Variety Vlog Oct & Nov '18 - Essen, BGGcon, Nostalgic Games, and 38 new games!

Here is Variety Vlog for October & November 2018!

Look below to jump to a section:
General Updates - 0:17
Upcoming Video Schedule - 6:10
Questions & Answers - 8:06
Shifting Shelf - 12:53
New Game Subscriptions - 33:08

[TheFilipFonky]

I cannot speak for otherpeople, but I know *I* certainly miss the reviews. I remember subscribing because of how genuine and interesting your opinions on games were, and also because you mentioned balance issues wherever they were present. EDIT: my favorite video of yours is still your Tzolk'in one for those reasons I mentioned.

[AhJong]

Really enjoy your variety blogs. You introduced me to two of my favourite games, Gloomhaven and Spirit Island. Since my phone contract cost has gone down a pinch, I’ve finally got behind and joined your patreon (in a teeny tiny way). Keep up the great work Jon 🙂

[SwashbucklingSir]

Hey Jon! I would like to give my personal opinion on the decline in Patreon supporters. I do not think the main cause is the cancelling of Reviews from the channel.


Let me preface the following by saying that I think you are producing some of the highest quality board gaming content on YouTube. You playthroughs are clear, brief in the rules front-load, and easy-to-follow with cutting out the other players. Nonetheless, I have also been finding myself less interested in your recent content, which could be a reflection for some others and thus on the Patreon campaign. Thus, I am offering my point of view, as I hope it might help you to develop further.


The Pledge drive & increase in time spent on the channel started about 9 months ago in January 2018 and with it a strong increase in sponsored content. I understand why you are choosing to go that route, though I feel the amount of sponsored content might be a, if not the, major reason for the Patreon decline. Comparing 2017 to 2018, the amount of non-sponsored playthroughs was about half of the original count. The most interesting statistic is the Average Geek Rating for your 2018 playthroughs though:


2018 - Average Geek Rating

For sponsored games, the Geek Rating averages to about 6.00 with a range of +/- 0.4 (couple games were not counted as they had too few ratings, being recent Kickstarters and all)
For non-sponsored games, the Geek Rating averages to about 6.43 with a range of +/- 0.3



This tells me that not only was the quality of games higher in your non-sponsored content but also far more consistent. This aligns with my anecdotal evidence, that I used to watch your videos in full, while now I only do so with a selective few, about a third, which aligns again with the amount of non-sponsored content, while just peeking in for about 5-10 minutes for other videos.


All in all, I am been realising for myself that I became less interested in a lot of your playthroughs, and with a little data, I think the culprit is the amount of sponsored content and how there seem to be a bunch of less interesting games thrown into the mix. My theory is that this hurts the Patreon overall. Again, I fully understand that this income might be required on your end and I am not judging at all. I just wanted to offer some perspective that might help you in taking the channel further. I personally would love to see more curation from your end in sponsored content, being far more selective. For example, you had Spirit Island in the beginning of 2018, and that was awesome. Looking at recent playthroughs, for me personally, I found nothing interesting among the sponsored games.


I hope that helps and all the best to you Jon!

[PauloRenato]

Hey Jon, After the Virus can be played solo and it's a great solo game but it's not a solo game when you are playing with others, there's a lot of interaction between the players to try to help out one another to kill zombies, escape or heal each other... didn't really agree with your comment about that one :)

[aliplaysalotro]

Entirely agree with keeping a game because of the nostalgia factor. I keep games that I received as gifts even if I haven't touched them in a while because whenever I see them on my shelf, I think about the person who I got it from.

[Vadjong]

Will you include the Rising Tides expansion for New Bedford?

[GhostKingGeorge]

Did you come around to liking Azul: stained glass of sintra? I really want to play that game, on the fence... I think End game is doing closeout sale soon.. very Sad...

[Zacht]

I am a patreon supporter, and I have noticed the increase in paid/sponsored content, but I will continue supporting the channel as long as you keep doing what you do best, making amazing playthrough videos, with clear explanation of what the rules and strategy of the game is. Thank you for your hard work and quality videos. I appreciate the thought that goes into your videos and find them to be much more helpful than those made by some people that care more about giving their opinion while wearing silly hats, or rambling on without actually giving any pertinent information whatsoever while pretending to play the game with their wife.

[adilmajid]

Hi Jon, this was my first BGG Con. I saw you in the library and said hi and tried to introduce myself but wasn't able to talk to you for very long. Hopefully get a chance to talk to you at a con in the future

[Nayr]

Awh man, I was at BGG CON too, if I knew, I would have found you and said hello and thanked you for your content haha

[jinbam]

Hey jon. Do you have a plan to cover escape plan? Review or full walkthrough?

[xfoolsgoldx]

Happy for you to turn on the adverts if it ensures your channel remaining on youtube😎

[the_luggage]

I work exclusively from home and love it, hope you do too!!

[stevet]

What was the reason(s) behind not doing reviews anymore?

[Chronix]

Dude, whats up with your mic? your voice is unnaturally deep now.

[kchorst]

Jon, Re: Q1: A whaling theme might make me sad no matter how great the mechanics. Sorry

[toby_recordings]

I can't help but notice the confluence between several people in the comments section for this video lamenting the fact that you're not doing reviews anymore and the discussion of a drop in your patreon supporters. An obvious hypothesis is that some of your patreon supporters are bummed out that there are no more reviews, and that fewer people who aren't supporters are interested in starting to support your channel without the reviews.

Your reviews were easily the most thorough, thoughtful, well-considered video reviews out there: worlds better than clowns like Vasel and Rahdo, and not reeking of careerist shilling like MvM. I am well aware of why you made the decision to stop doing them, because you (of course) explained it with a similarly high level of consideration and specificity.

But here's the thing: you were, I think, too exacting and demanding of yourself. You held yourself to such a high standard that OF COURSE it sucked to make them.

True, the last thing the world needs is more inchoate, barely structured reviews based on two hurried, probably error-riddled plays of a game in order to be FIRST. (No one can compete with Vasel for audience there, as he had a huge structural advantage due to his having grinded away for so long before boardgames took off.)

But dude: your reviews were almost INSANELY thorough. IMO you would not be "cheating"anyone or being the least bit unethical or lazy or whatever it is you might think you might be if you were to post videos you called "reviews" which weren't necessarily rooted in multiple plays at each and every player count, in intentionally playing differently to test different aspects of the game, etc. (Basically a bunch of the stuff that you said you would do which made doing reviews feel so much like brutal unfun work for you. Well... I guess you'd still have to talk for the camera...) So long as you're clear about the number of plays and player counts your comments were based on, and give the appropriate caveats, it would be perfectly fine to call some less structured, less prepared thoughts and opinions a "review" even if you only played the game at the one player count that was easiest for you that week — even if you only played, say, twice and didn't really want to play any more at all because the game just wasn't jibing for you. Equally, you don't HAVE to give 15 minutes of detailed commentary broken into highly structured bullet points after providing a highly edited 15 minute rules teach before you can call giving your thoughts on a game a review. (For crying out loud, Rahdo plays only at 2 and has notions about what constitutes a good game which ought properly be considered downright bizarre and entirely irrelevant to most normal people who can cope perfectly well with direct competition, yet he happily posts his rambling, hyperbolic Final Thoughts videos after his error-riddled playthroughs, complete with disingenuous disclaimers, and somehow unsuspecting people EAT IT UP.)

I guess what I'm saying is: why not add 5 or 10 minutes of comments at the end of your playthrough videos and call them "playthrough and mini-review" videos or something like that? Or "Playthrough and First Impressions" if you just can't face yourself in the mirror using the "R" word. Give whatever caveats you like. Listening to you somewhat more extemporaneously sum up your feelings about a game is still gonna be far more useful to people who seek your videos out/stumble on them than is the constant output of so many reviewers, including people who have far bigger followings than you, who obviously spend only a tiny fraction of the time you did creating your full-blown review videos, and might slake the thirst of some of the people who are upset that the reviews in your previous style are no more. Knowing your style, if you don't like something and therefore only play it once or twice, you're going to bend over backwards to make that clear, which is all anyone can ask for. It's not "unfair" to say "I didn't like this" if you don't play 9 times first.