BGTG 38A - Oct 4, 2005 - Euro/Wargame Hybrids (with Mike Siggins)
Listener, Siggins.
Siggins, Listener.
The oldtimers in this hobby will recognize the name instantly, as well as my play on Ken Tidwell's introduction of Mike Siggins to his new readers on the Internet. Mike was one of the earliest writers and savvy reviewers of the new crop of German boardgames. Starting in the late 1980s(!) with other mags, he's most notable for his decade-long, near-solo effort producing Sumo magazine, the oddly named premiere journal on our hobby. When Ken Tidwell struck a deal to put Mike's magazine contents and rules translations on the web, The Game Cabinet became the go-to Internet location for boardgamers. It also gave many more people access to Siggins reviews and commentary.
After nearly disappearing for a few years, I'm pleased to see that Mike is back on the scene, posting frequently to Boardgamegeek and the wargame-centric Perfidious Albion discussion board. Charles Vasey's PA was originally a print mag similar to Sumo, but predating(?) it--now it's the mag plus a online community of too-smart-for-their-own-good wargamers. I meant that as a compliment.
In this first half of another two-part podcast, we talk mostly about Sumo, but also Mike's own history within the hobby.
-Mark
Links
The Game Cabinet
Sumo
Sophisticated Games
posted by Mark Johnson at 1:09 PM
11 Comments:
Nice to see props to the early proponents of the German scene, Mark! I still pine for the Game Cabinet from time to time...
This was the most interesting show to date. Mike Siggins was a great guest with a real knowledge of the hobby and Mark asked some very interesting and well-thought out questions.
Unable to download the mp3.
Keep trying, ekted. It's working for me right now. I know my libsyn.com hosting service for the podcasts themselves has been doing some server upgrades this week. Any problems should be temporary.
I've had a download manager working on it for the past hour. Nothing.
Whatever method you used for the phone call this time, it worked really well. Your guest sounded like he was in the same room with you.
A sensational episode. Mike was a fantastic guest, and his history was fascinating.
Mark and Mike -
An excellent show. I very much enjoyed hearing about Mike's background as well as some of the history of German games in the English speaking world. Very interesting - thanks, guys!
- Rick
Great show. What a blast from the past. I remember going from b.g.rec to the cabinet to sumo and finally to Settlers and on. Makes me want to dig out my old Sumos (need to get them back from a friend).
Matt
Mark,
I have to agree. This was great audio. Props to that.
I agree with Mike. If Settlers were released today, I'd only give it a 7. I'm one of the few people that began boardgaming without the Settlers nostalgia hence, I don't think I'm that biased. A 7 seems right.
Anson Li
from Vancouver
Mike did take a bit of grief for his stance on Settlers. However, if I were as good a writer as Mike and had written a review on Carcassonne when it was first released, my comments would have been almost identical:
"Decent game but not something we'll even remember in a year's time."
Stephen Glenn
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