We're Back!

 

We're Back!

Hey y'all!

It's been...well, a while, for sure. I don't know exactly how long, primarily because I don't feel like doing the relatively simple chore of looking back at our previous publication date. But ultimately, it doesn't matter. I'm nearly done with my MSSW, I'm in a period of job transition, and I've been playing more games. All of this indicates to me that I'm ready to pick this blog up again. Not only that, but I'm excited to write about board games again, and that's a big deal for me. Part of why I stepped away was because readership was low, so I was putting in effort mostly for myself. But it wasn't something I wanted to prioritize because I had too many other balls in the air. But now that at least some facets of my life have calmed down, I'm not only doing more gaming, but I've discovered that I want to write about it again.

What can you expect?

Well, a couple of things have changed since I last wrote! Star Wars Armada and Star Wars X-Wing are both dead. At least, dead as far as I'm concerned. They no longer have any professional company support - they receive updates from community members, but that simply isn't enough to keep me interested. I'm sure like most things, some of the community developments are good, and some are bad. But honestly, I heard enough to tell me that I'm not very interested in either scene. Some of that is the attitude of folks involved being rather off-putting for me, some of it is just that I'm not particularly interested in the changes being made. None of it gets me excited for the state of the game. So at this point, even though I haven't had much time or capacity to compete (I didn't even make it out to Adepticon this past March!), I would say that my competitive games are Star Wars Shatterpoint and (ideally) Kill Team. I haven't played much KT at all, but I've been painting a lot (I've finished my Mandrakes and my Kommandos, as well as still having my Plague Marines from the previous iteration of Kill Team), and I'm ready to get some of my minis to the table. I have much more experience with Shatterpoint (and overall, I probably enjoy it more), but have been inconsistent in being able to play over the past several months. That said, I've got a lot more flexibility there because I understand the game better, and have more painted minis. So you'll get batreps and maybe some builds from me regarding both games.

I've really been loving SETI lately, so I'll be writing about that at some point, I'm sure. Not just a game review, but also maybe some strategic thoughts. Also, my friend Johnnie has inspired me to get back to playing solo Planet Unknown, so I'll probably write about that as well, in addition to writing some more about solo Spirit Island. And I've got several other games I'm trying to get to the table. You'll probably start getting more game development content from me because I've finally been getting back to game development as of this summer. I do want to get back to some prototypes I started a couple of years ago, but honestly, my buddy Josh and I have been working on a game design in particular that we're extremely excited about. So that has really pushed everything else to the backseat. After all, those designs have already been collecting some dust. Why not let them collect a little more so we can work on the thing we're most excited about? So yeah, you'll get development content from me.

Also, believe it or not, I've finally been making time for some role-playing! It's been inconsistent, and my preference is still to play board games. But honestly, I'm glad I've been RPing again, and while I'm not totally back in the groove yet, I'm much closer to that rhythm than I had been for probably 7 or 8 years. I'm not entirely certain what I'll be sharing about RPing just yet, but since I'm doing it about every two weeks (while aiming to do it weekly), I'm sure I'll have thoughts on the shape of what I'd like to write soon enough.

Anyway, I hope you'll consider leaving comments and letting me know what content you enjoy, and what kind of content you'd like to see on here. I'm glad to be back, and I hope that if nothing else, I can introduce you to some games you otherwise might not have gotten to the table!