SU&SD - Shut Up & Sit Down

A quick thanks

Quinns: HELLO!

We’re more than a month into the new site. How’s everybody finding it? We know about the clogged toilets on floor 11. Also, can whoever’s stolen the key to Paul’s bedroom please return it.

Since the site’s launched we’ve been producing more content than ever before in SU&SD history. Five videos, two podcasts, ten written features, weekly news… I could go on! But I won’t because that’s all we’ve done and I’d just be making stuff up.

If you’ve been enjoying it, please do let us know in the the comments, which, incidentally, you guys have been making an absolute pleasure. Thank you.

If you are into the work we’re doing here, please, please, please help support us by simply going through our Amazon links before you buy anything at all. As we said in our welcome post, it doesn’t matter what you buy, just so long as you do it via us.

Enjoy month two, everybody! We love you. We really do.

Quinns: Perhaps you’re aware of a little game called ECLIPSE? It erupted out of Finland two years ago like some dark alien life-form, intent on devouring the world’s leisure time.

I am proud to say that I have done battle with this alien (is this analogy working?) and my review has JUST THIS MOMENT gone live on Eurogamer. It starts like this:

“This game was 2012’s biggest release, and it couldn’t be more deserved. Eclipse’s masterstroke was in taking a genre with a portentous appeal – claiming star systems, climbing hand over hand up a grandiose tech tree, engaging in HOT LASER DEATH – and compressing it down into just two hours using the same dark Scandinavian genius that brought us flatpacked Ikea furniture.”

…and it continues, using words.

In all seriousness, a lot of people called Eclipse 2012’s single biggest release. If you’re curious, you should absolutely go and have a little read. And then maybe have a little buy. Alright, a big buy.

But let me tell you- this one is absolutely worth it. Any of you guys tried the expansion?

Quinns’ latest Kotaku column is up! Our boy’s talking about the joy of games-as-physical-objects, with nods to Netrunner, Tzolk’in, Memoir ’44, String Railway and SO much more. Look at him go!

“Last weekend we played the epic WW2 swear-a-thon that is Memoir ’44: Overlord, but my friend also brought two backpacks of his girlfriend’s military equipment. We played wearing wobbly helmets and camo trousers of impossible size. Why? Because it was funny, mostly, but also because when you augment a game’s components to such a ridiculous extent, you can’t help but share something, and remember that game for the rest of your lives.”

Has anyone else noticed that there’s a power to this hobby? Quinns has, and he won’t rest until he knows what he’s talking about. Go read, people!

[A feature we’ve always dreamed of providing is actual board game journalism. What might that look like?

Step forward Mark Wallace, board gamer, author and contributor to Wired and the New York Times. We let him off his news-leash to cover the economics of licensed board games. Are they good for the hobby, or crowding out our shelves?

These are his conclusions. If you like this sort of thing, please do drop a comment letting us know.]

Tabletop gaming may be touching new heights of innovation and engagement, but the industry is at pains to appeal to new customers. While bigger “independent” publishers like Fantasy Flight Games can make a strong showing of it, there are dozens more smaller publishers whose owner-managers must hold down day jobs while struggling to produce great games — games that are often ignored by retail outlets. In many stores, it can almost seem that tabletop board games are solely represented by TV and movie spinoffs.

Even if they’re lucky enough to find a well-stocked local game store, the potential audience for boardgames is at pains to tell one startlingly expensive game from another. And having been weaned on Candyland, Sorry, and the Game of Life, they are startled again at the different kind of effort that’s required to learn and play — much less enjoy — many contemporary games.

Quinns: Hi Tom! I understand you’ve had no electricity. That’s a fitting start for SU&SD’s iOS correspondent. Who’s the man you turn to when the lights are out? It’s TOM O’BEDLAM.

Tom: You’d think, but the batteries went out on my iPad five minutes into the powercut. Without electricity, the iPad is a very ugly mousepad.

Quinns: Awful. So, what have you been playing this week? Was it terrible? iOS ports of board games are terrible, right?

Tom: They’re not that terrible! Most are distinctly unterrible! Not all of them are Dominant Species! I’ve been playing the new iPad release of Stone Age, which has been ported by Campfire Creations. It’s gorgeous. One of the nicest looking ports I’ve seen so far.

Paul: Now Quinns, I know you’re still obsessed with Mage Wars-

Quinns: WIZARD! Oh my God did you read the part where your spells-

Paul: But if you don’t mind, I want to INTERJECT with an alternative game people could buy this week. Something sleeker and easier, that I think anyone can play, not just the people who wanted to be manticores when they grew up.

Quinns: I don’t understand. Are you still coming over tonight? I wove you a beard to wear out of my armp-

Paul: I’m SAYING I’m coming over, but I’m bringing Libertalia instead. I want to recommend this one to everyone. I think it’s really quite special.

Quinns: oh my god what’s going on where am i

Paul: HELLO.

Quinns: GOD WHAT’S HAPPENED TO YOUR FACE

Paul: So I hear you’ve been playing the new Descent without me.

Quinns: Look I-

Paul: I think it’s time we had a chat, don’t you? Would you like to sit down?

Quinns: I can’t sit down because you’ve amputated my bum and also I’m hanging from a hook.

Paul: Then let us begin.

(SU&SD is proud to introduce Matt Thrower, Pro Wargamer, who offered to cover wargames for us. It all sounded a bit suspect, so we sent Brendan to investigate.)

Brendan: Hi. Matt, right?

Matt: Hi there! Come in, come in. Did you have a pleasant journey?

Brendan: I don’t know. What was that waste I had to cross?

Matt: Not now, Brendan. Come with me. The US has declared victory in the war on terror.

Brendan: Right. Wait, what was that? And how do you know my name?

Quinns: I’ve reviewed Mansions of Madness on the Eurogamer! Anyone interested in just how ambitious a board game can be should read this one. Or anyone interested in a couple of private stories from our gaming table.

“I’ll never forget the time my friend played team psycho Michael McGlen. He idly wandered into a shed, alone, where the Keeper deployed about six cards in a comedic level of bullying. Two turns later Michael ran out of the same shed with a back injury, no shotgun and a crippling fear of the rest of us, whereupon the shed promptly exploded.”

Paul: YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN’T TALK ABOUT THE HORRORSHED.

Quinns is right, though. This is a very strange, but hugely impressive game that everyone should know about, even if it’s just to steer clear. Go read!

Paul: You got here safely!

All right, everybody quiet down! Girls, your dormitories are over there. Boys, your rooms are still under construction. You’ll be sleeping in the… toilets? That can’t be right.

If anyone had any questions, we answer them in an FAQ after the jump.

You’re making the jump? Okay, hold on. Not to me.

A quick thanks

Review: Eclipse

Kotaku Article: The Magic Touch

Some Actual Journalism: Licensed Games

The iOS Roundup! 14/04/2013

Review: Libertalia

Review: Descent 2nd Edition

Your Primer on… Wargames

Review: Mansions of Madness

Welcome!

Feeds