Catan short films

So suddenly we have not one, but two shorts covering the godfather of designer gateway games, The Settlers of Catan. This is great! 'The Politics of Competitive Board Gaming Amongst Friends,' a short documentary video about The Settlers of Catan. I read about it on slashfilm.com.



Very interesting to compare/contrast with the new Wil Wheaton web series about board games, especially given that the latest episode of that is about the very same Settlers of Catan.



My initial reaction to the Wheaton version was that the dialog felt forced. Others have commented about several rules mistakes in the play session. It's natural to be hyper-critical of something like this, so I'm trying to take it and appreciate the fact that someone with some serious celebrity status is bringing attention to tabletop gaming. That said, I think I like the Cheel effort better in this case. It might not do as smooth a job of recruiting new players, but it just felt more authentic to me.

Rumor has it, the CEO of my own company is a ruthless Catan player. I always wondered if it might be a career-limiting move for me to challenge him to a game...

PAX East

Just wanted to share a couple quick videos from PAX East.  It was a BLAST, though I was only there on Friday.  What a Friday it was, though.  For starters, at a convention with tens of thousands of people milling around, I bumped into Scott Nicholson almost immediately. :)  Board gaming ensued:



10 PM arrived before I knew it, and it was time to screen Going Cardboard!  It was so cool to actually be holding a panel event at this convention. There was a good-sized audience in attendance, and I couldn't help but capture a little of their reaction on my phone.

 

After the screening and a robust Q&A session, I was able to get in a couple games of Jungle Speed and Spot It! with the Geek Nights guys and their splinter cell of board gamers. Both of those were must-have titles!