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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.

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All Episodes

74:21

#302: Rules Explanations

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/03/12

For reasons both personal and highly arbitrary, the SVWAG style guide (authored by gibbons, of course) does not countenance using the word "teach" as a noun, with the possible exception as a casual nickname for a teacher. Thus a game does not, in our parlance, have a "teach" except insofar as you call the person explaining the rules to you "teach". As in, "yo, teach, thanks for doing this thankless job, you make our hobby possible, I'm certainly not going to give you

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68:59

#301: Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicester

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/03/05

Before shouting about toys professionally, Mark taught ethics at a health sciences university. He discussed matters of life and death, of cutting edge controversial technologies, of war and politics, and matters of fundamental rights and duties. He has learned two lessons from those experiences: never ever talk about animal rights with a pit bull owner, and his views on Mass Effect are vastly more controversial than any of his other views. In this episode, he is at least smart enough to stay silent

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77:27

#300: Patrons' Top 20

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/02/27

Walker was all like "there's this card effect in Successors" and Mark was all like "nuh-uh" but Walker was like "yeah, fer sure" and Mark goes "no way" and Walker says "way" and that's a 100% accurate transcript.01:53 AYURIS: Dice Realms (Thomas Lehmann, Rio Grande Games, 2022)Games Played Last Week:04:07 -Lorenzo il Magnifico (Flaminia Brasini, Virginio Gigli, and Simone Luciani, Cranio Creations, 2016)10:55 -Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicester

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55:20

#299: Nucleum

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/02/20

The theory of the atom first posited by the pre-Socratic philosopher Democritus in roughly the 4th Century BCE. None of his actual writings have survived. The great thing about the pre-Socratics is that so few of their works are available, you can spend about ten minutes (or less!) and have read as much of their stuff as have the world's leading experts. Games Played Last Week:01:53 -Kingdom Rush: Elemental Uprising (Alara Cameron, Helana Hope, and Sen-Foong Lim, Lucky Duck Games, 2023)04:15

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64:50

#298: Deckbuilding

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/02/13

Every man wants to be a macho, macho manTo have the kind of body always in demandJogging in the mornings, go man goWork outs in the health spa, muscles glowYou can best believe that he's a macho manReady to get down with, anyone he canYou can tell a macho, he has a funky walkHis western shirts and leather, always look so bossFunky with his body, he's a kingCall him Mister Ego, dig his chainsYou can best believe that he's a macho manHe likes to be the leader, he never dresses

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67:29

#297: Envelopes of Cash

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/02/06

Let us, following in Andy Schwarz's example, highlight the fine work of Nancy Skinner, a California state senator whose "Fair Pay to Play Act" granted college athletes in California the right to profit from their name, image, and likeness. This forced the NCAA to allow such changes more broadly.It hasn't been perfect, but let's acknowledge one thing: if someone's gonna be making millions off your name and face, maybe--just maybe!--you should be able to get a cut. Games Played

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80:23

#296: Dexterity Games Revisited

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/01/30

It has been many a year since our early days, our salad days when we were younger and dumb and didn't know what we were doing. Much has changed, in that we are now older and dumb and don't know what we're doing. But the inexorable march of time has at least offered many new offerings in the broad tent of dexterity games, and so it is past time that we focus on one of our preferred genus of toy.01:26 AYURIS: Golem (Flaminia Brasini, Virginio Gigli, & Simone Luciani, Cranio Creations,

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62:00

#295: Federation

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/01/23

A pretty solid rule of thumb is that if you've been disappointed in a kind of game, try David Thompson's version of it and see how delightful it can be. Hidden movement got you down? Sniper Elite is the cure. Abstract chunky tiled fighty thing didn't please? War Chest might please. Mediocre skirmish cramping your style? For What Remains is ready to serve. It's a good thing he has styles of games he hasn't explored, lest he just obsolete the remainder of the games industry. Give

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78:42

#294: 2023 Year in Review

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/01/16

As ever, and with no clue what a lang syne is (much less an auld-y type configuration), we embrace the new year by commemorating the old. We would venture that the new year only truly begins once SVWAG has given its imprimatur on the best game published in the preceding year. The Julian Calendar was abandoned in favour of the Gregorian, and it is evident that the Gregorian should be abandoned in favour of the SVWAGgering Calendar. Games Played Last Week:01:34 -Kutná Hora: The City of Silver (Ondřej

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78:16

#293: Out of Print Games Revisited

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/01/09

Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher, claimed that you never step in the same river twice; for it is not the same river and you are not the same person. Such as it is with games! They are reprinted and thus reborn, all along some blurred spectrum of redesign spanning from carbon copy all the way to entirely new design.Let us not forget Heraclitus' student Cratylus, who evidently thought Heraclitus some kind of squish, insofar as he is credited with countering that you cannot step into the

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79:32

#292: Arborea

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/01/02

"This here's a jam for all the gamersTryin' to do what those rulebooks offerGet shot down 'cause you're overzealousTake too long, opponents get jealousOk, smarty, go to a partyGames are on the menu for everybodyYou wanna play a game that's more complexerBut you're standin' on the wall like you was PoindexterA game is laid out, one not played outThe options unfold and your mind just spins outThey say you should take your turn or get removedSo come on, gamer, and just

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73:46

#291: Adventure Games

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2023/12/19

Just before Mark is de-platformed, he would like to remind the SVWAG audience of two very important facts. First, he is but a man shouting into a can, and just because he doesn't like the thing you like doesn't make either less worthy of respect, dignity, and chocolate. He is willing to accept the possibility that he's Playing It Wrong and/or Doesn't Get It and/or needs to Git Gud and/or is just insufficiently evolved.Second, a reminder that complaints are to be directed to

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62:09

#290: Mindclash Games

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2023/12/12

A review of So Very Wrong About Games, not actually by Werner Herzog:"To listen to SVWAG is to court madness. One host is beholden to the delusion that if he utters sufficient words in a short period of time he may stave off his inevitable death, whereas the other grapples with the false consciousness of refusing to acknowledge life's meaninglessness. Collectively their banter serves as a cruel rebuke to evolution, a bitter mockery of humanity's purported superiority over a nature they

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80:38

#289: Daybreak

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2023/12/05

Dexterity games, dismissed by many in the board game world as children's toys (whereas, by contrast, we laud them as children's toys), can offer a unique window into the player's soul. A fine dexterity game is a crucible in which one's true character emerges. Are you an assertive, grandiose table-hog capable of great feats but undone by hubris? Are you a small-minded, plodding dilettante lacking in ambition or imagination? Junk Art can reveal all!Games Played Last Week:02:11 -Age of

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89:10

#288: All the Games

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2023/11/28

There's no time no time at all we must get to the games there's been so many all the time one after another hurry hurry we must get to all of the games01:26 AYURIS: Riftforce (Carlo Bortolini, 1 More Time Games, 2021)Games Played Last Week:03:07 -Septima (Robin Hegedűs, Mindclash Games, 2023)10:42 -White Castle (Israel Cendrero & Sheila Santos, Devir Games, 2023)16:25 -Paku Paku (Antoine Bauza, Ravensburger, 2017)20:45 -Nekojima (David Carmona & Karen Nguyen, Unfriendly Games,

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80:35

#287: Voidfall

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2023/11/14

The shift from Beckett references to low-grade puns might strike one as jarring, but it is important to note that both hosts have essentially been twelve going on sixty for most of their lives. If it's not juvenile and/or obscure, it is difficult for the hosts to process--they become disoriented and frightened. In such circumstances, a nice Star Control II reference will probably calm them down. Hey, there's one of those in this episode, too!Games Played Last Week:01:52 -Great Western Trail:

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66:55

#286: Through the Desert

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2023/11/07

One has to be careful in buffet situations. There are so many options, and you are pulled in so many different directions. You must differentiate the false urgency from the genuinely pressing, and it is a test of your evaluation and timing skills to successfully navigate your priorities. What to do, and when? How much of what? If you fail to make the wise choices, you might not get through the dessert. Games Played Last Week:02:20 -IKI: Akebono (Koota Yamada, Sorry We Are French, 2023)08:22 -Inhuman

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80:09

#285: Updating the Canon

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2023/10/31

"'Well, I remember it as though it were an episode ago'Said Walker the Host as he reeled back to clear whatever foreign matterMay have nestled its way into his mighty throatMany a poor design had met its demise while staring point-blank downThe cavernous barrel of this awesome critical machineTruly a wonder of nature, this urban gamerWalker the Host had many a story to tellAnd it was a frequent occasion such as this that he did...'Say Bigney, do you wanna play games with me?Say,

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75:36

#284: Zoo Vadis

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2023/10/24

On October 27th, 1962, a man named Vasili Arkhipov saved the world. Literally. Had he not stood up to his commanding officer and refused to launch a nuclear warhead during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the resulting retaliations would have obliterated all human life. Probably the marmosets and gibbons, too. We here at SVWAG think the man deserves a holiday in his honour, especially given that we all owe our lives to him. October 27th is Arkhipov Day.Games Played Last Week:01:05 -Undaunted: Stalingrad

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88:57

#283: Calling It a Win

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2023/10/17

"Somethin' tells me it's all happening at the zooI do believe itI do believe it's trueThe monkeys stand for honestyGiraffes are insincereAnd the elephants are kindly but they're dumbOrangutans are skepticalOf changes in their cagesAnd the zookeeper is very fond of rumZebras are reactionariesAntelopes are missionariesPigeons plot in secrecyAnd hamsters turn on frequentlyWhat a gas, you gotta come and seeAt the zoo"-Simon and Garfunkel, "At the Zoo", clearly written

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385 results

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