x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

So Very Wrong About Games

A podcast about all manner of hobby games by Mike Walker and Mark Bigney. Bad games don"t go easy on you, so we don"t go easy on them. Thorough analysis via reviews, news, and discussion of topics in gaming. We take context seriously, we value your time, and we"re not into hype. Just because games are fun doesn"t mean we can"t take them seriously, and just because we take them seriously doesn"t mean we can"t have fun.

leisure hobbies

All Episodes

60:14

#108: Clinic Deluxe

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2020/03/10

Warning: there is some implied discussion of the existence of the health care field in this week's review. No jokes were made about current viral events, though, and given the general low-brow nature of this podcast that's a minor miracle. The only jokes about current affairs are related to hip hop, and even those references are dated to over twenty years ago. Games Played Last Week:-Street Masters: Aftershock 2m47s (Adam Sadler & Brady Sadler, Blacklist Games, 2019)-Stephenson's

en

51:05

#107: Playing for Second

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2020/03/03

Some of you might be unfamiliar with the traditions surrounding birthdays in Canada. They are savage affairs, drenched in blood and feats of suffering. I mean, there's the cake, sure, and that part is pretty benign--except for the baking of it, come to think of it, where the birthday girl or birthday boy is expected to remove the cake from an oven with their bare hands and devour the thing whole; then comes the declaration of threats, where the horribly burned, frosting-seared celebrant mounts a

en

66:57

#106: Posthuman Saga

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2020/02/25

Would you like a job at Asmodee? Well guess what, if you need any replacement parts from them, you've just been drafted to work as their support staff. Best of all, your salary is nothing! Are we doomed to become ever more curmudgeonly, rambling to young gamers about how "back in my day, we got replacement parts just by sending an email" and the the young 'uns would be all like "Ok, Millennial, but what's an email?"Games Played Last Week:-Quartermaster General WW2 2m25s

en

61:10

#105: False Expectations

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2020/02/18

On must acknowledge that in many instances, pre-judgment is an adaptive advantage--I don't mean with respect to people, but in terms of being able to sift through the endless data with which we are constantly bombarded. Most of our concepts are pre-fabricated little categories that we can shove sense data into in order to make sense of the world (there's your Kantianism in three seconds for you). In boardgaming, were seventeen releases hit the market while I was typing this sentence, it can

en

73:35

#104: On Mars

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2020/02/13

One must learn as a child that just because something is difficult does not mean it isn't worth doing. Sometimes we here at SVWAG feel that the corollary for adults is that just because something is difficult doesn't mean it is worthwhile. Some hard things should just be avoided. It's hard to drive a nail through your own skull, but it doesn't follow that it's necessarily a prime opportunity for self-improvement that ought to be pursued. Unrelatedly, Vital Lacerda games.Games

en

51:54

#103: Virtues of Popularity

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2020/02/04

My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.AYURIS: Level 7 [Omega Protocol] 2m34s (Will Schoonover, Privateer Press, 2013)Games Played Last Week:-Guards of Atlantis II: Tabletop MOBA 6m38s (Artyom Nichipurov, Wolff Designaa, 2020)-Las Vegas Royale 11m13s (Rudiger Dorn, alea, 2019)-Tiny Epic Tactics 12m59s (Scott Almes,

en

66:25

#102: Imperial 2030

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2020/01/28

Rarely has a game been as deeply, frighteningly cynical as Imperial. We are sadly inured to the notion of vast military conflicts; and we are sadly inured to the corrupting influence of enormous wealth; but never before has a game combined the two and posited the Schlieffen Plan as a gambit to improve the marginal rate of return of someone's portfolio. Oh, my RRSP is Russian firepower, by the way.Games Played Last Week:-Papillon 1m42s (J.B. Howell, Kolossal, 2019)-Talon 3m47s (Jim Krohn, GMT

en

63:01

#101: New Year's Resolutions

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2020/01/21

Eventually a charge becomes so tired and rote that it becomes accepted without critical thought--but so often these hackneyed claims are false. Knizia games are themeless is a good example. Canadians are polite is another. The one that rears its ugly head this week is Walker's insistence that he is bullied, which has definitely got to count as attempted gaslighting at this point. On the plus side, a New Year's resolution is made and then immediately fulfilled in the same episode! That is

en

94:19

#100: Year in Review 2019

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2020/01/14

Better late and wrong than never wrong, am I right? Wait, that doesn't make sense. Suffice to say that we wanted to be as certain as we could this year, as past years offered rather significant asterisks on our best-of lists--but this year, with only minor exceptions, we're pretty confident we played the games most likely to make the cut. I'm sure this sense of certainty and comprehensiveness will last perhaps as long as late January.Games Played Last Week:-Blood Rage 2m09s (Eric Lang,

en

59:25

#99: Cultural Expectations

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2020/01/07

We're using "culture" pretty broadly, here--the SVWAG staff anthropologist is out with the flu, so there's only so much we can do. We're ready to accept some degree of cultural variance, but we don't endorse cultural relativism as a moral theory; our staff ethicist is still very much at his post. That said, social gatherings are most definitely susceptible to cultural standards than moral precepts are, and we are ever in thrall to one of SVWAG's primordial maxims:

en

55:47

#98: Caylus 1303

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2019/12/31

Look, it's hard enough to remember games without them injecting too many dates into their titles. Claustrophobia 1643 I keep misremembering as 1648 (Treaty of Westphalia), Ausburg 15whenever is as forgettable as the game, Pulsar 2849 barely sticks in my mind, and now Caylus 1303. I'd be tempted to just try and parse the game as "Caylus 13XX," but it's not about trains, now, is it? Games Played Last Week:-Karate Tomate 3m01s (Reiner Knizia, AMIGO, 2018)-Telestrations: 12 Player

en

49:15

#97: Familiarity Breeds Contempt

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2019/12/24

The Holidays are upon us--Christmas very soon, Hanukkah is ongoing, Kwanzaa around the corner--but today on SVWAG, as it is on most days, we celebrate Festivus. On Mark's insistence, we forego the Feats of Strength, as the outcome would be certain and humiliating; O, but the Airing of the Grievances! Canadians have much to complain about, what with one mess of a fulfillment after another. And complain we do.AYURIS: Too Many Bones: Undertow 3m15s (Adam Carlson & Josh J. Carlson, Chip Theory

en

63:54

#96: Catan: Starfarers

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2019/12/17

Perhaps it would be inevitable that there would be juvenile comments about the components in Catan: Starfarers. This is, after all, the gaming series that brought us endless unfunny remarks about wood and sheep. Perhaps the sculptors for the pieces knew what they were doing and, in turn, laughing at us. I suppose we must be thankful that Klaus Teuber remained high-minded--one shudders to imagine what the satirical outlook of, say, Vlaada Chvatil would have done with the same material.Games Played

en

67:47

#95: Fillers and Holiday Gaming

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2019/12/10

There are times when immediately upon finishing recording, one or both of our hosts immediately feel the tremendous regret of having forgotten The Thing. But, alas, the moment has passed, and they cannot now mention The Thing. The only redress available is this episode description, which sadly no one but you reads. We salute you, hyper-literate outlier!This week, The Thing is Wavelength--recently-released masterful filler and wonderful fodder for holiday gaming in mixed circles. Rest assured the

en

67:22

#94: Last Bastion

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2019/12/03

Black Secret was an expansion to Ghost Stories where you played as vicious, frenetic shoppers trying to ascertain what were the best hidden deals on Black Friday. I think. If nothing else, one can appreciate the fact that online shopping might one day prevent the trampling deaths that accompany this uniquely retail "holiday." The end of brick and mortar retail will surely be a great loss, and one that hurts our hobby a great deal, but come on--that inevitable b-roll of crazed bargain hunters

en

73:15

#93: Worker Placement

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2019/11/26

Walker introduces a new feature, the LIGHTNING ROUND. Destinies are determined and legends are forged in the lightning round, or at least they could be if it were not merely the pretext for his trolling. Someone should translate "I'm not saying, I'm just saying" into Latin so he can make it his family credo. AYURIS: The Voyages of Marco Polo 2m00s (Simone Luciani & Daniele Tascini, Hans im Gluck, 2015)Games Played Last Week: -The Menace Among Us 5m06s (Jeff Gum, Smirk &

en

7:51

#92.5: Mea Culpa

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2019/11/19

Sorry, people, no episode this week. Mark explains why.Our Sponsors:* Check out Manscaped and use my code SOWRONGGAMES for a great deal: https://www.manscaped.com/Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

en

70:08

#92: Cloudspire

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2019/11/12

We puzzle over the practices and intentions of game designers this week as though we were archaeologists trying to divine the practices of ashen Pompeiians. Why did these authors insert this mechanism into their artifact? Was it a mating ritual? Was it an obeisance to some vengeful, long-dead god? Was it to shoehorn in player interaction? Or was it to placate a Kickstarter audience? Oh, sorry, that one is redundant with the obeisance to a god thing. Also the mating ritual thing, if you think about

en

63:00

#91: The Cost of Upgraded Components

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2019/11/05

You can replace the Mark and Walker voices with lovingly-rendered miniatures with the SVWAG Host Minis add-on, which you can have for $35, but only if you pay for it before you know what they look like and before you know the content of the episode. You can also buy the SVWAG playmat, metal coins, realistic resources, microphone first-player marker, and custom insert. This is a free podcast that can cost you a zillion dollars. Decide now, though!AYURIS: Root 2m02s (Cole Wehrle, Leder Games,

en

65:57

#90: Rurik: Dawn of Kiev

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2019/10/29

Fatherhood is the overall theme of this week's episode. Imagine Harry Chapin's Cat's in the Cradle, except with the father played by Vladimir the Great and the son by Svyatopolk the Accursed. "When you coming home, dad?" asks the Accursed, to which the reply is "I don't know when. But we'll get together then, son." And then, the son allegedly murders several of his siblings in a vicious power struggle. Just like in the song! Folk music of the seventies is more

en

389 results

Similar Podcasts

Expres Ráno

Expres FM

詭哭郎嚎

郎祖筠 & FMTaiwan製作團隊

Ron en Erik Podcast

Ron en Erik

Poor Man"s Pinball Podcast

Poor Men Ian and Drew

WeAreChange on Odysee

WeAreChange