Operation: Game Night
Travis Smith, Jared Erickson, and Clay Gable get together to discuss the latest and greatest in board games in this weekly podcast. What's hot, what's hitting the table, featured discussions about board games and the board gaming culture, and the primary mission objective- to play more board games!
Operation: Game Night
OGN Ep 3: Collecting & Culling
Got the urge to collect board games at every turn? Feel a completionist mentality when faced with an onslaught of expansions for your favorite games? Ever feel the unique pressure of managing a physical board game collection? Get ready to uncover the joys and challenges on this episode of Operation Game Night. We kick things off by exploring the tangible presence and financial investment of owning board games, and how these factors shape our gaming experiences compared to digital collections. Plus, we reflect on the growth of our podcast, our vibrant community, and push through without our co-host Jared, ensuring our mission to deliver valuable insights remains strong.
We wrap up with an introspective chat about curating board game collections, from budgeting and thematic immersion to the emotional journey of acquiring and offloading games. We even stumbled upon some antique treasures that sparked a deeper conversation on the magnetic allure of publishers like Leder Games and Salt and Pepper Games, and the complexities of maintaining a collection amidst life changes. Plus, we recommend some enthralling audiobooks and a gripping documentary that explores the themes of connection and loneliness in gaming, leaving you with plenty to ponder until our next episode. Join us for a packed session full of personal stories, practical advice, and plenty of gaming passion!
I think there's this like unique thing to board gaming, where one you have this physical item that occupies space in your house. You know, most like people collect action figures or people collect DVDs or you know, back in the day people collected physical video games. Not so much the case anymore. People have mainly gone to virtual. But in the video game world people talk about like their backlog, like oh, I have this backlog of games, and most people will argue that you know the backlog mainly gone to virtual. But in the video game world people talk about like their backlog, like oh, I have this backlog of games, and most people will argue that you know, the backlog doesn't really matter, just play what you what feels good and play what you like to play, and then don't stress yourself out by looking at your backlog. But if you have just a hard drive full of games sitting as your backlog, it doesn't occupy a physical space in your house. That is like causing pressure on you. You know to look at a giant shelf every day and go like, oh man, I spent good money on this, probably more than most of those people spent on a V, on a virtual video game or a digital video game, and I will not get nearly as many hours of enjoyment out of this, but it's part of my collection and so it takes like a different mindset on how you collect and call those physical items that you are choosing to occupy space in your house.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the operation game night podcast, where the mission objective is to play more board games. Put your battle, rattle on and mount up. Let's start the show. All right, welcome everybody to the Operation Game Night podcast. I am Travis Smith, your host, joined, as always, of Cardboard and Clay fame, and our new social media manager for Operation Game Night, clay Gable. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:Clay, I'm doing great Not doing great as a social media manager. Just yet, I think we got seven followers on our Operation Game Night Instagram account, but looking to grow that following. So if you're listening to this, if you like what we're putting out, go ahead and find us on Instagram and stay up to date with what we got going on here. We're going to keep churning out episodes, whether you like them or not, so yeah, we had 26 downloads, so we are blowing up. Yep, friends and family, I think are really coming in big.
Speaker 1:They are coming in big. But I will say if you are listening to this podcast and you like what we're putting out, go ahead and give us a comment in the link in the show notes and tell your friends, Share the podcast, Put it out there. We need your help. So the bigger we can make this show, the more quality content we can provide.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and for the astute listeners out there that have been with us for the past two episodes, you might notice that we are missing the third leg of our three-legged chair in. Jared, but you know he's got prior engagement, so we're going to press on without his unique take on board games that we look forward to hearing every week.
Speaker 1:He is going to be missed, but he's getting some well-deserved rest, taking a break, and hopefully he'll be back with us next week as we forge on with Operation Game Night. Okay, let's jump right in to plays and procurements, shall we?
Speaker 2:Yes, I have played and procured in the past few days the same game. So I spoke very excitedly about my Petri's store credit that I had, and I did indeed head to Petri's and go shopping and the game that stuck out to me was Planet Unknown, which has been out for a couple of years now. It got a lot of buzz when it first came out and it seemed interesting. But I'd never really saw it anywhere and I didn't go out of my way to get it. So when I saw it at Petri's I was like you know what? This is going to be a good purchase for my Petri's bucks. I'm trying to get some more games that are on the lighter variety, since you and Jared have left me, so I have been skewing lighter with my game purchases. So I picked that up and then my parents are in town this week, so we got that out the other night and it went pretty well. So for those of you who don't know, planet Unknown is a polyomino game published by Adam's Apple Games and designed by Ryan Lambert and Adam Rayberg. Someday I'll get better at pronouncing names, but anyway. So it's a polyomino game where you are, the big hook is the Lazy Susan that it comes with and so it has different stacks of different shaped tiles in this Lazy Susan that rotates and every person has a planet board that is empty and you're trying to fill it with these tiles and the cool thing is it's got these tracks on the side, so it's kind of like patchwork meets tapestry. So every time you place a tile, depending on what two colors are on that tile, you can move your little marker up these tracks and each color track has like a different thing to it. So the red track is the coolest to me because it lets you put this little rover out on the planet and it can move around the planet every time you move up the track and collect meteorites I think think they're called in the game from the planet and you get points at the end of the game for all the meteorites you collect. But that's the red track. The green track will let you get these little small one-tile patches that you can fill in the hard holes on your board.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's like a tech track that lets you break some rules of the game, but it went really well. It was, you know, for my first time playing it and trying to teach it to two people that aren't generally board gamers. I mean, they hold their own, but you know they certainly haven't played too many heavyweight games. So, teaching it for the first time, it went pretty well and everybody seemed to enjoy it. And I then played it on Board Game Arena just with Mary. I enjoyed it there as well. It's a chill game. You're simultaneously taking turns, so it plays up to six players, I think, and the time really doesn't get that like out of control. So yeah, it was a good game. Doesn't get that like out of control. So yeah, it was a good game. Procured it, played it, probably going to keep it around, because I've always liked tetris-y, polyomino games, and this one adds some cool little twists that I think are going to be fun to bring out with like a game group nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I saw your Instagram post about it, which should probably pivot to Operation Game Night.
Speaker 2:I haven't been dual hacking for a while.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, it looks like it has some like pretty high quality components. It's got like the dual layer boards and like the plastic spinner in the middle. Yeah, it looks fun. I don't know a whole lot about that game other than listening to other podcasts talk about it.
Speaker 2:yeah, I'd like to give it a try sometime yeah, it's good, I think I think rachel would like it too. Um, you know, it's always satisfying how's the bga implementation?
Speaker 2:I mean it's good, like it's as good as it can be, it's. I think it's funner to play in real life. It's kind of a nuisance to go through all the little things on BGA and flip the tile and place it where you want it to go, but small nitpicks. I'll probably keep playing it on there when I can. The only downside to it and this is probably an upside for some people is there were some turns where you some of the tracks have a little bonus on it that lets you jump up on another track. And there were some times when you know you're already doing two tracks and then if it so happens that those two tracks let you move up another two tracks, you can get into these situations like trying to keep track of what tracks you're going up can get a little, uh, convoluted, but in general most turns were pretty simple. You place the tile, you move up the tracks, take whatever reward you got.
Speaker 1:Um yeah, big fan.
Speaker 2:Okay, nice, that sounds fun what you, what you've been buying and playing so I had um.
Speaker 1:A while ago, I had backed Buttonshy's new Kickstarter because they had a new version of Rove that came out. Rove stands for Results Oriented Versatile Explorer. It's a solo little puzzle game. This one is called Aqua Rove, dustin Dobson and Milan Zivkovic, published by Buttonshy Games. I have not played this, but I really enjoy the solo puzzle of the original Rove, and this one looked cool. I'm not sure what happened, but I ended up with two copies of it, and so if you are listening to this podcast and you want to win a free copy of Aqua Rove, you're going to be the very first person to leave us a comment on our show notes and, uh, I will mail you a copy of aqua rove I don't know how to get in touch with you, boom that what's button shy up to?
Speaker 2:I feel like the last time when you moved to germany, you ordered some button shy games and it came with two copies of rove and you said just keep the one, and so that I have that copy of rove, and I sent the other one to you in germany. And now again they sent you two roves I don't, I, I don't.
Speaker 1:Maybe I suck at ordering things online, apparently because you're picking up my packages in colorado. Yeah, two times double the games. I'm not sure what's going on. And then, every time they do these Kickstarters, they have a whole bunch of other games that they include on or they re-release or they reprint. I have a whole fat stack of Button.
Speaker 1:Shy games. This is well, including expansions 12 Button Shy games plus expansions Look at that. Antimony. The Royal Limited Unsurmountable Scott Alms. Food Chain Island expansion I like Food Chain Island and then Fishing Lessons.
Speaker 1:So I need to start working through those. And those are great because they're solo. Most of them are solo games and you can just pull them out whenever and play them on a table A little coffee table or end table. They don't take up much space. And then I also got at the same time Doom Tin Crawler, and this is a GameCrafter game and GameCrafter makes these tiny little games most of them, some of them and they come in these little mint tins and they're super small and you can fit them in your pocket or in a bag and pull them out wherever.
Speaker 1:But they have varying degrees of difficulty, very degrees of complexity, and some of these games are really cool implementations of much larger games, like they have a mint tin size version of, like imperial struggle, yeah, no, so they've got like a whole bunch of uh, like really small games that are really cool. I have some of their other larger games that are in this like doom series. They have like um, doom, doom, chest or something. I have to look that one up. But, um, I've got a couple of their other ones. But every once, once in a while, they do their summer sale and Game Crafter has a whole bunch of their most popular games on sale, and this year I picked up Doom Tin Crawler. So I'll give that a try and report back, okay.
Speaker 1:They're some cool mini games and I like it because those are easy to store and it helps my collection.
Speaker 2:Yeah, small is good. You know what I've been wanting to try Numsters.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I will have to give that one a try. I've heard that one's really good. I usually, before I go and start procuring button-shy games, there's usually really good Reddit resources on which ones they recommend. And yeah, I think Numsters was very highly rated, as was the Royal, and Unsurmountable is always pretty highly recommended. So I have to give those a try and I will report back. I'll let you know how it goes.
Speaker 2:The other one from Buttonshy do you have In Vino Morte? Is that what it's called Do?
Speaker 1:you have In Vino Morte. Is that what it's called? I do, yeah. It's basically like the scene from the Princess Bride, where they have the two cups and one is poisoned and they're trying to figure out which one is poisoned and swap them back and forth and one person deals the poison and the other person chooses which one to drink out of. It's like that, but you can play it with more than two players.
Speaker 1:So one person is like the dealer and you deal out a minimum of one poison and a minimum of one wine, and everybody else can get wine or poison. They could all be poisoned except for one wine. They could all be wine except for one wine. They could all be wine except for one poison. And you go around the table and each person decides if they want to trade with another person or drink what's in front of them, and then, uh, the dealer does not get to choose to swap, because they can keep track of where it's all going if they pay close enough attention. So they just drink whatever's in front of them when it gets back around to them and it's a game of elimination down to one winner.
Speaker 2:Wow, it plays nine players.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's pretty fun. It's like you're sitting around waiting for food. Actually, last time we went down to Munich with Rachel's family, we were sitting around the table and everyone's kind of tired from their travels and stuff and I pulled that out of my bag and we played it at the table and it was awesome. It was a, it was a good time. We played it at what? Six six people and it was great. Yeah, that's one I'm probably gonna have to get.
Speaker 2:I like those kind of bluffing social games to have on hand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's, you know, 12 cards in a little wallet size thing that you can just tote around wherever and it's real compact and portable. So, yeah, I really enjoy that one. It's good for, uh, especially if, like, people aren't into board games per se. Anybody can decide to either like swap or drink. That's the, that's the whole interaction. Yes, it's fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that. That sounds good.
Speaker 1:I do have one more addition to the games that we played. Rachel and I last night played Beacon Patrol. It was on my shelf of shame for a while. 2023 Pandasaurus games, designed and art by Torben Ratzleff, and that game is awesome.
Speaker 1:It's a cooperative puzzle game. Each player controls a little dinghy, a little ship, and you are sailing around this ocean that is made up of tiles. So on your turn you draw three tiles. You have three tiles, three movement chips you have to. You can place a tile and immediately move there. You can move to another tile with one of your movement tokens or you can swap tiles with another player and move to that.
Speaker 1:You know, and play it that way, and it really reminded me of um, land and sea. You remember when we played that? Yeah, yeah, one player is the land, the others are sea and you're trying to make the islands. So it's kind of like that um, where you are building out this map as you go along and you only score points for tiles that are closed in in the cardinal directions. So if I have one little square tile that's an ocean and it's got a buoy on it, let's say, if that buoy is enclosed with four other tiles, it doesn't matter what's on those, the buoy will score two points. If you have a lighthouse that's typically on land and end up with larger land masses that you have to build out, those are worth three points, and then everything else is worth one, and it just has a scale of performance between zero points and 56 plus, which is like the max.
Speaker 1:Rachel and I did docked it anywhere near that. We got like 22 points, three points, and we got the second lowest rank. But I definitely want to try that one again, and I just found out that there's an expansion for it called Ships and Shores. That has asymmetric player powers, and so each of the dinghies yeah, each of the dinghies are like the ships that you control as you explore this map. They do different things on every turn. So I'm definitely going to pick that up because it was a pretty fun game and you can play it solo and it's 30 minutes or less. I would recommend it. If you have not played Beacon Patrol, mary might like that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just looked it up.
Speaker 1:It looks like it's a like a small oink game size box.
Speaker 2:It's not oink games, but it's maybe like six inches by 10 inches.
Speaker 1:It's a little bigger. It's kind of this like long elongated one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's uh, oh, no, yeah, now I see it with a person and it is a little bigger, yeah, but it is the same dimensions. You know that longer looking yeah.
Speaker 1:Are we ready to move on to our main topic?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about our carefully curated collections.
Speaker 2:Carefully.
Speaker 1:Some alliterations. Yeah, Clay, tell me about how you approach collecting. What do you think about? Are you trying to get into different genres? Are there certain player accounts you're looking after? When you are going to buy a game? Now that you're flush with Petri's cash, how do you approach what game you're going to buy next and how do you think about your collection?
Speaker 2:yeah. So we chose this topic, with jared being out, specifically because we the two of us, travis and clay have probably a bigger issue with procuring games than jared. He is very discerning. I can give you his form one. If jared it's his favorite game, he might buy it. Travis and I will buy games on a whim. But it's evolving and I'm trying to get better about being more diligent about what comes in and what goes out. So in the early days it was just boom top 10 list. They said these are the best gateway games, got them All 10. Boom Moving in.
Speaker 2:Since then I started, you know, I I based it a lot on who I'm playing games with. You know, and if I think the main people I'm going to be playing games with like I talked about earlier with planet unknown are going to be into like medium weight games, I'll go looking for some good medium weight games to buy. If I, when you and Jared were here, I skewed a little heavier, I was like, oh, you know what, I might be able to get that uh, the Witcher board game to the table with Jared and Travis. So you know, maybe I'll get that when I uh go through. But where I'm kind of at now is I give myself a budget and I. This might be tacky to talk about, but I I think it's important because it's easy for me to want to buy games. When you love games as much as I do and you get to play them as infrequently as I do, sometimes just buying them feels like you're still connected to the hobby, and part of it so it is a big part of it for me is getting new games, trying new games, and it's good to have a boundary that I've set for myself. That is, $100 to $150 a month I will spend on board games. Now some people are going to hear that and say, holy crap, that's too much money on board games, and you're probably right for most people. But it's really my only hobby and the way I justify it is you know somebody that likes golf. Nobody really blinks if they go to the golf course once a week and spend $100 there.
Speaker 2:If I spend $150 on board games a month, now I have a problem. What's really the problem is the space. I'm lucky right now that I have a pretty decent little office game room that can hold quite a few games, but it's busting at the seams. So I'm at a point where if games are coming in, games have got to be going out. And the main thing, I'm pretty lazy about getting rid of my games. So I choose the path of least resistance, which is taking them into Petri's and getting whatever store credit they might afford me for it. So I'll turn in 10 games and maybe be able to buy one and that helps keep the collection leaned down. But anyway, those are like my overall stances on it right now. I can talk more about what makes me want to buy a game and things of that sort. But in general, where are you at?
Speaker 1:Well, I think you brought up a good point. An important distinction to make is we are two very lucky, very fortunate people to have expendable income that we can spend on board games every month, week, however often you budget for Um. So this is kind of a different take on, uh, how we, how we collect and how we think about collecting, because we do have that disposable income. Now I'm about to have a kid, so most of that disposable income is right down the drain and I probably have far too many hobbies. So, uh, I don't, I don't spend quite that much, but uh, it's probably just as frequently that I splurge on games. So, but, yeah, when I go about collecting I think I talked about it last week with my top games I like to think about what it will feel like to get to the table, and that's a big thing for me, whether it's a theme that I care about, that I want to be invested in and immersed in, or maybe it's a party game that has good player interaction that I enjoy. I don't like a whole lot of like take that you know, like one person just feels bad about their gaming experience and the others feel great.
Speaker 1:I do have a lot of cooperative games. I buy a lot of cooperative games and not everybody likes that. Some people get into gaming because they like that competition aspect. But cooperative is important for two aspects. One is that people tend to enjoy cooperative games as long as you're not like jockeying for leadership roles and like telling other people to do but. Two, I can oftentimes play cooperative games solo and for me, now that I don't have a core gaming group out here, playing solo games is the best opportunity I have to get to the table, especially anything that's over 45 minutes long or medium complexity. It's not touching the table with Rachel, so I got to pick and choose my games that I procure carefully, which is why I have a huge stack of solo button shy games sitting on my table right now. But yeah, so I think themes that I care about cooperative games, solo games, games that I think will have a better chance of being played and a good time enjoyed while playing them. I think that's how I approach it.
Speaker 2:I know, based on your stack of Button Shy games, you just towed it out. I think we both have a bend toward a completionist mentality about things. So, yeah, if there's something like Button Shy where you can get all the little wallet games and they look so nice together and like, look, I have them all, I will do that. I, I have that irrational urge to just have all of a thing.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, the most recent thing was obviously that Marvel United multiverse pledge Like wow, well, never, I, I will never come close to playing everything that's in there, and I know that rationally, but it feels so good to have all of it and it makes me want the previous two Kickstarter all-in pledges and I can't do it. I can't do it. I want to. I can't, though, but, though, but yeah, and things that just look nice together, like Bitewing Games has started putting out those little smaller games, but they all have similar art and they all are in the same box with a little magnet. So the Smugglers and Hot Lead they come out with a little trio like that. I'm like, well, you know, I really only play this one, but I would like to have all three of them to sit together on the shelf and look and look nice again.
Speaker 2:That reminds me, shout out to Oink. That's also another publisher that I don't even need. Like, I won't barely even look at what the game is, I just like having those boxes, I'll get it. If I see it, I'm like okay, there's an Oink game. I'll add it to my little Oink game collection because they're nice to have Place of privilege. But I feel like we both have that urge to have the full set.
Speaker 1:And not to derail us too much. But this is kind of along the same line. I went and I got the Everdell big box, that big chonky boy that's like three feet by a foot and a half and it weighs 50 pounds. And then they're like this is the big big box. They're kind of suggesting that that will be the, the ultimate, that's like the last thing that they're gonna put out. And they come out with far shore and they come out with all these other expansions. And then they just launched everdell duo on kickstarter. So, yeah, the collector in me is not happy with them right now.
Speaker 1:But I did the exact same thing. I like western legends. We played the base game and I was like how do I find all the expansions for this? And I went out and got those. Yeah, especially for games that I that I really like, I am definitely a completionist. Um, I mentioned, like in my honorable mentions last week, nemesis, and Nemesis' base game is great. I will probably very rarely get the base game to the table, but it hurts my heart a little bit that all of their expansions and their reissuance of Nemesis in different form factors and fashions just hurts that I cannot procure all those because it would be physically irresponsible for me to go out and buy all the Nemeses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you bring up. I didn't even mention expansions in the completionist thing but, yeah, I have all too often went to the game store, saw an expansion for a game I like and like you know what I like that that game, I want to have more of it and I never play it, but I have it. And sometimes it's easier to justify getting an expansion to a game you already own, especially when you got the old lady who's monitoring what's coming in the door and you're like it's not a new game, it's just, it's just an expansion to, uh, the one we already know how to play. So, yeah, that that can be a real trigger is seeing something that, like you know, makes me feel like I gotta have it because of a that, that urge to have it all. Another thing that gets me going is certain publishers, again along the lines of you know, there's certain publishers that if I see they're putting out a game, I'm probably going to give it a try and get it. And again, we are lucky that we can buy a game just to try it. Not everybody can do that, but I will do that because certain publishers have earned that trust from me that if they're putting out a game I believe I'll probably like it. So, like Stonemaier Games, they're not all hits for us but I genuinely like their company. I like Jamie Stegmaier. I feel like he's a good leader of that company and so when they put out a game I like to support them and more often than not it's a game that is palatable and fun and we enjoy.
Speaker 2:Leader Games, kind of, is another one of those companies that they don't put out a ton of games, and when they do, it's usually a banger. You know I've loved Ahoy Root. I like Fort Arx yeah, I forget Arx, the new hotness but yeah, I've loved all those games. I recently got Oath used on like a local board game swap. I am very doubtful that it will ever see the light of day but I like having it because I like. I like leader games. They all look good together sitting on the shelf. You know it's. It's another company that is going to usually get my business if they put something out.
Speaker 2:And then Bitewing Games has kind of been one lately that I don't ask too many questions about when they put out a game. They're a newer company. I have appreciated the games they've offered up. They have a nice production. They're usually reprinting Canizia games, which another trigger for me is like if I see Reiner Canizia made a game, I'm probably going to give it a try because more often than not, I enjoy them. I enjoy the lighter rule set, the depth of decision-making that comes from his game. So yeah, bite wings another one that I keep an eye on. If I see they're putting something out, I'll probably hop on it. Like they recently had a Kickstarter for some two player games, for bite wing games that were Canizia games, and I was like I'm going to, I'm going to hop on that.
Speaker 1:So you mentioned the runner, canizia. Today we were in Kokum and we were kind of touting around and just exploring a little bit and there's this lady that was set up on the side of the road with her little table where she's selling antiques and stuff, and she had a copy of El Grande and Quo Vadis.
Speaker 2:Oh, with the original. Zu Vadis the original.
Speaker 1:Zu Vadadis yes, um, and my Reiner Canizia seeking brain. Uh, saw that all of the all of the instructions and everything was in German and I still thought like, well, maybe I should buy this because it's here. Yeah, I already own this one and it's it's Reiner Canizia. I know that I own Zvattis and it's sitting in my basement, but maybe I need this one too.
Speaker 2:Geez, yeah that. I mean, that's a pretty cool opportunity.
Speaker 1:I'm sure it was she was selling it for probably cheap. Huh oh yeah, and I had just run out of euro and we were running out of time on our parking and it was just it felt bad to walk away from, but I did not buy either neither el grande nor quavadis dang.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's a bugger yeah, I don't know if I have like uh, specific publishers that I'm after. I know that leader games is probably a a must try at least, if not a must buy vast I will probably never procure, just because I know how complicated it is and how I can barely get root to the table and that's like one of the more approachable leader games there are. So, yeah, uh, leader games is near the top of my list. I've really been digging, uh, salt and pepper games lately. They have some really cool games out there, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I just mentioned off a whole bunch of button shy games. So they are fault and pepper is involved with sprawlopolis, uh, skulls of sedlik circle, the wagons. They have resistant witchcraft. Now, I really enjoy witchcraft and resist, uh, witchcraft being just a kind of re-implementation and re-jiggering of Resist solo games. So, yeah, salt and Pepper Games is up there for me right now.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, there's certain designers mostly the big, popular ones that will get my attention and I'll look into them at least, even like Reiner Knietz and Al, I have seen enough of his games to know that they're not all bangers and some of them I should pass on. Yeah, um, oh, for publishers, since I like theme so much. Simon is always after me. They're after my wallet. The theme, their theming games are great and I would probably single-handedly be responsible for global warming if I bought all that plastic by myself. But yeah, they are always after me. I backed the Marvel Zombicide, marvel zombies, so that one sitting in my basement and I love pulling out those little zombie versions of Iron man and Black Panther and stuff and I like the toyeticness of them. But and uh, I just picked up season two of death may die season two nice.
Speaker 2:So I played that recently. Well, not not season two. I played season one recently and the only time I played it before was with you. We got our butts whooped and we got our butts whooped again. I am thinking not very good at that game. It's fun, but I'd like to win, and that seems very unlikely based on how quickly I get squashed. But anyway, that's neither here nor there.
Speaker 1:So is there anything that you're looking to procure now? Are you at your max game size? Do you need to start doing a coal?
Speaker 2:I'm always next for your collection.
Speaker 2:I'm always going to be shopping, I re. I recently got rid of a bunch of games and that's, I guess, something else to talk about If we're talking about our collections. How to? I guess something else to talk about if we're talking about our collections how I've come about the decision to get rid of a game and I've become a lot more okay with it. In the past I would hem and haw about it and now I will get rid of games I haven't even played and that would be like a year or two ago. No way I would keep that thing there just waiting and waiting and waiting for the inevitable day that I'd play it. That would never come and like recently I just got rid of like three games that I only bought three months ago and I just was like clearly this wasn't exciting enough for me to actually get it played, so it's out the door. You know White Castle was one of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it just I've become a lot better about realizing what's actually in the realm of my potential plays. And yeah, I can just look at a game and if it's been sitting there for a long time. And yeah, I can just look at a game and if it's been sitting there for a long time and it just doesn't make me even think. Man, I should, I should get that out, that that would be fun. It's heading on the on the pile to head to Petri's. Uh, it's just good.
Speaker 2:Games have to go now because I have so many good games and great games are going to be all that's left because I'm going to, I'm going to keep getting them. So you know, eventually all that will be left are the hundred or 200 best games that I've played in the past. You know 10 years and but yeah, I've become a lot more at peace with the removal process, which helps me justify the bringing in process. So, yeah, I'm not really on the hunt for anything. I mean, I mentioned some of the publishers and designers that get my attention.
Speaker 2:If I see a game that has push your luck or auctions, usually those are games that I'm inclined to like and will give a try. But yeah, if I see something that looks interesting and it's in my budget for the month, I'll get it and I'll either try it or I'll get rid of it and that's. That's all right with me, because that's what I enjoy about this, you know, trying new things and seeing what's out there. So we'll keep on shopping and trying to be better about it, but it's uh. Hopefully we don't sound too obnoxious to people Like God. These guys just freaking, buy games like Neanderthals Just you made a good point earlier.
Speaker 1:When we buy games, I have I have two customs that it has to go through. It has to go through German customs to get to me and then it has to go through Rachel customs. You have Mary customs when you walk in the door right. And I have gotten a lot of grief over the past couple months because my Kallax shelves are stuffed to the brim and I definitely need to offload some when I get back. I have some in storage. Right now I've got two full Kallax shelves, like I. I have some in storage. Right now I've got two full calc shelves.
Speaker 1:So I'm not like I said last episode. I'm not buying another game for a full year until I get rid of some of this backlog. I have so many games sitting there and I know that there's going to be some kickstarters and stuff that deliver during that year, but I'm not pursuing any new kickstarters. Yeah, I'm going to treat this as my playtest test year. I'm just gonna start getting into the games that have been sitting there with dust on them forever. A shelf of shame is going to dwindle and I'm gonna report back weekly on this podcast live as I eliminate my shelf of shame. So some of those will be pretty tough because some of them are heavier games.
Speaker 1:But that's where I'm at right now. I I don't have an opportunity to offload games, uh, like I could in colorado, where I just run to petri's and get some cash and you trade out 10 for one and then you're on your next game. So here there's not a whole lot of friendly local game stores to go support. So I've been kind of just living with the collection that I have and it's really tough to offload. And hopefully when I get back or after I play most of my Shelf of Shame, if not all of it, I can make a better informed decision Once we get back on what to do with those games that need to go and really pare down the games that I want to keep and I have a full year plus to decide on what that's going's gonna look like.
Speaker 2:Collection's a weird thing, isn't it? It's, it's. It's a point of pride for me. It's also a point of shame, embarrassment, you know, anxiety because you have all these games. Having all these games is a burden in of itself, because then you feel like you must play them. But I love having them. So it's just a constant battle between the urge to have and the urge to play, the urge to simplify. But I love looking at the, I love walking into this room and seeing all those games and thinking of all the fun times I've had with them. So, all in all, I'm a collector, I'm going to be collecting.
Speaker 1:Collectors be collecting yeah.
Speaker 2:And until I don't have a room, that's what I'll be doing.
Speaker 1:I think there's this unique thing to board gaming, where gaming, where one you have this physical, physical item that occupies space in your house. You know most like people collect action figures or people collect dvds or you know, back in the day people collected physical video games. Not so much the case anymore. People have mainly gone to virtual. But in the video game world people talk about, like their backlog like I have this backlog of games and most people will argue that you know the backlog doesn't really matter. Just play what you what feels good and play what you like to play, and then don't stress yourself out by looking at your backlog.
Speaker 1:But if you have just a hard drive full of games sitting as your backlog, it doesn't occupy a physical space in your house. That is like causing pressure on you. You know to look at a giant shelf every day and you're like, oh man, I spent good money on this, probably more than most of those people spent on a bit on a virtual video game or a digital video game, and I will not get nearly as many hours of enjoyment out of this, but it's part of my collection and so it takes like a different mindset on how you collect and call those physical items that you are choosing to occupy space in your house. All right, are we ready to hit our quick hits?
Speaker 2:Let's hit it.
Speaker 1:What else have you been doing besides board gaming?
Speaker 2:So we talked off air but I did start listening to that Elantris book, which is a Brandon Sanderson book. I've seen his name all over the place for years and years, all over the place for years and years. I have a hard time personally with getting into a fiction book, just because when I'm I don't usually listen to audio books when I'm driving to work and I usually have other stuff on my mind. So it's hard for me to get into like a world and like really immerse myself in a in a fiction novel. But I had some audible credits and I was like you know what.
Speaker 2:I've heard good things about this author and this series of books. So I got Elantris and I'm a few chapters in now and it's interesting. It's keeping my attention. I want to keep turning it on and that's why I didn't have a problem driving over to your place to pick up your packages yesterday. I was like that'll give me 50 minutes to listen to the book. It's been good. It's a departure from what I normally listen to, which is either board game podcasts or nonfiction self-help books. It's been nice.
Speaker 1:If you have Audible, I have two recommendations for you. One is project hail mary by andy weir I started that it is really good. Uh, as a space guy, I think you'll appreciate it.
Speaker 2:It's written by the same guy that does the martian, yeah, and the guy that does the audible recording of it, like the um, the audible narration, for it is phenomenal, he gets really into it yeah, when mary and I were training for a half marathon last year, we we ran together and like we would share one of us would have one airpod, one would have the other and she, like, wanted to start a book. So we were listening to that book together and then eventually our training paths diverged and so we stopped listening to it and, for whatever reason, I just never remembered to pick it back up. But it was good and I remember it like being really into it yeah, super good.
Speaker 1:And then the other one. If you're into lord of the rings, stuff is the lord of the rings trilogy and it's free. I think it's free on audible. Maybe don't quote me on that, uh, rings trilogy and it's free. I think it's free on Audible. Maybe Don't quote me on that, but it's narrated by Andy Serkis, the guy who plays Gollum in Lord of the Rings.
Speaker 2:No way.
Speaker 1:And he gets so into it. He does all the voices, he does boy, girl, doesn't matter, he does all the voices and he gets really into it and acting it out. So, um, I've really been enjoying that and I've kind of just listening to it whenever I have free time or whatever.
Speaker 2:Nice is that your quick hit, or is that? Was that just uh?
Speaker 1:it's not my quick hit, okay. Well, what is it? I have two quick hits, okay, kind of uh related. So the first one is a documentary called the contestant that rachel and I watched. It's called the contestant and it's on uh, we watched on disney plus, but I think it's on hulu as well. It's on the hulu section of disney plus and it is about a man in japan back in 90, 1998, and this man, his name is Tomaki Hamatsu and they.
Speaker 1:So he wants to go on a game show. So he applies and he gets picked up to be on this show called Denpa Shonen, and so he wins this contest. He's like I'm going to go be on this show and they have lots of different segments where they put people through these ridiculous challenges and stuff, and so he shows up to his first day of the competition. They have lots of different segments where they put people through these ridiculous challenges and stuff. And so he shows up to his first day of the competition and they stick him in an apartment and they strip him naked and they give him this rack of magazines and a whole bunch of little postcards and he has no food, he's got no clothes, he's got nothing to live off of, except for this stack of postcards and magazines and the game. The segment that he's on is called A Life in Prizes, and so they are not going to let him out of this apartment until he wins 1 million yen worth of prizes from Japanese magazines. 1 million yen worth of prizes from japanese magazines. So he is frantically filling out these postcards and mailing them in to win prizes. Uh, he does not even know that his uh experience, his competition on the game show, will be broadcast to the world and he has got a million of people watching him run around naked in his in this apartment filling out these, these postcards to mail into these magazines so that he can stay alive.
Speaker 1:So he wins stuff, like he wins lobsters, he wins uh, you know fleece pants. He wins dog food that he then eats for subsistence. So then, oh, oh, and that's that's another thing. So he's naked, they're broadcasting this on TV and everybody's commenting like all the announcers and stuff on this show are commenting about about how long this guy's face is. So they call him like uh, no, no, busey, or something. Don't quote me on that. They call him something, but don't quote me on that. They call him something, but it's uh, it is the Japanese word for eggplant, and so, as he's running around naked, they have to censor it. So they put a little eggplant over his business. Oh, is where we got. That's where we got the eggplant. Emoji related to male genitalia.
Speaker 2:No way.
Speaker 1:So then he wins his million yen worth of prizes. They pull him out of this apartment, they fly him to Korea and they say, hey, do it all over again Now in Korean. This man does not speak Korean, he does not read Korean and they give him Korean magazines that he has to compete for prizes in. So he has to teach himself the Korean alphabet. And he does it, it, he does it again. So they're playing all, they're playing this experience up for laughs and you know they they cut it together. So it looks like he's having a good time. He's dancing around his room and he's smiling at the camera and all this stuff. But they play it off like he's, you know, enjoying this competition. But on the flip side, they have a like this, these interviews with him, where he is talking about how that is the lowest point that he's ever been in his whole life.
Speaker 1:He is alone in an apartment, stripped naked for 15 months, 15 months of isolation. It's insane. And so at the very end he wins, wins the Korea's portion. So they pull him out and they put him in another apartment and out of habit, now he knows like they put me in apartment, I have to strip naked. So he strips naked and then they pull down the walls of the apartment and he's front of a live studio audience and he's butt naked, whoa, just so that they can get the look on his face. He does not even know that this is being broadcast to the world or that anybody is watching this.
Speaker 2:Is this like the Truman Show?
Speaker 1:So this is like a predecessor to the Truman Show, oh, like the Truman Show pulled from kind of stuff like this. It is insane and it's actually really depressing. And he talks about how it's the lowest point he's ever been in his life. The isolation is killing him. He thinks that he's brought all this shame to his family. He's contemplating suicide. It is like it gets really dark, but then he uses this newfound fame to do good things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I bring that up. I bring that up because, consequently, in between my two sessions watching this, the New York Times Magazine wrote this article about loneliness and how we can now physically track loneliness in people, and so this data group sent out this survey to a thousand people all over the country, all over the US, to measure, to gauge how lonely people are, and it said that like 35% of all the respondees are chronically lonely, and then another 32% said that they are severely lonely or whatever the designator is. That's like 67% of the population.
Speaker 1:Now, after covid, that says that they are experiencing loneliness on a day-to-day basis jeez and they can measure it now based on heart rate, on these like chemicals that are released in your blood, and basically, after covid, people just didn't connect the same way that they once did, and so all that to say is that in board gaming, we have the unique opportunity to gather people around a table and experience something together, whether it's competition or cooperative play, or in a story or a theme or whatever it is.
Speaker 1:We gather around a table to play board games, to spend quality time together together. So, if you're listening to this podcast out there next board game night, put down your phones and enjoy each other, connect with one another and tell your board game group that you care about them and that you love them and that they are important to you, because, like Clay and I, you and I used to be in a pretty tight board game group religiously, and now it sucks being so far away and playing digital games just isn't the same, and I appreciate you, clay, and I miss you. Well, thank you, travis. I was there to play the games with you.
Speaker 2:I do too. I can't wait for you to be back in America, and it will be at least easier to connect, maybe on a quarterly basis. Get some games together.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, get to another board game house.
Speaker 2:Those were the golden ages.
Speaker 1:The golden days. They'll be back again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hope.
Speaker 1:They will. On that positive note, thank you for listening to the Operation Game Night Podcast. I have been Travis Smith, he has been Clay Gable, and we're out and we're out. He has been clay Gable and we're out and we're out. The operation game night podcast was created, produced and edited by me, travis Smith, and co-hosted by my good friends clay Gable and Jared Erickson. Thank you for listening and hope to see you again next week. We miss you, jared. Come back soon.