Board Game Breakfast 146 - Free Content

Tom Vasel takes a look at the news of the week, joined by a host of friends!

0:20 - Intro
1:15 - Board Game News
7:03 - Crowdfunding Round-up with Suzanne
11:32 - Whitleypedia
12:41 - Q & A with Tom and Jason
15:23 - Board Game Theater
18:29 - Robert Presents: Painting Miniatures 101
20:25 - Dice Tower Productions
21:21 - Head in the Clouds with Chaz Marler
24:29 - Boardgaming with Colleagues
26:11 - Tom Thinks (Free Content)
31:47 - Playing the News
33:52 - The Best and the Worst
35:39 - Good Games, Better Gamers
37:48 - Games with Dan and Cora
39:43 - Dead Last
41:49 - Closing Thoughts

[JosefFerguson]

Liked having Jason chime in on the news. Nice to have the quick back-and-forth discussion on each news item. You should do that more often.

[otterbot]

Very excited that you've added the segment on games for younger children. Thank you, Dan and Cora! Looking forward to your segments.

[Brockoly]

Thumbs up for Matthew Jude and Dead Last. His segment has quickly shot to the top as one of my favorites. Just the right amount of humor, that always make me smile.

[jasoncarlaritz]

Dan and Cora have far and away become my favorite part of Breakfast! You two are awesome!!!

[gamera]

This is like the 3rd time I have to say I love Dan and Cora...but it just needs to be said every week. Adorable.

[GameToppers]

Love Robert Oren's battling brushes! He makes it look so simple. His full vids are even more engaging. Really nice. Thanks Robert!

[dcnole]

On Tom Thinks: Like the newspaper industry has experienced, the biggest challenge with paywall-ing board game content is the fact that there is so much equivalent (or nearly equivalent) free content out there. I am less likely to pay for whatever thing Tabletop is going to be on because I can watch Dice Tower reviews and live play-throughs for free, as well as occasional live play-throughs on GameNight!, Rodney's channel, Shut Up & Sit Down, etc. Sure, Tabletop's production efforts may exceed those alternatives, but I'm not sure that's worth a monetary investment. Another factor here is hard to explain, but I (like you) greatly prefer the mode of donating to free content provider than paying for paid content. I probably donate more to the Dice Tower than a hypothetical Dice Tower subscription fee would cost me, but I do that gladly in large part because (1) I like that I am paying for value I have already obtained, and (2) because I am paying to keep the content FREE for others. Free internet board game content, including both Table Top and the Dice Tower, helped me get into this hobby 4 years ago, and I want to pay that forward, not merely pay to get access to an exclusive club of subscribers.

[NeoGenMike]

Jason was never found again. Some say he still wanders the forest where Tom left him to this very day.

[lorenburlew]

Tom, I think your point on the pay option is valid. I got pulled into board gaming by watching Table Top, I would not have paid for it as I had no idea if I was intrested or not. Now that I'm hooked, I most likely will pay for it. First one is free kids. ;)

[BassBassDude]

So far, I liked having Jason on giving his input on the News. Getting an honest reaction from him seems genuine.

[MargueriteCottrell]

RE free content

i still enjoying purchasing Spielbox magazine. I back a few folks on Patreon that i follow. I enjoy feeling a part of their community and the dollars help a lot. Moreso i comment, link, share, and try to pay attention.

[nickwatt]

Enjoyed Jason in the news segment (happy for that to be a regular please! :P )...laughed as he did the mask in DT Productions. Well done :)

[garretandkyle]

Table Top is how I found this channel, I watched the Smash up episode and wanted to get it so i looked for reviews and found Toms/dice tower review of it. Now Ive been subscribed since 2013

[raymyers]

Free content: I'm in sales and this is sales 101: offer good value upfront and people for the most part will support it. But people often mistaken success with a free model as an opportunity to start charging. I think this is a mistake unless you are REALLY trying to learn how valuable you truly are in the environment. The donation model of the DT is proof of my first statement. There is major value to many with all the content. Then, even more value with the promos that are offered and the list of what improvements will be made to the DT with different pledge levels. So for a gamer who would like to support the DT; it is easy to do when they are getting a promo for a favorite game of theirs AND knowing that if they hit X; they will get to have a certain person on staff with the DT. In short: offer value all the way around and people will cheerfully give their money. The Jack Vasel Memorial Fund has the same idea with the wonderful auction that happens every year. People get very unique items and pay a VERY generous amount of money for them because they get the item AND get to help the fund.

[otterbot]

Great job with the mask, Jason! And thanks for mentioning Lore Suzanne.

[rustedbeetle]

I participate in the Dice Tower Kickstarters and pay a subscription for Beasts of War, but those are my only financial contributions. Both are once a year payments, which I prefer over a monthly subscription.

[traviselder]

Thanks for the show Tom. I have one suggestion concerning your intro. You often talk about upcoming Q&As. I think that should be moved to the Dice Tower Productions segment. What I would like from the intro is a 30 to 60 second preview of what content we can expect from the various segments of the show.

[refreshdaemon]

I'm also favorable to the donation model. For YouTube creators, I tend to give via Patreon and don't really give much thought to the perks. Some websites I might give an annual donation to, but it's hard to remember to do so unless they run donation drives (like Wikipedia).

I definitely don't think content can ever be truly free because there's no way for any creator to sustain developing content without getting paid for it as it eats up a lot of time (and often money) on the part of the creator and they really ought to receive compensation for that time and money, which is why I like to donate.

As for the subscription model, if I like content enough I might subscribe, but I don't think I'd subscribe unless I was able to see several pieces ("free episodes") to justify the subscription and I think putting up a paywall generally dissuades me from even looking at the first episode (which is why I won't be watching the upcoming Star Trek series).

[Fergit_]

Tabletop is nowhere near a pay for product, especially as it's basically a giant advert. Everything on there sells a bunch more units, you would think that would be enough to fund it now that publishers knows that.

[robregez]

Found Nerds of Wisdom segment interesting but would have liked to hear supporting examples from the specific games. Cheers.