Video Blogging: The Death of the Hobby

I disagree with that theory and feel your sense of scale is off.

You went to BGG.con and I believe you've been to past ones...Bigger or smaller than previous years? Bigger. Which is contrary to your theory that the rise of video reviews will mean the decline in games. By your theory each year BGG.con should get smaller as more and more people begin to blog.

Now that is one situation, so let's look at another. A game that is featured on TableTop has a dramatic spike in sales after it is featured on TableTop. He's also the driving force of International TableTop Day which as I understand was fairly successful...And brought people into game stores. Both of those are typically considered growth...Sustained growth has yet to be seen I suppose.

I guess I just reject your theory because with my own eyes I'm seeing evidence to the contrary. I'm not seeing shrinking, I'm not seeing smaller numbers as far as gamers or sales. Your theory just doesn't add up.

The Lone Voice wrote:

but no one is making youtube board game videos just for money or just for fame.

One word for you: Wheaton

Did you see how much he made on his crowdfunding campaign for Season 3 of Tabletop?

Did you see how much money Tom got on his kickstarter campaighn for The Dice Tower Podcast?

Wheaton's Tabletop series got me back into board gaming. I found it via Day's "The Guild" web series. If my presence in the hobby offends you, then frankly, "deal with it."

You're complaining that other people are getting paid when your own genius went unrecognized, and so we see the true sub-text of the whole topic.

I have not seen a serious game publisher or accomplished designer lament the death of the hobby at the hands of video promotion.

I have seen this a lot. Scott Nicholson the pioneer of video production stated he got threats from negative reviews. Do you remember the video where Tom threw that game off the roof? I'm sure that publisher was pleased as punch!

Cosplayers leech off the creativity of others. Critics do the same thing. They create nothing of value.

Do you think Tom could do a successful video series without board games? He used to be a preacher, a math teacher. Let him do a series of math teaching videos. Do you think he would have the same amount of followers? He leeches off the paranoia of the nerd gamer who is too scared to make a blind purchase without extensive research.

How have you seen the power of YouTube have a direct correlation on sales of tabletop games at retail and online?

That’s actually something that I wasn’t expecting, and it’s something that really took me by surprise. Maybe three episodes into the first season, we started getting emails and phone calls from game shop owners and publishers because they were not prepared for the explosion of sales that they had. They wanted to know if we could let them know a little bit in advance when an episode was going to air, so that they could stock up. They started talking about something called the “TableTop effect,” where a game is real popular with gamers, but it hasn’t really gone into the mainstream consciousness. And then it gets on TableTop and suddenly that game sells out. We have looked at sales figures from the big game distributors, and it’s pretty cool. People see our show and then you just watch the spike in the sales. And for a lot of games the only reason that spike trails off is because the game sells out and they have to take time to make another printing.

Source:
fortune.com/2014/04/01/wil-wheatons-game-theory/

The Lone Voice wrote: Cosplayers leech off the creativity of others. Critics do the same thing. They create nothing of value.

I followed a WIP blog about someone making a Halo armour outfit from scratch. It was utterly astonishing. 100s of hours of work and creativity in the making. Pat Broderick is full of shit.

I don't consider Tabletop a video blog. Tabletop is a professional production.

That being said it is declining. Wheaton has made the fatal mistake of including politics into board gaming this will eventually divide his audience and kill the show. Also, his game selection is terrible, while OK for season one he has really gone off on a tangent. I predict The sales spike you reference will not continue in the future as more and more people get burned on these games he promotes.

The Lone Voice wrote:

I have not seen a serious game publisher or accomplished designer lament the death of the hobby at the hands of video promotion.

I have seen this a lot. Scott Nicholson the pioneer of video production stated he got threats from negative reviews. Do you remember the video where Tom threw that game off the roof? I'm sure that publisher was pleased as punch!

Cosplayers leech off the creativity of others. Critics do the same thing. They create nothing of value.

Do you think Tom could do a successful video series without board games? He used to be a preacher, a math teacher. Let him do a series of math teaching videos. Do you think he would have the same amount of followers? He leeches off the paranoia of the nerd gamer who is too scared to make a blind purchase without extensive research.

A publisher being upset with a negative review is common to all product reviews. This happens in film and video gaming and has been written about extensively in both fields.

Critics leach off others? So Barnes, a written critic who has given negative reviews, San, Charlest, are these guys all leaches? Or is it just critics that use videos as a medium? Is Scott Nickleson a leach? Do all these people add nothing of value. I am yet to see what your return to this forum has added of value. Is wanting some information on a product unwarranted paranoia? Should we blind buy houses, cars, video games, books whatever with no information what so ever? Why?

Yeah, man, fuck a selfie.

Legomancer wrote: Yeah, man, fuck a selfie.

Depending on my wife's mood I may be doing that tonight.

The Lone Voice wrote:

I rest my case.

Oh shit, a WOMAN is doing them? Why didn't you say so sooner? We need to put an end to this dire threat, pronto!