BGTG 118 - Post BGG.con 2011 (with Greg Pettit)

This is a very long episode, but no one ever complains about length so I decided to keep it intact rather than splitting it into two shorter shows.

Just as he did last year, my buddy Greg Pettit went to Bgg.con in 2011 and joined me on the podcast afterward to discuss the new games he played there. Like a lot of people, he focused on new releases, including a bunch that are new from this year's Essen crop. I haven't played too many of those yet, but did manage to sneak in a few, so I get to offer my opinions about those.

This year Greg and I made a Geeklist that you can view, print out, and follow along with during our discussion. It's got a geekbuzz-style star rating for each game. I've made some comments to Greg's original list, and we encourage everyone else to enter their own comments to serve as feedback for this episode. Near the end of the show we even go back through last year's Geeklist and offer quick opinions about some games, one year later. (In most cases, you'll see that we haven't played them again in a year, which is telling in itself...)

There was an interesting surprise in the early-middle part of the episode, when Greg shares that he was feeling a bit of gamer burnout or ennui when he played all of these new games. Though offered as a side comment, I enjoyed to chance to talk about this topic. After all, it's so incredibly common--many gamers get to a point when they start to feel less enthused about the new games. Some drop boardgaming altogether at that point, and go back to roleplaying, miniatures, video games, or something else. Others take months or years off before returning. And some just power their way through. (A few crazies like me never seem to get tired of new medieval-themed trading games, though I guess I get tired of some other things like worker-placement mechanics.)

We hope you enjoy the episode. Please take a look at the two Geeklists to follow along and offer your comments:

BGTG 118 - Post BGG.con 2011 (with Greg Pettit)

BGTG 111 - Post BGG.con 2010 (with Greg Pettit)

-Mark