Fun fact: This War of Mine has become the first video game to be included in the official "required reading" (well, not "reading" now) list for Polish schools.
The funny thing is that the definition of "woke" is a very positive thing. It simply means "alert to racial (or other) prejudice and discrimination." Nothing bad about that. Then it (for some) became a pejorative for some people to mean, "anything I don't like!" lol It's meaning has been bastardized.
Yep, The right-wing here in the US has completely co-opted the term to, like you said, describe whatever they have a problem with. The word originates from Black Americans describing being aware of social issues. No wonder the right wing idiots turned it into a pejorative.
@@TheBrokenMeeple You only have to look at the KDM line at Gencon every year to see how crazy popular it is. I wonder, though, how much it would take for them to get poor, old Mark Streed to do a Dice Tower preview of Nightshift 😆
With the growth of our hobby, I'd be more shocked if adult themes didn't come to the fore. Some sort of ratings board would be a fine idea, I suppose, but that would likely need to be a multinational endeavor considering how diverse and decentralized board gaming is. That being said, I wouldn't leave it up to BGG and their age scale to dictate something so broad 😅 As for whether I am shocked about the theme of a game about strippers, I am not. Honestly, much of today's pop has more graphic imagery.. and young children are listening to much of it.
Not every game is for everyone. Also, some games aren't meant for mass market appeal. As designers from underrepresented groups get published, it makes games more diverse. Adult themed games have always existed: Cards Against Humanity, NSFW version of Exploding Kittens, Monikers (has some inappropriate descriptions).
I mean, movies have the rating system due to the puritan, American censorship in the past. With books, there's never been any ratings and people are somehow able to distinguish between a kids' story, a pulpy horror and erotica. I'd be open to mature themes in board games, but there's no need for +18 stickers. These are reductive.
I'm reading the Podkin one ear books to my son at the moment and that has a surprising amount of grown up themes along the lines of loss, war, disease, horror etc. Kids are surprisingly resilient and gives to talk about from parenting perspective.
Terroscape has 18+ mark, but its expentions are 14+ And all that adult games are kept separately in our local store that makes difficult to find when different parts of one game in different places.
I don't remember if you were into Frostpunk. I know Paul G. loves it. There is a Beta for the video game (Frostpunk 2) that is starting at 6 p.m. BST on April 15 for the United Kingdom.
Intended as friendly advice: it doesn't seem genuine saying that the thumb downs don't bother you when you literally mention it every time I listen to your podcast. People who thumb down for malicious reasons (IE not because they are using it as a means to register disagreement, but because of personal animus) want the attention you give them by mentioning it every podcast. Don't mention it ever again and I wager the % will decrease with time and you will give a more convincing impression that you genuinely don't care.
The game I’m working on (and on and on) is an adults-only theme, not because it’s trying to be supersexy, but it wouldn’t be shy about having an adult perspective and topic; so I’m veeeery curious where this conversation will go in the vid and comments. (Haven’t watched it yet-here I go! 🙂)
Conscious that you don’t cover Kickstarters any more but would be nonetheless interesting to get your views on “Speakeasy” when it is launched in Q3 - the new Lacerda, as usual by Eagle-Gryphon and with art by Ian O’Toole. I skipped the last two Lacerdas (“Weathermachine” & “Inventions”) as they seemed to be rather average and overly complicated but “Speakeasy” looks very interesting and very thematic.
I would likely comment on it and certainly look at it in detail when released but I don't like to subscribe myself to doing cheap advertising to hype up a product before it's out.
Don’t think you are known for that… Key question for me will be: is Lacerda going back to his roots, designing great and thematic Euros like Kanban EV, The Gallerist or On Mars or does he continue going down the rabbit hole of designing rather abstract, convoluted and unnecessarily complex games like Weathermachine and Inventions ?
Considering how it's adults who are the main players of modern board games (excepting haba and other similar games), I'm surprised how prevalent anthromorphic critters and similar graphics are. It feels like a dumbing down of theme, or perhaps a bit misleading about the target audience. I like your reference to shock horror movies, which too often are either laughably stupid (e.g. the evil dead), or lean so heavily into gore/shock that it feels that's the whole aim of it. A bit like comedians who use swearing or insults to invoke laughs, rather than relying on humour. As for sex, there's rather a lot of embarrassing 'sexy 3D sculpts' on Kickstarter, and quite a few games that lean into these anatomically infeasible minis. With our hobby opening up much more from the old teenage boy market, these feel uncomfortable for sure. Board games much better suited to narrative horror, and the sort of horror that relies on our imagination. On another track though, something like the night cage shows how horror can be incorporated into an otherwise abstract game.
Games which look like they should have an adult warning include „Alice is Missing“ (apparently very disturbing) and „Gay Sauna - The Board Game“. Haven’t played either of them but the latter had a huge booth at Essen last year…
I bought 'Gay Sauna' for a (gay) friend. Now THAT has an adult theme! Of course I bought it directly with the expansion - named NSFW. I now also know what NSFW means...
“Molly House” is practically the polar opposite of “Gay Sauna” (I saw the BoardGameBollocks review), but even if some players would consider both to be adults-only, the content and tone and intent are so different!
Not sure many of your examples worry me as a parent for board games to not let my kids play. What makes something adult is the visualisation (in pictures and words) not just the themes. Most teenage fiction books are worse. My kids played Arkham Horror quite young and thought it was a bit boring!
Don't give that much credence to thumbdowns - almost certainly people registering disagreement with your opinion(s), rather than dislike of you or the video.
I stay away from themes like horror, the occult, sex, drugs, or any topic unsuitable for children because I want my gaming to be uplifting. What you think about drives your mental health state, very much like food/drink drives your physical health. That said, do not censor yourself on the content you cover. I can use help knowing what to avoid.
Thank you for not reviewing the stripper game. I wish you had not featured it here or even mentioned it. The title of this video is honestly a turnoff. The whole video is your normal stuff, but I hate to see certain things amplified.
With the fact that games like this could be released, the topic still warranted discussing, but I'm with you I don't really want games like this being a norm.
Fun fact: This War of Mine has become the first video game to be included in the official "required reading" (well, not "reading" now) list for Polish schools.
Oh really?! That's cool!
The funny thing is that the definition of "woke" is a very positive thing. It simply means "alert to racial (or other) prejudice and discrimination." Nothing bad about that. Then it (for some) became a pejorative for some people to mean, "anything I don't like!" lol It's meaning has been bastardized.
Makes sense!
Yep, The right-wing here in the US has completely co-opted the term to, like you said, describe whatever they have a problem with. The word originates from Black Americans describing being aware of social issues. No wonder the right wing idiots turned it into a pejorative.
Hasn't anyone produced 'Leisure suit Larry' the board game yet?
If there's one thing that Kingdom Death Monster proved, it's that there is a huge market for 'mature' adult-only games
Looove KDM. Only has a 17+ sticker on though😂
@@michaelbobpetersen7544 Can't be that mature then 😆😂
Only 17 people own it as well! :P
@@TheBrokenMeeple You only have to look at the KDM line at Gencon every year to see how crazy popular it is.
I wonder, though, how much it would take for them to get poor, old Mark Streed to do a Dice Tower preview of Nightshift 😆
@@TheBrokenMeeple You only have to look at how many people that backed the 1.5 kickstarter to tell you otherwise😉
With the growth of our hobby, I'd be more shocked if adult themes didn't come to the fore. Some sort of ratings board would be a fine idea, I suppose, but that would likely need to be a multinational endeavor considering how diverse and decentralized board gaming is. That being said, I wouldn't leave it up to BGG and their age scale to dictate something so broad 😅
As for whether I am shocked about the theme of a game about strippers, I am not. Honestly, much of today's pop has more graphic imagery.. and young children are listening to much of it.
Not every game is for everyone. Also, some games aren't meant for mass market appeal. As designers from underrepresented groups get published, it makes games more diverse. Adult themed games have always existed: Cards Against Humanity, NSFW version of Exploding Kittens, Monikers (has some inappropriate descriptions).
I mean, movies have the rating system due to the puritan, American censorship in the past. With books, there's never been any ratings and people are somehow able to distinguish between a kids' story, a pulpy horror and erotica. I'd be open to mature themes in board games, but there's no need for +18 stickers. These are reductive.
I'm reading the Podkin one ear books to my son at the moment and that has a surprising amount of grown up themes along the lines of loss, war, disease, horror etc. Kids are surprisingly resilient and gives to talk about from parenting perspective.
Terroscape has 18+ mark, but its expentions are 14+ And all that adult games are kept separately in our local store that makes difficult to find when different parts of one game in different places.
I don't remember if you were into Frostpunk. I know Paul G. loves it. There is a Beta for the video game (Frostpunk 2) that is starting at 6 p.m. BST on April 15 for the United Kingdom.
Yep, and I'm definitely looking forward to Frostpunk 2, just not usually a BETA fan.
Intended as friendly advice: it doesn't seem genuine saying that the thumb downs don't bother you when you literally mention it every time I listen to your podcast. People who thumb down for malicious reasons (IE not because they are using it as a means to register disagreement, but because of personal animus) want the attention you give them by mentioning it every podcast. Don't mention it ever again and I wager the % will decrease with time and you will give a more convincing impression that you genuinely don't care.
The game I’m working on (and on and on) is an adults-only theme, not because it’s trying to be supersexy, but it wouldn’t be shy about having an adult perspective and topic; so I’m veeeery curious where this conversation will go in the vid and comments. (Haven’t watched it yet-here I go! 🙂)
Conscious that you don’t cover Kickstarters any more but would be nonetheless interesting to get your views on “Speakeasy” when it is launched in Q3 - the new Lacerda, as usual by Eagle-Gryphon and with art by Ian O’Toole. I skipped the last two Lacerdas (“Weathermachine” & “Inventions”) as they seemed to be rather average and overly complicated but “Speakeasy” looks very interesting and very thematic.
I would likely comment on it and certainly look at it in detail when released but I don't like to subscribe myself to doing cheap advertising to hype up a product before it's out.
Don’t think you are known for that… Key question for me will be: is Lacerda going back to his roots, designing great and thematic Euros like Kanban EV, The Gallerist or On Mars or does he continue going down the rabbit hole of designing rather abstract, convoluted and unnecessarily complex games like Weathermachine and Inventions ?
I can only hope he does as I'm totally with you on that!!
Considering how it's adults who are the main players of modern board games (excepting haba and other similar games), I'm surprised how prevalent anthromorphic critters and similar graphics are. It feels like a dumbing down of theme, or perhaps a bit misleading about the target audience.
I like your reference to shock horror movies, which too often are either laughably stupid (e.g. the evil dead), or lean so heavily into gore/shock that it feels that's the whole aim of it. A bit like comedians who use swearing or insults to invoke laughs, rather than relying on humour.
As for sex, there's rather a lot of embarrassing 'sexy 3D sculpts' on Kickstarter, and quite a few games that lean into these anatomically infeasible minis. With our hobby opening up much more from the old teenage boy market, these feel uncomfortable for sure.
Board games much better suited to narrative horror, and the sort of horror that relies on our imagination. On another track though, something like the night cage shows how horror can be incorporated into an otherwise abstract game.
Certainly ladies in miniatures have fallen victim to the "lack of armour" trope.
Games which look like they should have an adult warning include „Alice is Missing“ (apparently very disturbing) and „Gay Sauna - The Board Game“. Haven’t played either of them but the latter had a huge booth at Essen last year…
You're discussing more mature games, and suffering from aching wrists... is there something you want to tell us, Luke!? 😅
Already been there, done that 😜
Wehrlegig Games has that "Molly House" game. That's a rather adult theme.
I bought 'Gay Sauna' for a (gay) friend. Now THAT has an adult theme! Of course I bought it directly with the expansion - named NSFW. I now also know what NSFW means...
“Molly House” is practically the polar opposite of “Gay Sauna” (I saw the BoardGameBollocks review), but even if some players would consider both to be adults-only, the content and tone and intent are so different!
@@SPQRKlio Very much so!
Not sure many of your examples worry me as a parent for board games to not let my kids play. What makes something adult is the visualisation (in pictures and words) not just the themes. Most teenage fiction books are worse. My kids played Arkham Horror quite young and thought it was a bit boring!
Don't give that much credence to thumbdowns - almost certainly people registering disagreement with your opinion(s), rather than dislike of you or the video.
Oh I know........well I suspect anyway :P
Shelfside had a lukewarm video of Last Light. I wonder how high their dislike count is
Would be curious - Last Light was overrated as hell when it was announced.
@@TheBrokenMeeple I looked at their second printing. I might be convinced to pay $75 for it, but not $130
Hate from CMON came out in 2019 and that one has “M 18+” on the box.
Additionally “this war of mine” marks the cards that should be removed if playing with a younger audience.
27:35 you’re talking about Terrifier btw
I stay away from themes like horror, the occult, sex, drugs, or any topic unsuitable for children because I want my gaming to be uplifting. What you think about drives your mental health state, very much like food/drink drives your physical health. That said, do not censor yourself on the content you cover. I can use help knowing what to avoid.
Greed has money, keys, prostitutes and drugs as their 4 card tags.
7 Wonders and IAWW have baths cards which feature nudity
Hate is VERY gory (By CMON)
Makes sense!
I pretty sure Dark Quarter has a Mature/18+ rating on the cover.
Any reason though?
@@TheBrokenMeeple No idea. I've only seen it on KS, but I assume it has adult themes.
Thank you for not reviewing the stripper game. I wish you had not featured it here or even mentioned it. The title of this video is honestly a turnoff. The whole video is your normal stuff, but I hate to see certain things amplified.
With the fact that games like this could be released, the topic still warranted discussing, but I'm with you I don't really want games like this being a norm.
Nightshift is actually really fun, I was a playtester for the game and I forgot it was even about strippers half the time