So Very Wrong About Games
A podcast about all manner of hobby games by Mike Walker and Mark Bigney. Bad games don't go easy on you, so we don't go easy on them. Thorough analysis via reviews, news, and discussion of topics in gaming. We take context seriously, we value your time, and we're not into hype. Just because games are fun doesn't mean we can't take them seriously, and just because we take them seriously doesn't mean we can't have fun.
151
#243: Real-Time Games
We take no time off for Boxing Day here at SVWAG, a day so named because according to the common law of the King (still feels weird saying that) citizens of the Commonwealth are permitted to punch someone in the face on this day only. It's like a...
84 min
152
#242: Random Events
All things in SVWAG are glorious, and that applies doubly for our glorious returns. We will also not be taking any additional breaks during the holidays! Yes, we can pledge an uninterrupted broadcast schedule through to the new year--leading directly...
82 min
153
#241: Planet Unknown
Sometimes a game's title leads to it being underplayed. Such is not the case for Carolus Magnus, whose chief downside might be the surplus of excellent aliases (Chuckie Mags, Charlie Big-Big, Carlos Grande, Caroolie Magoonie, et al). Planet Unknown,...
60 min
154
#240: Deal-Making
Walker has yet to inform us what agenda the aliens are pursuing in Argentina during their relentless campaign of cow abduction. Do the alien overlords practise colonialism in the same way as their human counterparts? Do the inscrutable...
82 min
155
#239: Dwellings of Eldervale
Say what you want about the evils of filthy lucre, but I find it amazing how managers turn communitarian and high-minded when it comes to fair remuneration. "Don't you believe in the project?" "Aren't you committed to the team?" et al get deployed all...
67 min
156
#238: Dealing with Rules Mistakes
Most of those time loop movies, while enjoyable, lack any degree of verisimilitude--clearly the chief use of a power to undo time or back up would be to get another chance at not saying something terribly stupid and embarrassing. One wonders if such...
71 min
157
#237: Flamecraft
"Let us go then, you and I,
When the board is spread out against the table
Like a beast euthanized inside a stable;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted tracks,
The muttering attacks
During restless nights of one-play bad games
And sepia box...
62 min
158
#236: Dead Reckoning
Replete with a robust menagerie in this episode, we perhaps begin to see why anthropomorphic animals seem to feature in every other game lately. We have Dalmations (plus a cow named Doog trying to impersonate a Dalmation), horsies, goats, weasels and...
75 min
159
#235: Games, Games, GAMES
We apologize for the all-caps implied yelling, but really, given this volume we had to have a corresponding... uh, volume. The puns are also somewhat fishy--but those you can feel free to skip, jack. The nautical theme doesn't end with fishing, as the...
79 min
160
#234: Live at SHUX!
Live at SHUX 2022, we are joined with extra-special guest Quinns from Shut Up and Sit Down! He was clearly thrilled to be with us, as evinced by the following exchange:
Mark: "We're professionals, Quinns."
Quinns: "Citation needed."
02:26...
59 min
161
#233: Heroscape
We apologize for the poor quality of Mark's half of the audio this week. We offer two possible explanations. One is that Walker, motivated as he is by spite and malice, engaged in an elaborate act of sabotage so as to undermine Mark in public. The...
67 min
162
#232: What a Campaign Needs
001
You approach a door. Test perception. If you fail, go to paragraph 105. If you succeed, go to paragraph 166.
105
You fail to notice a sharp thing, so you step on it and take 1 wound. Go to paragraph 166.
166
On the other side of the door...
78 min
163
#231: Capitol Lux 2
Even the steadfastly Imperial Americans are familiar with metric measurements of distance, volume, and temperature; but alas, the metric French Republican calendar has fallen by the wayside. Consisting of 12 months of exactly 30 days each (3 10-day...
57 min
164
#230: Mosaic: A Story of Civilization
We encourage elaborate deception in this week's episode. Go on designers, up your game. While we can't accept anything from you in terms of gifts or donations, you can totally fool us. Stack yourselves three deep in a trenchcoat! Pretend to be...
67 min
165
#229: Efficiency Euros
Fatal Fury 3's subtitle was Road to the Final Victory, ironic given that there were then four more Fatal Fury titles (the first's subtitle was The King of Fighters, which is its own huge delightful kettle of fish). While Fatal Fury Special (the actual...
55 min
166
#228: It's a Wonderful World/Kingdom
Not every game needs to be four huge boxes full of other boxes and plastic. Some can be delightfully simple games... with boxes that are too big due to crowdfunding. Other games could be underappreciated Reiner Knizia classics brought to a new...
62 min
167
#227: Done with CMON?
I met a gamer from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of plastic
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor...
70 min
168
#226: Space Station Phoenix
The Smart Car was truly out-of-the-box thinking. "Why do passenger cars all have to be the way they are?" asked some clever group of designers, and designed the minimalistic teensy Smart Car. Of course, the challenges posed by manufacturing the little...
72 min
169
#225: Carnegie
There was a time you could just stroll in a big box store in the United States and just buy a miniatures skirmish game that was actually pretty good. Sure, it didn't have analog movement or anything, but it used true line of sight and had amazing...
58 min
170
#224: Does the Industry Demand Too Much?
Times are bad. Children no longer listen to their elders and everyone is running a Kickstarter. When I started this hobby I had no idea I would get a crash course in international shipping and logistics. Back in the day you might have had a friend in...
73 min
171
#223: Stroganov
Much talk of animals this week, what with wombats and mass animal harvesting in Stroganov. Mark's experience was that despite covering many hot-button issues in his medical ethics classes, the one that invariably produced the most voluble emotional...
60 min
172
#222: Fumbling towards a New Normal
We celebrate the release of a palindrome episode with the glorious news of the return of SHUX, the Shut Up & Sit Down Expo. Perhaps more relevantly, SVWAG are invited guests! Both Mark and Walker will be in Vancouver from September 30th to October...
64 min
173
#221: Sakura Arms
It's a weird little thematic disconnect when you're not sure who or what your avatar in-game is. Perhaps we have swallowed corporate personhood so fully that we can easily accept playing as a corporation but balk a little at an amorphous group of...
67 min
174
#220: Dice Realms
Enjoy the works of Thomas Lehmann while you can! Despite the lack of player interaction of Dice Realms, Mr. Lehmann has violated local, provincial, and federal law by not supplying a solo mode. International treaty has also been flouted by the absence...
65 min
175
#219: Guards of Atlantis II
Mark had to reign himself in considerably this week, what with the song temptations of the Talking Heads followed by his favourite torch song teased by Welcome to the Moon. He also tried to workshop a Gourds of Atlantis joke, but responses were--to...
64 min