Broken Meeple Podcast 138 - The H-Index

0:29 Hi everyone, Luke Hector here for another podcast. Uh, has the UK been a bit weird this week? We have gone through one of the worst heat waves we have had for June. And I am sick and tired of people sort of complaining, oh, it's just summer. Yet, there's a thing called climate change. It does happen. It's called science, you know. So, we certainly do need to curb it in some respect. Although we don't need to go to the mth degree over it, but yeah, this isn't normal heat for the UK. Okay, I know some of you are thinking, well, what do we peak like 38, 39 degrees on a couple of days and other days it was in the low30s easily. So, I know some of you are probably thinking, well, 38's our normal temperature every day. And it's like, yeah, I get that. But, you know, British people didn't evolve through gi like crazy hot temperatures. You know, we basically are used to a temperate climate where temperatures barely peak 20. So, the idea of it being in the low 20s already is a decent summer's day to be high 20s and into the 30s and nearly 40° is unprecedented. It's not something that should be happening in, you know, UK for that kind of climate. It's it's a bit ridiculous. And I do not take the heat very well as it as normal. So, the idea of surviving in a new build house with no air conditioning, um, in this kind of heat, then going to work, which the one thing I miss from my old job is the fact that I had air conditioning.

1:59 This place doesn't, so all I have is a powerful fan. Yeah, it's been tough surviving the last week. Hence, I haven't done any real new recordings because it's already still warm now. I mean, thankfully, oh god, thankfully, the temperature has normalized. We're talking 19 20° today. I think 21 will be the peak. But there's a good breeze out there. There's cloud cover. Probably the odd storm might hit. You never know. But it means I can open the windows, let some air in, and finally cool this place down. Problem is, this room is still pretty warm, and I'm forced to wear a t-shirt cuz obviously I can't wear a vest top, you know, for doing a podcast. And all the windows are shut. So, it's still warm in here, but it's not 35° baking warm in here. So, at least I'm actually comfortable to record this session, providing I do at least have my giant, you know, bruge. Is it bru? Yeah, my bruge tankered of ice cold squash.

2:50 That certainly helped. Oh man, I love anything with ice in it. It's just so good. But, uh, yeah. So, it's it's been tough, you know, from a heat standpoint. Hence, no recordings. So, sorry about that. But hopefully I mean, it's still going to have we're still going to have hot days. It's still going to be hot in here, but hopefully not crazy hot. So, that means I can actually get more recordings done. And I would like to do more. I mean, there's a top 10 overrated games list I'd like to do. Um, I've got to think about a review for Revenant at some point, you know? I mean, we're going to do I'm going to do a brief overview of it this video, but for the most part, I I want to at least do a full review of it. I also need to I want to talk about some little light games I got from the expo in kind of like a compilation video, you know, that'd be quite cool. Uh but then or maybe I'll do that on another podcast.

3:38 We'll see. But there's more stuff on the way. So if I showcase that, you know, this is how you can tell not a lot has happened on the channel. I mean 27676 subs. But yeah, last since the last one I did Yonder, that's it. That's all I've done since the last podcast. Two weeks and all I've done is Yonder. It's just been too hot. I can't do it. And Yonder's not exactly a popular game right now. It's not getting the best of reviews. I mean, I gave it an above average rating and uh it's only got 1,000 views since June the 20th. I guess it's been too hot for people to watch videos, so I guess that's a factor, but uh yeah, I mean, it's not exactly doing the rounds, this particular video, despite being a 30-minute one. So, yeah, the channel's been a bit on the slow side lately. But that being said, there is more to come in a good way because I mean on the horizon uh the hedgemonic project games have finally got back to me. So I should be getting a review copy of World Order. I have been playing World Order on the side with other people's copies and I have played it over the last couple of years, but I haven't had a chance to play it solo and I want to get a couple more multiplayer games of it done. So I need my own copy for that. So at least that's now in the works. The turnaround's a bit tight for it, but we'll see. But hopefully in the near future I'll be able to do a world order review. Um her the people who do Bad Comet, the ones who do Wonders Creatures, the uh fantastic uh you won't be able to see it much, but there you go. Guys who do this one, they're

5:08 sending me the expansion for uh uh Winterfall, I think it's called. Um I think they're releasing it retail on the 1 of July, so it's coming out anytime soon. But I'm getting an expansion review copy of that one. So, I look forward to really giving that one the means. Uh, what else is happening? Uh, Deep Rock Galactic uh, expansions are fulfilling. It's not a review copy. It's a Kickstarter thing, but I'll be happy to get more Deep Rock Galactic content. Although, the rest of my stuff's painted. I'm going to have to find the guy who did my original painting and get him to do the rest. Or I'm going to have to find someone else and say, "Can you make it look similar to these?" Cuz otherwise, it will look a bit bit weird. I can't leave them unpainted and I can't have them like professional quality compared to like a decent quality. So, I don't know what I'm going to do about that, but we'll find a way. Uh, what else is on the horizon? Um, I should possibly be getting the Sniper Elite expansion. I think it's called Kraken.

6:02 Um, which is like another one for there, you know, more maps, more stuff. So, there's a couple of like cool bits of expansion content on the horizon. Uh, but I swear there was more stuff besides. So, we got world order. Uh, we've got that. Oh, yeah. Sammy Laxo from uh Snow Dell Designs has got in touch and asked me if I could do a preview of their upcoming 10year anniversary project for Dale of Merchants. Now, Dale of Merchants is a, you know, it's a deck builder that you can actually see on their page. My seal of distinction is there. I give it a nine out of 10. I really love the game. Um, and I've got all the stuff for it at the moment, but it's going to be interesting in the sense that uh they're doing a 10-year version where they've like jostled up some of the art and some of the card formats a bit. They've rejig some of the mechanics uh for some of the factions so that they play a little differently. Maybe they balance them better or they fundamentally different.

6:56 And a new solo mode, a dedicated solo mode, which this game really badly needed. So, uh, yeah. Um, they're expecting to send me like a preview copy of that. So, that'll be sweet. Yeah, I'll definitely look forward to that one. Anything else from my emails I can see? Uh, there's a game coming my way called Neon Hope. I don't know much about this one. Um, it's entirely kind of like, huh, I don't really recognize it. And I think it's one of those sort of games where I'm like, okay, I wouldn't normally look at this kind of stuff because it's a bit more um obscure. I think it's I think it's been on Kickstarter and let me Here's the page. Sorry about the cut. Uh yeah, I accidentally brought up my uh personal uh Broken Me email um as the page and it's like sorry, but that is for my eyes only, not yours. Uh but yeah, Neon Hope.

7:43 So, fighting back against Cyberpunk's grim vision of the future. I don't know what to make of it. Uh but I think it was a was it interactive storytelling and what was the mechanics of it? I think the mechanics of it were supposed to be I think a deck builder. Is that what it was? adventure card game, science fiction, deck construction, cooperative, solo, solitire. I mean, I don't I have no idea what to make of it. It could be really cool. It could be really terrible, but you know, they're they're sending me a copy of it. So, we'll see. We'll see what this one's like. I'll be curious if anybody else has actually had any exposure to this game and can maybe lend their thoughts. But, I mean, yeah, a sort of deck building, deck construction type card game. Cyber Punky. I mean, I could I could certainly see what it's like, but we'll have to find out if it's actually any any good or not. Okay, so that's one for the future, right? Minimize back down. You don't see my email this time.

8:40 Okay. Anything else in the works? Uh, bad comic games. No, that's it. Uh, Dice Tower Awards are doing their final votes. Uh, I wonder if I'm too late for that. No, I think I'm still on time so I can put my votes in for the Dice Tower Awards. Uh, you know, somebody's got to screw it in the right direction. Um, what else? That's Deep Rock Publishing. Uh, no, no, no, not doing that. Oh god. Yeah, I got to do that thing for Paul. Um, uh, that's a side thing. Um, okay. No, there's I think that's everything. Yeah, I think that's everything. So, yeah, there's some stuff on the horizon and you know, if I can buy more games and try stuff out, I will. But, yeah, that's what's to come. So, there is more content in the future. I've just been a little bit tough because of the weather and stuff like that. So, okie dokie. Uh, let's get on with the show. And first off, I want to just talk a little bit about Revenant uh from Mine Clash Games.

9:41 Now, I have got this as a Kickstarter backer. So, this is not a review copy, but I would like to do a review of this one because people know that I didn't particularly like Voidfall. Um, I mean, Voidfall's I suppose that's unfair. I like Voidfall. solo to a point. The problem with voidfall is that there's just too much in it. It's it takes a million years to set up. It takes a million years to get it played. It takes a million years to learn how to play the damn thing. And you got to go through all this every time you bring it out because you just cannot remember all those rules from game to game unless you set this up on your table and never pack it away and never do anything else. So, it's just a bit insane. So, Voidfall was too much. But when I tried this as a demo at Essen, I like, okay, I like the mechanics of this one. And it's in the Voidfall universe, but other than that, it's got no links to Voidfall really.

10:30 It's different designer and everything. So, it's literally just an artwork and setting thing. But, you know, I'm like, okay, this one actually grabbed me as being quite fun. It's Some people think it's an area control game. It's not really. It's it's more I mean you are influencing different factions and they will score differently depending on how well you've done with them. But it's not like oh I've got the most therefore I get 10 points you only get three or something. It's like no you get the same ratio of points which is basically if you say you've got eight factions they go up to level eight and it's power level four then if you're at the very top you'll get four * 8 32 points. You know it's not like you only get four multiplier and the person below you only gets three multiplier. No, the other person would get four multiplier as well. They just might not be as far up the track as you. So, it's not really what I would call an area majority game.

11:20 But the idea with this game is is that ignore the miniatures because my copy does not have miniatures because I thought that was way too expensive and unnecessary for this game. And looking at this on the board, I stand by that. I'm more than happy with the artwork version I've got. I think the miniatures are overkill for this and you just don't need them. But there's the faction board there. So, everybody's got their own sort of personal board, and it does look a little better than this. This looks like a prototype version. Um, but the you've got this massive board with a, you know, different effects on it, storage for resources, a track you can level up your captain, and, you know, cards you play will be one-off cards or upgrade your workers or upgrade your captain, upgrade your frig, that type of thing. And then you've got the main map, which is effectively a battle happening in space. So, this one definitely has a lot more theme going for it than Voidfall did. For me, you know, Voidfall barely really to me felt like a space game. It felt more like a Euro game, but it just had the space theme on it. This one actually does feel like a space game because you are effectively going through the battle as it's happening.

12:21 So, you place your agents on these different ships to do different actions, get resources, get cards, do various things. But after each round, the void attack the ships and depending where your frigot is in relation to them, you might get deciding order as to what gets hurt, what doesn't. And the idea is is that the more ships that are on the board of a particular faction, the more points their faction is worth at the end of the game. So, you're actually sort of trying to keep the actions that you want to do in play, but you're also trying to keep the ones that are related to your factions that you're gunning for in play while hurting other people's. And there's a lot of cool stuff happening, but it's like I say, it's a battle happening in space. And you can even get on the main ship, the Revenant, and do a Battle Star Galactica thing of pulling the jump drive and resetting the entire board to a new location in order to stop the massive swarm that you're getting because everything's things are going to die. You know, this is not something that you're going to easily walk away from. You know, you're basically really on the back end of this invasion. And and yeah, spoiler alert, sorry. I have not watched a single episode of Battlestar Galactica still to this day.

13:24 I've been meaning to, but I just never got round to it. Um, but yeah, so and also there's a new version and an old version. I can't remember what people say I'm supposed to watch, but I know I I've never got round to watching Battlest Star Galactica. But this game has so far been impressing me from a theme standpoint, and the mechanics are good fun, but I have pretty much mostly been playing this solo. The problem with multiplayer is the length. the length and the sheer amount of front-loaded information you have to give players. Teaching this to free new players is a chore. There's a lot of stuff to throw at people. And if you're not familiar with Voidfall, this iconography is just going to be brand new. Now, it's not bad iconography, but it's not 100% intuitive. You know, it's there's as good as you can get for this type of game, but there's so much of it. And they don't give you a reference guide.

14:11 You get a glossery with explanations of all the cards and stuff and all the ships. And you get an icon guide in the back of that book. But yet again, stingy publishers don't want to publish a guide that everybody can have to themselves. I mean, why not bring out a little book? You know, Eagle Griffin do it. They do a booklet. Seti did it like a sort of four page like booklet sheet to do all their icons and to explain certain key bits. Galactic Cruise has your own little thing that I think you keep to yourself as well. Why can't Mine Clash do it? And Mine Clash games are the ones that really should do it because there's so much information that the other player needs to learn. But I digress. That's an argument for later. But yeah, suffice to say, it's a bit of a chore to teach this to multiplayer. And certainly, it also generates quite a lot of AP as well because the board state can change dramatically and stuff, you know, between turns that. So, it's like, I don't know. But it's good in multiplayer so far. But it's definitely one of those where I'm like, yeah, cap it at two or three players. I think four player is just too much. Um, I mean, I'll play it with four, but only if everybody knows the game and knows what they're doing.

15:14 I'm not teaching players in a fourplayer game. Again, it's too much. But, yeah, free player seems to be a good sweet spot. But, I've mainly played it solo. So, let's concentrate on solo aspect. I think solo is going to be the most popular way to play this game because it does simulate a two-player game very well. you know, you already have the the neutral two player uh dummy player, whatever it is, the council who basically takes up spots based on a random draw of a card, you know, so it's already doing the main thing that a multiplayer person would add, which is block spaces and, you know, mess around with stuff. But it's slightly different with the AI opponent in this because the AI opponent is not just you but trying to benefit factions. It's actually the void like corrupting specific ships. you're actually fighting against the enemy as opposed to just somebody else who's influencing factions. So those what the AI is effectively doing is that it's corrupting two or three of the houses for its own gain. So it's deliberately missing when it shoots at ships. It's deliberately blocking spaces. It's deliberately clogging up planets to land on and stuff. And it's like that's quite cool. But so far it's a very easy solo mode to pilot. You pretty much just got to move this cube around four cards and do the action when it gets to that card.

16:29 And some of them the king doesn't do anything. It mainly does something when it goes on the Revenant and when it goes onto drop ships, but otherwise it basically just shoots and misses, so it does nothing. Or it goes on an arc ship and does nothing. So you don't really have to do a lot of piloting for the AI. So you can concentrate more on what you're doing and have fun with your uh thing. But of course, because it's technically acting against you, you got to keep ahead of it in tactics. You got to make sure it doesn't destroy all your stuff. It's a neat system. And honestly, I've quite enjoyed this game a lot playing it in solo. I I really do dare say that I think solo is going to be the way to play this game. But that's being said, it's still been enjoyable multiplayer. It's just there's a lot of stuff on the board. I mean, it's also a table hog and a half. I mean, look at this. This is set up for a two-player game, right? Look how much stuff this thing is taking up. All the different piles you got nearby. The cards, your boards and your cards and that already take up a bunch. this bit here um which is just the sequence board which like has some tracks in like the phases and stuff like that that takes up an entire player's worth of space and then you got this track with all the influence factions. Then you've got your thing. In fact, yeah, this isn't even set up for a two-player. This is set up for a solo because that's the only person sitting at a table. So, blime me. Can you imagine what this is like with four?

17:43 It's insane. The amount of table space this requires is just ridiculous. But I like the variety in the captains, the cards. I like the mechanics. I like the theme of this game. It's so far really doing quite a nice number on me, but the multiplayer is problematic in some ways and it's still not a perfect game. So, you know, wait and see for a full review. But first impressions, I think pretty solid. And if you're thinking about buying this because you want to play it solo, then I think that's pretty cool. But I will say don't worry about the miniatures. I mean, yes, you can ink them up and paint them and make them look nice and stuff. And I must admit what this guy's done with this lot where he's got them uh black ink so they stand out a lot more. I think that's a genius move actually cuz I think that does actually stand out quite nicely from everything else. So I mean yeah if you're going to go through the trouble of doing all this then fine you know you can grab the miniatures but the void ships they look horrible in the plastic I think. And also on the cardboard versions, you actually get a little reminder in the iconography to remind you to add to your tactics bar, which is like a initiative, uh, you know, track that's useful to be on, but it reminds you to increase it when you kill a void ship. You don't get that on the plastic miniature. So, it's another thing you got to remember. Um, it's just pretty neat in that regard. So, and not to mention, they take up more space and the damage is not really necessary. It's like weird. It's like weird. It's like blood spurting from a ship. It's kind of odd, but I'm not the biggest fan of

19:14 using them. Uh, we got it. Yeah, here we go. So, it's it's this like weird little feed. It looks like a cactus fruit or whatever sticking out of the ship and it's just like I don't know about that. And then these are portals which look cool, but you just don't need I mean there's already enough space being taken up by the ships and that you don't need more space. So, personally, I think you can happily get this game without the miniatures and you'll be just fine. It's a lot more cost effective. I mean, you know, it's cardboard, but it's cardboard artwork and you've got cubes for the damage. That's all you need. It's clear, it's concise, and as I say, it cuts the cost down dramatically and possibly even makes the box size smaller because it's already like mainly it's already pretty packed in that box. So, I can only imagine that the miniatures must have either been a bigger box or a side box.

20:01 And if it's a side box, more storage, it's just a pain. So yeah, so far so good, but not without its problems. Ah, there we go. Right, I'm trying not to make this episode a crazy long one, but I'm going to do something in this episode that I never thought I would do because honestly, between you and me, I think this metric is weird. But I really did run out of topics. I didn't know what to talk about this episode. I've exhausted all the good ideas I can find. So I am seriously running out of podcast ideas. But this one has been on the list a couple of times and it's like finally, okay, I'll look at it and see what's what. There's this, you remember when I did my episode about trends in games with things like uh logging your plays and BGG stats and stuff and it's like, yeah, I log my plays mostly, but even then, not always and and I don't care about the stats and that. Well, there's another one coming around called the H index. It's a weird metric. The idea is is that you basically get all the games you've ever played, find out how many times you've played each game, and then you rank them in order of descending, right? And the idea is is that as you count down the number of games on one side, you look at the number of plays on the other, and as soon as you get to a point where the game number that you have counted is more than the number of plays that that game has had, then you stop. That is your index. And usually they equate to somewhere between 10 and 30 for most

21:32 people. The idea being that it's showing that you've played a decent amount of games in your collection because you are playing, you know, x games x number of times. So if your h index was 22, it means that you have played 22 games at least 22 times. I don't know how useful that knowledge is, frankly. And also, you have to be a little bit weird with the metric because depending on how you do it and who's actually doing it, you either take a look at every game you've played, no matter what, or you have to exclude the ones you don't own, which seems a bit weird. I mean, yes, I don't own some of these games that I've played a lot anymore. But that doesn't necessarily make them less important. I don't know. But then you also are technically told to exclude online games. Well, there are games that I there aren't that many games that I play online only, but I would exclude them.

22:20 Okay, fine. But there's supposed to be games that you physically own. Well, I physically own, for example, Ark Nova. I play it a lot in real life. I also play a job lot online. So, do I and on Steam. So, do I disregard it because I do a bit of online with it or do I include it and just accept that look, it's going to be both? I personally think you should have both. You know, if you are just online only, then I guess you can make the argument and take it out. I'm fine with that. But if I play it both in real life and online and I haven't got to the point where I'm like, I'm going to get rid of the physical copy because it's much better online, then surely that should still count. I don't know. But I've decided, yeah, you know what? Fine. Let's do it. Let's do the H index. You know, people have asked me to do it. So, fine, let's do it. And I've done it three times because I'm going to showcase on Excel how this is working.

23:12 So, let's open up. Boom. So, this is my uh Google Sheets that I got. So, let's get rid of Well, let's get rid of my email for a kickoff and that. Fine. Uh, we don't really need my YouTube channel either, but we'll keep BG just in case. All right. So, this is my Google Sheets uh document where normally I do a bunch of top 10 list uh brainstorming. So, you can see stuff like the uh top 10 low complexity, high depth, solo games, gateway games, that's a five years, overrated, deck bag builders, that kind of thing. So, this is where I pull together my short list and my short list short list um my short list of games and then work my way. This is basically my workings document. Well, I decided all right here's one with H index. So, I've done this three times. Okay, so yellow, green, and blue, right? and it's getting smaller each time, but basically I've went onto my personal and there's another thing. I went on my personal uh Board Game Geek um uh page and got my information from there. So, these are legit plays that I've recorded and like I say, I don't always record by play.

24:13 So, this isn't 100% accurate anyway, but then nor is the metric, but this is basically going from games I recall. So, as you can see, um yeah, one of them's got a lot more plays than the other. Okay, like my Ark Nova has 225 plays and the next one only has 102. I do play Arknova a lot in real life, but I would imagine that out of those 225 plays, I've probably played it somewhere between 50 to 100 in 50 to 75 maybe in real life and the other 125 plus is easily 125 to 150 is online. It still counts. I mean, even if I take out the online plays, I've still played this more than once because it's the first one in the list, but you know, it would have to be quite far down the list before it became one that didn't count.

25:03 So, I'm including it honestly. But anyway, I've done this three times. So, I want to showcase that the first one, the yellow one, is no restrictions. So, I don't care if I own the game or not anymore. I don't care if I play online or not anymore. This is literally just every single game that I've played. And this comes out at h index 29. if you don't have any restrictions. So, let's just talk about a few here because obviously you can't all see it. So, let's uh zoom in there. How's that looking on the screen for those people? That's pretty good. Okay, so what have we got here? So, Arknova 225 plays followed by Seven Wonders 102. Yeah, that's definitely including some app plays, but I have played a lot of Seven Wonders in my time. I mean, bear in mind it's been out for what, like 20 odd years or something. Uh it's kind of ridiculous. So, it's definitely one that gets the plays. But yes, I've played it on not on Line BGA or anything, but the uh main app for it, the Seven Wonders app is actually a pretty good app. So, I have played it on there a fair few times. But yeah, this has definitely had enough plays for, you know, in real life. And bear in mind, Seven Wonders was the first game that got me into gaming, you know, properly. Yeah, I played the old board game and that before and stuff and obviously as a kid, but when it came to right, I'm going to go to a board game club and play games.

26:19 Let's see what things are like now. Seven Wonders with Leaders expansion was the first game I played. So, this one definitely, you know, was the starting point. Uh, then we got Lord of the Rings, the card game 90. Yes, I haven't played it in Donkeys Ages, apart from recently when I did my buy the same token Instagram post, but uh yeah, I played it a lot when I got it. Arkham Horror card game similar uh you know and somewhere down here you're going to see Marvel Champions. Yeah, just a bit lower. Hasn't been out for that long. Um Splendor 81 plays. I mean yeah Splender is liked by my family. It gets played pretty much every time I go to visit home. And of course when it came out it was so easy to play in like 20 minutes. So of course it's going to get played. And a lot of these games are going to be low like low complexity quicky party games or something. But I mean, Spirit Island uh down there, ninth most played, 70 plays. Yes, some of that includes the Steam app. However, I think that one actually is majority in person than it is uh there. And obviously, yes, this will include this will include solo plays, but I'm pretty sure that's still allowed. So, yeah, it's a solo game, therefore it's had a lot of plays, but what anyway, going down this list. So, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, 80 plays.

27:30 Uh Android Netrunner, 71 plays. Now bear in mind this is the unrestricted list. I don't own Netrunner anymore. Um but I did play it a lot when it was out. I still think it's a great game. Just hate the competitive market for it. Um Deception Murder in Hong Kong. Played it five times only the other week at one of the Bogna Reges Club or something. Still love the game. Still really enjoy it. Spirit Island 70 plays. Spyful. Don't own it anymore, but it was a very popular social deduction game. Uh 68 plays. Uh let's see. Innovation 62 plays. Now, some of that is definitely online, but I have still played it in person. I think twothirds of that is online BGA plays and the other third is in real life because it's hard to get a two-player game. I know you can play it with three or four, but let's place let's face it, you play it with two, don't you? Um, and there's no solo mode for it. So, if there was a solo mode for Innovation, I definitely would jump on that. But yeah, Innovation is still a great game. It's just one of those weird games where you just can't play any of the expansions on it.

28:28 Huh. I wonder if that's an interesting idea for a top 10 list. Games I love but won't play the expansions. Or games I like. Games I wish I could play with expansions but can't. Interesting idea. I'll put that I'll uh keep that in my little mind palace for later. Um I wonder if anybody else has got a good example of that. Anyway, uh were yep ultimate werewolf has been replaced by werewards. So 60 plays, but yep, still love the game. Oh wow. Oh, yeah. Because I copy and pasted this from uh Yeah, I copy and pasted this from BGG, which means that it's uh Does it show up? Can I I can't check quick enough. Yes, it does. Right. I'm trying to scroll really quickly with the mouse before the link goes away, so I can check if it appears on my StreamYard thing, but yeah. Oh, yeah. Because I copy and pasted this from Board Game Geek as I was doing it, it saved all the web links. That's really cool. Okay. Anyway, what was I on about? So, uh, Sentinels of the Multiverse, 57 plays. Yes, I've played the, um, it's going to be a bit temperamental, but yes, I've played it a lot with the app, but in its definitive version. I have definitely played this more in person than I have with the app.

29:36 Um, because the app was decent, but it requires a bit of time and stuff, and this was with the old version of the game. There isn't an app with the new version yet. So, you know, naturally, I've been playing the new one more physically. Uh, after that, what have we got? Uh, B, you know, Seven Wonders Duel, 48 plays. So, yeah, this has definitely had a decent amount of plays online, but I'd say at least half of that is definitely physical plays as well. Love the game. It's just, like I say, two-player only, but there is a solo over this game, so that does help. Uh, Bang the Dice game. Don't own it anymore, but yeah, I've kind of burnt out on it. But it was still a fun game. It's, you know, a good laugh for a quicky filler social reduction type game. But yeah, played that 47 times. Marvel Champions 45 times. I would like that to climb. I mean, as much as I don't get much time to play the other two LCGs anymore, Marvel Champions has got a fair few heroes I have still not played. You know, there's a lot of content. I'm still buying content because I'm an idiot. But, you know, I really ought to play Marvel Champions a bit more, but the problem is I don't know many people who play it at the clubs and stuff, and I would like to play more multiplayer games of it now and again, but oh well. still great solo, but I just would like to play with other people who like this game a bit more at some point.

30:50 Even if it's just Star decks, it doesn't have to be a full-on deck construction or anything. Okay. Uh, Star Realms. Oh god. Yeah, I mean, I've definitely played this a lot on the app, although honestly, I have a feeling that this uh 44 plays isn't correct cuz I reckon it should be double this. It's probably a case that I have played many repeat games on the app and just counted it as one session. That's the only reason I can think of why 45 is there because I've definitely played this a lot in physical form even as a two-player game, but you can play it solo and multiplayer now. So, it has that advantage. But I've definitely played more than that if we just considered online plays. Uh Lord of the Rings Journeys Middle Earth. Obviously don't um own it anymore, but uh given how long it takes to get through all the different uh campaigns and like I said, what was like three or four campaigns by the end of this and obviously there was multiple acts in each one. Yeah, you do rack up the plays quite a bit and yeah, I played this over and over quite a bit. So, yeah, it's had its time, but it was a solid game. Uh, no, sorry. Scythe 43 plays uh Love Letter, of course. I mean, it's Yeah, it's Love Letter. I mean, how can you not have played this a lot of times?

31:57 Yeah, it doesn't get played every week, but yeah, when somebody brings it out and they just want a fiveminute filler, why not? Now, bear in mind, this is Love Letter, the original Love Letter. So all the other love letters are separately logged. So I've probably played this more than art over if we're going to count like the uh number of different love letters that exist. This is purely love letter the original version. Okay. And as much as I do wish Board Game Geek would condense a lot of games as to different versions, there are enough differences with the Love Letters to separate them in some respects. But yeah, the problem is it's a weird line. Where do you draw it? I hate the fact that games on the top 10 are repeated. I mean, Dune Imperium, seriously, Uprising and Dune Imperium, why does that deserve two spots? Brass Birmingham and Brass Lancasher, why does that deserve two spots? It's ridiculous. But then there's Great Western Trails. Then there's the Love Letters and all this stuff. And it's just like, yeah, where do you draw the line? But yeah, that's just with the original Love Letter. Scythe 40 plays. I want to sell this. I am done with the game. I've burnt out on it. I am trying to sell my entire collection of it. Uh, not easily. I mean, I would have thought £100 for the entire set and that's all the expansions, upgrades and insert the big box. You know, I would have thought that would have been a good deal for it, but yeah, it's difficult to find people willing to buy it, but oh well. Still searching. Um maybe if somebody's going to Hexacon in July or Manacon, maybe I could bring it to the Britain buy there.

33:17 I might have more luck. Anyway, oh god. All right, Earth. Now, this definitely does include a few online plays, but the board game geek app, sorry, board game arena app for Earth is very clunky, very janky. So honestly, this is actually more physical plays and there's a we play a lot at Southampton, but also friends of mine have this game and we love it. We even try to go for the achievements because I tend to beat them at Earth a lot. I deliberately try to go for one of the more jankier achievements and it sometimes cripples my game. But if I can win and get the achievement, happy days. But yeah, this is definitely physical plays and I'm I'm actually kind of surprised it's as low as 38. I feel like it should be higher. Um although I don't find myself playing it solo as much. Uh so maybe that's a thing because I just play it multiplayer enough.

34:04 Tainted Grail 38 plays. Yeah, I mean two. Bear in mind this is 20 Ted Grail The Fall of Avalon. So this isn't even the second one. This is just the first game because there was Tainted Grail and then there was the last night uh then there was uh last night something snowy or something. I can't remember what the third one was. It was basically the base game and two main side campaigns and then there was the Red Death which was like a really like hard one. I never actually played the Red Death because I thought the game was hard enough as it is. Um and by the time I got to that stage the second one was out so I didn't really want to keep the first one around but yeah I love this game. I still think it's fantastic. Uh Takino 38 plays mostly physical I would say on that one. Uh Telustrations. Yeah, I've still got it on my shelf. It I mean I've played it with families. I've played it with mates on uh um times out. This got played more often, I think, at the Portsmouth Club before I fell out with the uh people there. So, it's like, but you know, it still gets played every now and again.

35:05 You know, it's still a fun game. Uh Cascadia. Uh yeah, I mean, this gets played every time I go home and that's the main time it gets played. I mean, I do play it solo every now and again, but for the most part, I wait till I go home to the family to play it rather than bringing it to club nights. So, I only go to the family every so often, but you know, it gets played every single time. Uh, Point Salad, similar deal. I My dad likes this one, so we played this quite a bit at home. We usually get a couple of games in, but that's pretty much the only time I do play it, but it does get played. Uh, Wingspan. Yeah, Wingspan's been out long enough. I've played it with friends, played it at club nights and stuff, you know, that it's definitely had its place. I think 32 is a bit low. I want to say that I've played it more often than that, but then bear in mind this is the original Wingspan. So, I played it more when Oceanana came out and obviously with other expansions. Wingspan Wingspan Asia, I didn't log plays with Wingspan Asia, I don't think, because it's the same game. Um, and obviously I kept Finn Span and Worms Span separately, but I guess I don't really play this on the app. I don't play this online or anything like that. So, this is pretty much a multiplayer only one. Um, but yeah, 34 plays. I just feel like it should have been higher. Uh, what else we got then? I'm just going to do the next two. So, Sushi Go Party. Yeah, played this a lot when I go home. That's mainly the deal. And we're showing off new gamers. And Hannah Makochi. Hannahi.

36:25 I haven't played it for a while, but this is a two-player game that's just really, really good. You know, it's a solid two-player game. And then that is where the H index stops at 29 games. Just short of Heijgemany. Actually, really Hegemany is on the list. It's a number 30, but I've only played Hijgemony 29 times, so it falls off the index at that point. Conveniently, Hannah Makoji is number 29, and I've played it 30 times, so it's actually quite amusing. But yeah, so this is an unrestricted index. Now, that took a little while to explain, but I'm not going to go through the exact number of games again for the next two lists, but I'm going to show you how it differs when you put in the restrictions. So, this is 29. not caring if I own the game or not or whether it's mostly online or anything like that. Okay, so scroll over to this side. So, this is now only caring about the games I own, which is which is a kind of weird metric, but I thought fine, let's see what happens.

37:21 So, most of these games I still own. I don't own one night Werewolf. I don't own Netrunner. I don't own Bang the Dice game. I don't own Journeys of Middle Earth or Tainted Grail. I mean I mean even Lands of Evershade. I'm soon to uh try and sell that one. How do you sell Lands of Evershade? It's such a massive amount of game. And you're probably thinking, why are you selling it? You gave it like a nine out of 10. Yeah, I do think it's amazing. I've also completed it. Yes, I've played all three campaigns in it now. And I think the second campaign is the best. I think number two is the best out of all three of them. Um, third one's pretty good. I mean, I would say it's I I would say the second one, then the third one, then the first one, which is a bit of a shame that the base game would have the less enjoyable of the three, but it is also a taster and it's getting you into the game. But yeah, I think two then three then one for the um enjoyment of the game. But yeah, I I mean, do I keep like four calic squares worth of stuff just in case an expansion comes out further down the line? No, I can't I can't store that kind of game waiting for just another adventure to do. It's just not worth it. So, you know, that one is one I am looking to move on to other play other people. But yeah, still love the game. Um I wonder where Lands of Evershade would did Lands of Evershade actually come into this. Uh no, cuz I don't think you would get to you don't really get to 25 plays. I mean, you only do six acts per It wouldn't be long after this actually.

38:48 I mean, you definitely have to play it at least 6, 12, 18 times to get all three campaigns done. And that's assuming you don't split up the time. So, it's probably not far off 25, honestly. But anyway, that's a different thing. So, this H index comes out at 23. So, this is excluding the games I don't own. 23. It's still pretty good, isn't it? I don't actually know what a benchmark is for this. You know, is 23 high? Is 23 low? Some people might go, "Well, I got 50 games and I got a H index of 50." And it's like, well, good for you. I honestly don't care. I mean, you know, this metric is kind of a weird one. I'm mostly doing this for the fans, okay, for Patreons and uh, you know, for Patreons and followers who have asked me to do this. This isn't me that desperate to find out what my H index is. I just thought, you know what, I ran out of ideas. You got me. Let's just do this for a laugh.

39:41 So, okay. So, that's only games I own. So then moving on to the third iteration of the list, which is if you're really restrictive and say, "Okay, so only games I own and uh oh, I put the wrong title. Hang on. Um uh let's see. Only only games I own and play offline." There we go. So yeah, so this is taken out any game where I would say a good chunk of the plays has been via an app or online. Okay. So we're doing the full restricted version. Okay, for this one, H index comes out at 19. So, below the 20 mark, but this removes um compared to the green one, uh can you see that on the screen? Yeah, you can see the green bit over there. So, uh just check. Yep, that's good. So, this removes arc Nova.

40:30 It removes L seven wonders. It removes um Why does it remove Ah, that's wrong. Hang on. I need to rejig this actually. So, where's the fill? Where's the fill button? Yeah, one night ultimate werewolf is not owned. I shouldn't have that. So, actually H index is 18 for this one. So, okay. So, a bit lower, but there we go. So, yeah, remove Zerver and Seven Wonders. Uh, we already had those two removed. Uh, remove Spirit Island, even though I would like to say that more of the plays are physical with that one, but let's go with the rules. Let's just go with the rules. Uh, innovation. Yep. So, that is now remove. Oh, for God's sake. Spyful. What have I done with this um list? How did I get this mistake? I I'll count them at the end. Uh so, spyful. Yeah. Innovation. There we go.

41:23 So, were fine. Sentinels of the multiverse. 99% of it's offline. So, I'm counting that one. Um remove seven wonders duel because that technically does happen online. Uh Marvel Champions is still fine. Star Realms, I do play her via app, so you know, we'll remove that one. Uh Love is fine. Scythe's fine. Earth's fine. And I think all of these ones stay exactly the same. So, okay, let's actually recount this and do it properly. So, let's So, those those that one, those two, that one, and those that gives me a count of 17. Okay, so H index 17. So, that's definitely gone down a bit. We gone 29 down to 23, down to 17. But I think the 17 one is too restrictive. I think removing anything that you have any online plays for doesn't count because the fact of the matter is there is no game that as far as I'm aware that I play online a lot.

42:24 You know, there may be games I might play online every now and again that I don't own, but they'll just be ad hoc. There's a reason I don't play them online. You know, I would still probably want to keep the physical copy of the game. So, I feel that if it's a game that I play online but still own the physical copy of and still bring that out every now and again, I think that should still count because I still enjoy the game enough to want to play it lots. So, I don't like the restrictive 17 index. But I totally get that the unrestricted one is basically a bit too much. So, I'm not going to count that one. I'm sticking with the one in the middle. I mean, this is me me in a lot of respects actually. found very much the balanced approach with a lot of stuff in life. Um, you know, the the extremes don't tend to work as well as just being a bit of column A and a bit of column B, but only games I own, but allowing the fact that online plays can still count, and that gives me an index of 23. So, that's what I'm sticking with. I'm sure everybody else has got their own rules and restrictions with this, but I'm sticking with that. So, there you go. My H index is 23.

43:31 Was that useful to you? I don't know. I mean, it's such a weird index. I'm just like, it's it's a weird stat, but I I get the the the gist of what it's going for. It's trying to make you realize whether you're playing the games in your collection, and I got a fair few games. I mean, you know, 150 odd games, you know, used to be 200 or something. I'm trying to cut back down, but yeah, I got a lot of games. So, you know, a lot of them don't get played for a while. And I am downsizing for that reason. I mean, I don't want to downsize crazily. I'm I'm basically at the point where okay, my call squares are filled up and nothing should be outside of those call squares. I think there's one or two exceptions downstairs with stuff like Street Masters and that, but honestly, even that might have to change at some point soon. Or if they can't physically fit in a Calic square, that's another thing.

44:19 But, you know, for the most part, they will. And yeah, if a game can't fit in a Calic square, something else has to leave. And I make preparations to do that. So, that is the the way it works. And because if it's games I haven't played in ages, then why am I keeping them? You know, for the one time I might feel like bringing them out and then I got to relearn the game or something. So, it's got to be pretty special for that. But, uh, yeah, that's, you know, it's not too bad a measure. I mean, 23 odd games. Yeah, there's certainly games I would like to play more often, but there's a few games here that I do play a lot. I mean, I'm kind of curious with some of them, like Citadels. I know I've played that a lot. I feel like that one's just a, you know, probably like by the time I started logging plays or something, I think Citadel's just suffered a bit because I'm pretty positive I have played that more than 30 times in my life. But the fact of the matter is is that Citadels's I may have played somewhere in the region of I know I've played it more than 30 times since it came out properly. I mean, but the the fact of the matter is is I only started logging plays after a certain point and I probably played Citadels more before that point, but even then I played Citadels a lot back in 2000 when it first came out. I wasn't even majorly into board games then, so I wasn't logging plays at that stage. So, I probably played Citadels a good 50 times back then, but I haven't obviously not recorded now. Managers of Madness, that kind of makes sense. I mean, less than 20 plays could be on that one. Pursuit of Happiness. I'd like to think that that was fairly highish or something.

45:48 Um, I wonder, did I actually go further down the list? So, here's a few games that didn't quite make it. So, what we got? Hegemany, uh, Code Names, Dixit Odyssey, King of Tokyo, Pursuit of Happiness. There we go. Uh, Werewards Deluxe Edition. Wait a minute. Werewards Deluxe Edition. Oh, wow. I mean, you can't see it on my screen. I'm not going to bother showing it, but yeah. Werewards and Wereworlds Deluxe Edition got two separate logs. So, technically I've played that 88 times. That actually should be my fourth most played game. Wow. Okay. Crazy. Uh, Baron Park 27, Celestia 27, The Gang 27. That's definitely climbing up the list. Lost Ruins of Arnac 27, Architects of the West Kingdom 26, Gavern 26, Sentinels Definitive Edition. Here we go. Sentinels in the Multiverse Definitive Edition. It's different enough that I've logged my play separately on it. So, you know, yes, you could argue that original Sentinels of the Multiverse is 57 and that includes online plays. The definitive version isn't. That's 26 plays. That would have still counted.

46:49 Dream home 25. That's kind of surprising. I guess I was showing it off to a lot of new players when it came out. No thanks. Uh 25 plays. And I'm I am a little curious uh whether No, I'm not going to bother worried. But like I say, it's it's probably in the 20 odd plays and that. But yeah, there's definitely a bunch of other stuff that I was probably more played in the single digit section. Although Fantasy Realms, I feel like I've played Fantasy Realms a lot more as I look at it over there. Uh definitely played Forest Shuffle a fair amount of times. Uh Wondrous Creatures, I mean, that is definitely got to be getting up to 20 plays pretty damn soon, I think, with that one. Um uh let's see. Uh Semonders Architects probably not. Yeah, just one. I've played just one at least 25 30 odd times.

47:39 That is odd. In fact, I'm just going to have a quick look on my um I mean, I'm not going to show you here, but I'm just, you know, while I'm chatting, I'm going to have a look at my personal uh thing just to see where it is. But yeah, so I don't I mean, this is the problem. I mean, you can already see the flaw with this index as to how it works. I just don't think that it's a, you know, I don't think it's like that great a measure because it can still be flawed. It can still reveal, you know, problems that you had. So, let's have a look at Citadels. Oh, yeah. This is the thing. Citadels is again two different versions. So, I'm looking at my screen here and it says 30 plays in total, but it's 14 with the original and 16 with the new one. So, it doesn't show up on my index, but it probably should. Um, yeah. So, that throws it out of kilter a little bit because that definitely is the same game. Um, uh, okay. Let's have a look at what was the other one I was going to mention. Just one. I'm pretty sure I've played just one enough times.

48:42 I've only logged 16 plays of it. That doesn't make sense. I think that's just me forgetting to log plays. Okay, fine. Uh, Fantasy Realms. How many times have I played Fantasy Realms? 16. That kind of makes sense. But then I've got a sneaking suspicion that I might have grouped them together. You know, you play Fantasy Realm so quick that I might have played it three times in an evening, only logged it out as one play, you know. So, there's all sorts of things that might have come into play there. Uh, looking down there, definitely haven't played any of those this many times. Um, and definitely haven't played a lot of those too many times. Uh, we've already done Splendor. Uh, Viticulture. No, there's no way I've played that 25 times. That's not happening. Katan, ah, that's the thing. Katan. Different versions of Katan are going to influence this. So, I'll go to my Katan session. I'll just load them all up. So, we got 16 plays for the original to Katan. One for some reason, one for cities and knights. I must have done it on the fly. Same for cities seaf farers. I don't know, but that's kind of weird. Katan starers, explorers and pirates, and all the other spin-offs of Katan. I mean, yeah. Do you group them all up or do you, you know, leave them be? Um, anything else? Pulsar 2849. No.

49:51 Empires of the North. Uh, I'd say probably shy of 25 on that one. Seti, well, Seti's had quite a lot of, in fact, how many plays has Seti had? Uh, I know you're not seeing this on the screen, but I don't want to show off the uh personal profile thing. Uh, Seti is on only 11. I know I've played it more than 11 times. That's just me forgetting to log plays. I mean, I mean, I would have played that at least about seven or eight, six or seven, six to eight times or something before I even reviewed it. and I've played it more since then. So, I mean, this is the thing. The index is not a great one for me because three different versions of the rules gives me a drastically different index and the fact that I don't always log my plays. I'm not religiously tied to a stat app and the fact that I only started logging after a certain point skews the results.

50:42 And this is again highlighting the problem with Board Game Geek that everything is done in separate listings. if they just compiled all the games that were related to the same game in one listing and just had a bunch of subpages for them. So you could have you could have Dune Imperium with a subpage for Uprising. You could have brass with a sub page for Birmingham. You could have Great Western Trail with a subpage for for um New Zealand, a subpage for Argentina, you know, and stuff like that. And Wingspan could be the same. And you know, the Citadels could be the same. Twilight Imperium and all these games that need to be one page. It can't be that hard to do. They just can't be bothered the lazy thoughts. But, you know, it would make the database a lot more useful on a ranking perspective.

51:29 This is why the board game ranking system. It's just frankly bollocks really. It doesn't mean anything. But there you go. There's my H index. Was that useful for you? You tell me. But there you go. I decided to basically have a go with it. And at the end of the day, it was it was interesting to sort of see what number it was and see what games I have played a lot of, you know, even after going back and looking at the corrections. But I mean, an H index of roughly 23 and I reckon that probably would jump to something like 26 I reckon 26 27 if you include those ones like Citadels that didn't make the list. So yeah, I'm in I'm definitely in the high 20s for a H index. I think that's the conclusion we can take. I'm still not sold on the metric. I still think it's a bit of a weird metric. Just basically one of those fads, but hey, if you got something out of it, then by all means do so. So, that's it for me. I'm going to sign off now and get on with things because I am already sweating in this shirt. Um, you know, just in this t-shirt. It's still it's it's not necessarily crazy hot, but it is crazy humid and that's having an effect. So, I need to open the windows and get this place cooled down again. So, thanks for listening. I better get this one edited as well. Take care and I'll see you on the next Broken People video whenever that will be because I got nothing in the recording session at the moment. So, I need to get on and do something like that at some point during the week. But bear with me. The season is always slower for content for me. So, and obviously I'm trying to do other things with my time and the job takes up a lot of time. So, you know, just bear

52:59 with me that I can't put out four videos a week like I used to anymore, okay? It just takes time. So, I'll see you on the next video. There, enjoy the rest of your