Valerie Putman:  Good Day Columbus

This Friday over 50 members of my local game club (CABS) woke up at the crack of dawn in order to be on television.  The FOX morning show, Good Day Columbus, was sending their traveling reporter, Johnny DiLoretto, to film a few live spots.  We filled the room with visually appealing games, set up and ready to play, and readied our best gaming evangelism for the media spotlight.

The first 30-second teaser had Johnny tossing some dice from Box of Golf, claiming to be “ready to roll”—then he stumbled over the name of our club, the Columbus Area Boardgaming Society.  (Actually, both of the hosts back at the studio and Johnny all stumbled over it several times.) All of the club members were gathered around trying to look bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7am while the camera panned the crowd.

The next two minute segment had our club librarian, Nathan Morse, ready to give a short description of the kinds of games we play while surrounded by an arrangement of visual aides.  Unfortunately the host was a bit overwhelmed and distracted by the vast array of games and Nathan ended up getting about two words in as Johnny and the cameraman wandered down the aisle gawking at game after game.

For the next 30-second teaser our club president, Nate Hoam, was with his family playing Akaba.  Sadly, Nate’s son isn’t quite old enough to squeeze the bulb syringe with the force needed to blow the game pieces, and the close up was of him pushing the floating carpet around instead.

Johnny wanted to focus on games for women in the next segment.  Someone had the idea of having six of the women in the room sitting around playing Cleopatra (a five-player game), so the guys who were actually playing the game were kicked off the table in order to let us pose with it.  Unfortunately, four of the women at the table hadn’t played the game before, and the two of us who had played it hadn’t played it in over a year and hadn’t liked it!  We just passed around some cards and set up some of the visually stunning game pieces and pretended to play something a bit more like Settlers of Cleopatra.  (Sorry, guys, for ruining your game!) The host asked about games that were “made for women, like Cleopatra” and Nate did a good job of explaining that lots of games appealed to women without giving us away.  Overall, this was clearly my least favorite segment.

In the next segment, club member Paul Shmucker described cooperative games while a group played Arkham Horror.  Johnny had wanted to get a bunch of kids around the table, but this time we had to really protest and explain to him that the theme was a bit gruesome for that.  Paul did a really good job of encouraging new members to come out and explaining that not all games pitted player against player.

Throughout the two hour show, the hosts back at the studio played Yahtzee, checkers, and Buckopoly (an Ohio State University themed Monopoly) while bantering with “Johnny on the Spot.” The next teaser had Johnny with one of our founding members, Bruce Reiff, preparing to talk about war games.  Johnny insisted that Marvel Heroes had to be included in the teaser and Johnny probed Bruce and the hosts back in the studio with questions about “who would win in a battle—the Hulk or Iron Man?” (This was followed by a hilarious return to childhood for the host with a funny voiced, “Hulk SMASH Tony Stark.”)

In the full segment on war games, Bruce did get to highlight some out-of-print titles and some of the newer games like Memoir ’44, Combat Commander, and BattleLore.  Of course, I didn’t help him keep his composure.  I happened to notice from off camera that he was holding up the box for Battle of the Bulge in front of his midsection (sorry, Bruce—I don’t think you’re fat!) and I couldn’t help laughing.  Bruce had no idea why I was cracking up but I think I threw him off.  He vowed afterwards to have his revenge during my segment.  The host did comment that only men were playing the war games—while the cameraman panned to a woman in the corner playing one of the biggest wargames of all with three tables pulled together and about a thousand cardboard chits.  Tee hee.

I was introduced as Dr. Valerie Staton (the name I still use in academia) for my segment, and I talked about the educational value of board games and the benefits of a family game night.  We had families playing Zooloretto and Chateau Roquefort.  Mother and daughter Carolyn and Anna mentioned their favorite games (like Bohnanza, which Johnny thought must be a game about old Westerns).  I think that our segment was informative, but perhaps a bit less entertaining.

Dale made sure that the cheese factor was cranked back up by offering Trötofant for the next teaser to introduce dexterity and kids games.  There’s nothing like getting on television and blowing party horns to capture logs from a spinning tree!  Then in a two-minute segment, Dale showed the host several more dexterity games including Carabande, Tumblin Dice, and Destruct Three.

The last full segment had our club president giving information about where to find these games in stores in Columbus.  Viewers were also invited to visit the club to try out any of the 700 games in our club library.  Johnny also called for a round of applause for the 50+ club members who made it out so early to play games on live television.

The show wrapped up with Johhny back at his favorite game of the day, Marvel Heroes, giving some information about his agenda for the show on Monday.  Of course, he couldn’t help but get one more question in for the hosts back at the studio: “Who would win, the Hulk vs. the Thing?”

Overall, the club ended up getting over 18 minutes of airtime.  We have about a dozen club members working on YouTubing the show and I’ll post a link as soon as I have one.  It was a bit cheesy and perhaps a bit misrepresentative, but perhaps a few gamer wannabes out there saw it and will decide to give These Games Of Ours a try.

I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman

© 2008 Valerie Putman

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Comments:

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Well said!  (Hey!  Two more words!) Posted by Nathan Morse on Jan 20, 2008 at 09:15 AM | #

"pretended to play something a bit more like Settlers of Cleopatra.” That made me laugh out loud! Posted by Scott Tepper on Jan 20, 2008 at 09:38 AM | #

Here is the first installation on YouTube… More info as it becomes available http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odacPPj4Jrc Posted by Dale Yu on Jan 20, 2008 at 01:39 PM | #

Here are the rest of the links posted so far.. .2 more to come in the next day or so (including the segment with yours truly!) http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=marylaser Dale Posted by Dale Yu on Jan 20, 2008 at 02:10 PM | #

While I’m all for introducing our little niche hobby to the rest of the world and congratulate CABS on it’s fine work, I find it somewhat sad and a tad disturbing that media still think it’s necessary to have to “pose” and “play Settlers of Cleopatra” on a segment on women in gaming...I’m hoping you didn’t have to wear the chainmail bikinis too-lol… Of course, wanting to put a bunch of kids around Arham Horror isn’t really any better, I guess we can chalk it up to the sensationalism of media and our culture. Posted by Lorna Wong on Jan 20, 2008 at 02:22 PM | #

Yes, I am shocked that sexism is practiced that overtly outside the gaming world, Lorna.  “There are even games for women” et cetera.  To Johnny’s credit, I’m pretty sure the “women’s games” idea wasn’t his.  Nonetheless, we should have pushed back on that, and made it very clear that the women and the men play games TOGETHER, and competitively.  We have some sharp women and men in our club, and it’s a treat to get to play a tense, close game with them! Posted by Nathan Morse on Jan 21, 2008 at 08:40 AM | #

Here’s my segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hVzi9tGUfs “They use critical thinking skills....  Problem solving skills....  Math skills....” I got skills.  Agricola skills.  Age of Steam skills.  Not television skills. Ugh. Posted by Valerie Putman on Jan 21, 2008 at 12:56 PM | #

Hey, don’t feel too bad, Valerie:  I’m pretty sure each of us is the most disgusted with our own segments.  At least you got an understanding of what you’d be saying before your segment - and got a chance to adjust it.  I just had to surf on whatever rolled in, breaker or no.  :^/ A lot of people told me how impressed they were with your segment.  Even if I’m disappointed with my use of the opportunity, I’m glad we did it.  Go, games, go! Posted by Nathan Morse on Jan 21, 2008 at 01:06 PM | #

You know you’re now on the hook to produce a workable set of rules for “Settlers of Cleopatra"… Posted by Ray Petersen on Jan 21, 2008 at 03:03 PM | #

Val, You sounded very good. I have seen a few of the segments. I think the exposure has to be a positive for CABS and gaming in general. Good job to everyone that organized the event and that showed up. Posted by Charlie Davis on Jan 21, 2008 at 03:52 PM | #

As long as we came across as normal people instead of unbathed geeks or homicidal maniacs, I was going to be happy. I think we passed that test. I don’t know how many members this will get us. Back in NY my game club got an article on page 1 of the Metro section of the New York Times. . .and got zero members. So who knows. But if one family that has a game night and saw us and said “Hey that Settlers game looks more fun than SORRY!” and goes out and buys it, that’s a good thing. BTW I’d never played Cleopatra until Friday. After three or four turns I was thinking “I hope there’s more to this than what I’ve seen so far.” That’s when I got told we had to make way for the women. Apparently I was saved! Posted by Peter Stein on Jan 21, 2008 at 04:36 PM | #

Thats great coverage for both CABS and the hobby.  Congratulations!  I love seeing stuff like this. If it was anything like the publicity we have had, then you end up looking for games to play that will look flashy in the pictures, even if it doesn’t show the actual game play.  We set up Villa Paletti and pretended to play it long enough to have pictures taken by the staff photographer.  Did the same thing with Canvas Eagles (similar to Aerodrome) one year for a video piece.  At the same time, we also got the reporter doing the piece to play a full game of Ticket to Ride with us, but we did have to do some of the “Settlers of Cleopatra” just to give them something to take pictures of.  Of course all along, you try to mention as many really good games as you can in the discussion parts.  Anyway, great job CABS! TR Posted by Travis Reynolds on Jan 21, 2008 at 07:57 PM | #

I guess I shouldn’t be shocked by the continued sexism in media-lol, it’s just too bad it has to intrude on our hobby! Anyway keep spreading the word CABS! Posted by Lorna Wong on Jan 21, 2008 at 11:25 PM | #

When we had the camera shot of Memoir ‘44, I tried to talk the guys into a scene like this, but they didn’t go for it. “Pow, pow.  I got you!” “Huh uh.  You missed!” “Rat-a-tat-a-tat” (machine gun noise) You’re dead!” “Am not” “Are too!” Posted by Jeff Mullet on Jan 23, 2008 at 08:04 AM | #

You forgot to mention my realistic and detailed simulation of a Marvel Heroes game while Johnny and Bruce manhandled their action figures.  If I recall, the sequence of events was something like: - look at my cards - fold my hand together - unfold it and look at it some more - place a card over here on the table for no reason - take this figure and move it onto this spot for no reason - look on as my “opponent” does nothing other than re-organize the cards in his hand for the fifth time Not much else you can do to “play” Marvel Heroes when you have a teaser coming up, no time to set up, and whoever put it out in “demo” format had left all the dice and plot points in the box. My 15 minutes of fame.  Bask in your jealousy of me. Posted by Stephen Schaefer on Feb 1, 2008 at 02:42 PM | #

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