Is My Father's Work fun?

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0:00 Introduction
0:19 FUN: Nice bits
1:20 NOT FUN: Mushroom-level mayhem
5:34 FUN: Ending it
8:04 NOT FUN: crApp
12:11FUN: She blinded me with it
12:38 NOT FUN: War, Pestilence... who are we missing?
15:05 FUN: Pithy card text
15:55 NOT FUN: Unpithy app text
16:58 FUN: Putting it back in the box
18:25 NOT FUN: The "Story"
25:30 The Scales of Funstice decide!
25:58 Our many attempts to finish a game
29:18 Worst game ever. 10 out of 10!
31:41Capitalism wants you to believe that your purchases are your identity
32:27 Beware below average games with above average components

Check out My Father's Work on Board Game Geek:

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Email Ryan: nightsaroundatable [at] gmail (dot) com

[oslohund]

Still don't understand why this isn't one of the most popular boardgamechannels on youtube. Great production value, interesting personality, great voice, interesting points of view... Very, very good content.

[shylevari]

You did it again my dude. Keep up with the "I'm gonna share what everyone is thinking, unabashedly". Love it!

[ericsimons]

Really great. You're the best rules-teacher around; this makes me wish for more deep-dive reviews too.
Edit: "chimerical" is such a great word ;-)

[jasong]

Love the depth and format! You did such a thorough job sharing your views in a unique and comical way.

[ianwng]

i just hope your channel grows and grows and grows. always entertaining and informative. thank you for all the efforts u put in.

[grog]

This applies to me sometimes. I painted all my merchants and marauders ships plus expansion before playing it. After I did, no one in my group liked it and I regretted putting so much time and effort into it. It also greatly elevated the value of the game in my eyes so I don't want to sell it for cost. I will probably have it buried with me. I also backed foundations of Rome because I was afraid I would never be able to play it if I didn't. I have a lot of self work I need to do.

[AndimatterUniverse]

Man I loved this video. Thank you so much for calling our the hypocrisy of those FOMO induced kickstarter justifiers. Whenever I mention this on the boardgames subreddit i get downvoted to hell because exactly like you said, those people are projecting their own inability to control their buying impulse outward and everyone who reminds them that maybe they made a mistake is immediately shouted down.

Feels good to see there are more sensible people out there.

[hpshovecraft]

It's interesting that you mention Splendor, because after my first play I thought "Well that was pretty fun, I really like those heavy poker chips for the gems, " and then I thought "wait, how much would I have enjoyed this game if they had used cardboard chits instead of poker chips, " and the answer I came up with was "considerably less".

[jasonc]

So much truth in describing human behavior. Thank you!

[bjornspindel]

I love this type of in-depth review. I'd love to see more of it. The psychological effect you're describing is known as "post-purchase rationalization"

[the_justifier]

You hurted my feelings.... not. One of your best video's. I recognize so much of me. I keep trying it to find out if i like it. You nailed it about the cost and the feeling of the game play. (It can be bad.)

[JonoNZBoardGamer]

Your reviews are my favourite style of any board game reviewer! I know you have lots of other things you do, but I would love to see these reviews come out more often :) these reviews and bits please are always top of my list to watch as soon as you drop the videos!

[bushibayushi]

Great review Ryan, my friend gave this a 10/10 and a glowing review, I have to play it to find out for myself who's right :D.

[xenon]

Great kickstarter discussion. It has brought good and bad to the industry.

[jasonc]

When Scythe came out, people were touting how much story it has. Once I played it, I couldn't find a story. There were some pretty artworks and event cards with flavor text, but no story.

I think that My Father's Work tries to give meaning behind your actions. It's kind of a story telling aid like Gloom is. Is it too long? Yes. Does it have a lot of randomness? Absolutely. But it's that randomness that limits a player's action to force a particular narrative for their character.

Perhaps My Father's Work is more of an activity than a game, but with the right people, it's an experience to remember like Nemesis or Tales of the Arabian Nights.

[BigDeuce]

Top notch video. The last chapter...chef's kiss

[cgarvie]

So ive never disagreed so much with review ( i only watched it as i ran into it from another video by him, and decided to leave running as i loved my fathers works), Now someone having a different opinion to me, it generally not enough to get me to leave a comment on a review. But a good third of this was about how you could only have liked it because you had to justify your big expense. SO i knew nothing of the kickstarter, but im in a random game chat group where someone id never met mentioned the game, so i looked at the theme and i loved the idea, so i joined him and 2 others to play it. So i had no cash in this game, no kick starter commitment, nothing to lose buy saying this sucks. BUT i LOVED it (and every one in the group enjoyedllll it) yeah the story elements are definitely too long, It amused me (and puzzled a little) over the use of flowery language. It Made my top 3 of the year and probably sitting in my top 10. I do recognize some of his other complaints, though i dont necessarily agree with his conclusions, but again thats fine. My only real point is i Loved the game for itself not because id spent a lot on it, id spent nothing (though i now own it because i enjoyed it so much) SO as per his statement am i crap because i like this game, even though i didnt pay for it. I dont think so (and neither do i really think he does)

[davidcunningham]

As a victim of the 3 player game mentioned in the video, I support this message

[spencercapier]

That does it, I’m upping my monthly pledge.

[wsiegel]

Like you, I had such high hopes for this game. Having the App delayed only strengthened that anticipation and excitement I had built up for it. Then OMG the App is released! I need to play it this weekend with 4 players everybody will love it... Wow, nobody was having fun after the first hour of reading. The game has not been opened since. Where was the interesting decisions or unique twists and turns? Metal gears could have been black cube... same game play. The components were fun for about 20 minutes then you realize they don't really do anything in the game. What animal do I take? Who cares!
Could this game be what it should have been with a better App? Maybe, But I'm not sure I will not be testing it out if it ever does. Thanks for the REAL Review.