It’s Okay To Play The Game

Tags

Blog, Board Games, Card Games, Club Fantasci, David Lowry, Fun, Interaction, Play, Social

I don’t know about you, but there have been many times when playing a game with new people or people new to board gaming who are afraid to play the game because they might make someone mad. What do I mean? I mean not make a move against someone even if it is in their best interest for the game. Now, I know some people are social gamers and don’t care if they win or lose but that can mess it up for other gamers who are there to game and not just be social.

So this is to all those people that don’t like to play against someone for fear of upsetting them or possibly messing up their plans. It’s okay to play the game. We are there to play the game and you should feel comfortable to play the game as well. No one is going to get upset with you for playing the game and those that do should be booted out of your gaming group to begin with. You see, part of the wonderful world of gaming is that awesome feeling of the struggle of the game. Having to change tactics or strategies because someone played the game and forced us to play as well. That is what we play for. The challenge. This is why we spend our money on games, we why drive miles to local game meet ups or have people over to our place and make a huge mess. The challenge.

When a player is to scared to play because they are afraid they will offend somebody. It screws the game up for the people they do know playing the game. How? Because the scared player now plays all their moves against their friends because they don’t think they will mind. This creates a very difficult situation for that player. Now they have one person always blocking them or taking their open spaces, they have others doing it as well and they can’t execute a strategy efficiently within reason as they whole table is now playing against them many rounds. This can lead to king making in some instances where, they other players have little opposition and can run away with the game. Now while this is a challenge, it isn’t exactly the type of challenge that is fun to gamers. It is important that each player play the game to do the best they can do and not to not offend an unknown player. For difficult gamers that are easily offended or hyper competitive, it should be someone’s responsibility who knows the players to either pick a game that will better fit the group or hopefully if you are at a gaming night, to keep these two types of players away from each other.

So in supposition, please play the game to do the best you can, don’t let the game play you due to the unknown personal reactions. Don’t worry about offending someone with a move as they aren’t worried about offending you with their moves. They are playing to win. Learn to enjoy the struggle, tension and fun that comes with today’s modern board games. There is plenty of fun to be had, social interaction and deep game playing without worrying about such trivial issues.

Remember having fun is the most important thing but not at the expense of the others around you. A great game allows everyone to have fun and everyone will have fun when everyone plays the game and not the personalities.

Game on!

If you like what we bring you, please vote for us here: http://www.boardgamelinks.com/links/sites

Club Fantasci on Facebook: www.facebook.clubfantasci

Club Fantasci on Twitter: www.twitter.com/clubfantasci

 

Utilizing Free Content for Board Game Publishers

Tags

Asmodee Games, Board Games, Club Fantasci, David Lowry, Le Phantom de L' Opera, Marketing, Publishers, reviews, Social Media

The board game industry is all about the “Cult of the New” now. The next big game, next exciting Kickstarter, that is what is driving companies these days. It’s new content and a constant driving sales force and we as board game lovers fall in line and buy all that we can as it comes out. We forget about the games that came out before as the new games make it to the table five or six times before the next hot thing arrives for us to drool over. For years great games came out at a much slower pace before Kickstarter started launching what seems to be 50 new games a week.

With all the new people coming to gaming now, they don’t know about the
“old” games (anything over a year old it seems) as all the scuttlebutt is what is hot now or coming out. This is why I started the “Revisiting the Classics” reviews for Club Fantasci. There are so many great games that people forget about or have never discovered and that is a shame as many of past years games are just as good or better than todays games. How can we tackle this problem?

Well, first of all publishers have to learn to market their past games as well as their new games. Learning how to drive traffic to your website is key in any marketing strategy and then having the content there that is on the FRONT page is where it is at to successfully sell your whole catalog. You can do this in rotation so as not the over clutter your home page.

Recently I wrote a quick review for Le Phantome de L’ Opera for Asmodee Games. They put it on their front page of their site a couple months ago now and I still get hits on this review from their site. Is it selling games? I don’t know, all I know is people read this review everyday. That should help sell games if it’s a good review.

Mayfair Games posts reviews on the games direct page on their site but many of the publishers ignore this content or only post it on their Facebook page or twitter. While this makes your social media strategy easy as you always have new content (although many still don’t use this) it isn’t helping make the sale on your webpage.

Many may not agree with me, but I am a firm believer in leveraging your resources and board games reviewers are the publishers most power free resource their is. So publishers, when a review comes out, if you feel that is a great piece to help sell your game, use it. Don’t just use your favorite reviewers, you will alienate the other ones. Judge the review on it’s own merit and use that. Help the reviewer out as they are helping you out.

Maximize your online sales strategy with smart, efficient and effective marketing and watch your sales grow. Take care of your reviewers and they will take care of you. Most of all let’s do it for the love of spreading our love of this amazing hobby and the great games from before.

Best of luck!

TN Game Days 2014 Recap

Tags

Board Games, Club Fantasci, Conventions, David Lowry, Tennessee, TN Game Days

The TN Games Days held it’s 9th convention from March 14th – 16th in Franklin, TN at the Cool Spring Marriott this last weekend and let me tell you it was a blast. It was my 5th time and first time as a sponsor at this board game convention and each year it gets bigger and better. This year it grew by about 80 attendees to reach 350 people total. The event run by Rick Kuehler, Bo Link and Russ Rupe (Conquest Gaming, LLC) was very well done as usual and is one of the events I most look forward to every year.

Friday afternoon

Starting at 8:00 am on Friday morning, the convention hosts events all three days including things like a flea market, math trade, 3D Battlestar Galactica (thank you Craig Herbert,) Crokinole tournament, Wits & Wagers tournament, designers showcase, a Tessen tournament, Conquest of the Empire, a charity auction plus tours of games for the attendees to participate in and register to win prizes throughout the convention.

The tours consisted of the following:

Quick Gaming Tour – Escape: the Curse of the Temple, Love Letter, For Sale, The Resistance and Snake Oil being the featured games.

Calendar Tour – Around the World in 80 Day, Kingsburg and Dungeon Lords.

Cult of the New Tour – Relic Runners, Space Sheep! and Parade.

The Constructables Tour – Steam Park, Wits & Wagers, Stecon: Infinity.

Netrunner: New Players Tour.

Personally I was able to teach two epic games of A Game of Thrones 2nd Ed., one was 4 hours, the other was seven hours (I love this game,) played Battlestar Galactica (humans lost at the last second,) Trajan, Nations, the brand new Marvel Legendary expansion: Paint the Town Red, Belfort, DC Deck Building Game twice and Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery. Friday I left at 3am and Saturday at 4 am. It was fun!

One of the great things about TN Game Days is it feels very intimate. Even though there are tables full of people everywhere, it isn’t to loud. You can hear the players, have plenty of space and you are close to everything you could need. The hotel is great, a bit pricey at $119 a night but it’s worth it right? Every year, I meet new and amazing people who come from all over the US to attend the event. Although I only got a couple new games in this year, it was well worth it as getting the big games to the table is always hard.

The first Game of Thrones

Sponsors for the event were:

Game Surplus, Out of the Box Publishing, AEG, Conquest Gaming, LLC, Days of Wonder, Rio Grande Games, Roll The Dice, Bring Your A Game, Stronghold Games, Van Ryder Games, Let it Sew, Meeple Source, Z-Man Games and Club Fantasci.

Next years TN Game Days will be March 13th – 15th at the same location. Don’t miss this! If you have any questions about attending in the future or sponsoring please email me or get a hold of TN Game Days here: www.tngamedays.com.

Game on!

Belfort from Tasty Minstrel Games

Lord of The Rings with Craig Herbert’s enhancing

Star Wars Crokinole Board

Nations from Lautapelit.fl

Trajan

Board Games and The Cult of the New

Tags

Board Game Geek, Board Game Publishers, Board Games, Branding, Club Fantasci, Cult of the New, David Lowry, Marketing, Social Media

I think about this topic a lot and I think most people refer “Cult of the New” to the people who buy games and feed the machine with the 50 new Kickstarters this week from every board game publisher ever. There are so many new games coming out that it is very, very difficult to keep up with and truly a lot of them are not “instant classics” so they won’t be around long on anyones “must have” list anyway.

One of the things that disturbs me is the way publishers tend to ignore what they have already put out in favor of constantly having to put out a new game and keeping that excitement going. Yes it is exciting to put out a new game and have new product to talk about but really, all the time when you haven’t even begun to maximize the sale of your current products? What about the first 3 games you put out? Once the Kickstarter was done the publishers basically stopped talking their product. At the clip the board game industry is growing and the amount of new people discovering games and the hobby, publishers are doing themselves a disservice by not promoting your whole game library constantly. Just because a publisher has a new product doesn’t mean you forget about the old. Old being completely relative here as it maybe only 12 months old before it is basically forgotten.

Once the review cycle seems to end for a new game, you rarely see any promotion on a game. The publishers I guess don’t feel a need to keep promoting to potential new customers or maybe they think the distributor is supposed to do this? I am not sure.

I wrote a blog for the music/entertainment industry called “Creating a “Buzz,” It’s Your Responsibility” because so often people seem to miss the whole point of marketing, branding and selling. As the publisher it is no one’s but yours to sell your games. You can’t rely on Board Game Geek to be your only source of marketing as good as it is or the reviewers. There is so much new content on their everyday, it can be very easy for your game to be lost in the information vortex.

I can only assume the reason you went through all the trouble and hard work of putting out a game that you want to sell as many copies as possible for as long as possible. Yes, I know there are a few that don’t really care as I have talked with them. They just wanted to put out a game and hope people liked it. They had no desire to create a career of do the work of promoting the game itself. So if it is true that you want to sell as many games as possible, that means you commit to promoting for the life of the game.

In the excitement of putting out a new game, we kind of get addicted to having something new to promote and all the excitement that surrounds it. When we don’t have anything new coming out, we feel as if we are falling behind everyone else and possibly feel pressure to have new product all the time. Musicians do this all the time. They record 17 CD’s but only sold about 300 copies of each. They feel like their music is old but yet no one has heard it so it was fresh to the rest of the world and instead of focusing on a dedicated marketing and social media campaign, they rely on new music to have something to talk about. This is just throwing money down the drain constantly. Don’t do this with your board games. Work the plan and keep your games out there for new people to discover all the time. There is a reason that Ticket to Ride keeps selling. They are great games with a ton of work put in by Alan Moon at every convention possible and working it, working it, working it. Having your games listed on your site is not enough. That isn’t actively promoting or selling, that is passively promoting and selling.

Focus on great games, not quantity of games. How many Kickstarters have come out that you still want a year after they have come and gone?

Tom Vasel of The Dice Tower also talks about this in his “Board Game Breakfast” video (19:16) released on Monday.

As a business owner, don’t be a “Cult of the New” company. Be a “Cult of the Quality” company. Put out great games, developing a serious marketing campaign and a long term social media campaign for the long term on all of your games and sell more games!

The Obligatory Club Fantasci Christmas Board Game List

Tags

Archipelago, Asmodee Games, Bezier Games, Board Games, Catalyst Game Labs, Caverna: The Cave Farmers, Chris Dupuis, Christian T. Peterson, Christmas List, Christophe Boelinger, Club Fantasci, Corey Konieczka, Eldritch Horror, Fantasy Flight Games, Forbidden Desert, Gamewright Games, Helge Ostertag, Iello Games, Jens Drogemuller, King of Tokyo, Lords of Waterdeep, Matt Leacock, Nikki Valens, Peter Lee, Richard Garfield, Richard Launius, Rodney Thompson, Scoundrels of Skullport, Suburbia, Takenoko, Ted Alspach, Terra Mystica, The Duke, Twilight Imperium 3rd Ed., Uwe Rosenberg, Wizards of the Coast, Z-Man Games

Hello and Merry Christmas to everyone! When I decided to do a Christmas List (which seems like a must for every board game blogger) I decided I didn’t just want to do a list of MY wants. I wanted to enlist the help of a few friends on our Google+ board game group who all submitted their top 10 wish list so I could get a good round about of games that would fit any type of gamer as much as possible as we all have very specific likes and dislikes in games. I also felt this was a great exercise in learning which board game publishers really put out a product that people want beyond the typical hot game of the week bru ha ha that quickly passes for most games.

The list is comprised of the games (which ended up being 12 not 10) that were the most wished for on the post. The first two games got the most votes, the rest all received the same amount of votes and are in alphabetical order. I am not including any thoughts on this list as I feel the strength of the list is in the wanting of the games for the collections of other serious gamers.

So without further ado, the Top 12 Club Fantasci Board Game Wish List!

1. Archipelago

Publisher: Asmodee Games

Designer: Christophe Boelinger

Players: 2 – 4

Age: 14 to Adult

Game Time: 30 – 240 minutes

MSRP: $89.99

Each player takes on the role of an explorer and their team, mandated by a European nation to discover, colonize and profit from the archipelagos. These missions are supposed to happen diplomatically, by answering the needs of the local population as much as the regular demands from the continent. Archipelago combines exploration, resource management, optimization, cooperation, strategy, negotiation, corruption, commerce, suspicion, alliances and betrayals, even a hint of investigation! – Asmodee Games

2. Terra Mystica

Publisher: Z-Man Games

Designer: Jens Drogemuller, Helge Ostertag

Players: 2 – 5

Age: 12 to Adult

Game Time: 100 minutes

MSRP: $79.99

Terra Mystica is a strategy game with a simple game principle and very little luck involved:

You govern one of 14 factions trying to transform the landscape on the game board in your favor in order to build your structures. On the one hand, proximity to other players limits your options for further expansion, on the other hand though; it provides some benefits during the game. This conflict is the source of Terra Mystica’s appeal.

The 14 artfully designed factions, each having unique special abilities, as well as the exchangeable bonus cards allow for a large number of possible game plays that constantly keep this game entertaining!- Z-Man Games

3. Caverna: The Cave Farmers

Publisher: Lookout Games

Designer: Uwe Rosenberg

Players: 1 – 7 

Age: 12 to Adult

Game Time: 120 minutes

MSRP: Not Available

Caverna: The Cave Farmers is a worker-placement game at heart, with a focus on farming. In the game, you are the bearded leader of a small dwarf family that lives in a little cave in the mountains. You begin the game with a farmer and his spouse, and each member of the farming family represents an action that the player can take each turn. Together, you cultivate the forest in front of your cave and dig deeper into the mountain. You furnish the caves as dwellings for your offspring as well as working spaces for small enterprises.

It’s up to you how much ore you want to mine. You will need it to forge weapons that allow you to go on expeditions to gain bonus items and actions. While digging through the mountain, you may come across water sources and find ore and ruby mines that help you increase your wealth. Right in front of your cave, you can increase your wealth even further with agriculture: You can cut down the forest to sow fields and fence in pastures to hold your animals. You can also expand your family while running your ever-growing farm. In the end, the player with the most efficiently developed home board wins.

You can also play the solo variant of this game to familiarize yourself with the 48 different furnishing tiles for your cave. – Lookout Games

4. Eldritch Horror

Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games

Designer: Corey Konieczka, Richard Launius, Nikki Valens

Players: 1 – 8

Age: 14 to Adult

Game Time: 180 minutes

MSRP: $59.95

Across the globe, ancient evil is stirring. Now, you and your trusted circle of colleagues must travel around the world, working against all odds to hold back the approaching horror. Foul monsters, brutal encounters, and obscure mysteries will take you to your limit and beyond. All the while, you and your fellow investigators must unravel the otherworldy mysteries scattered around the globe in order to push back the gathering mayhem that threatens to overwhelm humanity. The end draws near! Do you have the courage to prevent global destruction?

Eldritch Horror is a cooperative game of terror and adventure in which one to eight players take the roles of globetrotting investigators working to solve mysteries, gather clues, and protect the world from an Ancient One – that is, an elder being intent on destroying our world. Each Ancient One comes with its own unique decks of Mystery and Research cards, which draw you deeper into the lore surrounding each loathsome creature. Discover the true name of Azathoth or battle Cthulhu on the high seas.

While the tasks on these Mystery cards (along with the locations of otherworldly gates, menacing monsters, and helpful clues) will often inform both your travel plans and the dangers you confront, you can find adventure anywhere in the world…even where you least expect it. It is during the Encounter Phase of each turn that players resolve combat or, alternatively, build their investigators’ personal stories by reading an encounter narrative from one of several types of Encounter cards. You might go head to head with a monster in Istanbul or find yourself in a tough spot with the crime syndicate in a major city. Maybe you will embark on an expedition to the Pyramids or research a clue you uncover in the unnamed wilderness. You may even find your way through a gate and explore a dimension beyond time and space.

Should you fail an encounter, the cost is steep. If you are fortunate, you will merely incur physical or mental trauma. However, you might also be compelled to take a Condition card, which represents a specific injury or restriction gained throughout your journey, such as a Leg Injury or Amnesia. You could find yourself getting in over your head to acquire assets and receive a Debt condition – or maybe you’ll owe a favor to something far more insidious than a debt collector, and enter into a Dark Pact! Whatever your condition, you would be wise to find a resolution with haste; many conditions have a “reckoning effect” which, if triggered, ensure a much more sinister fate.

All the while, the arrival of the Ancient One approaches. Its malign influence is manifested in Eldritch Horror as you draw Mythos Cards, which govern the appearance of otherworldly gates, fearsome monsters, and other ominous elements. Mythos cards keep your investigators under pressure, introducing new threats, even as the arrival of the Great Old One draws nearer! Since the investigators draw a new Mythos card each round, they’re certain to have their hands full battling foul creatures and following up on strange rumors, even as they work to solve their three all-important mysteries.

With twelve unique investigators, two hundred-fifty tokens, and over three hundred cards, Eldritch Horror presents an epic, world-spanning adventure with each and every game. – Fantasy Flight Games

5. Forbidden Desert

Publisher: Gamewright Games

Designer: Matt Leacock

Players: 2 – 5

Age: 10 to Adult

Game Time: 45 minutes

MSRP: Not Available

Gear up for a thrilling adventure to recover a legendary flying machine buried deep in the ruins of an ancient desert city. You’ll need to coordinate with your teammates and use every available resource if you hope to survive the scorching heat and relentless sandstorm. Find the flying machine and escape before you all become permanent artifacts of the forbidden desert!

In Forbidden Desert, a thematic sequel to Forbidden Island, players take on the roles of brave adventurers who must throw caution to the wind and survive both blistering heat and blustering sand in order to recover a legendary flying machine buried under an ancient desert city. While featuring cooperative gameplay similar to Forbidden Island, Forbidden Desert is a fresh new game based around an innovative set of mechanisms, such as an ever-shifting board, individual resource management, and a unique method for locating the flying machine parts.

6. King of Tokyo

Publisher: Iello Games

Designer: Richard Garfield

Players: 2 – 6

Age: 8 to Adult

Game Time: 30 minutes

MSRP: $39.99

Slap around your enemies and become the King of Tokyo!

Play mutant monsters, gigantic robots and other monstrous creatures, joyfully whack your opponents, rampage the city and become the one and only King of Tokyo!

Combine your dice to gather energy, heal your monster or just slap others. Spend your energy to trigger permanent or one-shot special powers: second head, body armor, nova death ray…

Stop at nothing to become the King of Tokyo… but that’s when the real trouble begins for you! – Iello Games

7. Lords of Waterdeep

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Designer: Peter Lee, Rodney Thompson

Players: 2 – 5

Age: 12 to Adult

Game Time: 60 minutes

MSRP: $49.99

Waterdeep, the City of Splendors—the most resplendent jewel in the Forgotten Realms, and a den of political intrigue and shady back-alley dealings.

In this game, the players are powerful lords vying for control of this great city. Its treasures and resources are ripe for the taking, and that which cannot be gained

through trickery and negotiation must be taken by force!

Lords of Waterdeep is a strategy board game for 2-5 players. You take on the role of one of the masked Lords

of Waterdeep, secret rulers of the city. Through your agents, you recruit adventurers to go on quests on your behalf, earning rewards and increasing your influence over the city.

Expand the city by purchasing new buildings that open up new actions on the board, and hinder—or help—the other lords by playing Intrigue cards to enact your carefully laid plans. – Wizards of the Coast

8. Lords of Waterdeep: Skullport Expansion

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Designer: Chris Dupuis, Peter Lee, Rodney Thompson

Players: 2 – 5

Age: 12 to Adult

Game Time: 60 minutes

MSRP: $39.99

Scoundrels of Skullport adds brand new content for the award-winning, bestselling board game, Lords of Waterdeep. It’s not one, but two, complete expansions: the sprawling dungeon of Undermountain and the criminal haven of Skullport.

Each thrilling location has unique characteristics and offers new play options, including new Lords, Buildings, Intrigue and Quest cards.

Owners of Lords of Waterdeep can use one or both of these new subterranean locations to add depth to their game experience. There’s also a new faction, the Gray Hands, so now a sixth player can join in the fun! – Wizards of the Coast

9. Suburbia

Publisher: Bezier Games

Designer: Ted Alspach

Players: 1 – 4

Age: 8 to Adult

Game Time: 90 minutes

MSRP: $59.99

Plan, build, and develop a small town into a major metropolis. Use hex-shaped building tiles to add residential, commercial, civic, and industrial areas, as well as special points of interest that provide benefits and take advantage of the resources of nearby towns. Your goal is to have your borough thrive and end up with a greater population than any of your opponents.

Suburbia is a tile-laying game in which each player tries to build up an economic engine and infrastructure that will be initially self-sufficient, and eventually become both profitable and encourage population growth. As your town grows, you’ll modify both your income and your reputation. As your income increases, you’ll have more cash on hand to purchase better and more valuable buildings, such as an international airport or a high rise office building. As your reputation increases, you’ll gain more and more population (and the winner at the end of the game is the player with the largest population).

During each game, players compete for several unique goals that offer an additional population boost – and the buildings available in each game vary, so you’ll never play the same game twice! – Bezier Games

10. Takenoko

Publisher: Asmodee Games

Designer: Ted Alspach

Players: 2 – 4

Age: 8 to Adult

Game Time: 45 minutes

MSRP: $49.99

The Giant Panda and the Gardener

The players take the role of courtesans of the Nippon emperor and take on the role of caring for his Giant Panda by growing a bamboo plantation.

Their mission: to farm parcels of land, irrigate them, and grow green, yellow or pink bamboo. In turn, they see what the weather brings and perform two actions from among those offered to them: get a new plot of land or irrigation channel, grow bamboo, feed the panda or draw an objective card.

The game ends when a player has completed 7 to 9 objectives (depending on the number of players). The player who gets the best score by adding the total value of their completed objective wins the game. – Asmodee Games

11. The Duke

Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs

Designer: Jeremy Holcomb, Stephen McLaughlin

Players: 2

Age: 13 to Adult

Game Time: 30 minutes

MSRP: Not Available

The politics of the high court are elegant, shadowy and subtle. Not so in the outlying duchies. Rival dukes contend for unclaimed lands far from the king’s reach, and possession is the law in these lands. Use your forces to capture enemy troops before you lose the chance to claim the land for yourself.

In The Duke, players move their troop tiles around the board and flip them over after each move. Each tile’s side shows a dierent movement pattern. If you end your movement in a square occupied by an opponent’s tile, you capture it. Capture your opponent’s Duke to win! – Catalyst Game Labs

12. Twilight Imperium 3rd Ed.

Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games

Designer: Christian T. Peterson

Players: 3 – 6

Age: 12 to Adult

Game Time: 360 minutes

MSRP: $89.95

Twilight Imperium Third Edition is an epic empire-building game of interstellar conflict, trade, and struggle for power. Players take the roles of ancient galactic civilizations, each seeking to seize the imperial throne via warfare, diplomacy, and technological progression. With geomorphic board tiles, exquisite plastic miniatures, hundreds of cards, and introducing a rich set of strategic dimensions that allows each player to refocus their game-plan, the original designer Christian T. Petersen has seamlessly incorporated the better qualities of other recently popular games to improve on the game-play of the original TI, making it at once perfectly well-rounded and pleasantly familiar to experienced gamers.

TI3 is played by at least three players who belong to ten possible alien races, each with their own advantages and quirks. The ‘designer notes’ in the rulebook candidly and humbly acknowledge the inspiration for some of the improvements to the original game. The strategic game-play borrows the governing element from ‘Puerto Rico’ to involve players in an iteratively complex and yet fast-paced game experience with very little downtime. The game map, basic player progress and overall victory are dynamically determined in almost exactly the same way as they are by imaginative players of ‘Settlers of Catan’, while the “Command” system cleverly improves on the ‘oil’ logistical mechanism of ‘Attack’ to both manage turn-based activity and limit the size of armies, uniquely enabling weakened players to bounce back if they play their cards right. – Board Game Geek

Thank you to all who contributed to this list and for all your wisdom over the past year in our group! Ryan LaFlamme (www.thecardboardrepublic.com,) Craig Browser, Scott Hill, Alex Paulani, Jeromy French, Casey Harmon, Joe Mitchell, Michael Juneau, Brian Casey, Chris Goff, Neil Robinson, Jon Weber, Chris Shields, Jeff Horvat, Joshua Jackson, Zen L, Adam Day, Michelle Ross and Nate Parker.

Board Game Publishers Help a Board Game Reviewer Out

Tags

Artwork, Bloggers, Board Games, Branding, Marketing, News Outlets, PR, Publishers, Reviewers, RPG, Social Media

One of the most frustrating things I find in trying to review new games of any kind actually is not having good imagery to work with. It completely surprises me that a good amount of the board game publishers out there don’t have good artwork to be used for bloggers to use to promote their games. This should be absolutely STANDARD fare for any company so let me give a few tips from a marketing guy in the entertainment industry.

1. When launching a new product especially on Kickstarter and you want people to blog about it, make sure you have the box cover art available as an image on your Kickstarter page or at least your main web page. I am sure you many of you know that this helps with SEO when we can appropriately use text in images let alone having a good featured image to use when we post on social media such as Facebook. This helps the review always put out great content on your behalf as well. It makes them look good and your are the Hero because of it.

2. ALWAYS have your new launch on your main web page. This should be your current news and should be posted at the same time as your kickstarter. Get is started and save it as a draft until ready to launch. Once your Kickstarter is up, post the link in it. The main goal of any business is to drive traffic to their business page. This will not only help you look professional, up to date and busy but also allow people who may not know about your other products a chance to check them out and either purchase or put on their wish list.

3. All board games that you publish should have it’s own page on your website. I have seen a rash of this lately where publishers have no content what so ever for a game that has recently come out. This is completely dumbfounding to me as I don’t understand why you would put out a product and not have it on your site showcased. I know most of the publishers may be one person operations and time is very tight, but marketing and branding is absolutely crucial to your success as a business. If you need help keeping up your website, social media, marketing, PR etc…. Let me know, my business can help 🙂

4. Make sure you have a list of bloggers, news outlets and reviewers set up so you can email all of your updates. Don’t rely on them to see your subscribe button. Take it upon your self to do the research and make a list. It will take you one day to do it. Ask for help if you need to. It is on your shoulders to be successful and get the news out. Make it easy for the people who are providing your free PR about your new games.

5. Social media is key to marketing these days and yet so few have really learned to used it in a way that reaches out to new reviewers, bloggers or news outlets. Again use the tools available to you to find new sources of PR. The use of hash tags is very important and gives you a very easy way to mine for information and people who will help promote your product. Don’t just tweet to the people you know or like. Answer all tweets if possible and build relationships!

6. Make sure your imagery in on http://www.boardgamegeek.com and available for use for reviewers to put in their reviews of your board games. This only makes your game look better than people having to use crappy pictures they have to take with poor lighting, camera’s or cell phones. Always make sure, you are able to put YOUR best foot forward with marketing and that means making sure everyone has access with rights to use your artwork for reviews.

It doesn’t take much to frustrate people who love what you do and want to help you. You should be facilitating these relationships and making it very easy for them to help you since it is FREE. You aren’t sending free games to everyone that reviews your product as a matter of fact you send very few games in comparison to the reviews that come out so make sure you are utilizing, maximizing and capitalizing on what is available to you and the awesome people in this hobby that want to support what you do!

If you have any questions or want to consult with us. Please let us now!

Looking forward to the great games your bring us to play!

David Lowry

What Is So Cool About Board Games?

Tags

Atlas Games, Battlestar Galactica The Board Game, Board Games, BoardGames, Card Games, Caylus, Children's Games, Deck-Building, Family, Fantasy Flight Games, Games, Iello Games, King of Tokyo, Marvel Legendary Deck-building Game, Mayfair Games, Once Upon a Time Storytelling Game, Party Games, Settlers of Catan, Storytelling, Strategy, Terra Mystica, Wits & Wagers, Z-Man Games

What is so cool about board games? Well, lots actually. I have always liked to play games all my life but I fell in love with board gaming in the late 1990’s after a friend introduce me to Settlers of Catan. It was the first time I played a game where you had multiple strategies and could come back from behind and win even when their looked like a clear cut winner.

As the years have gone by, the board game landscape has grown immensely and games are coming out at a clip that it is very hard to keep up even with talking about them let alone playing them. Today’s board games are more thematic in many cases. The themes can encompass anything you can imagine and come in all types of styles. Thematic, War, Strategy, Deck-building, Micro, Family, Children’s, Fantasy, Party games and the list keeps going. This really allows the industry to make sure that there are plenty of games for every type of person and situation. Some games are fast, fun and very social, others are deep, intense, very strategic and can last for many hours or days (I love these.) There is a whole world to discover about boardgames so let’s look at why they are having a major resurgence and a few examples for you to try out.

1. Re-playability – Many of todays board games are designed to be able to play hundreds of times if not more and you never play the same game twice. That means your game never gets old and you can have a few games on your shelf to play anytime, anywhere and not spend any more money for good quality family, social or fun time. True many games can range upwards of $40 and up to $100 even but think about it. A night at the movies for a couple anymore is $50 easy. A board game on average lasts about 90 minutes and can be replayed many times. This is a great date idea, it’s great for family times, great for socializing with friends and makes it very easy to schedule time to do things with others in the space of 3 hours. Add to the fact that many games also put out expansions which then increase re-playability even more and this simply makes economic sense as your value for dollar is great increased with board gaming.

Click on the images to learn more about the games!

2. Socializing – Many games such as party games are great for get togethers with friends or family and people are who are not into deep strategy gaming. People can play, have fun, laugh and converse all at the same time. Many games provide plenty of humor and makes sure your gaming time is a blast! There are also light and medium games of all kinds that allow for socializing while still scratching the itch of a more serious or competitive person. This ensures that everyone is happy and having a great time!

3. Time with family – We all know how kids love video games, computers, iPods and technology. Sometimes is really good for them to unplug, use their brain and actually spend time with other people in the house. You’d be hard pressed to find a person that would like some kind of board game. It may takes a few tries to find one everyone can enjoy, but it is well worth the effort and who knows, you may have started a family tradition that one day the kids all though begrudgingly know will come to realize how much they like and appreciated the time together and implement in their own family.

4. Escapism – What do I mean? I mean forgetting about life for awhile. All the problems, bills, personal issues etc. Just like reading a good book, some board games can actually provide a nice break from reality and take you to a place that you love. Some games are modeled after your favorite TV show or video game and do an admirable job of recreating the theme and providing an excellent experience in making you feel like you are actually there.

5. Stimulating Storytelling – Do you remember the time when you would sit around the fire and your grandpa would tell stories? Or you parents would read to you as kids? Well some of todays game help you do the same thing will providing a raucously good time! We all know how texting has taken over the world. How people only communicate through devices and have lost the art of communication. This is a great way to bring it back. If you love to make things up as you go than this is for you!

6. Competition – There are certain personality types like mine that love competition. Friendly, healthy competition. I love the tension a good board game provides and trying to strategize a way to win especially when getting my but kicked or even how to hold on to the lead while everyone is gunning for you. There are so many great strategy games, even light ones that provide this experience for serious board gamers or people who love competition. No one gets hurt (hopefully) and if you lose, you just set up and try again.

7. Exercising your brain – I am sure you have read how using your brain through critical thinking allows for increased memory, better strategizing for daily issues and so forth. Well if you do Sudoku or crosswords because you love this type of thing, try a board game and see all the wonderful possibilities that have arrived and been brought to the forefront by forward thinking game designers. Today’s board games are loading with different strategies to reach the same goal. No longer is their one path to winning and the first one there is king. Critical thinking is a huge part of board gaming today.

6. Local gaming communities – Trust me they are out there you just may not have heard about them. There are several in Nashville where I live alone. Check with your local game shops or google local board game groups or something like meetup.com. It’s a great way to check out new games, meet new people and try board gaming out with out spending any money. We are always excited to meet new people and show them our games. You will be more than welcome anywhere I am sure.

If you are looking for a new hobby, way to save money but still do something fun and entertaining, then check out board gaming again. I know many of you grew up loving Monopoly, Pictionary or Scattergories but there is SO MUCH MORE! If you need any help just let me know and I will point you in the right direction!

For you gamers reading the article add your thoughts and reasons you love board gaming in the comments section!

Club Fantasci’s Favorite Board Game Resources

Tags

Board Games, Club Fantasci, Crits Happen, David Lowry, Drive Through Review, GreyElephant Gaming, reviews, Rhado Runs Through, Run Throughs, Shut Up & Sit Down, The Cardboard Republic, Troll In The Corner

David Lowry

One of the great things about the board gaming culture is the camaraderie! Board game lovers like to talk to each other, share game thoughts and reviews and help spread the word about the hobby they love so much. Granted there are your typical haters out there or social media sites that aren’t friendly but for the most part, it’s a very warm and inviting culture. With that in mind I want to share with you my (David Lowry) personal favorite resources to discover new games, find out which are worth purchasing and also help in understanding how to play them.

So let me add the caveat that I am not leaving anyone one out because I think they suck. These are just the places I go due to my experience with watching, reading and listening to people like me who review board games. Also please understand that there are so many reviewers out there now, there is no way I could have checked you all out. This also doesn’t mean I agree with all their reviews, but that is beauty of board games. There is something for everyone!

Also please feel free to leave links in the comments section for your favorite board game resources to spread the love and give everyone a shot at getting their stuff discovered.

Reviewers:

SHUT UP & SIT DOWN SHOW

These guys are by far the most creative, funny and witty of all the reviewers. Not only do they have a deep insight into gaming culture, mechanics and thematics, they truly LOVE what they do and have put together a team willing to bring you exciting new reviews and thoughts that requires a ton of work. Best Reviewers on the internet period. Check them out!

This video entitled “Board Games Golden Age” is a perfect example of their understanding of board games in todays culture.

This review of Kemet is a another great example of the types of reviews they do.

Crits Happen

Tox of Crits Happen is another great example of someone who actually takes the time to learn the game and review it from a deeper level than many other reviewers. His video work has gotten much better as his equipment seems to have improved as well as his camera work and his pace is great making it very easy to follow. There are well thought out videos with no mistakes and misplays. Tox takes a great amount of time to put out a quality product.

Being a media guy, Tox has made the greatest improvement here compared to anyone else and is almost to the quality of the former Drakkenstrike video series.

Check his “Critical Review” of the new Pathfinder Adventure Card Game here:

Drive Through Review

Joel Eddy does a great job of honestly reviewing games with no bias towards euro or ameritrash types of games. His videos are simple, but well done in the explanation and run through of the games he is reviewing. Joel admits where his lack of knowledge may be with a game or style, has no ego about how much he knows about games and is friendly in his responses.

Check out his review of the new Firefly: The Game

Honorable Mentions:

Rhado Runs Through

The Cardboard Republic

GreyElephant Gaming

Troll In The Corner

I look forward to discovering more places to find reviews and thoughts on board games! Please feel free to leave your links in the comments section!

Open Letter to Board Game Publishers

Tags

Board Game Publishers, Board Game Reviews, Board Games, Etiquette, Gamelyn Games, Mayfair Games, Social Media, Tasty Minstrel Games

David Lowry

One of the more frustrating thing when writing board game reviews is trying to find info on the game you are reviewing. Case in point, today I wrote a review on GeekEccentric.com about Dungeon Roll from Tasty Minstrel Games. It was a favorable review as the game is great for what it is. However, I know the publisher saw the review because they commented on it on BoardGameGeek.com. They pointed out how I had the MSRP wrong. Valid point for sure. However, first of the all the publisher should have taken the time to thank me for the review but they most certainly didn’t. Secondly, the board game publisher should have had the MSRP listed on their site. Guess what? They don’t. As a matter of fact, the game isn’t even listed on their site. Only a link to the kickstarter which expired back in March. So five months later and still no page for the game on your site (which is just a tumblr page but that is a whole other article.)

I know publishers have their “favorite” game reviewers, however, if they come across one they really should put forth the effort to say thank you. They should learn to effectively use social media and actually publish the reviews but for some reason they don’t. This is a HORRIBLE mistake and really bad marketing. The more buzz you put out about your game the better period. That is simple marketing 101. Every other entertainment medium lives by this but somehow board gaming has yet to figure this out.

Furthermore, as a board game publisher to make it easier not only for customers on your site but potential board game reviewers, you should have all the info listed as well as hi-res images to be used by the board game reviewers with licensing now not being an issue and the quality of review will remain high at least image wise. At least be willing to send them by email in a timely manner not days later. This is a GOOD thing when it comes to selling product.

I know especially on twitter, that the publishers and a few reviewers are very cliquish and don’t respond to others even when reviews are being posted and contact is being made. This is bad business and it certainly won’t help people want to keep reviewing games if you treat them bad or ignore them but talk to everyone else. The idea behind every company should be to create “raving fans” or “disciples” for your product and create a warm friendly environment for them to feel good about your company and products.

On social media I thank everyone who retweets, reposts or shares anything from my company period. They don’t have to do it and it is just plain nice to thank people for taking the time to promote me or my clients for free.

We know you won’t have games to send to all reviewers but regardless, if people are reviewing your games and paying for them with their own money, the least you can do is say thank you and maybe retweet the link or post it on your site or Facebook. There is no point in having social media sites if you aren’t going to use it appropriately. Sharing is king here.

Mayfair Games is BY FAR the best at this and trust me it is well appreciated. Gamelyn Games was very good about this as well. The rest…. nothing. Rio Grande thanks by email as well as Fantasy Flight Games but most don’t even respond to the emails sent to them with the links. Most publishers don’t have reviews posted anywhere either. It really is an odd thing as music stars are constantly thinking their people for reviews and sharing them and trust me, they are a hell of a lot busier than someone at a desk or having their social media people/interns doing it for them.

Publishers, we love your games. We love to spread the word to people who don’t know you or your games. Please help us by actually using social media appropriately, sharing the reviews, thanking the reviewers and having all the info on the page on your site like it should be anyway.

Thank you so much to the publishers that get this! Thank you for making great games and we look forward to working with all of you and spreading this incredible hobby of board gaming!

Board Game Forums and the Inevitable Asshat.

Tags

Blogs, Board Games, Club Fantasci, David Lowry, Forums, reviews, The Lowry Agency

David Lowry

Being a board game blogger for Club Fantasci and Geek Eccentric is a true blessing for me. It takes away the stress of my real job and allows me to promote something I truly love, board games. I also blog on four other sites for the music and entertainment business and have been doing so for many years to great success.

Unfortunately, when you promote your blog, you have to deal with people who think they know how to do EVERYTHING better than you do. People who have absolutely no experience in what they are talking about but somehow think they should be commenting on your blogs I guess because of free speech or something. Or they tell you how you should be marketing yourself even though, they aren’t a blogger or marketer with vast amounts of experience in the field and probably don’t fit the “normal” person who reads the blogs anyway.

While every now and then I try to accommodate some of the suggestions, it never works out. Why? Because I already know what I am doing, I know my numbers, and I know what makes people click on my links. So for all you people out there who don’t understand this, it is the number of clicks that allows us to blog and get people to want us to review their product. Without the clicks on the links, we quit blogging as it is seriously time intensive and a lot more work than you think especially just promoting it. If you don’t like to click links, then by all means don’t but please quit telling us how to do our job and discouraging others from clicking our links just because you don’t like to. In other words, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all. Just pass on by and leave the commenting to those that actually enjoy or appreciate the work being done.

The other annoying thing is the kid who lives in the basement with his mom and works at Starbucks who thinks he knows more than you do type of asshat. Most people don’t take time to read your resume’ they just assume you don’t have any idea what you are doing and they feel it’s their responsibility to point that out for you. Let me say this to all you who think I can’t back up my blog or statistics. Business owner for 15+ years, Wealth Manager for 10 years so that is where my financial statistics come from, board gamer for +13 years. I have put together well over 250 business plans and I run and entertainment agency that specializes in marketing, social media, artist and event promotion. In other words, I am an expert on marketing, social media and business. So I will most certainly go with my experience over anyone else’s unless of course they are an expert that I know and recognize but then we usually already talk and exchange ideas anyway.

As per the board game forums, there is a lot of snarky ass people on reddit and Board Game Geek but also in forums in general every where. For those of you who tend to not read the original post and stay on topic or take the time to figure out the intent, don’t comment. You just look like an asshat. For those of you who think you know better than the poster, don’t comment. You just look like an asshat. For those of you who can post with some awesome ideas and suggestions and are mature enough to actually act like an adult in the forums THANK YOU! Please do comment and help make it a pleasurable conversation! We love you!

You see many of you think that public forums are open to what ever you have to say, and while technically that may be true, just because you have a keyboard, doesn’t mean you should use it. Quit ruining the spirit of other peoples posts with your snarky ass attitudes. People don’t post stuff for you to be all negative and bring down posts. If you have nothing nice to say, shut the hell up! Move along, there is nothing to see here.

We do this because we want to share our love of boardgames. Not your favorite board games but board games in general. It’s a public service. We don’t get paid for it. We don’t ask for much other than hopefully, a like, +1 or share depending on what social media site you are on and we greatly appreciate any those things as well as the kind words and support that many of you give.

Using forums responsibly, do your research before blowing hot air out your ass and contribute to posts instead of being an asshat is the best way to go for everyone involved.

This is a public service announcement from bloggers everywhere.

Thank you for your time and attention in this matter.

The Management.

You can find out more about David Lowry at www.thelowryagency.com