GWJ Conference Call Episode 516

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Obduction, No Man's Sky, Riptide GP Renegade, Creating and Navigating Social Game Spaces, Your Emails and More!

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This week Sean, Shawn and Julian and joined by good buddy Chris O'Regan!

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind.

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Comments

I haven't had a chance to listen to this one yet, but I just wanted to give a shout out to all of you for the quality of the podcast. I've been a listener for years now, and still always look with anticipation each week for your podcast to be available for download.

The reason I'm bringing this up now is because this past week I've had a little more time in the car than normal so I've gone through some of the other gaming podcasts out there while waiting for GWJ's next one. I can't even begin to tell you how many I've stopped not even a quarter of the way through because I was just not interested in what they had to say, or else the hosts were so annoying I couldn't stand it. I don't know why some podcasters seem to like to start their podcast off in the middle of a conversation between the hosts that has nothing to do with the podcast, and go on for the first 10 minutes of the show talking about nothing. And then after all that, they go into one of their fake anecdotes about their sponsor's products! Get on with a topic already!

So thanks GWJ for keeping up with such a high-quality, structured, and interesting podcast week after week. You're a great group of people and you've built a great, friendly community here. I'm much more of a lurker than a poster, but I'm on the boards every single day to see what's new. Love you guys!

00:01:29 No Man's Sky
00:07:11 Riptide GP Renegade
00:11:28 Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
00:30:57 Obduction
00:35:42 Scythe
00:36:54 Creating and Navigating Social Game Spaces
01:05:50 Your Emails

That board game community building thing you've got going on is awesome, Chris! I wonder if this would work in Belgium too, what with our strong café culture.

One question: how do you handle the issue of diversity? I've read too many stories lately of women or people of color being turned off by this type of thing, due to the exclusive nature of a group (like a woman being met by lewd 'jokes').

It is so weird listening to a podcast where someone has my name.

I dunno how other Sheawns do it. It's just weird.

miserium wrote:

I haven't had a chance to listen to this one yet, but I just wanted to give a shout out to all of you for the quality of the podcast. I've been a listener for years now, and still always look with anticipation each week for your podcast to be available for download.

The reason I'm bringing this up now is because this past week I've had a little more time in the car than normal so I've gone through some of the other gaming podcasts out there while waiting for GWJ's next one. I can't even begin to tell you how many I've stopped not even a quarter of the way through because I was just not interested in what they had to say, or else the hosts were so annoying I couldn't stand it. I don't know why some podcasters seem to like to start their podcast off in the middle of a conversation between the hosts that has nothing to do with the podcast, and go on for the first 10 minutes of the show talking about nothing. And then after all that, they go into one of their fake anecdotes about their sponsor's products! Get on with a topic already!

So thanks GWJ for keeping up with such a high-quality, structured, and interesting podcast week after week. You're a great group of people and you've built a great, friendly community here. I'm much more of a lurker than a poster, but I'm on the boards every single day to see what's new. Love you guys!

Thanks very much!

dejanzie wrote:

One question: how do you handle the issue of diversity? I've read too many stories lately of women or people of color being turned off by this type of thing, due to the exclusive nature of a group (like a woman being met by lewd 'jokes').

Thanks for the positive feedback, it's much appreciated. With regards to your question, London on Board has many strengths and one of them is being based in London, which is a melting pot of cultures. In order for it to properly function, people need to be accepting of very different cultures. The closer to central London you are, the more diverse the population becomes.

This is very much reflected in London on Board where there has never been (to my knowledge) any problems that originate from bigoted behaviour. In fact most of the people attending sessions are tourists from all over the world of differing creeds, skin colour and gender. People coming into a LoB session know this and are very accepting of it. So much so that attendance from minority groups is exceptionally high as well as women who often match the number of men present. This is due primarily to the safe haven culture LoB has cultivated over the years. I should also point out that it's never been a dating service, although couples have formed within the group, that is a rarity. People are there to play games and have some fun while doing it. This will involve meeting people from other cultures and countries, which makes LoB a very vibrant and exciting experience.

The only downside are some games that rely on common cultural touchstones do fail within LoB as many playing do not have them. So games like Dixit and Codenames for example can and do fall flat on their face as someone tries to explain a reference that another would have no clue about due to their cultural background.

I got involved with our local board game Meetup here in St. Louis about 10 years ago, and it's been wildly successful. One of the things that I think has contributed to that is how many of the Meetups are held at local coffeeshops, bookstores, grocery stores, and cafes instead of dedicated game stores (although those happen as well). It's a lot less intimidating for a new member to come play games for an evening down at the Barnes and Noble cafe than it is to venture into a comic book or game store, where they already feel somewhat out of place. Years ago my favorite Meetup was at a nearby Borders cafe, where we met every single Wednesday night for years. We pretty much took over that cafe on Wednesdays, and over the years we had dozens if not hundreds of people wander over and ask what we were doing. I made some very good friends there who I still game with today.

I haven't finished this week's episode yet, but wanted to note how much I enjoy the banner art for this thread.

Polliwog wrote:

I haven't finished this week's episode yet, but wanted to note how much I enjoy the banner art for this thread.

Took it myself. I love the juxtaposition of derpy Denton and the junk food behind him.

One rule I was hoping would be mentioned for board game meetups was: Please finish the board games you start playing.

I've had absolutely horrendous experiences when going to a board game night with people who think it's cool to play half a board game, pop up, and go to play a different one... only to pop up and move to a different one halfway through that one being finished.

I'd also like to echo the sentiments above regarding how great I think your podcast is. Obviously, there are times where I'm not 100% excited about the topics, but I still listen faithfully and have yet to be disappointed. Ever since indoor kids stopped I'd been searching for a replacement, and after listening for a number of months now it's safe to say I feel like I've found it. Thanks!