coffee or black Americano or something, then I'd love to be able to just selfs serve for a thing. I'm surprised there wasn't even like a courtesy box, you know, like put a quid in the box and like help fund it cuz that's what happens at Gridcon. Um I would totally be down for that. You know, if if if they think it's too expensive to do it, then yeah, fine.

21:39 We'll we'll chuck a quid in your honesty box or whatever and we'll we'll pay for every coffee by a quid. But maybe they just make enough money from everybody buying food and drink cuz um gamers get hungry and very thirsty, especially for alcohol. But yeah, that it's a good venue, you know. So other than the accommodation, you know, Manacon is pretty solid for its tables and that. Um overall played quite a few games there. I mean, was it Scholars of the South Tigris, a big uh game of which was a great laugh. I mean, that one that one went into some serious uh political um political nonsense with the policy tables, but uh yeah, playing as a state and manipulating everybody to my own end. Got to love it. Um and walked away with a 115 point victory, I think, in that one. Yeah. So, that was a pretty solid one. Um but also, what else? So, Scholars of the South Tigris, uh two games of Forest Shuffle, Nova Luna, Great Western Trail New Zealand, Nikosu Dice. Um, what else? Setietti is always a good. Um, so yeah, some pretty solid games and one not so solid game. We'll get on to that in just a moment. Um, but uh, yeah, so the con Manacon is a good one to go to. There are some issues, but honestly, again, I think the issues are more down to gamers and the hobby rather than the convention itself. And we're going to talk about that a bit later.

23:00 But, you know, in terms of the setup and the organizing and the running of it, it's pretty solid. You know, it covers pretty much most of the bases. You know, it's got the tables. It's got it's not too hot. Depends what room you're in, but they can only help the heat so much. Um, the the parking's cheap. Uh, you know, it's not extortionate or anything like that. The free tea and coffee is fantastic. The food in that is reasonably priced in the bar because it's a university campus. Um, I the accommodation sucks, but that's student accommodation for you. and I stayed out of the thing. So, normally you have to queue for ages to go into this cafeteria area to get your breakfast in the morning. It's decent food and it's reasonable value, but I hated the idea of having to queue there for like nearly an hour before because everybody gets there early and stuff. So, this is why I opted not to stay on site. But, that's just the nature of the beast with the setup of it being a uni. But, uh otherwise, no, it's a solid con run by good people. You know, this one I think's gonna this one's going to get more of a following as time goes on because obviously it's been kind of at Leicester and most people have sort of forgotten about that point. But now I think in Northampton it's uh going to do well. It's on the cusp of how long now on the travel for a convention about 2 and 3/4 hours. Although some of that is because the M25 sucks. I have to take the long route round like Winchester, Oxford A34 and up above just to stand a remote chance of getting there. And even then I have to put up with the A34. You try to get to Northampton or even like you know um ah mine fart minefart uh

24:34 handicon you know you try to get Milton Kees for Handycon or this one for Northampton. You try to go up the A3 and up the M25 and up the M1 to get to them. You are just inundated with traffic jams and horribleness and that and it's just a horrible route. The the route would take me about 2 hours two and a quarter absolute tops if it didn't have all those delays, you know. But no, you lose about 30 minutes of extra travel time at least just trying to get past all the traffic buildups. It's insane. But uh yeah, I mean I enjoyed my time at Manicon. It's a solid, you know, it's a solid one run by good people. So here we go. David, Rachel, Mark, Gary, Graeme, Leanne. You and Dave. Yep. There's a lot of good people who work on this uh con. You know, I've played games with them. They're all good people. So yeah, I think I think this is doing this is going to do well. Okay. So keep it up and you know and I mentioned like food at the bar. There's even a Morrison's local thing like literally on campus.

25:28 You can go there for a meal deal for £450 or something and feed yourself there. It's just it's just very convenient, you know, game-wise you have to be a little careful though. Some tables are catered pretty well for big games. The rectangular ones you do have to squeeze some games on, but then that's more a fault of the games. Games are just getting too big in terms of the table space requirement. So, you know, that's not really a fault either. It's just generally a pretty solid con. So yeah, I look forward to next time. If anything is if anything is more of a nitpick, it's the way it's timed. This Friday 2:00 to Monday 2:00 thing, I don't quite get that because I take the Friday off work and get there and I play from Friday night, then I'm there for Saturday and then because I like to do online games with friends, you know, survival games on Steam on Sunday night, I leave at about 3:00 and get home in time to chill and that. So, I'm kind of doing half Sunday, all of Saturday, and kind of half of Friday. So, valuewise, this is on the borderline of not being great value in terms of travel and cost and everything. But because I enjoy my time there a lot, I don't mind. But I can't I don't want to take two days off just to have a bit of extra Sunday and a little bit of Monday. I don't know, two days off for a convention is a bit much for me unless it's Essen. So, I do wish it was just full on Friday, full on Saturday, and then full on Sunday. that that you know just like everything else I don't get this middle of the day thing that's a bit of a niggle but if it works for other people it works for other people you know that's just a me thing so yeah keep it up I'm looking forward

26:58 to next year right let's talk about a game I've played and this one I played on the Sunday at Manacon because I couldn't get into a game so I thought fine I'll book myself into this one it was one that was being effectively demoed in a sense not demoed but um full game, but it's new. It's on Kickstarter at the moment. You know, somebody at the con basically got one sent in advance via connections. I don't know how, but um and uh this game was available to book into and play. This one is called, if I get the page up, Rosali or Rosali or however you pronounce it. I don't think anybody really confirmed that at the time. This is from Uchi Bakoa. Um, is I got to spell that one. Uh, U C H I B A C O Y A.

27:52 Okay. It's It's presuming it's Japanese. Um, but basically this is the same. Yeah, it's Japan. There we go. These people have done uh a few games, but not ones that I've really heard of. And some of these are just iterations and expansions. But there's Aqua Garden, which if I recall, Aqua Garden was that small little game that you did a rondelle loop the loop track and you put little uh sea creatures in a little aquarium or something. I remember that being quite nice. Nothing amazing, but nice. AIA, didn't that just like sort of come and go? I've heard no one talk about this game whether it was any good or not. you know, it literally defies all existence for me and it's not much of a looker. So, I mean, I'm not exactly that desperate to play it, but I mean, has anybody played Austria and knows what it's like? By all means, uh, put something in the comments and let us know. And they've done another game called Sweet Lands, which some people have been raving about saying, "Oh, yeah, this Sweet Lands is a really good one." And it's got a similar sort of cartoony um, anime style with that one.

28:51 Can't say that's much of a looker either. It's literally a It literally looks like Castles of Burgundy if you shoved about like shoved a couple of extra boards on it or something. It's like it does not look like a game I'm going to enjoy. Uh but some people have talked highly about it. I mean, what do you even do in this game with all these bridge pieces that look really fiddly? Uh let's see. Delightful confections. Uh love for sweets. Oh, so sweet land. All right. Haha. I get it. Okay. So, you are challenged to build the most magnificent city. Well, hang on a minute. So, so it's a city of sweets, but we're building a city. Okay, so forget the sweet thing. That's obviously just aesthetics. Heavyweight Euro game with over 200 cards, 14 unique characters, and 449 wooden tokens. Develop cities on their map board while advancing on their prosperity tracks. Tracks. Okay, that's what Euro games love. Five rounds, uh, victory points as the winner. 2025 Golden Geek Heavy Game of the Year nominee. I mean, it could be good. I don't know. I don't know enough about it. Although, this thing here where it says one to four players, best at two.

29:57 We'll get on to that in a little bit with this next one. But, okay. People were like confident about Sweetland. So naturally everybody is keen to see what is the case with Rosalie which is basically same people um same kind of deal same kind of artwork really you know the same possibly even the same designer but uh it's this cartoony artwork and you look at it and it's like oh you're growing flowers and that's cute it's a little cute farming game with little robot caretakers now it's going to be lovely it's going to be something like the wild gardens game that I've got oh hell freaking no it is not like that Jesus Okay, I knew what this game was like before I went into it. Okay, so I don't use the excuse of, "Oh, you expected this and you got this." All right, I was warned what type of game this was, but I wanted to try something new. I'll try something I'll try everything once, okay? Um, but do not be misled thinking that you look at this game and it's going to be a charming little farming game. It is everything but. This is a heavyweight Euro game. Um it is wonderful players 120 to 180 if you are freaking lucky. I mean, put it this way.

31:06 There was a We started this game at nine o'clock, right? The teach started at nine o'clock. The next time this game was due to be played was two o'clock, right? And obviously the person wanted a break in between and that, but basically that's a 5hour window. Okay, 5 hour window. We had to rush the last few rounds because we were concerned we weren't going to get the game finished in time in a fivehour window. What the frig? Yeah, this is long. I think the game in total took about 4 hours, four and a bit hours to finish, inclusive of the teach. Okay. Uh, a bit long for what it is, but what the hell is this game? So, you are aspiring rose breeders competing to build the most magnificent rose garden and earn renown as the finest nursery grower in town. Again, that sounds like a really light, fluffy theme. Uh, here's the problem. So, you begin with a small plot of land in a dream. Whatever. You players, you plant roses, crossbreed new varieties, cultivate soil, and adorn their gardens with fountains and windmills. That is way more for thematic than the game actually is. Okay. Right.

32:12 Um, neglect their care and they will wither. Yep. Fine. You have to care for your flowers, otherwise they will wither. You have caretaker robots that can help do that work for you. Um, you have workers. Money is always available. The town is generous with its loans, and players can borrow freely whatever funds run short. But at the end of each year, interest quietly accumulates. Debt begets debt. And once felt, what once felt like a lifeline can become a chain that strangles your ambitions. Yeah, this game isn't really a game about cultivating roses. This is a game about debt management. Pretty much solely about debt management. The flower thing is really a side part. Um, this game is a very masochistic game to play because you start off with a bunch of money and a load of debt tokens and these debt tokens are mass negative victory points.

33:03 If you have any of those left at the end of the game, chances are you've lost, right? Um, well, we'll get on to that, but and I didn't have anybody end. I paid off well in advance of the end. I think I came second, although technically could have been first. We'll get on to that in a minute, but you know, I came second and paid off on my debt. Okay, but the idea is is that these debt tokens at the end of each round or end of each autumn round spiral into more debt because they generate more debt from interest and if you can't get your engine running then you're just going to spiral out of control in terms of debt. It's very sort of punishing in that respect. You can really get put into a situation where you just have no chance to pull yourself back. Um the artwork is charming enough, although these flowers don't even have names. So really the theme of the flowers is bare bones at best. It's literally just colors. And on the subject of color, this game is one of the most I mean this is a game about colorful flowers, okay, with a nice picturesque aesthetic. It's one of the most colorblind, unfriendly games I've ever seen. There is very little to distinguish between these cards. Okay, very little distinguishable symbology. and white flowers still appear like cyan, you know, blue and things like that. And there's there's just not a lot of ways to tell the difference between some of these flowers and that. If you're color blind, stay the hell away from this game. It really isn't helping you, but that's a minor

34:33 thing. So, basically, the way the round works is that you have there's not many pictures to show with this, which is kind of annoying, really. Um, maybe Oh, hang on. We can get some more pictures. Just come on. Right. Well, this player board will start anyway. So, your player board is like this. You've got contracts at the side that you collect which you can put these roses on and they allow you to complete them and get money and points, right? You've got buildings that you can build. Some of which are very useful. Some of them aren't even worth the cardboard they're printed on. Um, you've got four special abilities that you will unlock if you build your special buildings. And the special buildings are purely just to unlock an ability and score points for the values of certain roses on a quadrant because theme whatever. But you know it's it's part of the Eurom mechanics for scoring.

35:18 And the main crux is that you have these workers. These workers are what you use to power the actions and they are you know you might have to pay a salary if you have more of them but you need these workers because you exhaust them for everything and you know if things go wrong then well you could be in a bit of a bother. But the action selection revolves around this uh clipboard thing. So you have this board and it's got hollowed out bits for ticks. You get more of these ticks as the game goes on. Probably too many in fact. And the idea is is that you select one of these actions. And it looks like a lot of symbology, but it's actually relatively intuitive once you actually get explained it. It's not too bad. Um but the the slash for an or action could be better placed because I add that mistake once or twice. But other than that, it's not too bad. But the idea is is that you have this clipboard and you put a tick on it to say which action you're doing.

36:06 The round, the action phase is simultaneous with the other player. So you select a bit on your board, do the actions in your own time, and then you pass the clipboard round to the next player. If they decide to do an action that's already got a tick on it, they've got to pay that player money. Otherwise, they just put their tick on a different space and go with it, right? And other than that, you're just basically passing the board around, doing a different action each time, maybe the same action twice, depends what's on the clipboard. And you're, you know, doing your actions by yourself. Now, that alone creates a couple of problems because firstly, simultaneous turns. Simultaneous turns is already problematic because no game is truly simultaneous because you're only as fast as your lowest common denominator. We kept having a bit of a pain train of these clipboards because of the AP that this game can generate. You know, you do the wrong move, you get your sums wrong and you're going to get screwed over for it. You know, it's very punishing this game. This is one you play if you like the games like Barrage or Splatter games. And the that also causes people to think, but also the turns aren't equally spanned. You may have a turn where you do nothing but these two boot actions at the bottom, right? that will take you five seconds to do your turn.

37:18 You could also be doing a turn where you're choosing spec you're building specific buildings or uh choosing specific flower cards and stuff like that. These turns could take you many minutes to especially to decide on what's there, especially if you're not first in turn order and you have to wait and see what happens with the cards. So that you could be there like I was waiting ages for other people to take their turns and you can do nothing in the downtime. You know, this creates such a wad of downtime, it's ridiculous. You know, you get one slow player and you will be there for a long time. You know, the turns are just not evenly spaced. The second thing is that this scene is meant to generate a sense of inter. This is this is basically the only interaction in the game. The game is basically multiplayer solitaire through and through. And I've seen creators try to defend that this thing is uh interactive. I don't know what planet they're on. It's clearly not Earth because the this is the interaction. All right. Okay. Picture this. Well, I've already explained it.

38:19 You pass the finger along and if there is a tick on the space that is somebody else, you've got to pay that player. And I'm done talking. Yeah, that is the interaction. That is it. And as you can see from this picture, there's a tick on all the spaces other than the one that's there. And that's typical because most of the time you don't need to do an action that someone else has taken. I played this for four hours. I never once needed to duplicate an action that was already ticked. Okay? And I never got paid by anybody doing an action that I'd already done. So this whole interactive bit was entirely gone. And some people will claim ah but you can look at the person after you and see what they're probably likely to do and put your tick in there or something. Firstly, you're you're a there's a ton of stuff going on. You're trying to stop yourself spoiling out of control and you think you can look across the far end of the table, look at your neighbor and deduce from his ma mass collection of flowers, his mass collection of money, his mass collection of debt, whatever. what one of 1 2 3 4 5 six seven possibly eight, you know, if you include the boot thing, eight possible actions that they can do and you think you're going to figure out the one that he's going to do. No. And even then, are you going to block that action with your tick on the basis that you're doing an action that you may not want to do yourself, but you think they will do?

39:47 No. You know, the only time that ever comes into play is if you do a boot action, cuz you got to put your tick on something. Only at that point would you even consider looking at that player. But even then, pick one at random. Just roll a dieice and pick one. That's as much as good as it matters. You know, you do not have enough information to be able to deduce what they're doing. It's purely luck of the draw. And as I said, I never got paid once and I never needed to pay anyone. So, this is not an interactive game, okay? It is multiplayer solitaire for 4 hours plus. What? You know, the the other one said best at two players. I think this one is best solo, you know, and the person who was teaching it said he prefers playing it solo and two-player. The freaking teacher at the game acknowledged this wasn't a multiplayer game, you know, and it and it it clearly isn't. There was I did not apart from the fact that they were good people and good company, I did not care that they were at the table, right? I didn't care that they were in the game. I wasn't interested in what the person to my right was doing, what the person directly opposite of me was doing and the person to the left of me was doing his own thing. Had his own debt problems. I didn't really care what he was picking for an action. I had my own problems to deal with. Okay. So, at what point did I need the game to be four hours with four players? This is a solo puzzle. And I can see this working as a solo puzzle. You know, you don't bother with this whole clipboard thing.

41:07 You know, you just choose the actions and you just try to puzzle out how am I going to do my flowers this round? How am I going to get, you know, get enough money so I can pay off some debt and not, you know, get loads more interest in that? You know, you could do it. I could see this working as a solo game. I'm not going to play it because I'm done with this. You know, I hated this. Hated. I certainly heavily disliked it. Hated maybe a strong word. I don't know. But cool blimey. I tell you, when I play Hijgemony, four hours that game took. I didn't even check my phone once. I was engaged the whole way through and I even forgot four hours had passed. Here we got to about round three. You start getting more ticks and you're doing more actions each time. And I'm already thinking, "Oh my god, this is already rinse repeating itself." And by the time we got to like the fifth or sixth round, I'm like, "Jesus, this gu game's gone forever. I'm waiting forever." And I'm like, I've done my turn in 5 seconds.

41:59 I'm waiting ages for this guy. And it's seriously, what what am I doing here? And my whole like sanity just drained as I was playing this to the point where I got to the fifth, sixth, seventh round, I couldn't have cared less what I was doing and I still somehow came second, you know, and the point inflation is insane cuz some people could finish this game with a negative score. They could finish with like three points, five points. It's happened. I finished on 109, you know, the winner finished on 140. However, here's the other problem. simultaneous games. You've got to trust that the other person knows what they're doing with the rules because if you anything up with the rules, you unbalance this game entirely. He thought that the contracts were storage spaces for the uh flowers, even though there is a space clearly labeled as the one that only stores two from round to round. We didn't realize he was doing this cuz obviously you're you're dealing with your own stuff. You have to trust that other people are playing the rules, right? But his score of 140 odd might as well be void because I have no idea how much extra I was thinking how the hell are you getting all these super flowers and stuff like that and still managing to care for them and that and it's like as soon as that penny dropped I'm like there you go the exact reason just revealed itself you know because that is a massive advantage storing bucket loads of flowers between rounds but you know and that can happen and if it does happen there's nothing you can do about it you can't rewind you can't backtrack it's impossible ble to get yourself out of that situation. And you know, a simultaneous game when the rules are simple works better, but a simultaneous

43:31 game when the rules are complicated. I mean, this is not these rules are pretty fiddly in places. There's a lot of fiddliness with, you know, how do you deal with contracts and the timing for when you sell stuff and buy stuff and that, you know, is not it's not a smooth elegant game. And you're trusting that people will get the rules right when you're teaching new play. It's not going to happen. It's just not going to happen. So, mistakes are going to get made. I made one or two mistakes at once. Luckily, I'm noticed them quick and I was able to backtrack, but poor blime me. Um, you know, it was a bit touch and go. It's there's just a lot of problems with this one. And people are going to run into this thinking, "Oh, it's a nice heavy game. It's going to be like a vidic culture with flowers." And it really is not. This is designed to depress you. This game doesn't give you little bonuses every now and again to make you feel good. It basically makes you go, "Right, I've done a bit with flowers. I've built some buildings. This seems pretty good. Right. Have some debt now. You have no money. Oh, and now the uh you get some more debt because you were lowest on this objective. And it's like, well, I wanted to get more American, you know, more British flag flowers. Where were they? Oh, barely any came out of the deck and someone else nicked them. Yeah, there are objectives that can get you into more debt and or lose victory points at the end of the game. I actually lost eight points at the end of the game because I didn't care about the last objective and I still came second. Uh, but the the weird thing with this is that, you know, these objectives are based on cards that come out of a random deck. So, it's random RNG if the cards turn up in the first place. And depending on when you are

45:02 able to actually get more cards and whether you are up on this boot track, which is in a way really important and in a way not. If you're low on the track, it's pointless. Who cares? if you're high up on the track, the bonuses are obscenely good and you're first in line for when your actions clash. But, you know, British British ones, there was barely like five of them in the whole game. And, you know, one came out and somebody would nick it instantly and, you know, next round it's like, oh, one or two have come out. I'll do the I'll do the buy cards. I'm not high enough on the boot track. Somebody else does it, buys them, and I can't get them. The game is literally designed to depress you. It doesn't make you feel good about anything. Doesn't make you feel like you've achieved anything. It just bashes you around the head until you essentially get depressed and leave pretty much despite it looking nice. The aesthetics are nice. The pictures are nice. The artwork's fine. There's a, you know, it looks nice on the table, but man, this is not the game you think it's going to be when you look at all these pretty cards, you know, with, you know, all this random symbology. The point scoring, I mean, you're collecting sets of these 1, two, three, fours because reasons. uh you know the the flowers don't even have names so the flower you know the theme's gone there and those buildings add the values of these little random numbers in the corners and they are victory points why what distinguishes them I don't know how they distinguish in any way it the mills I mean windmills very useful to build caretakers useful to build I

46:33 didn't really focus on that much though the special buildings you need to build them ASAP because they are your special abilities although the person next to me their special abilities where they get to hire employees and pay next to no wages and get money for hiring employees. We all agreed that those powers are stupidly overpowered compared to some of the stuff we had. I had the builder one where you get bonuses for building. There's only one reason why you need to build stuff for the most part. And even then, once you've built enough stuff, those bonuses are then gone. You don't get any extra benefit for the rest of the game. And the the watermills, most they're not even worth the cardboard they're printed on, frankly. I mean, they are rubbish. You know, you get a tiny little bonus for the first one. You get a useful um tile bonus for the second one. That's the only reason you buy two of them really. And the third one is a very minor point scoring. One point for every two buildings I've built. Wow. I get three or four a round and that's after I have munchkin buildings like crazy. Joy. You know, it's just not worth it. It just a lot about this game was kind of deaf by a thousand cuts really. I mean, it looks nice. It's definitely going to be thinky, but a lot of the actions are pretty fiddly. By the end of the game, by like round five onwards, there were some actions that weren't even worth doing. You know, you've got this clipboard here for Where's that clipboard? Come on. Clipboard.

47:51 Clipboard. Clip. Yeah. So, you got like seven actions there, right? I don't think I ever did the bottom action once. I even forgot what it did. You've got hire workers, you got buy fields, you got buy contracts, you got buy extra workers, you got buy buildings, buy caretakers, buy cards. Right? By the time you get to about round five onwards, some of those actions aren't even worth doing. I've I've hired all the workers. Why do I need to do it ever again? Okay, I've already bought enough fields and green houses. Why do I need to buy anymore? Um I've already built pretty much all of my buildings. Why do I need to build more buildings? It got to a point where literally there was only about two or three actions on that clipboard worth doing for me at any point. Most of the time I was like, well, do I need to do these two or three actions? No. Well, then I'm just spending most of my round just doing boot bonuses. And while my turn then takes two seconds, I'm waiting ages for these other people to take their turns.

48:41 It's just h it's crazy. Um [gasps] I mean this is the only game I've played actually excluding Aqua God and this is the only like main game I have played from this designer publisher. If this is what Sweetlands is like, then count me out cuz I really did not like this. I I hear that Sweet Lands is kind of the opposite where you get rewarded a lot more for doing stuff. So maybe Sweetlands could be really good, but this one is punishing. It is long, way too long. It is fiddly. It is, you know, janky with the timing of the rounds. Its pacing is all over the shop. It is easily at least probably two rounds too long because you get extra ticks as the game goes on. So you get more actions each round. It sp it snowballs to a point though where you really are spending ages on the last few rounds.

49:31 It's like taking forever to get it done. This game really needs to be cut to a much shorter length. It's not justifying its 3 to 4 hour length. And really the only thing that had it going for me was the aesthetics. By the time it got to halfway through this game, I was done. By the time it got to the last bit of this game, I was just willing to, you know, like kill me, you know, choke myself to death on the flowers I was growing or get hoping that a caretaker would go ballistic and, you know, break its programming and go on a killing frenzy or something. Anything just to make the game more fun, you know? Great company, but nah, for me, this game sucked. Not a fan, but I'm sure it's going to have it mega fans and the Kickstarter is going to do fine, I'm sure. But uh, nah. Ah, no more. Not interested in this one.

50:20 Ah, there we go. Right. Well, we're already on 50 minutes and I haven't even really got to the talking point. Well, the talking point hopefully is not going to be more than say 20 minutes or so. But I've basically been at two conventions and we know what we love about conventions. We go there to play games. We can buy games. We can sell games. We can meet new people and all that stuff, right? So, we know what we love about conventions and why they work. Why don't they work though? What elements don't work with a convention? What could put people off majorly? What are the main issues with conventions in general that unfortunately no convention has managed to really solve yet? So, I asked the question on my Facebook page and I'm going to put that thing up. I mean, if you posted on it, obviously you expect people to see it, but um I want to sort of read through a bunch of them and sort of give my thoughts, but I have some thoughts on this as well, particularly from Hexacon and Manicon that I was at. And these are not faults of the conventions themselves. I think this is more a fault of the hobby in general. Okay? And no convention has managed to solve this problem. So this is not badgering those two at all. You know, this is just something that is the case with conventions. But I want to just bring up my uh let's see Facebook U. So Paul Krogan's just put up a post like now in Manicon. Best Manicon ever. Man, do you ever say anything bad about anything? But yeah, cool. love you. But um yeah, so right. So what have we got here? So interested in views for a podcast topic. We all know what we love about board game conventions, but in

51:51 what ways do conventions not work? Hm. Okay. So we got some things here. I'll speak for the folks who don't like conventions at all. First problem, far too peoplely. Well, certainly, yeah, if you're not a fan of big crowds and groups and that conventions aren't going to work for you, full stop. Um it's going to be, you know, you're going to it's it's going to get on your nerves. you know, some people just don't like big crowds, meeting new people and that. So, yeah, obviously it won't work for you if you're not into that sort of thing. Um, I like conventions. Uh, don't hold them in the Paul Gman says, "Don't hold your convention in the southwest of the UK. Everyone talks funny and keeps calling you my lover." Um, I usually say the words my dear. Actually, it's like, "How you doing, my dear?" You know, something like that. Uh, but coming from the West Country, yeah, we do talk weird, so that is definitely a given.

52:39 Um, okay, what else we got? Uh, lack of open game space would be my number one. Uh, luckily this has only happened once. I think also the food and drink has been an issue at a few conventions I've not been to. The hotel not having put enough enough staff so long cues food not being available. Uh, yeah, Handycon definitely has that problem because Handycon always never has enough staff at that thing. Although the venue is shutting down now. So, I wonder if that had something to do with it in the long run. But, uh, yeah, convent and even at Hexacon actually there was the staff were barely on the tails at all. There was like barely anybody in the hotel and certainly no decent chef in the kitchen. But it it that can be a pain. I hate the idea that oh I fancy some lunch. That means I got a queue for ages and there's only one person on the till because for some reason hotels can't be asked to get other staff to work overtime or whatever on days when a convention is happening.

53:28 Why do hotels seem to underestimate how many people need food and drink at these things? And the quality of the food tends to be sucky as well. I mean, they we host these things at places like Holiday Inn and Holiday Express and that and it's like, yes, they're convenient and they're airond conditioned, but man, they do not have good chefs, right? Most of the time they suck for food. Um, uh, when you go to conventions and realize you only play games, you know, with your friends, you could have just stayed at home and saved a small fortune on coffee and snacks. This is the big one. So big I even gave it a thumbs up, right? because this is a problem with games in general with the the with hobby conventions and that and this is the big one to focus on. Right. I was at Manom and I said that you know there was a time when I booked into a hgemony game perfectly fine we got it sorted. 4 hours great. I usually go to a convention and wing it. I don't like to pre-book everything I do. You're stuck on a timet things overrun and you just get stressed out trying to keep up, right? So, I prefer to meet new people. Here's a game. Are you interested in playing it?

54:33 Is it something that's been on your wish list? Then I will teach it to you and we'll meet and chat and have fun, right? The problem is that's not the way conventions are going at the moment because of how gamers are developing because, you know, I set up a game of Scholars of the South Tigris on the Saturday morning and it was all set up. Looks pretty with the expansion. I mean, let's face it, the scholars look bad on the table when you take a look at it. It's really nice. And I put up 9:30, plenty of time for people to have their breakfast and get there and all that. And barely anybody and pretty much nobody right even was anywhere near the table because everybody had already set up games advance on afterame. We'll get to that in a minute. And or or been come to the convention in their own groups and therefore weren't willing to mingle with other people. I was lucky as hell to get one person at the very last minute before I was just ready to pack up and go. And we had a very nice two-player game of scholars of the South Tigers. It was great. We finished with a point each of difference like point difference. I won by a point. It was a great game. Okay. Great company, great lady. All right. But that was literally luck of the draw at the last minute.

55:39 Other than that, I pretty much had no chance to get anybody remotely interested in playing because everybody else has either pre-booked on man on afterame or has come in their own group. And that is what is the problem, my biggest problem with conventions right now. The the hobby has become very elitist and very clicky because I mean this was one of the reasons I actually stopped going to the Portsmouth on board club. You know, the Port of World Board Club is one of the most clicky experiences I've ever seen. And even the Sam one's starting to get to that level in some respect. But yeah, that portal got really clicky. You know, people played with each other in the same groups all the time. And if you weren't in those groups and if you weren't on Facebook Messenger to get into those games, you didn't ever play with them, right? So, you were basically stuck on, might as well call it the remedial table where you're there playing Sushi Go with, you know, people who have never seen a game before or something. you know you it you had to be part of their friendship groups and conventions are getting like that as well. People arrive in friendship groups. Some people do say and I've had this on uh some of the posts uh was it in fact actually the next comment here will illustrate the counterargument to what I'm saying here which is a fair play. I had an incredible time at Hexon Basin Stoke. Me and seven other friends all turned up sat at one table all day with our own games and had an incredible time.

57:01 Sometimes it's not possible to meet like that when you have family commitments. So, it's nice to spend quality time with good friends. Um, can me into a charity, blah blah blah d I think the only thing holding small conventions back is the people gatekeeping to stop others from having the best time they possibly can. I don't quite get how that's necessarily related, but anyway. But yeah, if you turn up in your own group because you're from different necks of the woods, you don't get to see each other much and that's a group you're going to be playing with. I can see the counterargument for that. Okay, that's a fair thing. You know, I'm from Port I'm near Portsmouth, somebody else is in London, somebody else is in Bristol. We meet in Birmingham or whatever or Oxford and we play games together at this convention most of the time. I can see that happening. There are people though who literally just turn up and they play games with each other on a Friday night in a local town. I mean, hell, two of my friends are there and we play, you know, on a Friday night. So, I play games with them every now and again. But I tend to prefer to sort of mingle with lots of other people as well to be people I don't get to see very often or never met before in my life. But a lot of people, I know people who come to those conventions and I know because some of them come from my neck of the woods that they already play games with each other at the clubs and they go to the convention to play games with each other. Why the freaking hell do you do that? Sorry. [clears throat] Uh, cool. I need a drink.

58:25 I mean, if you're going to do that, why don't you just play at each other's house, get snacks, you'd save a bucket load on drinking that. But why do you go to a convention to play with the same people you already play with every week? It doesn't make any sense. And yes, I do that. There are some friends I do that with. But I play one game with them, two games max, not the entire weekend. You know, that's not how it works. But you know, the this problem is exasperated also by the use of Aftergame. Afterame is an app that is now taken off, which is basically a pre-booking system for conventions. So the idea is is that you can go on there for an event and you can put a game in. Um you can put in the game, it will say what time length it is. You can put in the start time, duration, how many players, who can teach, whatever. And it's a useful app for pre-booking big event games. I use it to book a Geminy games, okay? Because you kind of need to. So the y the app is useful and I have used it. I do use it for some stuff, but it's taking over a bit too damn much. You know, some conventions use it more than others.

59:30 Handycom barely uses it. Hexacon pretty much barely uses it at all. Right. Uh, Manacon is about 50/50. I think a good chunk of people use it and a reasonable chunk don't either. Gridcom, pretty much 90% of the people who go to Gridcon use Aftergame. All right, so it's definitely fluctuates between conventions. But the problem is is that people are now in this thing where they want to pre-book games like miles in advance. And for some, I mean Gridcon for particular, but people will book their games like six, seven months in advance. We're we were like in March, April, tickets going on sale for Gridcon. And already people are pre-booking what games they want to play that much down the line. I mean, freaking crying out loud. Can we see what games will be released this year first? Can we get through Gen Con and Essen before we think about what games we want to play at a convention? It, you know, there's other things that you might want to do. But pre-booking 8 months down the line. Seriously, can we not just wait and see? You know, that just I don't get that. And I don't tend to pre-book all my games. I don't want to be stressed out thinking this game was meant to only take 3 hours and it's taking three and a half. I'm not going to get any food before I have to set up the next game. It's stressful and that's not what you want for a game convention.

1:00:40 It but the reliance on it coupled with the fact that people are getting very clicky in hobbies is killing it. Well, it's not killing. Okay, that's a strong word. Um it's it's im it's negatively impacting conventions. This is the big one why they can't work sometimes because you go there if you're somebody who just who doesn't use technology, doesn't use the apps, uh you know, doesn't know a ton of games, just wants to meet new people, you you're fairly newish to the hobby, you want to meet other gamers, you want to have a good time, and you just go there hoping that you can just jump into a game. Good faking luck because you're going to have a hard time doing so. And at Manacon, it's hard to do that. At GridCon, it's not impossible to do that. Handycon, it's doable. even then and you see the signs everywhere for looking for game, right? And somebody actually has a a comment on this as well. Actually, let me load it up. Uh where is it? Uh oop, somebody responded to my name.

1:01:43 Yeah, all sounds good until everyone is doing that and the convention gets very clicky. I guess in that point it's on the organizers to make sure there's enough else on to create reasons for groups to merge. That's a very difficult thing for the for the organizers to be able to do honestly. Um I understand on Sunday there was blood on the clock tower. I'd argue you could make a few sessions a day with signups and that's a great way to make groups mingle. Doesn't have to be blood in the clock tower, but any big social game will do. Unfortunately unfortunately blood on the clock tower is hot garbage. But but still a fair point raised. Yeah, I mean on the clock tower is garbage. I'm not using that as an excuse. Okay, what we got? Um expensive dice. A bad ex uh where's the bit I was trying to find? Um yeah, here we go. I've been advocating strongly for invite me to your game signs. They're always looking for players signs, but that is so different.

1:02:44 It's hard to go solo and insert yourself into groups. And there's a little discussion about what the difference between looking for players and uh looking for games or invite me to your game signs. And I can see what the difference is. He says, "If I'm looking for a game, a lot of that burden of being the teacher is taken away. Not everyone uses the looking for player sign." Yeah, you think I'm like the one of the only people that uses them. If they're two to three players, but the game will play more. I'm usually in that boat. I go with one to two people. We have enough to play a game. We aren't actively looking for players, but we would happily invite you in. If I am looking for players, I am willing to choose, learn, and teach a game to new people. So, I mean, I can see the Oh, good bling. There's a lot of comments here. I can't read all of these, but we'll get to some maybe a bit later. Um, so, oh, I didn't have the screen on.

1:03:31 Whatever. Um, so it it is a problem. I mean, I put up a game, put up a looking for players sign, and you'll be lucky if you get anybody looking for the game. And I actually quite like the idea of um a I'm looking for game sign. You could wear it. You can say invite me to your game, right? I'm looking for stuff. I've traveled alone. I'm willing to play games. The problem is clicks have already traveled and filled up all their slots. People have used aftergame, which means all their slots are filled. Pretty much nobody is there with a game just putting on a table and seeing who bites. And if you just set up a few games with a looking for players sign, that never works. you know, people just think you haven't set anything up yet. And it's like, no, it's just I'm giving you a choice of games that you fancy playing and it's just the way uh it's going. You know, clique groups and gamers being quite elitist are getting in the way of conventions. You know, they're going to just be pre-planned events where everybody has already set in stone what they're going to do miles in advance and anybody new to the hobby or new to the conventions is just going to go there and get put off. Because imagine if you went I mean if I went there not knowing what conventions were like and I set up my scholars of the South Tigers game hoping that I would get new people and I'd be able to meet new people right and then for ages hours I'm sat there and nobody wants to buy at all. How depressed do you think that would make you feel at a convention and would you bother going back to that convention again? Would it not just put you off the hobby at that point? It's not a good

1:05:03 feeling and it is something that is hurting, you know, conventions in general and I think that's the biggest reason that conventions sometimes don't work. Uh, what else we got? Uh, create some sort of sound barriers and large gaming halls. Yeah, I mean sound barrier noise is a big problem much like the people one. Um, a bad explanation can kill the game and I've demonstrated that cons would only been given the rule set the day before and a quick overview with a designer before opening doors. Yeah, sadly this is the way. I mean, as much as we do rag on demoers not being good at conventions, a lot of it is down to the publishers and designers being very callous with the way that they deal teaching. You know, I mean, if you are demoing at a stand, you send them the game in advance and you get them to learn it before the convention. If they then turn up at the convention not knowing how to play the game, that's on them. But if you expect somebody to learn your heavy game literally the night before and be able to teach it to other players, that is on you as a publisher and designer and shame on you for your goddamn cheapkate laziness. All right? Because that is a horrible way to do it. And I know when you've done it because I come across the demoers who clearly don't know what they're talking about because you haven't given them enough time to learn the freaking game.

1:06:23 Side rant there. Um, am I still looking at the comments or have I gone? Ah, damn it. I forgot to put the not um, come on. [snorts] Put the screen up. Come on. Come on, screen. Come on. There we go. So, yeah, bad explanation can kill the game. I've demonstrated it. Cons only been given the rule set the day before. Uh, sound barriers. Here we go. Uh, the drink's running out. I'm going to have to set this up in a minute. The dilemma of seeing a rare game you really want on the store and risky to getting it in case it sells out. Um, I mean, I'm not really talking about trade fairs, so that's not really what I'm getting at. Um, I wish it was possible to digitally post. I've set up blah blah at table 33 looking for free more players. I hate playing the game of are you looking for players? Is there an empty seat? Um, after game [clears throat] helps with this massively. Yeah, the problem with that pool.

1:07:15 Yeah, the problem is that when everyone uses after game, the whole convention basically becomes a case of did you use the app? Oh well, sucks to be you. You don't get to play games today. Yeah, that's the thing. Afterame is good up to a point. It is not the savior of board game conventions. I think it's actually a problem in conventions and I'm sure this in fact in fact yeah get that in the comments after game. Do you think it's a positive influence on conventions or do you think it's a negative one? I think overall it's a negative one. It's got its pros and I have used it but I think overall it's contributing to pro more problems than it's solving.

1:08:06 Uh I've only been to packs you and Philly and PG. Both different great experiences, but both can be a bit flat if you're solo. Some form of new friends. Buddy system would be good. That would be pretty good actually. A kind of buddy system to meet new people. Yeah. I mean, you could not quite like online dating or something, but yeah, you could do that as a kind of solo mingless. That wouldn't be bad actually. Yeah. Yeah. Cruisers do that with uh certain groups and that. Yeah, you could have a solo gamers section. um not for solo games but like a some games set up on tables maybe even with some teachers who are basically saying have you come to the convention by yourself or with not much with nobody else come and play games maybe I could do that maybe I could offer to do that at convention you know literally say I'm not planning anything I'm literally going to set up a bunch of games and if you have traveled to the convention solo or just the two of you or something you can come to me and some other tables by other people and play games.

1:09:03 That might not be a bad not be a bad idea. Hm. Food for four. We'll see. Okay. Uh demo areas 85% of the time take up valuable table space just sit there unplayed while attend attendees sardine into tables to make it work. I mean, I'm not sure if this is exactly the point he's making, but yeah, I've seen this at conventions. Manacon and Gridcon and Handycom and Hexacon and Aircon when I used to go there. I don't go that anymore. Um, and BCON. All right. And shake battle and roll with all these ones. I'm just going to say this now to you chaps. Right. I'm going to say this now. Going to get the camera nice and close. Right. If you are the sort of people who leave your games on a table for hours on end just to hog the table and stop anybody else playing on it. And you essentially don't return to the table for hours on end. effectively doing the whole towel thing with deck chairs and on swimming pools and hotels. If you're doing that to gaming tables, then shame on you. For God's sake, I hate that. I hate it. I've seen that. And I saw tables like there where I'm like that game is there's nobody on that table. There's just a few game boxes there, a few bags around it.

1:10:24 And for 2 hours straight, nobody's gone back to that table because they've gone off somewhere, maybe for a meal or doing something else or maybe co-op and some other game, but they've reserved it. Stop this. I hate this reserving BS behavior at conventions. Shame on you if you do it. If you are done with the table and you're not playing something next, then get off the freaking table and let someone else use it. Honestly, it is selfish and irresponsible. Um, not enough tables to sit, not enough tables for free play. I've been to various American conventions. The only place I found enough seating was Dice Tower West. I think almost every convention of some type of app to list looking for players that search can be used, but places to rest or a table to free play is very hard to find. Yeah, that is true. There isn't really just any tables to mingle, per se. You know, no social areas. And cost a two-day ticket for Gen Con is over $100. Holy crap. And I'm not guaranteed to meet that dude from the broken mele. Screw that. Oh yeah, this was a joke one he did. Yeah, thanks. But um yeah, got $100 for a Is that how much Gen Con is? Christ. Well, I was saying that I did come to the idea of going to one of the Dice Tower conventions and that cost an arm and a leg just to stay at the hotel they're at, let alone the ticket price and that. Yeah, American conventions are bloody expensive. But um yeah. Okay, so cost is another thing.

1:11:45 Conventions are costly to go to. You got to spend a couple hundred quid staying over wherever it is you're going to be. Unless you find a really cheap place and then you got to put up with the fact that you're in a really cheap place that's probably crap. Um then you've got the cost of feeding yourself and then you got the cost of drinks. You've got the cost of um uh you know fuel to get there. I mean it's a full tank of fuel for me to go to Northampton and back. There's 50 quid plus or whatever already gone. So yeah, I mean they are costly. So cost is a big factor. a lack of social space um you know where you can just free play and that Manicon's pretty good for that though because you can hang around in a bar and just do that. So you know if you want to you want a free play type thing in UK um Manacon's very good for that. Um but uh what else uh was mentioned? Um yeah, the lack of ability for singles and pairs or whatever to get into games with other people. Uh in my view, the whole afterame thing and the fact that everybody's very claky and stays in their own groups, I think is a negative.

1:12:44 The reserving of tables is a bug bear. And you know, that's one thing that's annoying, but it's not killing the hobby, but it's still annoying. Um uh what else? Uh trying to think. Trying to think. Trying to think. Uh, damn it. I need to look at that list again. There was there was a few. There was a few uh pe too peopley, too noisy, you know, too big groups, you know, those are problems. Lack of open gaming space in general, you know, having to squeeze in on the tables and stuff. Uh, but yeah, for me, I think it's more the cleat groups and after game and, you know, the fact that it's very difficult to win it at a convention that hurts. Conventions should be a way for people to meet up with other gamers and play lots of cool games, not a way to basically go there and play with the same friends you play with all the time. You know, it's and it's going to put off people. I I think the the hobby is, you know, for a hobby that is meant to be about, oh, let's be inclusive and let's uh get new people in and stuff like that, it doesn't half do a pretty damn good job of excluding a lot and, you know, being very elitist.

1:13:48 It's a problem that there is and you know I don't know how when it's ever going to solve. It's just something that I've noticed that conventions I enjoy going to conventions but I think over the years they have gotten worse to go to. A because of cost but B because it's impossible to go to them and just wing it anymore. You just can't. It doesn't work. Maybe that whole solo and pair space might not be a bad idea. I might suggest that to uh the people at Manicon or other conventions. I think that would be a pretty good thing where you just basically say, "Look, here's three or four of us. We've got some tables and we are literally just going to free play random stuff." You probably have to keep the games light to medium weight. You know, you wouldn't want them to be major stuff, but you do it and basically say, "Look, here we're guaranteed to have slots. You just turn up and play." That could be good. I might suggest the idea.

1:14:37 I think that's a pretty good suggestion there. So, who actually suggested that? Uh, come on. I need to find that then because you I think you deserve a shout out there. Um, we done the buddy system. That was all right. Uh, looking for place. Uh, free play. Yeah. Not not enough tables for free play. Theresaurs. Theresa. Aerell. I'm not sure how to pronounce your name. Sorry, I butchered that. Sir, is it Theresa? But yeah, I think you're the one who kind of self sort of suggested it. So, you know, fair play to you there. But yeah, this was an interesting little uh section to read when I put out the view. So, um yeah, by all means, get your I'm going to end it there and end it there because my throat is drying up and I'm getting really hot.

1:15:22 But h yeah, let me know your thoughts in the comments. I think this is a pretty good discussion point. Do you think conventions are getting better each year? Do you think they're getting worse each year? And of the things that can go wrong with conventions or the things that are not main not like little niche things that can go wrong. No, sorry. Not like a, oh, this oneoff thing happened at this convention which was bad. No, I mean general things that you notice at conventions that's possibly hurting them as a whole. Not necessarily one specific convention, just as a whole. What things are you noticing with gamers with the the after game with, you know, the style, the vibe, the atmosphere? What is it you're noticing that is hurting them and needs to be fixed or needs to have a radical change in the attitudes of gamers or something? you know, be interesting to know. So, anyway, I'm going to sign off there. So, thank you for listening. Um, uh, enjoy the rest of your hot days in Britain and anywhere else you are. Hopefully, you're listening to this somewhere that's nice and cold, like top of Norway. That'd be nice. But, uh, yeah, by all means, uh, check out those videos I mentioned if you want to hear some rants and raves.

1:16:28 And I'll see you on the next Broken Mele video. So, take care and have a good time. Bye for now.