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Slogging past a few milestones

Martin G
United Kingdom
Bristol
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I recently noticed that my next blog post (this one!) would be my 200th and when I checked how long I've been going I realised that today marks 500 weeks since my first post. Looks like I'm a fortnightly blogger rather than a daily one - you could call it "slow blogging" or "slogging" if you like.

I also noticed that I'd passed another milestone with 500 subscribers. Thanks for reading all! Despite the infrequency, I really appreciate having a space to drop my thoughts where I know people will engage with them. The comments sections have always been the best part.

The biggest reason I keep coming back to BGG every day is definitely the ways we've managed to 'hack' a social network out of a database: the blogs, the GCLs and recently some great active guilds. Come join us at:

OGs: Old-school German-style Games
The Trick-Taking Guild
BGG Snail Mail Cassette Mix Club
Deep Cuts

if you're so inclined!
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Mon Oct 4, 2021 10:24 am
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Level 20

Martin G
United Kingdom
Bristol
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 Level 20 BGG poster

From gallery of qwertymartin
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Thu Jan 14, 2021 11:27 am
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Hello! Is it me you're looking for?

Martin G
United Kingdom
Bristol
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BGG recently added a feature to tell us bloggers how many subscribers we have, and in my case it's about 450. I generally get about 10% of that number in thumbs and the usual (much-appreciated!) suspects commenting.

If you're a subscriber but not a (regular) commenter, consider this is an invitation to say hello and a little about what brought you here!
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Wed Sep 23, 2020 1:24 pm
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New things to read from my geekbuddies!

Martin G
United Kingdom
Bristol
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A couple of things to plug from geekbuddies.

Jeff Warrender

Jeff Warrender
United States
Averill Park
New York
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Board Game Designer
Board Game Publisher
"You Said This Would Be Fun", a book about game design, available at Amazon and DriveThruRPG
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Come talk design at the Jeff's World of Game Design blog!
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of the excellent Jeff's World of Game Design has published a book! "You Said This Would Be Fun: What makes a game good and how to make a good game" will be a thought-provoking read if the blog is anything to go by, and it's available in paperback or epub form for a very reasonable price on Amazon. I'd already bought my copy before I was flattered to discover my name in the acknowledgements!

And Dan Laursen

Dan Laursen
United States
Fort Myers
Florida
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has finally () taken my advice and started a blog to host some of his super-smart commentary: Ought From Is. Dan came to my attention as a fellow Knizia-phile but the blog will focus more on how philosophy relates to board games. Promises to be fascinating!
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Mon Apr 13, 2020 10:09 am
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Checking in

Martin G
United Kingdom
Bristol
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Just in case anyone was wondering, I'm fine Have a very privileged situation in that my wife and I can both work from home, so we're doing shifts working and looking after the 4-year-old who can no longer go to pre-school.

The UK is now under a lockdown of sorts - we're still allowed to go out once a day for exercise, which mainly means a run around the cemetery at the end of the road.

Haven't been keeping up with BGG at all, but we're keeping our Tuesday games night in place as a virtual session. Last night was Bring Your Own Book, Wavelength and Las Vegas (on yucata.de).

External image


Hope everyone's staying safe and coping well.
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Wed Mar 25, 2020 10:43 am
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Voice of Experience 4 is launched!

Martin G
United Kingdom
Bristol
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And while I'm blogging again...

Voice of Experience Reviews Contest 2016: Prizes!
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Wed Jun 1, 2016 2:01 pm
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Voice of Experience 2015

Martin G
United Kingdom
Bristol
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I finally got round to launching the third instalment of the Voice of Experience reviews contest. Please join in here:

Voice of Experience Reviews Contest 2015: Prizes!
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Sun Feb 22, 2015 11:39 am
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Voice of Experience 2.0

Martin G
United Kingdom
Bristol
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I've just posted an announcement for the second Voice of Experience reviews contest, following on from the great success of the first one last spring.

Quote:
Like the first VoE contest, the aims are:

• to promote critical analysis of board games that goes beyond a summary of the rules, pictures of the components and a brief opinion of the game;
• to encourage in-depth exploration of games in a community that tends to be dominated by first impressions.

To make this a little different from last time, for this contest we’re going to focus on the simpler side of gaming – the fillers, gateways, family and party games that don’t often receive a critical look. We hope this will make it even harder to rely on simply explaining the rules, and prompt reviewers to think about what else makes a good or bad gaming experience beyond the game mechanics.

So, for Voice of Experience 2.0:
• you must review a game you have played at least ten times, as last year
• your chosen game must also have a BGG ‘weight’ of 2.0 or lower.

Otherwise, it's completely open.
Hope to see you over there!
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Thu Jun 27, 2013 11:23 am
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A couple of plugs

Martin G
United Kingdom
Bristol
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I have started a BGG book club where we will be reading and discussing Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. The introductions thread is here and the discussion list for Chapter 1 will be posted on 1st May.

Oliver Kiley has started a Guild called the Cult of the Critical for "self-identified gamers with a shared in interest in promoting critical analysis and discussion of boardgames and the boardgaming hobby".

On the guild forum I have launched a collaborative weekly digest of critical writing about board games on BGG and elsewhere.
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Fri Apr 27, 2012 12:02 pm
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Voice of Experience Review Contest

Martin G
United Kingdom
Bristol
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I am proud to present the inaugural Voice of Experience Review Contest.

Given all the chatter about criticism, metacriticism and metatmetacriticism recently, I thought it was about time that those who are interested put their money where their mouths are.

The thread in the General Gaming forum has the details, but to summarise:

Quote:
The aim of this contest is two-fold:

• to promote critical analysis of board games that goes beyond a summary of the rules, pictures of the components and a brief opinion of the game;
• to encourage in-depth exploration of games in a community that tends to be dominated by first impressions.

Anyone can participate, but you must choose to review a game you have played at least ten times. That’s the “Experience” part of “Voice of Experience”. Otherwise, it's completely open.
I'm very pleased with my panel of judges - some of the finest critical voices on BoardGameGeek - and I hope this is going to be a lot of fun.
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Thu Apr 19, 2012 5:36 pm
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