This week's Geek of the Week geek is Scott Nicholson--scholar, gentleman, and video blogger/reviewer extraordinaire. His bio:



Three library/blogger types in a row, in three different flavors...

Let me just (be the first to) say that I find the video explorations to be a wonderful resource when I'm trying to decide if I'm interested in a game. They give a great picture of how the game works and moves.

Scott also starts us off with his Two Truths and a Lie:



Scott won't be back on BGG until later tonight, so get those questions started...

Congrats Scott -- you're a gaming exemplar! Glad to see you get your turn at GotW... Well deserved.

A few questions:

What made you decide to go the video route over just blogs or podcasts for your game insights?

How much planning, time and effort goes into each video review? And how much ends up on the cutting room floor?

If you could see a video review of any game, done by any one of your fellow BGGeeks, what would the game be, and which geek?

Congrats Scott

A sampling of soft-ball questions to get you started:

- Left handed or right handed?

- Mac or PC (or Linux)?

- Always bearded or off and on?

- How many game plays do you average a week?

- Does your preference lean toward highly interactive or deep thought games?

- For game days where you're introducing a new game, how much prep time do you put in prior to the get together?

- What is your game churn rate (buy/sell turnover per year) as a specific ball-park number or percentage?

- Do you play on-line games (such as BSW) frequently, infrequently, never?

- You're going on a business trip; what games, if any, do you pack?

- What's the right amount of time to play a game?

- What makes a game fun?

I like Scotts vlog and am looking forward to each new episode.
- Scott, what would your perfect-10-game be like? Generally spoken, what themes/mechanics do you like most? What should a game offer to you to be top-rated?
- How did you get the idea of vlogging about boardgames?

In my job as a professor, I teach a number of courses over the Internet. I've found that making videos brings life into the material that isn't there in any other format. I wanted to develop my skills with video production and editing, and I know that such skills only grow through regular practice. So, I decided to start making board game videos as a way to learn more and get better at video production.



Planning time - Very little. Some times, when I go down to film, I don't even know what game I'm going to cover. This does show up in that I'm not always consistent in what I present about a game.

Filming time - I try to film everything straight through, and if I make mistakes, I pause and just pick up from there. It takes a lot more time to set up all of the board scenes and the cut scenes where I show pieces. Setting up the sample turn in Die Macher took a long time, as I had to plan out what would happen during the turn; most of the time, when I do an example, I just wing it. In my own shows, only about 10-20% of the content doesn't make it in, simply becuase I'm the editor and producer, so I only film that which I intend to put it. When I work with guests, I end up dropping much more, simply becuase I try to get a lot of footage to work from.

Editing time - This is the hard part. It took me about 10 hours to edit my first 10-minute show; it's now down to about 1-2 hours per 10 minutes. That's gotten better, but it's still very time-consuming to edit each show. It also seems like it's a never-ending process, as there's always something more that can be tweaked or improved. I'm putting out a DVD to raise money toward a better camera; my current camera is older and doesn't have a microphone jack. This means that I have to manually sync video and audio for every scene, and this is quite time-consuming.

Rendering and distribution - It takes about 8 hours to render and upload all the various formats. Now, this isn't time I have to spend working constantly, but it's a lot of starting processes and programs.


I enjoy watching someone who is passionate about something, so no matter what the game was, it would need to be someone with passion.

One game that continues to vex me is Polarity. I have it, but I just can't "get" it beyond very simple leaning. It seems that every attempt I make ends up snapping the target to my piece. I've tried "easing" it in, which will allow me to get one balanced, but I can't figure out how to do this thing where you pass a piece over quickly to make other pieces fall. I think if I could see some of it, it might help me figure out how you are supposed to manipulate the pieces.

Right-handed.




PC. Even though I have a Powerbook, and that what I do BGWS on, and I got that machine fully intending to switch, there's too many problems I have with the Mac that I'm not compentent enough to solve easily. So, it's now used for video production (and a little World of Warcraft).



Always beareded. I shaved once after growing it, and never again...



It's easier to talk about time, as I mix up short and long games. I usually get in about 5 hours of boardgaming during the week, and once a month or so, I'll get in a longer weekend event or game for 8ish hours. I spend another 10ish hours on video/computer games spread throughout the week.



I prefer more interactive and social experiences. I don't mind a deep thought game occasionally, but I get tired of them quickly (becuase I think deeply for a living)! Caylus, for example, is a game that requires more thought than I wish to dedicate to a game; I prefer games with shorter spurts of thinking and planning, and then time spent in execution with breaks between thinking. I like the balance of thinking/planning/executing in Puerto Rico or an 18xx game.

Part of this is that gaming, for me, is a social experience. If there are times of up and down thinking in a game, that also leaves time to be social and chat during the game. I like to get to know people at the table, so I tend to ask questions of people at events where I'm gaming with new folks.



Quite a bit, usually. I'll physically prepare the game, doing all the punching and major sorting. I'll read the rules slowly twice through, usually, and then check BGG to see if there are any player aids that seem useful. My big gaming night is Tuesday nights with the Syracuse Boardgames, and Monday night, I'll bring up any new games I want to bring and spend the evening going through them while watching TV.



Before I had a basement, it was much higher.

Now, I tend to keep more than I used to. Of games I buy, I sell less than 10%. That will change now that I'm getting copies of games from publisher to consider reviewing; I'll be getting rid of a much higher percentage of those as gifts or prizes.




Before I had a regular group, I played quite a bit on BSW. Now with a weekly group, I don't need to do that. I usually have one or two play-by-e-mail games going with friends. I spend more time with World of Warcraft online than board games online.



The only time I would take games is if I knew I was meeting up with people who wanted to play games but who didn't have a collection. I'd much rather play games that are new to me, and so if I don't take any games, then the chance of that happening is higher.




It all depends upon the weight of the game. I'm very senstive to a game taking the "appropriate" amount of time. I played a protype recently that was a lot of fun for a 45 minute game - too bad it took over 3 hours to play. So, 20 minutes for Diamant is great, but so is 3 hours for Indonesia or 5 hours for Die Macher.

When I find myself getting bored with the game, it's taking too long. I also feel that the amount of control and luck invovled should correspond to the time it takes; I don't like games that take a long time but also are so luck-driven that you can't really control what you are doing.



The people I'm playing the game with.

If I really enjoy socializing with the people, then even Killer Bunnies can be fun. One of my absolute favorite game experiences was a 3-hour game of Auf Acshe (a simple pick-up-and-deliver truck driving game) with fantastic people; we laughed until we hurt. It was nice to not play an overly serious game, as we could have fun with it.

Ignoring the people and looking only at the game, I've got a wide variety of what I find fun.

For "serious" games, I prefer planning and strategy to heavy tactical games; a game where I plan and puzzle out some ideas, and then put them in play and watch my "machine" run is pleasing to me. A game requiring constant management and tactics wears me out quickly.

For "silly" games, I enjoy things that allow you to get to know each other, create laughable situations, or tell a great story. These games are much more about the people than the game.

I also have spent much of my life playing role-playing games, so I've got a penchant for RPG-style board games.

Congrats Scott!

I always see your week video review and I'm always anxious waiting for the next one.

I'm interested to know how do you pick your games to review. I mean do you review your favorite games? What's your criteria?

Paulo

congrats scott, i too appreciate the video reviews.

How did you get into the hobby and if u were only able to play one game for the next year...which game would u pick.

Hi Scott,
Congrats on your "Geek of the Week" honor. This question may tie in with Jeremy's, but I'll ask anyway. In a geeklist earlier in the year about flaws in games(http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/12921) you mentioned a possible published variant for Castle of Magic. A "simultaneous selection of locations/ free move concept" to replace the roll and move mechanic the game now uses. Is there any news on that front? Can you share this variant with us?

Scott,

As an Oracle hax0r, I'm interested in your bibliomining work. How do you structure the information? Does your system mirror Project Gutenberg?

And with all this bibliomining and gaming, is there any time left for, uh, bear stuff? You know, fundraising calendars and suchlike?