From the Editor

W. Eric Martin edits Boardgame News, pulling together news, reviews, previews, and interviews from the five corners of the gaming world to keep readers up-to-date on play possibilities. Eric has been playing games of all sorts for decades and can almost always be found with a game in his pocket, ready to play at a moment's notice.

Before he took over as editor of Boardgame News, Eric was a full-time freelance writer, working for such magazines as GAMES, Knucklebones, Psychology Today, Woman's Day, Indian Gaming Business, and dozens of incredibly obscure publications. He is also the co-author of two books: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Coffee Bar and Tools of Timekeeping: A Kid's Guide to the History and Science of Telling Time. He continues to write for other publications on a part-time basis, both to promote awareness of games in the mainstream and to enable him to eat and have shelter.

This section contains infrequent notes from the editor about the internal workings of Boardgame News.

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From the Editor: Tech Help Needed for Gone Cardboard

One item that’s been on my to-do list forever is to transform Gone Cardboard into a sortable list along the lines of this Xbox 360 release calendar on IGN.com. I’ve tried a couple of things, but have been unable to discover the right set-up for the Expression Engine blogging software behind Boardgame News. If anyone wants to email me to offer programming advice, I’d be grateful, especially since I want to expand GC coverage beyond North America in the near future.

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A New Look and Layout for Boardgame News

As you might have already noticed, I’ve given Boardgame News a facelift. (If you’re reading this post on RSS, then never you mind.) The overhaul covers both the look of BGN, as well as the organization of material on it. To start with the latter, which is more important in the long run:

• I’ve gathered material on upcoming games into one section called – wait for it – “New & Upcoming Games.” Based on the recent survey I conducted, BGN readers care most about knowing which games are coming when and what those games are about, so all of that info is in this section, whether in convention previews, game previews, Gone Cardboard, or individual news items.

  This section includes info on games yet to be released on the market, whether in North America, Europe, or elsewhere. Previously the “Gone Cardboard News” section covered only those titles being added to Gone Cardboard, but since BGN covers game publishers from around the world, it makes little sense to cover some new games in “Gone Cardboard News” and others in “Boardgame News” – especially since if you’re like me, you order games from wherever you need to in order to get them. Distance, language – we care not about such things.

• At the moment, Gone Cardboard still covers only those games being released by North American publishers. At the moment…

• The “Game News” section now covers all the material that isn’t about forthcoming board and card games.

• I’ve pulled the articles by Tom Lehmann, Donald X. Vaccarino, Ignacy Trzewiczek, and other game designers into a separate game designer diary section. Given the popularity of these articles, I’ve been talking with other designers about writing such pieces in the months and years to come.

As for the look of the site, I’ve eliminated a lot of the useless images that slowed down the site and the oppressive blue blocks that smothered everything like a layer of cold cheese. I’ve added more white space around the center text and the navigation bar, while bolding the main categories to make them stand out. Each item now has a category tag at the top, such as “Columnists > Patrick Brennan - Australia,” and the title of the post is itself a link to the post.

There’s currently some weirdness with the font sizing in the left- and right-hand columns when you view a particular post versus the front page, and I still need to fix all the spacing around images, along with a ton of smaller details, but I wanted to put the new design in place now to get your feedback.

So what do you think?

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From the Editor: The Winner of Claustrophobia Is…

Jeph Stahl! Many thanks to Jeph and the 650+ others who took the time to complete the January 2010 Boardgame News reader survey. Roughly 150 people did not give their names or email address, and from the remaining 500 or so respondents Random.org chose Jeph’s number.

I’m still poring over all the suggestions and criticisms offered, with the three main requests from readers being (1) more reviews, (2) more pictures and (3) more columnists who cover what I, the respondent, likes which is not necessarily what anyone else likes. Admittedly this last request will be tougher to fulfill than the first two, but I’ll do what I can. I can’t specifically address each respondent’s concerns and requests, but looking over all the responses has given me a better idea of what to focus on in the months and years ahead. My goal is to roll out some of the changes by March 1, with others to follow. The first step, of course, is deciding exactly what those changes will be…

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From the Editor: Last Call for the BGN Reader Survey

Nearly 600 people have responded to the Boardgame News reader survey that I posted in mid-January. I’ve scanned through some of the responses already, but am waiting for the survey to close before digging deep and figuring out how all the suggestions and comments fit together. With that in mind, the final time to complete the survey is 11pm EST (GMT -5) on Sunday, January 31, 2010.

Once the survey ends, I’ll draw the name of a random survey participant, and that person will win a copy of Croc’s Claustrophobia from Asmodee. Thanks to all who have taken the time to complete the survey!

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From the Editor: Reader Survey, and a Game Drawing

I’ve edited Boardgame News since November 2006 and written for the site a bit longer than that, and while I like most of the changes that I’ve made to the site over the past three years, I’ve never surveyed you, the reader, to find out what you think about the site now and what you want to see in the future.

Time to change that with this reader survey, which should take anywhere between five and fifteen minutes to complete, depending on how much you have to tell me. At the end of the survey, you can drop in your name, country and email address and be entered into a drawing for a copy of Claustrophobia, the new game from Croc that Asmodee released in the final days of 2009. (That information will go no further than my desktop, and you will not be added to any mailing lists.)

Complete this survey for your chance to win Claustrophobia

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From the Editor: These Hands Were Made for Typing

The mysterious virus that caused my hands to swell and develop arthritic-like pains is finally abating and I’m starting to feel like my old self again. I can hold my son safely. (Happy first birthday, Traver!) I can play the piano as fine as I ever did. Most importantly for this space, I can type at a somewhat decent pace.

I’m far behind in my responsibilities at this time of year and aim to catch up as much as possible today. Gone Cardboard is largely up-to-date, with the file scrubbed of those games released in 2009 – now archived separately – with most dates and titles having been verified with the publishers. I’m still updating where needed. I’ve done no work on the Nuremberg preview over the past ten days, and a huge honking pile of material needs to be added. I’m doing what I can and plan to post what I have before the end of the day. News updates should resume on a regular pace in the next day or so.

Thanks for all the well wishes, and I hope everyone’s playing and having fun already in the new year.

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From the Editor: Ringing Out the Old

The “old” is me, and I’ve been rung well this past week.

I had hoped to write a column to fill the absence of Ms. Meeples, but my hands are still in poor shape. The doctor thinks I’ve contracted some manner of virus-associated arthritis – something I never previously knew existed – as I have no symptoms of anything else. I’m icing the hands each evening, and the virus is supposed to run its course in the usual amount of time that viruses take, so fingers (ung, uggh!) crossed, I’ll be typing more proficiently soon.

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From the Editor: Games for Soldiers Drive Update

In less than 24 hours from my original call for donations to the 2009 BGN Games for Soldiers drive, readers have donated more than $200, both in direct donations and via a $10 contribution on my part whenever someone signs up for or renews a BGN membership. This amount is on top of the $400 already donated by Thought Hammer.

What’s more, Bézier Games and Blue Panther LLC have both offered to donate merchandise for the drive. Many thanks to them.

If you also want to contribute, details are at the link above. The deadline for monetary donations is Monday, December 21, 2009. (I’ll ship everything in January 2010, so game donations don’t need to be received as quickly.)

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From the Editor: Games for Soldiers Drive 2009

For the fourth year in a row, I’m organizing a “games for soldiers” drive in which I’ll collect games or monetary donations, then purchase games and ship them at my expense to U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yes, I realize that I’m starting this drive later than in previous years and the games will not reach their recipients until 2010, but as the old elementary school joke goes: better Nate than lever.

Thought Hammer has already donated $400 toward this year’s drive, funds collected during Midnight Madness drawings at BGG.CON – the BoardGameGeek convention – in November 2009. As I did in 2008, I’ll donate $10 of any $25 member sign-up or renewal during the drive toward the fund; the entirety of any funds donated will go towards the drive. Myriad Games, my awesome local game store, is once again handling the logistics of the game order and will kick in freebies on top of the order. (Disclosure: Myriad Games has purchased advertising on BGN, but would be awesome whether or not it advertised.)

All funds must be received by noon U.S. eastern time (GMT -5) on Monday, December 21, 2009. If you want to donate games directly, please email me and I’ll send you my address. The packages likely won’t be shipped until the start of January 2010, so there should be enough time for the USPS to do its thing. To check out the results of the 2008 drive, head to my Dec. 20, 2008 column, which incudes a picture of all the games.

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From the Editor: BGN Membership Rates

Just wanted to post a reminder that the BGN membership rates will increase on January 1, 2010, the same day that the Nuremberg 2010 preview debuts. Anyone who is a BGN member prior to this date will be able to maintain his or her current rate – $25 annually or $5 monthly – whenever they renew, both in 2010 and beyond. Anyone who signs up after January 1, as well as members who let their membership lapse then resubscribe, will need to pay the new membership rates of $50 annually or $25 monthly. More details on why I’m changing the rates in my previous editor’s note.

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From the Editor: Changes to BGN Memberships

Since I took over as editor of BoardgameNews.com in November 2006 – three years ago today, in fact! – I’ve made many improvements to the site. I want to do much more, but to do that I need to spend more time working on the site and less time working on other things, and to do that I need to earn an income commensurate with all the hours devoted to news posts, game previews, tweets, Gone Cardboard updates, and (most of all) the Spiel and Nuremberg previews.

While in Essen, Germany this past October, I met several people who said that the BGN Spiel 09 preview – a document containing details of hundreds of new games that would require 400+ pages if printed, a document created from months of work and hundreds of emails and phone calls to designers and publishers – was a huge help to them when preparing for the convention, both in pointing out games they wanted to try and saving them money by steering them away from clunkers. I’m thankful that they and others have found the previews that useful and want to continue to provide this service in the future.

Consequently I’m raising the BGN membership rates as of January 1, 2010. Anyone who is a BGN member prior to this date will be able to maintain his or her current rate – $25 annually or $5 monthly – whenever they renew, both in 2010 and beyond. Anyone who signs up after January 1, as well as members who let their membership lapse then resubscribe, will need to pay the new membership rates of $50 annually or $25 monthly.

Thanks for understanding, and I look forward to continuing to provide you with all that you expect from BoardgameNews.com in the years to come…

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From the Editor: Taking a Breather

I’m still trying to get back on track with my home life and other responsibilities post-Essen, so I’m taking a week-long hiatus with no news updates, Twitter postings, etc. I might check email during this time, but other than emergencies, I won’t respond until next week.

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From the Editor: Headed to Essen

The Boardgame News Spiel 09 preview is complete – or as complete as it’s going to be – and I’m headed to the airport in a few hours to make the trek to Essen. I’ll post updates from Spiel over the next several days, writing about reactions to new games and announcements of future releases both here on BGN and on the BGN Twitter feed and BGN Facebook page. (Search Twitter for #Spiel09 to spot updates from other Spiel attendees, too.) Follow me or friend me to stay up-to-date on the happenings in Essen. Maybe I’ll see you there?

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From the Editor: Tweeting from Spiel 09

In one week, I’ll be flying from Boston to Düsseldorf, then boarding a train to Essen to spend a few days indulging in the wonders of Spiel, the largest board game convention in the world.

Now that the press center at Spiel has wireless, I plan to post short updates from the convention whenever possible. While some updates will run here on BGN, I’ll also be posting to the BGN Twitter feed and the BGN Facebook page. Follow me or friend me to stay up-to-date on the happenings in Essen. (I post general news updates and game release information on Twitter every day, and those tweets are republished on FB.)

Even if you don’t have a Twitter account, you can search for #Spiel09 to find my updates as well as updates from other Spiel attendees. (I’ve seen people suggest either #Essen or #Spiel to label such tweets, but those tags bring up general posts on eating and playing from all over Germany!)

My friend Lorien Green will be filming at Spiel for her documentary, ”Going Cardboard”; I’ll be helping her out however I can, but she’s already lined up an impressive array of designers for interviews, so she should be fine. Be sure to wave for the cameras if you see her – and if you see me, come up, say hi, and let me know your hits and misses from the show. There’s always room for one more game in the luggage, right?

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From the Editor: News?

Apologies for the near non-existent news updates over the past week or so. While I’ve largely been on track with updates for the Spiel preview – just over two weeks to go! – I’ve let other items slide in order to keep on top of that beast. I have a few items to run later this evening and will fit in what I can around the remaining Spiel updates, of which there will be many more before I head to Europe on October 20…

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From the Editor: Ask Ms. Meeples

Gaming, we hear over and over again, is all about the people – the sometimes messy, sometimes rude, sometimes overbearing people. Oh, sure, most of your fellow gamers exhibit the decorum of princes and princesses and always know which utensils to use with nachos, but those other ones, well, you might have issues with them.

Thus, Boardgame News is introducing a new column on the social aspects of boardgaming: Ask Ms. Meeples. Stepping into the role of Ms. Meeples is Jennifer Schlickbernd, who will answer your questions about boardgaming with your fellow humans and the interesting social interactions that can happen. She’ll also offer tips from time to time on how to host a successful game day and how to be a player with whom everyone wants to play. Please send your questions to AskMsMeeples@gmail.com and look for her first column on Thursday, August 13.

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From the Editor: Looking for Game Reviewers

In a June 2009 column on my approach to writing game reviews, I mentioned that I have stacks of comped games waiting to be reviewed. Rather than have those games sit forever and a day until I have time to play them all, I thought it best to solicit reviewers who would be willing to tackle one or more of these games as well as future releases. What am I looking for in a game reviewer?

• Honesty – Call it like you see it as receiving a game for free does not oblige you to like the game. Besides, if you don’t like the game, it’s not like you want to receive more of the same in the future from the designer or publisher, right?

• Focus – As I mentioned in that column, my goal in writing a review isn’t to talk about the faults of the designer or publisher; I focus on the faults of the game. I believe that designers try their best with each effort that they release because their name is forever attached to that creation. They had a goal and a vision they tried to implement. My job is to explain whether or not they succeeded based on my criteria for what makes a good game.

• Objectivity – In line with the above, the purpose of a review isn’t to convince readers to agree with your opinion of a game, but to provide readers with enough information and insight that they can decide for themselves whether they want to play or buy or ignore or burn the game in question. My tastes won’t match yours, and yours won’t match any other reader’s, so it’s foolish to attempt to convince someone that your opinion is more valid than theirs.

• Depth – Despite what I said above, you do want to justify your opinions in a review based on your tastes, gaming background, knowledge of game mechanisms and the designer’s past output, and so on. Yes, tastes are subjective, but they needn’t be groundless or without support. Back up your dislike for how a certain game mechanism was implemented by suggesting other games in which the mechanism worked better. The feature that you like or dislike might strike a reader in precisely the opposite way once you explain how you reached that conclusion.

  Depth does not equal a line-by-line restating of the rules, mind you. Give enough of the rules that a reader gets the gist of the game, but concern yourself more with your opinion of the game than the details of how to play. I still like my June 2008 review of Quartile, for example, because it conveys the spirit of the game and a suggestion of the target audience while working the few rules into the text of a conversation.

• Variety – For the luvva Pete, don’t adopt a rigid structure for your reviews. Approach each review as a standalone article, and find the format that’s right for this game and your opinion of it.

If you’re interested in reviewing games for BGN, write me. Please include samples of your reviews, if any, and let me know what style of games you prefer to play. Include any other information you think I should know about you, and we’ll go from there.

Update, July 27: I’ve now heard from thirty or so potential reviewers, so I think I’ll have enough people to tackle the existing review stack as well as future titles, at least for now.

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From the Editor: Is This Thing On?

Sorry for the general lack of updates over the past ten days or so. My wife and I have taken on a rush ghostwriting assignment, and most of my time during this period has been spent working on a table of contents and sample chapter for the publisher. Such are the ways of freelance writing. I should be clearing out my overcrowded inbox in the next day or two and finally getting some game material posted.

Oh, and we also went to NYC in this period so that my wife could follow a profile subject for three days for an article in Fortune Small Business that should run in the October 2009 issue. The subject in question? A gorgeous 105-pound bridal consultant and jewelry designer who does mixed martial arts on the side, fighting with her belly button ring in place, a full face of make-up and fingerless pink gloves inscribed with the words “Fight Girl.” If you know of other such interesting entrepreneurs in the U.S., ones with a hobby that will make jaded readers sit up and say “Wow,” let me know as we’re always looking for potential profile subjects. It doesn’t hurt if they’re easy on the eyes, but you probably already knew that.

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From the Editor: Spiel 09 Preview, and Membership Drive Results

The beginning of July has historically been the launch date for the Boardgame News Spiel preview, and I’m continuing the tradition with today’s unveiling of the Spiel 09 preview, which once again has been divided into four sections to speed downloading times on both your part and mine. In case you can’t wait until the end of this message to check out the pages, here are links to publishers A-D, E-M, N-R and S-Z.

If you visit those pages and see only introductory paragraphs not followed by huge tables showcasing publishers and their promised new releases, then either you’re not logged in or you’re not a BGN member, which makes it impossible to log in! The Spiel preview is available only to BGN members as their financial support allows me to put in as much time on the preview – not to mention the site as a whole – as I do. Some of the extensive game write-ups included in the Spiel preview will be published later on BGN as standalone items, but if you want to see them all now in one place, you can become a member now for the low, low price of $25.

Still not convinced of the awesomeness of the BGN Spiel 09 preview? Then consider this: If printed in its entirety, the Spiel 08 preview would reach 400 pages, and I fully expect the Spiel 09 preview to reach that size by the time Spiel opens on October 22. To fully appreciate the scope of the Spiel 08 preview, you should visit the Convention Previews page, click through to one of the Spiel 08 pages, and start reading. Even I’m amazed when I look over those files – and I’m the one who put it all together!

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On another topic, my spring membership drive is over, and the bottom line is that there’s no way I can remove ads from the site. My goal was 400 new members, which would permit me to adopt the Consumer Reports model of relying only on member support, but the count barely crossed 100, with roughly twenty of those payments coming in the weeks prior to the debut of the Spiel preview.

While I appreciate the support of each member, whether new or renewing, those payments on their own aren’t enough to allow me to ditch the ads. Heck, even with the ads my yearly income is less than what I’d earn from writing for magazines and other clients. Thus, the ads will stay in place, and I’ll start adding other writing work to my schedule when possible. If you run a game publishing company and need someone to edit your rules and other material – and I think you do – write me and we’ll work something out.

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From the Editor: Catching Up, and a New Membership Bonus

I’m home once again after multiple days of traveling and gaming. The BGN Twitter feed has updated info on games coming to North American stores in the near future. My taxes are nearly complete with nearly fourteen hours to spare. (A new record!) I’ll post more news updates as the day unspools and I get caught up on everything else going on.

Paul at the UK game store BoardGameGuru has offered a £25 voucher to one randomly drawn UK or EU resident who signs up as a BGN member between March 1 and April 30. I’ll contact the winner after the end of this month, in addition to the winners of the items shown in the left-hand sidebar.

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From the Editor: Games in the Media – Herd Mentality or Mental Herding?

Designer games have appeared in a number of surprising media locations within the past month: an article in Wired on Settlers of Catan and Klaus Teuber; a profile of a game group in The New York Times (registration required); an overview of Android on the Canadian TV show The Circuit; a write-up of Crunch in The Boston Herald. Aside from these publications, designer games keep surfacing in a wave of newspaper articles, which often focus on the resurgence of board games as a response to sour economic times.

All of this exposure can only be positive as gamers find new opponents to bring to the table and publishers and designers find new customers for their creations. I hosted a long game session yesterday, for example, and a couple who had driven 90 minutes to attend mentioned that a clerk at a health food store in my town said that he had recently discovered Catan. Apparently the couple had stopped there first and happened to mention why they were visiting Concord that day. Now I need to track down that guy and invite him to the next game day. (Another Concord resident, someone who had played only party games and traditional card games, found me through Meetup.com. Ideally she enjoyed Showmanager enough that she’ll return for another outing, but only time will tell.)

Read more...

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From the Editor: Membership Drive Update

The BGN membership drive continues in its low-key, unobtrusive way, poking its head out every so often public radio-style to remind you that the site carries on thanks to the support of its members. One new item of note: The membership page now includes a $25/month payment plan, which was instituted at the request of a BGN member. Many thanks!

“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.” –Robert Fritz

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From the Editor: Time Off, Sort Of

Sorry for the relative lack of updates this past week. An editor at a book publisher liked my quickie pitch of a game-related book project, so I needed to write up a longer proposal that she could then show to her editor. If all goes well, I’ll need to complete an even longer proposal that would go to the buyers – and then, who knows? Maybe the entire book…

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From the Editor: March/April Game Giveaway, and Membership Drive Update

The membership renewal/sign-up thermometer at the top of the page stands at 30 out of 400, or 7.5% of the goal – a figure that is both encouraging and indicative that I need to post reminders of the membership drive. The essence of the drive is that I’m trying to move BGN away from advertising support and onto membership support for reasons that I laid out in a February 2009 post. If you like the new look – the constant flow of gaming links via Twitter, the convenient “most recent” column – then consider becoming a BGN member to help keep the news flowing.

In case you needed further incentive, I’ll be giving away the following items at the end of April 2009:

• Two copies of Kimaloé, courtesy of GameWorks and Asmodee.
• Three copies each of Backseat Drawing and Ninja versus Ninja, courtesy of Out of the Box Publishing.
• One $50 gift certificate to ThoughtHammer.com, courtesy of Thoughthammer.

Two notes about the gift certificate: First, it’s good for anyone anywhere in the world and not only U.S. residents. Second, only those who have signed up or renewed during the membership drive are eligible to win this gift certificate. As Alfredo Nevarez noted when offering the gift certificates, “A couple of prizes [will] hopefully help some folks decide to donate to your wonderful site.” Another $50 gift certificate will be given away at the end of June 2009. Many thanks to Alfredo, Out of the Box, Asmodee and GameWorks!

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From the Editor: Another Thank You from the Middle East

The returns from the 2008 Games for Soldiers drive continue to come in as today’s mail brought this postcard from Spc. Jimenez Gustavo:

I just want to thank you for your kind thoughts & all the board games that you sent us. We are all making good use of them during our downtime over here in Iraq. Again I want to thank you. Be safe & God bless you!

And my thanks once again to all who donated to the game drive…

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