Here is the board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending January 21, 2022.
Gaming News
- Fallout over Tabletop Simulator’s handling of homophobic and transphobic moderation on its global chat continued this week, with Berserk announcing on Twitter that they were removing global chat permanently, donating $10000 to the National Center for Transgender Equality, removing the moderators who felt expressing gender identity was “political” and not “family-friendly,” and personally apologizing to user Xoe, who first brought the moderation policy problems to light. The action, predictably, brought out the trolls, with TTS seeing massive review bombing on Steam.
- Speaking of continued fallout, Possum Creek Games, the studio behind Wonderhome, has announced that they will no longer be using Kickstarter to crowdfund their games. In a profanity-laden series of tweets, Possum Creek’s Jay Dragon says that Kickstarter “betrayed indie creators” and “burned multiple decades of goodwill” with its announcement that it would move to the blockchain. Instead, after some positive interactions with Indiegogo, including assurances of an “anti-crypto stance, anti-fraud protections, commitments to green tech and creators,” they have decided to launch their next title, Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast, on that platform.
- On the opposite side of the crypto debate, Exploding Kittens has announced that they plan to further degrade the legacy of recently-purchased Happy Salmon by releasing NFTs related to the game. According to Dicebreaker, each Salmon NFT will “include a 3D-printed box design for the party game,” and that partner Glowforge will “permanently delete the code” to print the box, ensuring it can only be printed once. Exactly why paying to contribute to global warming while being able to print a box for a game that used to come in an adorable and truly stand-out soft fish is anyone’s idea of a good plan is way beyond me.
- Asmodee has removed Pandemic from most digital platforms. While the initial move came without an explanation, fueling conspiracy theories that they were moving their games to the Asmodee-owned Board Game Arena, the company later clarified that it was really because, at 9 years old, the “current quality and reliability of the game” was no longer “on par with what Pandemic deserves on digital platforms.” The statement does say that the current version of the game would remain on Board Game Arena, but says that the move was to “make way for the digital future of Pandemic.”
- Iello has teased their next King of game, which appears to be titled King of Monster Island. Very few details are available, and there’s no word as to what US distribution might look like with the recent split from Iello US.
- Wings of Glory, the WWI and WWII miniatures aerial combat game, and Sails of Glory, the miniatures 19th-century naval combat game, are finally going to be returning to production. Ares Games, the company behind both titles, has said that due to COVID, UPD, the Chinese company that made the highly detailed, pre-painted models for the game, had been unable to “continue its activity normally,” eventually closing its mainland China operations. Moving forward, Dust Games, the Chinese manufacturer Ares worked with to create its Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles game, will take over production of Wings and Sails. New WWI-era “Drachens” and WWII-era Bristol Blenheims and Savoia-Marchetti SM-79s will not be available for Wings by the end of the year, and new Sails lines should be coming soon as well. Sails of Glory is our featured image this week.
- SPAM, the canned processed meat product, is generally considered to be either something of a delicacy or something that perhaps should be prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. (Everyone, I suspect, would agree that spam, the junk email that infects all of our inboxes all of the time, should definitely be banned.) But whether you love or hate the meat product, you can now bring it to the game table with The Op’s release of Yahtzee SPAM.
- Viral puzzle game Wordle (I got today’s puzzle in 3 guesses…) now has a board game clone. Guess the Board Game has players take details of a random board game to guess its title.
- GeekDad’s 2019 Game of the Year, Quacks of Quedlinburg, is getting a spin-off aimed at younger audiences. In Mit Quacks & Co. nach Quedlinburg (which roughly translates to With Quacks & Co to Quedlinburg) players use a similar press-your-luck mechanic to compete in a race. The game was designed by Wolfgang Warsch, the original game’s designer. The German version of the game is due to hit stores later this year, and there’s no word yet on an English edition, although given the original title’s success it seems likely to happen at some point.
GeekDad & GeekMom Reviews
Here’s what we reviewed this week:
-
Evilgeniusmum reviewed Adorablins.
-
Robin Brooks reviewed Overdrive.
-
Paul Benson reviewed GeekDad Approved Unmatched: Battle of Legends Volume Two.
What We’re Playing
Finally, here’s what the GeekDads and GeekMoms played this week:
-
Paul Benson played Unmatched: Battle of Legends, Volume2, The Rocketeer: Fate of the Future, Caper: Europe, Dungeons & Dragons Waterdeep, and Dungeon of the Mad Mage.
-
Michael Pistiolas played Marvel Champions, Mice and Mystics, Barnyard Bunch, and Unicorn Glitterluck: A Party for Rosalie.
-
Jonathan Liu played Ubongo 3D, NMBR9, and Return to Dark Tower.
-
Evilgeniusmum played Lunar Base.
-
Robin Brooks played Kingdomino, Kingdomino: Origins, and Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep.
Click through to read all of “Re-Roll: This Week’s Tabletop Game News for the Week Ending January 21, 2022” at GeekDad.If you value content from GeekDad, please support us via Patreon or use this link to shop at Amazon. Thanks!
