Video Blogging: The Death of the Hobby

The only way to topple the Dice Tower is to pool our talents:

Director: Josh Look
On Screen Personality: Matt Loter
Head Writer Michael Barnes
Props: Uba
Coffee Boy: Steve Weeks

I don't get all the hate toward Wheaton. The guy is clearly a life time geek. He plays all kind of games. Shows that board games are all about people than games. I like that. And so what if he gets money from that?

And Day's "new board game choice"? I can say they're a solid list. I've been dealing with newbies once a month for the last 4 months, and I can safely say these are the games they *will* enjoy.

I think he's done a lot more to our hobby than most reviewers...

I can't speak for others but I have no hatred towards Wheaton... he even seems like a nice guy. But I just don't like his show. It's boring to me. Honestly it is no more interesting than watching my friends play a game... in fact it's less interesting.

I imagine that's all most people are talking about... not the man himself.

I don't think vlogging will be the death of the hobby though, in fact I think it's growing the hobby, probably going to make it more pop and accessible.. so if you like that. It's a good thing.

Personally I just don't care if it grows or not. I have a hard time mustering up any emotion about it.

JonJacob wrote: I can't speak for others but I have no hatred towards Wheaton... he even seems like a nice guy. But I just don't like his show. It's boring to me. Honestly it is no more interesting than watching my friends play a game... in fact it's less interesting.

I imagine that's all most people are talking about... not the man himself.

I don't think vlogging will be the death of the hobby though, in fact I think it's growing the hobby, probably going to make it more pop and accessible.. so if you like that. It's a good thing.

Personally I just don't care if it grows or not. I have a hard time mustering up any emotion about it.

I can fully understand why people feel the show's boring. Hell, I don't watch most of them (the Resistance episode is gold though).

But here we a harbinger of hobby death, using Felicia Day video to close his case. That gal even popped open Ora et Labora box at the beginning of the video...

Fuck. That. Shit.

I enormously enjoy F:AT articles because that's what I'm looking for. In-depth articles for us who are interested and "deep" into the hobby. We have great discussions about games. Sounds elitist, but there it is.

But will it grow the hobby? Maybe, but most probably not.

Do I care if the hobby grows or not? Not really, I've more or less settled with my less than 20 games. But I *do* interested on where game development goes. And for them to develop, they need a growing user base.

Is Wheaton growing the hobby? Absolutely. I've seen the effect first hand.

I could care less what format a person decides to use when discussing boardgames.

I would, however, like them to be separated into two distinct camps. One for newbs who have little experience in games and do not have to worry about confusing the issue with comparisons to other games, and one for vets where the discussion can use terminology and refer to other games as if those hurdles have been learned/experienced/etc when discussing their topic.

That is what is needed.

When I got into this in earnest as a passtime for my GF and I, I could have really used this type of distinction. Once you buy one stinker without doing research that could potentially ruin your chances of future purchases (I am looking at you, Tiki Mountain) then it is nearly as much of a turn off to read dozens of reviews for games that are confusing as fuck to a newb. They dont care how well this compares to Puerto Rico or Gric, they want to know if they buy it, that they may enjoy it given the parameters of their own taste and what they are willing to explore.

Scott Nicholson and a very select few others were the gold standard in video reviews and instructionals at that time when few others touched video (circa 2007?). The only bad thing about those early pioneers is that they weren't prolific enough.

I think that Felicia's guide is a godsend for newbs, even though it is quite irrelevant to me now. I only wish I had such a helping hand when I first started. Because surfing BGG for hours and hours to get the best bang for my buck sucks when I would rather spend that time with my loved ones engaged in playing those games.

Amen to formats that help newbs, and amen to formats that discuss minutiae from and advanced perspective like we see in Calandale's videos. There is a place for them, and they are not about to kill anything other than indignant egos.

My vote is for a Fortress AT Video blog that is scripted by expert game critics, but, which definitely also includes scantily dressed hot-chicks who act as the blog's personalities and talking heads; e.g., Hooter's girls walking around in the background while something about some game is mentioned. That would blow the other lame-ass gamer bloggers out of the water. Who could compete with that?

VonTush wrote:

Josh Look wrote: The execution of video reviews, on the other hand, still leave much to be desired. I hate the "Hands In Front of the Camera" approach, nor do I want nothing more than a shot of your face while you talk about a game. SUASD and Robert Florence's reviews are the only two video review series that I feel is a step in the right direction. The film student in me feels like most video reviewers and their approach is wasted on the medium. Yes, I'm saying there should be an art to it.

Personally I hated the SUASD videos. And Florence never did anything for me. They're all flash and lacking substance in my opinion.

And that's what keeps me here at this site, it doesn't distract with flash but has a lot more substance.

agree

still the pinnacle of video reviewers was Uvula Bobs Flash Based Review Thingy and you never saw his ugly mug until his ill advised comeback.

If F:AT would do video reviews I'd want someone like Hello Gregor with better production

Rafael Silva wrote: If F:AT would do video reviews I'd want someone like Hello Gregor with better production

Agreed.

The guy is a trip in comparison to others. I value his creative approach. People watch him andnscratch their head because he is anything but formulaic. More the pity to them.

His video about return of the heros made me buy the game. It fell flat for me because the rules were a mess, but ultimately I have to agree with his conclusion.

I really wish he was more prolific.

The thought that bubbled up while I was driving to work; if video games haven't killed boardgames yet, I don't think video boardgame reviews will.