So, I decided to become a YouTuber. I did it because I thought it would be quite nice to become a millionaire. Also I was quite keen to become famous enough to be invited onto Celebrity Bake-Off. And Strictly.

Not really. I always knew I was never going to become one those YouTubers. And actually I now realise that not only will I never become rich from YouTube, I will never even make a single penny out of it, because I will never pass the monetization threshold that YouTube has set. You need 1000 subscribers before you can make money from the channel, and, at the current rate I am attracting them, I have worked out that this will take me around 30 years!

I suppose I thought that there was a chance that if my channel did okay, I might sell more of my board game books. Really though, I think the reason I am doing it is for the same reason that, when I was ten, I used to make my own “radio shows” with a friend, using a cassette deck, a microphone, and a record player. That was quite a while ago – it was when records were cool the first time around. Hardly anybody listened to our radio shows back then, but we had fun doing it anyway. Hardly anybody watches my YouTube channel now, but that doesn’t stop me getting satisfaction from it.

Continue reading “My Life as a Board Game YouTuber” →

So, I thought it would be fun to run a little quiz on Twitter, a sort-of Dingbats/Catchphrase-type thing, where the rules are a bit fuzzy, but answer is a tabletop game. Here is the first one I did:

Love Letter, obviously.

Easy, right?

Well, probably, I guess. I know that so far that tweet has been seen by 270 people, but I don’t know how many of them really looked at it or just scrolled quickly past it. I certainly don’t know how many of them got the right answer in their heads, or how many struggled; all I know is that it took three days before someone replied with the correct answer.

The next one was a bit trickier:

Continue reading “Name That Tabletop Game” →

I often hear people complain about ‘problem players’ and usually it either means people who take the games too seriously, or not seriously enough.

In 1950s teen movies, guys who ‘don’t play by the rules’ are cool, but at a game evening they are a pain in the nether regions.

But hold on a moment. Perhaps you should try to take a step back, and ask yourself if it really is a problem. The most important thing is that everyone has a good time!

Is it, though?

Continue reading “Problem Players” →

These are my “favourite” negative reviews for board games. All are genuine one star reviews from forums and online retailers.

I just want to say thanks to these people who took time out of their busy schedules to share their well thought-out opinions with the world.

Takenoko
“I don’t like board games.  I don’t know why I bought this really.”

Carcassonne
“I love board games, like Monopoly.  But this is nothing like Monopoly. Very disappointed.”

Continue reading “Bad Bad Reviews” →

A friend of mine, Bob, has just gone on holiday to Portugal. Before he went, I joked with him that the reason had chosen that particular destination was because of the game Azul.

You see, the official rules for Azul stipulate that the first player marker should be given to the person who has most recently visited Portugal, because the game’s theme is all about tiling a palace wall in the traditional Portuguese style. We have been playing this game in our group for about a year now, and Bob has long bemoaned the fact that the only one of us who has ever been to Portugal is me (I had a very nice holiday in there in 1994 – the weather was fine, thanks for asking).

So did Bob go on holiday there just to be able to be the first player at Azul?  It seems a bit extreme doesn’t it, but maybe he did on a subconscious level?  Maybe, flicking through the brochure a few months earlier, he could not decide between Greece, the Costa del Sol, and the Algarve, and a little voice in his head said “Jas, they are all nice places but only one of them will get you that Azul first player token.”

Continue reading “Azul: Iberia or Lieberia?” →