Faculty Lounge: Jonathan Wolfie of iSlayTheDragon

Here in the faculty lounge I get together and talk to other board game interested podcasters and bloggers to learn a little bit more about what they do.  

 

I was admiring the writing output and quality of the blog iSlayTheDragon, and I really wanted to learn more about their process.  I sent Jonathan Wolfie, the head of iSlayTheDragon, a tweet asking him if I could interview him.  In less than a day he gets back to me and we conduct the interview.  Fastest turnaround time between first contact and an Interview ever for the Dr.Wictz blog.

 

Jonathan Wolfie: Ah well, apparently I should work harder, I have too much time on my hands.  The interview was enjoyable.

 

Dr. Wictz: Give a quick run down about iSlayTheDragon in case folks are not familiar with your blog?

 

Jonathan Wolfie: Sure.  iSlaytheDragon is a team of 4 guys - myself, Jon Schindler, Jason Meyers, and Andrew Brooks - who write about board games.  Most of our posts are game reviews, but we also have a series of Guides to Gaming.  We also occasionally post opinion posts or talk about current "issues," and recently we've started doing previews of Kickstarter games as well as Interviews.

 

Dr. Wictz: Why did you start iSlayTheDragon?

 

Jonathan Wolfie: I actually started the blog by myself as a way to write RPG session reports for the campaigns I was running with my Pathfinder group.  It began after my first Gencon attendance, which is really when I began to discover the gaming world beyond D&D, Settlers of Catan, and Heroclix.  I had hoped to grow into the RPG community but my interests shifted and I started writing more and more about board games and thats sort of the community I fell more into.

 

Dr. Wictz: What sort of arm-twisting did you have to do to get J. Schindler to collaborate with you on the blog?

 

Jonathan Wolfie: I actually have him chained to a desk so he'll keep writing.  Just kidding.  But seriously. I've learned about myself that when I can find a team to work with on a project I have, the end result is much better than what I could do by myself.  I actually used to work with Jon, like at our real day job, and one day he brought in Ticket to Ride and asked if I wanted to play over lunch.  I did and after that we decided to play something every week.  I taught him Dominion, we played Cosmic Encounter with some of other guys, even though it wasn't Jon's favorite game.  At some point, Days of Wonder had a contest to design a new Ticket to Ride expansion, and we jumped on that.  Our finished product turned out pretty awesome - we created map based on H. G. Wells' the Time Machine, so it was a map of the UK but in 3 different centuries.  We did not win the contest, but we had a lot of fun coming up with the ideas and putting the whole project together.  We actually put it up on our site for a while, a nice print and play copy, but when we partnered with iheartprintandplay.com we let them host the game, so you can still get it there. (http://iheartprintandplay.blogspot.com/2013/04/iheart-presents-ticket-to-ride-centuries.html)  Free stuff!

 

Anyways,  at that time Jon had his own personal blog, and I was going to ask him if he would be interested in teaming up for the board gaming blog, but he actually beat me too it.  He said, "I have an idea of another project we could team up on" and suggested doing a board game blog together.  That was back when iSlaytheDragon was still more my random posts - sometimes  RPGs, sometimes board games, sometimes completely random stuff. I said yes, lets do that, lets use iSlaytheDragon.  The rest is history.  It worked out really well, because I am more of a fan of thematic, epic games with lots of plastic, and Jon likes euros and could care less about theme, and he actually prefers cubes to minis. So we've got two unique perspectives.

 

Dr. Wictz: How did you recruit your other co-bloggers?

 

Jonathan Wolfie: Now there's where the arm-twisting comes in.  Actually, what happened was Jon's wife was pregnant, and he didn't think he would be able to maintain our schedule of "nemesis reviews" - we used to both review the same games, so people had 2 unique opinions.  So he actually tried to quit, which probably would have killed the blog.  So I told him fine, he could quit, but he would have to help me find someone else to help me write the blog or it would die out.  I put out the call for more writers, and I actually decided it was time to expand what we did, if we weren't going to have nemesis reviews anymore. I put up a help wanted page looking for a news person, an interviews person, an RPG person, and more reviewers.  Then Jon said he could probably handle the News.  Jason, or @spielemitkinder on twitter, responded to our call.  He had been writing his own blog with his kids, but apparently his kids got bored of it and he was looking for a better way to do things.  So he said he was interested in joining our team and we liked his blog so we let him in.  We actually incorporated some stuff from his blog - primarily the "complexity" rating, which turned into a full set of game stats - and he's been a powerhouse putting out reviews at a ridiculous pace, so that's been great.

 

Andrew just joined the team a few months ago.  He was a friend of mine from college.  Sadly, neither of us had really "discovered" board games back then.  I played Heroclix and he taught me how to play Warhammer 40k, which I played exactly once and wish I played more back then, but what can ya do? Anyways, I wanted another writer so that we could keep putting out consistent content without too much pressure on any one of us.  Andrew had left some comments on the blog in the past and I always liked his arguments and thoughts, so I contacted him and asked him to join.  Andrew has the least amount of writing in his background, so he was a little nervous, but excited to join, and it's been great having him.  My plan worked.

 

Dr. Wictz: What are the challenges to being part of a blog with multiple bloggers?  How do you keep yourself organize? Do you have team meetings?  Do you pre-plan blog posts?  Is there an editorial board? etc.

 

Jonathan Wolfie:  I think the benefits far outweigh the challenges.  It's a lot more fun to have a group of guys to bounce ideas off of, and it takes a lot of pressure off each individual.  By myself, I could never keep up with daily posts - I just don't have the time to play that many games or think up that many ideas.  But when one of us gets busy and can't finish a post on time, there are 3 other guys who can pull something out to fill the gap.  When I have an idea I can bounce it off everyone to see if it's a good idea.  We can delegate some of the tasks, like managing social media accounts, so that no one is overburdened, because we all have lives outside of our little site.  We've got families and homes and jobs that take up a lot of time.

 

In many senses I think of iSlaytheDragon like a business.  We don't actually make any money, but we make decisions like that.  I'm basically the "boss" so if I make a decision that's how it goes.  I completely trust Jon so I'll bounce all my crazy ideas off of him and he'll be honest if my ideas are good or not.  Any one of us can throw out an idea - we email each other a lot - and I like hearing everyone's ideas, but ultimately the final decision when one is needed is up to me.

 

We have a calendar that we try to keep updated with one someone has a post, so that's how we stay organized.  It helps everyone plan ahead and helps me see where there are gaps that need to be filled.  As far as coming up with ideas for posts, I throw a lot of general ideas out there and encourage discussions - say, about what guides to write or whatever.  I think we communicate pretty well, and we all like different types of games, so I just let everyone pick what games they want to review and we get a variety.  We rarely have overlap and when we do, people just coordinate and write dual-opinion posts.  We have a lot of fun.

 

Dr. Wictz: How did you come up with islaythedragon as the name for your blog?  What were the other contenders?

 

Jonathan Wolfie: The name actually stems from the RPG origins of the blog.  I don't remember if I had other ideas in contention.  It's been so long I don't remember exactly how I came up with it.  But the basic idea is, imagine during an RPG session, as a player, the DM tells me I'm facing a dragon.  What do I do? I slay the dragon of course! Plus, everyone loves naming things with the lowercase "i" at the beginning, and I liked the twist on that.  iPod, iPhone, iSlaytheDragon.  It works great metaphorically, too.

 

The problem we're having with the name now is that people see "i slay the dragon" and don't necessarily think "board games," but we've had the name for so many years it would be weird to change.  We're working on that.

Dr. Wictz: In your bio you mention you are a writer, filmmaker, dragon slayer, video editor, and graphic designer...Where do you find the time to accomplish all of this?  Do you still get to see/talk to your spouse?

 

Jonathan Wolfie: If only I could be all of those things at one time! Well, as long as I can remember, I've loved storytelling.  As a kid I wrote a lot of stories - Super Dog was my brilliantly designed superhero in elementary school, and my friend Blake and I would invent alien races and come up with epic, ridiculous missions.  As I grew older I wrote a lot of short stories and in college I shifted from a computer science major to a new media major, which incorporated filmmaking.  I'm a very visual person, so I loved filmmaking.  I made a few short films, some of them for fun, some of them for class.  We made a web series that was terrible, but it was still fun to make.  My most recent project is a web series that I've been 'working' on for 3 years.  I say "working" because it got sidetracked when I got married.  It's actually closer to being done than it is to being started, but there's still a lot of work. Last year I was writing a book with my mom; I take a train to work about an hour each way, so that gives me time for that.

 

So I guess the answer is, I don't have time for everything.  I do maybe 1 or 2 things at once.  At my job I do video editing and graphic design.  The writing I do is for iSlaytheDragon, and we're working on a brand new site design right now so that takes up a lot of time.  I have to give each thing a period of time and then set it aside for anything else.   It's dumb, I need to finish something.  I do get to spend time with my wife, that's why I can't do everything.  She'll play some games with me - Pandemic is her favorite, and we recently started playing Hanabi a whole lot.  She likes cooperative games.  We do play a lot Dominion, though.

 

Dr. Wictz: What is your favorite type of board game and why?

 

Jonathan Wolfie:  I love big, thematic games with lots of interesting things to do and usually some form of combat.  I don't mind dice-rolling combat, but I prefer more interesting combat mechanisms, or at least an interesting game surrounding the combat system.  My 2 favorite games are Cosmic Encounter and Twilight Imperium.  Cosmic is just goofy fun with an underlying layer of strategy.  There's lots of interaction and I love zany powers.  Twilight Imperium is just epic beyond epic; if it was just a combat game I wouldn't like it, but there's so much you can do with technology, politics, negotiating.  It's terrifying and enormous and just a lot of fun.  Rex is another great game with the coolest combat mechanism of all time, so simple yet so intense.  It's not random but you never know if you're going to win or lose.

 

Dr. Wictz: If you were to introduce someone to your blog and you could only have them read one entry, which entry would you have them read?

 

Jonathan Wolfie: I guess that depends on whether or not the person is new to the hobby or not.  For newbies we have a whole series of Guides, posts that are designed to help people understand what the heck we hobbyists are even talking about.  People don't necessarily know even basic terms like "Meeple" so we wanted to create a starting point that says "there's a lot of stuff you don't know yet, and that's okay.  Let us help you get started."  We have one post about games that are a great starting point, that are easy to learn, fun, and introduce a lot of core gaming concepts: http://www.islaythedragon.com/2013/02/guide-to-gaming-which-games-should-i.html

 

If I'm talking to a person who is already familiar with the hobby, I'd probably send them to a review of one of my favorite games - Cosmic Encounter, Twilight Imperium, X-Wing.  I guess I'd have to pick one, probably Cosmic Encounter. http://www.islaythedragon.com/2011/03/intergalactic-review-cosmic-encounter.html  I like to share my excitement about these things.

 

Dr. Wictz: If I wanted you to review a board game what should I do?

 

Jonathan Wolfie: We have a nifty contact page on our site with my email address on it.  egosumlupus@gmail.com.  Email me, tell me a little bit about your game, preferably provide links to a web page with more detailed information and a PDF rulebook.  For review requests we always look at the rulebook first.  When we first started getting requests we took anything, and we got a few TERRIBLE games.  Jon had to re-write a rulebook once so we could even decipher how the heck we were supposed to play.  After that we said hey, we need to see the rulebook first because this is a waste of our time. If your game doesn't look like we'd enjoy it, we won't accept it.  That doesn't necessarily mean its a bad game, but maybe it is.  

 

Dr. Wictz: Do you ever have any guest board game designers?

 

Jonathan Wolfie: We haven't really had any guest posters.  Maybe 1 or 2.  We're not against it, we just haven't focused on that yet.

 

Dr. Wictz: If the answer above is yes, how do you invite guest onto your show?  Is there anything I could do (as a board game designer) that could get me invited to by a guest on your show?

 

Jonathan Wolfie: We don't have a "show" but I definitely would consider running guest-written posts.  That's something we're going to try to do more of starting in 2014 with the launch of our new site.  Right now we don't go after anyone, but if someone contacts us and says "hey I have an idea for a post," I'll say "great! write it and send it to me. If I like it and it fits our site, I'll run it!" I actually want to have more game designers write stuff, but like I said that's something we'll pursue starting next year.

 

Dr. Wictz: Name a board game designers you have always wanted to interview.  Explain why you would want to talk to them.

 

Jonathan Wolfie: The other guys probably have better answers to this.  I'm aware of what game designer created the game I'm playing, but I'm not necessarily obsessed with a single game designer.  I guess my first choice would be Christian T. Peterson, the guy who designed Twilight Imperium and who also happens to be the CEO of Fantasy Flight Games.  FFG is not a company you often hear from.  Many gamers love them, many hate them.  Their games are certainly brilliantly produced, but their rulebooks are often a mess and some of their games seem less refined than they could be.  I'd love to get in the mind of that guy and find out more about what they're doing over there.

 

Dr. Wictz: If someone wanted to learn more about your blog where should they go?

 

Jonathan Wolfie: I'd just say go to www.iSlaytheDragon.com.  You can explore our posts.  We have a page listing our reviews, a page listing our guides, and an about us page.  In a few months the site will be totally different and a lot better, but it will still be iSlaytheDragon.com, so bookmark it and check back every day for new stuff!

 

Thank you Jonathan for taking the time to talk to me.  You can also follow Jonathan on twitter @Futurewolfie and iSlaytheDrangon on twitter @iSlaytheDragon

Classics Lecture Series: Secrete Information - Clue

My sister and I use to taunt each other by informing the other in song “I know something you don’t know, I know something you don’t know.” At the time we did not realize we had stumbled upon a key mechanic to some of the best games ever made...secret information.

 

The art of secret information in game play should have been apparent to us. One of our favorite games as kids was Clue. At the start of Clue every player is given some secret information about who didn’t commit the murder. The point of the game was trying to force your opponents to reveal their secret information so you could be the first one to solve the murder.

 

Without realizing it Clue taught us the three central questions to any game based upon secret information:

 

What do you know?

 

What does your opponents know?

 

What do you think you know about each other?

 

What do I know? I know at the onset of Clue you have a handful of clues about the murder.

What does your opponent know? Well they have a different set of clues in their hand.

We learned quickly the winner tended to be the person who best answered the third question, what do you think you know about each other.

 

Why? Because secrete information come down to bluffing, misleading, and doing your best to limit what information reaches your opponents. If the person to the left of me has the clue for the library and they have showed it to me once, then no matter what I do in the Library I will lose a valuable turn going back to the Library because they will end up showing me the same clue again.

 

Or, let's say my opponent correctly deduces I 'know' the murder weapon. If they possess that weapon they will show it to me to prevent me from learning anything new on my turn.

 

The mental elements of bluffing are all there.  I need to keep track of not only what I know, but what my opponents know, and what my opponents think I know. Otherwise I have unproductive turns in acquiring new clues to solve the murder. Just as dangerous I can reveal information to my opponents that will give them the game. Obviously I should not show them a new clue if I can show them an old clue they already know. Less obvious is avoiding questions that give away information.

 

Good clue players keep track of every question asked, who asked it, and who answered it. If I know my sister has two of the clues in her theory and my father shows her a clue I know what clue he showed her.

 

The heart of a secret information that separates one game from another always comes down how to answer the third question.

 

What I think I know about you will affect my gameplay in Battleship. With repeated play In Battleship you look for tendencies in your opponent. You know that your opponent is committed to their ship locations at the start of the game. Your opponent tries to convince you they have no tendencies or attempts to mislead you so you misidentify their tendencies. But if they become predictable they have less turns to discover and sink your fleet before you send their fleet to Davy Jones's Locker.

 

What I think I know about you will affect how I play Werewolf. If I think you are a bad liar and I am a villager then I am going to interrogate you and decide right away if I think you are a Werewolf or not. Of course, if I am a Werewolf and I think you can easily read me you can bet if I get the opportunity you will be one of the first villagers to go.

 

Secrete information games reveal how players make conclusions about other players and what do they do with these conclusions.  They force players to pay attention to other players words, habits, and body language.  The games are more than a good time, they are an opportunity to better know the friends and family you game with.

Lessons Learnt On What To Ask On a Blind Play Tester Feedback Form

What did I learn about blind play testing questions from my recent blind playtest of my game Post Position?  Back in October I came up with a series of questions to help me to construct a blind play tester feedback form.  (Link to: What to Ask on a Blind Play Tester Feedback Form?)  The feedback forms are now back and I will give a quick run down over the questions that worked well and the one that did not.

 

Did you like the game, why or why not?

 

Here is a question that was not on the original list of questions to try.  The question was a standard question on the old UNPUB feedback forms.  I discovered for a blind play testing this question was wasted ink.  The problem with the question was that people are way too nice.  

No one ever said they disliked the game, even though some players found the game to be difficult and too long.  Plus answers were short on detail so it was not clear what they really liked or disliked about the game.

 

That said, the sort of questions that did provide useful details about the parts of the game play testers enjoyed and the parts of the game they disliked was when I asked the straight up “What was your favorite part of this game?” and “What was your least favorite part of this game? “  Players were liberated from trying to come up with a reason why they liked the game or disliked the game and just went straight to the details about the parts of the game that were good and bad.

 

What I discovered was the most important question was actually a group of questions that I will call the four essential questions.

 

What was your least favorite part of the game?

 

Name one improvement you would make to the game?

 

What strategies did not or did work for you in the game?

 

What was the hardest rule to learn and why?

 

These four essential questions not only highlighted which rule in the game was the hardest for players to learn, but they also provided illustrations on how that rule affected overall game play.  In form after form, when a player listed their least favorite part of the game they would look to find an improvement to fix that part.  When they talked about their game strategies you could observe how that mechanism made it harder for them to succeed.  And when they talk about the hardest rule to learn it almost always was the player least favorite part of the game.

 

The four essential questions combined gave me an insight into not only what rule gave the player a problem, but how that problem affected their gameplay and what sort of things I need to try to fix that problem.  

 

For example, short position selling in my game Post Position could be a player’s least favorite part of the game.  Then the player would suggest a change to the short position selling form as an improvement to the game.  When the player talks about game strategy they then talk about how short position selling was a bad strategy for them and that there were uncertain why a player would ever engage in short position sales.  Finally, when asked what was the hardest rule to learn the player listed short position selling.

 

What did I learn? I learned the player did not understand the purpose of short position selling and was therefore not able to execute the maneuver in the game.  This means I need to do a better job of not just explaining how to conduct a short position sale but also include a short explanation on why a player might want to engage in a short position sale so they have a little intuition when it should be used.

 

This is concrete feedback that I will use to improve the game.  No matter the issue with the game, the four essential questions produced similar feedback.  These are the questions I am convinced should be in ever blind game play testing feedback form.

Classics Lecture Series: Moves That Mess With Your Opponents - Sorry

Do not be tricked by the name Sorry. You are not Sorry that you sent your opponent's piece back to the start of the race. You are proud. You are so proud that sometimes you even choice to mess with your opponent when it was not in your best interests because you are having fun messing with your opponent.

Board Games with more than one person is about interaction. If none of your moves in the game affected other players then you are just participating in a race of complex solitaire. The human element, that back and forth of trying to anticipate and outguess the person sitting across from you is removed.

Sorry creates player interaction by empowering your opponents to take an action that directly hurts you in the game. Sure, some players prefer to play a game like Pandemic where players interact by working together towards some common goal.  But sometimes, after a hard day, what you really need is a head to head competition where you pull every trick in the book to take down your opponent before they reach their moment of glory.

More importantly games that explicitly empower you to mess with your opponent are a stark reminder of the differences between a board game, and other professional activities like trading stocks on Wall Street. On Wall Street people are trying to make as much money as possible irregardless of how wealthy or poor it makes other traders. Board game players usually are not trying to get the highest score possible, just one point more than the other guy. 

Sorry teaches players it does not matter whether or not you moved your piece more than any other player. Sorry teaches us what matters is taking the right set of actions to achieve the victory condition.  That asking for forgiveness later is more fun than asking for permission first, particularly when it means you are going to win the game.

Faculty Lounge: Bruce H. Voge of “The Party Gamecast featuring the Party Game Cast”

Here in the faculty lounge I get together and talk to other board game interested podcasters and bloggers to learn a little bit more about what they do.

 

I met Bruce at Congress of Gamers in the UNPUB room.  After a game of Post Position we played FireBreak where Bruce valiantly made a last stand protecting the airport.

 

Bruce H. Voge: It was not bravery, I was told the entire time I would be OK "You're at the airport, if things get squirrely you can always get out".  Well guys I am not sure how much more squirrely it can get than having 360 degrees of your view set on fire, but what I do know is I in fact did not "get out".

 

Dr. Wictz:   During FireBreak I learned about Bruce’s love for Party Games and about him moderating the  “The Party Gamecast featuring the Party Game Cast” podcast. Bruce, can you give a quick rundown about The Party Gamecast in case some folks are not familiar with your show?

 

Bruce H. Voge: The Party Gamecast featuring the Party Gamecast is a podcast about party games, and games you take to parties.  We talk about everything from clear party games like “Taboo” and “Apples to Apples” to games you might take to specific parties like horror games like “Last Night on Earth” for a geeky Halloween party a dexterity game like Tumblin Dice or a light filler like Las Vegas.  We also occasionally talk about “gateway/casual” games like Ticket to Ride or Catan, anything you might take to a shindig with your family, or co-workers that are not your primary game group.  So if it involves a party or get together, we talk about it.

Dr. Wictz:     Why did you start The Party Gamecast?

Bruce H. Voge: We were as a group talking (we really are friends) in the living room, and Erika (a regular part of the cast for the early episodes) has a podcast network called Fight Fans Radio that talks about combat sports.   I was talking about how I wanted to do a podcast, and that I had looked over the podcasts currently in the board game genre, and they were all missing out on party games.  No one really seems to want to talk about party games for more than a minute or two, it seemed to me that every genre had its own show, collectible games, specific games (like Netrunner), war games, dice games, but NO ONE really was out here tackling party games. 

 

All of a sudden Chris said “Sounds like fun.”  and Maureen said “Yeah, I would LOVE to do that.” even my wife Rocki who is not a HUGE fan of games said “Party games…so no 3 hour games about the Cold War full of tiny chits and cards with paragraphs of words, so games like Apples to Apples….really, I’m in.”  The last holdout was Mike, who decided he wanted to do the show to “be negative and point how bad these games really are” which we all felt like we needed.  He has really come around, and has learned to appreciate some of these games, even as a dyed in the wool strategy gamer.  So I guess we started it to try to tell both newcomers to the hobby, and angry geeks alike about what exists over here in the party game world.  It’s not all bad, just listen and we’ll tell you about it.

 

Dr. Wictz:    You have five regular co-hosts and a few more guest hosts, how and where did you find them all?

 

Bruce H. Voge: Well Rocki was in her lab trying to make our cat Ripley interesting enough to be an internet sensation.  I convinced her that if we could make the cat a part of our party game fun, he might be willing to be a part of twitter and get closer to internet fame.  After a few tests with the cat in the Danger Room, Rocki was on board, and the cat started tweeting as @partygamecat .

 

We heard Maureen had a chip on her shoulder after Rich Uncle Pennybags killed her family, she has had a vendetta against the game Monopoly ever since, so we knew she would be in.  Maureen is happy we talk about games that new player will like that are NOT Monopoly.  (She will learn in this article that we WILL at some point do a Monopoly episode.)

 

Chris was a friend, but we noticed every so often he would disappear at night, and wake up on one of our doorsteps with most of his clothes ripped off, and often quite hungry.  After a lot of research we realized he suffered from Lycanthropy and we convinced him if he played enough Werewolf his body might accept that he was in fact BEING a werewolf, and it might lessen his monthly symptoms.  So he was in.  We hope he will at least become more of a 1980’s style Teen Wolf kind of werewolf.

 

Erika is a ninja, so it took quite a while to put up a decent enough trap for her to even notice, eventually she did, and learned what we were doing.  She said the high stress lifestyle of ninja-ing was becoming a bit much so she decided to join us, however if you listen to the show recently you will realize, once you are a ninja, it is not a lifestyle you get to “leave”.

 

Mom, was working as a wizard in another plane, friends of the show could contact her while playing D and D, and told her it might be fun.  She asked if we would drink wine or play Agricola.  By and large I turned down both ideas.  She heard we were going to do an episode all about potato chip flavors (Episode #4A) and was in, not realizing it was going to be an episode later. (Her first episode was #3).  She materializes every so often and joins us, and those are usually our most loved shows. 

 

Mike heard there was going to be a show about party games, and felt it needed a more negative slant, so he left his grump-cave, got in the grump-mobile, brought his grump-arangs and got ready with hit grump-mic to “level things out a bit”.

 

Dr. Wictz:     How did you come up with The Party Gamecast as the name for your podcast?

 

Bruce H. Voge: That was just a random stroke of luck.  We knew quickly it was going to be a big panel show, with a cast of characters and it really started with that idea.  Once I heard the word cast, I joked “We should call it the Party Gamecast featuring the Party Game Cast, that way no matter how anyone spaces it in searches, they will find us.” and the room liked it.  Erika literally purchased the domain from her phone while we were talking about, and the rest is history.

 

Dr. Wictz:   So What is your favorite type of board game? (For some reason I am waiting to hear you say you hate party games :-) )

 

Bruce H. Voge: I am a big fan of negotiation games and economic games, to me a good negotiation game is like a party game, a lot of banter, a lot of interaction,  the people that play with me disagree.   I also super love dice games, and dexterity games, which was my in road to party games.

 

Dr. Wictz:    If you were to introduce someone to your show and you could only play for them one episode, which episode would you play?

 

Bruce H. Voge: WOW, that is a tough one.  I would be quick to say “the newest one”, I feel we get better every episode, we learn new tricks, or get to keep a joke going.  However to be more serious I would say either #14 (Episode 14)where we talked about Ugg-Tect because that is a Mom episode, or # 19 (Episode 19)where we talk about Snake Oil, which is good, but does not have Mom.

 

I know Chris would have to say episode # 10 (Episode 10) The Dicefest, and Mike would ask what about the episode with Andy Looney? (it was episode #6A Eposide 6A)

 

Dr. Wictz:    If I wanted you to review my board game what should I do?

 

Bruce H. Voge: Send me an email at thepartygamecast@gmail.com.  Just remember if you send us a game, you are not buying an advertisement, you are requesting a review, which we will gladly do.

 

Dr. Wictz:    Have you had any guest board game designers?  

 

Bruce H. Voge: Oh Yea, not only did we do a bunch of interviews with designers and game company folk at the WBCs, but we also did an episode with Andy Looney of Looney Labs, it was #6A (Episode 6A) and we talked about Fluxx:The Board Game, as well as a bunch of the other things he has made over the years.

 

Dr. Wictz:    Is there anything a board game designer can do to get invited to by a guest  on your show?

 

Bruce H. Voge: Meet us somewhere, be fun, that’s all we really require.

 

Dr. Wictz:    Is there a board game designer you have always wanted on your show? 

 

Bruce H. Voge: Well I worked on a project with Mark Rein-Hagen and for a couple of minutes he said he might do an episode.  So my dream was him, Steve Jackson and John Kovalic playing Munchkin Bites.  I want them all to have to sit through a game of that and just understand it was their fault.  Plus we got to talk to Kovalic (over Twitter) a lot while getting our hands on a copy of ROFL, and he seems like a lot of fun, so I think that would be amusing.

 

Thank you Bruce for stopping by to talk.  If you want to learn more about The Party Gamecast go to either the website at www.thepartygamecast.com or look for “The Party Gamecast featuring the Party Game Cast” on iTunes or Stitcher, or go to www.dicetowernetwork.com to see all the shows in the network, including the Party GameCast.