Board Game Show that was made for F:AT

This sounds like something that would be overheard at Avery's house!

Ha! I like the concept because it's a lot closer to how we play beer & pretzels games in our group. But I think the college humour would only go so far on a routine basis over more scripted efforts like Shut Up & Sit Down that also say quite a lot about the games themselves. The reason is that that kind of 'obnoxious' humour is really most fun if it's your own group - not nearly as fun to watch strangers horse around acting like dorks & dicks But they were good, and I am glad stuff like this exists, where there is no pretense to explaining the game and they just fuck around and drink beer and have a few laughs (or pretend to) about the game and each other until it all ends.

Anybody ever played Jumanji BTW? Is that all there is to it???

scissors wrote: Anybody ever played Jumanji BTW? Is that all there is to it???

Haven't you seen the documentary?! Robin Williams is in it, and all sorts of shit goes wrong if/when you play Jumanji.

I actually have the game. Got it at the thrift for 4$. I might have overpaid.

It's really bad. There's maybe 3 meaningful decisions a player makes in a game, and most of them revolve around "Do I put a rhino in front of you, or you, or you?". It's roll and move at its worst.


To your point about shows like this, Scissors: It's more important for me to be entertained than learn about a game, per se. So, the show isn't like that new BGTV one or the Wil Wheaton one. This is more about watching wankers be wankers...and play a game. That's why I thought it was funny and very F:AT....it's less about the game and more about the fun.

I get it Pete, ie. it's less about the game and more about the fun and I like this format. I just dunno if it has 'legs'. If I watched episode after episode I think it'd get old. Then again, all this shows get old for me after 3x episodes! None of them are interesting enough, at least for me, to come back on anything like a regular basis and it doesn't really matter if it is shut up and sit down, robert florence's old stuff, wheaton or this.

In the end, and this is strictly subjective, the only vid reviewer I come back consistently to is Tom Vasel for the Dice Tower or Miami Dice and some of his co-reviewers and that is on a game by game basis. After all these years, when it comes to clips, I still learn most about games I might like or not through him - and his reviews are fairly fun without any bullshit. He really is amazing. Occassionally I'll watch undead viking but I've been cooling to his stuff as well because he likes a fair amount of things I don't, so I trust him less if it's a game I want to buy. Also, he seems to have gotten a little lacklustre in his presentation and well I dunno.

As far as fucking around, these guys do a good job and that laidback devil may care thing is just as hard to do well as anything. I'd like to play a game with these guys (maybe) but I already play games with people who get in your face, recall past vendettas, jokes, etc. It's familiar.

Jumajni, with that sad little rhino pawn which looks like it was from a kid's farmers set, looks like it sucks in the worst possible way. Bleh!!! Yet, they still had fun!

You know, what I first watched this...I thought it was okey, you know? But it's the kind of okey that doesn't really give you much, like meme pictures or eating popcorn, I like it when I watch it but afterwards I just ask myself, was it worth it? I could have played a game while I watched this, or read a book or do something more interesting, you know?

No offense intended.

That was a bit of ok. Thing for me is that I just don't like boargames enough to think of them as being worthy of a show on their own... or even a podcast. I'll read a review and look at pictures but I can almost never make it through a video or podcast. These guys have the right idea though and there is potential in this vid.

Somehow I keep going back to Tom V. I don't know why he seems more interesting than other people but he's just lively enough to make it work... although if I don't already have interest in the game to begin with then I'd never watch the video. It's a later effort.... and truth be told I quite often skip the rules explanation stuff and almost never watch them all the way through.

Except the one where he bombed that Euro and then put out an apology. Those two videos and especially the second one are about as good as anything I've seen in this hobby. I think that sense of fun you see in that apology video is present in his normal reviews but held on mute and for those of us who can watch him you feel that other energy being held back a little for the sake of his show. Maybe that's why I like Tom V a little more than the others.

But these guys might be able to make this work... these shows either become immediately repetitive or improve and I'd be willing to give them a chance. I just won't be seeking it out is all.

I wonder what the show would be like with a good game at the table? They should have been more critical of this game anyway. That alone could be fun.

Not bad. It's a pity that the Jumanji game is a pile of shit but typical of most licensed cash-ins. Given the source material, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with something a bit more fun.

I still think that Robert Florence set the gold standard for Ameritrash game reviews/shows. His enthusiasm for gaming was infectious and he had real comedic talent. A crying shame he wasn't able to keep it up.

You're dead on regarding Robert Florence. Guy's hilarious, naturally. These guys just seem like a bunch of funny guys doing funny shit and taping it, which is what the genre needs...spontaneous comedy.

Robert Florence IS naturally funny, guy makes a living from it apparently in GB. His Space Hulk 3rd ed. video is funny as hell and I like his written humour to in rock, paper, (or is it scissors?), shotgun. But a show about games is pretty limiting and on screen even a talented comedian runs out of tricks pretty fast: there are only so many dramatic pauses from him as a presenter and nostril level shots of his eyes and nose I can take before it's like 'fuck this'. Good filmed comedy needs a bit more meat on it than to to be about just... boardgames.

When it comes to games, I think I prefer written comedy (like Drake's) - written pieces for me just have more staying power. Vids about boardgames, with the major exception of Tom Vasel, for me seem like a bit of a waste of talent and time. Vasel is the exception: he has perfected his formula really well, understands the medium but is unpretentious, is funny but doesn't try to be funny at all costs (which frankly is the most common mistake some of the other shows make). He is just overall a pleasant person and I like the occassional additions, like how he made the simple component drop his signature. All these other guys are just pretenders who are gonna run out of energy after making a few episodes 'chock full of hilarity'.

In the end, the reason I think Tom is good at this is because, even though he is the most important part of the show, his clips are not about him but the games he is reviewing. By contrast, the beer and boardgame show is only about the actors - nobody give a fuck what they are playing or would ever consider playing such a lousy game unless they were hammered or going out to a club afterwards. Rab Florence too: his show was very much more about his on-screen persona than the games: if you boiled the content down it was just unbridled enthuasiam with little analysis, at least that is the impression I got. For me, that is why his and some of the other shows ran thin.

I watched a crapload of these at once. These guys seem like they'd be fun to bullshit with while playing a game. If I ever won the lottery, I'd seriously consider paying some dough to see our own champion drunkard fly to Wisconsin to do a show with these guys. Maybe play some Cosmic while he drank these dudes under the table.

The first couple of episodes were just the longer haired dude (Aaron/Eric?) and his brother. Once the alpha-dude cmae in (Matt) the show got MUCH better.

Yeah, as far as reviews for the sake of reviews go, you can't beat Board James or Florence. Both are just naturally funny, although Florence is just plain funny and James is mroe "ironic/sarcastic" funny.

cinemassacre.com/2010/02/03/board-james-fireball-island/

Can't really mess with him. He's got Vasel and the rest beat.