The Gaming Gang Episode 33: Venture Forth, Masters of Commerce, Why?, Trail of Cthulhu, and Our Top Games of 2011

Thanks for taking the time to listen to most of our shows Joel! We really appreciate the fact that we have loads of listeners – each episode of TGG gets just over a thousand downloads and that’s not too bad considering the various “big boys” out there normally claim something like 2k downloads.

As for the points you make I’d like to touch on them just so you know where we’re coming from and not as a way to be defensive. Our thought when we started up the podcast was to be as conversational as we could without filling a show with in-jokes or an overload of what I call “verbal assgrabbery” or just dropping F-Bombs for the sake of trying to come across as gaming rebels or some such nonsense. That said, we do look to provide an experience where listeners feel as if we’re chatting with friends as opposed to talking at the public. Elliott and I assume that our audience are adults and most adults I know tend to kid around a bit and many times in a bit of an off color way. We certainly never say anything that couldn’t be heard on any major network at 7pm on any given night – in fact we work a whole lot cleaner than the networks! If you feel that we’re a bit aggressive, that’s just a reflection of who we are in reality. You could listen to us sitting around the gaming table or with a mic in front of us and your going to get the same thing. I did mention on this episode that I don’t listen to other gaming podcasts and one of the reasons is that I don’t what to be influenced by them in any way. One thing I didn’t mention, and I’m just being honest here, is another reason I don’t listen is because I found almost every one of them to be rather boring. About a year and a half ago, when I would listen to the occasional show, I found that many times I couldn’t even tell the hosts apart let alone tell you what games they talked about an hour after I finished listening; I’d even start zoning out after a while.

Talking about obscure games, I’m not sure what makes a game obscure. Is the title obscure simply because people aren’t aware of it? Is it obscure because those who have played it didn’t like it? Or is it obscure because the publisher who released it don’t have large marketing funds to go out there and blow $4000 on a BGG contest?

It has always been our philosophy that every game, and every game company, deserves coverage. We don’t care if it’s a large company cranking out a half dozen titles a month or if it’s a start up looking to get funding on Kickstarter. If a game looks interesting or is fun to play, we’re going to talk about it. Who knows, maybe our discussion of a hidden gem leads to that company having the ability to release a follow up gem that’s a little less hidden…

I don’t write this to say that TGG is the end all be all as we’re always looking to push the envelope and improve. I agree that we don’t have a lot of in depth coverage of what would be considered traditional “Euros” simply because a lot of them aren’t our cup of tea. This doesn’t mean they’re bad games by any stretch and that’s why we’re slowly but surely adding more correspondents with a wide range of gaming tastes. We want to bring them on the podcast as well if that’s in any way possible. Our RPG and miniatures coverage can use a bigger shot in the arm too! I’d take a stab that many gamers are like Elliott and myself, they crossover into a wide range of genres from wargames to Euros to RPGs and so forth. This is why we never look to simply focus on one thing here at The Gaming Gang.

Thanks again for your comments Joel as you bring up valid points and I felt you should have those points addressed. Hopefully, you keep listening as we try to do our best to improve each time out!