Well, bloggers, you must have heard my complaint last week about too many great blog posts published in one week… and most of you held back this time around!
I’m sure next week we’ll achieve that perfect balance of just enough great posts to keep me satisfied…
Here are 4 fab blog posts from the past week, ranked in order of enjoyment.
1. Why You Should Be Careful Kickstarting Board Games—in Two Charts (Clever Move)
2. 1963 Game Diary of Sid Sackson—An Overview (Opinionated Gamers)
3. Games in Education: My Experience (Board Game Duel)
4. Cyvasse (Purple Pawn)
POST OF THE WEEK
Why You Should Be Careful Kickstarting Board Games—in Two Charts, by Matt M. Casey
Clever Move, June 26
Strongest post of the week, and strongest entry in the recent wave of “let’s all stop and think for a moment about this whole Kickstarter thing” articles.
Matt produces a couple graphics illustrating both the quantity of KS projects, and their recent quality.
And he clearly lays out just want investing in a KS project means: “Backers don’t buy products; they make a gamble.”
“[S]ome fledgling game designers now use the platform as a way to shortcut the traditional publishing and design process. Instead of marketing games honed through months or years of failed pitches and revisions, some designers began asking people to back games that didn’t even have a finished set of rules.”
This is commonly known in techie circles as Microsoft Windows, after Bill Gates’ habit of releasing a flawed operating system and letting purchasers act in the role of Beta Testers.
1963 Game Diary of Sid Sackson—An Overview, by Chris Kovac
Opinionated Gamers, June 26
In the wake of Joe Huber’s article on Sid Sackson’s Acquire, Kovac–a guest writer on Opinionated Games–visited the Sackson archives at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.
The article is not near as focused as Huber’s was, but for anyone who’s fascinated by the genius designer’s thought processes, Chris gives you a slice of Sackson’s life, along with a slice of his (figurative) brain.
Games in Education: My Experience, by “admin”
Board Game Duel, June 25
Interesting post suggesting ways that tabletop games can be integrated into classroom learning. The unknown author (I couldn’t find her name on the site) is a certified teacher of home-schooled students, so her suggestions may not fly in public and private schools. But her experience is worth reading about.
Cyvasse, by Robert C. Kalajian, Jr.
Purple Pawn, June 30
This is how slim the pickings were this week. I’ve included this article, 
even though it’s doing little more than alerting me to an article posted on c|net. Cyvasse is a game mentioned in George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire. The game’s designer filled in the gaps in Martin’s description and came up with a must-have curiosity for Game of Thrones fans.
I include it here because it’s another use of a tool that’s gaining importance among gamers, a 3D printer. Pretty soon, all serious gamers will have one of their own.
Which was your favorite post of the week? Did I forget to include it here? Tell us in the Comments section and we’ll compare notes!
