That's incredible!
I'm sooo interested in this rather unknown game especially because i backpacked trough peru and bolivia! Thanks a lot.
Btw: do you have any info if they are coming to Essen so that one can buy a copy of their game there?
Going to download the video now!
Thanks again,
Simon

If they not get to Essen, you can find Tahuantinsuyu at www.lapcra.org, it's in Spain, so shipping to Germany should mean lower shipping costs. (Or quicker

Thanks for your reply but it just saw that delayedreactions.de has it in stock - but i still would prefer to pick it up in Essen
Simon

Scott, feel free to dodge the question, but I can't help wondering how much pressure you feel to grade a game more highly than you otherwise would when you've interviewed the designer. I know that the process of producing the show is more difficult in these circumstances. But, I think the product has been excellent in the two cases I've seen.

I really put little thought or stock into the letter grades I give out, and just like in classes, I would prefer to go without them. But, when I don't do them, I hear from people about that. I figure that if you haven't gotten an impression from the 20 minutes I've already spent talking about the game, my biased letter grade really isn't going to matter.

That said, I try to not let knowing more or less about the designer sway me. Case in point - there was a designer of a game whom I liked, and had gotten to know somewhat through e-mail. It was very hard for me to give the game a poor review, but I really didn't enjoy the game at all and had several problems with the design. I attempted to write a text review with the same type of humor and candor that I use in my other reviews, but it was very challenging for me.

I'm an author myself, and being in the case where I'm trying to "publish or perish", I know the pain of rejection of one of my works. However, I know that my writing is not me, and just becuase they don't like what I've written doesn't mean anything about me. I would hope that game authors would feel the same way - that they can separate themselves from their game far enough to be able to take comments and grow from them.

So, when I see someone write something bad about Board Games with Scott, I have to try and separate that from me. It's a little more difficult for this product, because Scott is me - I'm not playing a character; I'm being myself. That said, I am setting certain boundaries in what I do and how I present things, and so comments about those boundaries are something I keep at arms length. For example, many folks don't like the fact that I don't do negative video reviews, but I'm comfortable with this becuase of the model I'm using for my reviews.

When I pick designers to talk with, I only pick them in conjunction with a game that I have enjoyed. I'm not sure how I'll handle this at Essen, as I've got a press pass and intend to do some videos from there, but I'll cross that ocean when I come to it.

As a side note, Alan Ernstein seems like the type of guy who would't get too bent out of shape by a less than enthusiastic review anyway. His website, www.hangmangames.com is self-deprecatingly humorous. The site has a 'wild west' theme. The title for each page of the website fits the theme. To purchase games, you visit the General Store. You can contact them by visiting the Post Office or read gaming news by visiting the Newspaper. One page has information for folks who want to learn about self-publishing. To see the information on this page, you visit the Undertaker.