Vasel rips Thundergryph a New One - Founder Apologizes

Damn, Z, you're one profound dude. I mean physicist. 😄

Another 'vocabulary word' (noetic). I'm gonna start a Spreadsheet with 'em. A couple of columns will be who first used the word and then a brief definition. Maybe a column for me using the word in a sentence. That's a stretch, since it would always be zero, but maybe. 😀

@Zerbique 😄 There was another one where he had his kids out in the backyard (he was there, too) beatin' the piss out of a game with a baseball bat, tug-of-wars with the box lid, squirting it with a garden hose as it lay in the grass...

@Cadet Stimpy That's funny. If I really dislike a game, I'll try to sell it so that the money I get from it makes it for the fun I didn't have with it. I sell the games I like much cheaper than the ones I dislike! (Or I would, because I don't sell the games I like.)

@Zerbique You don't torch it with a flame-thrower in your driveway? Boring! 😄

Yeah, I should read the Rulebook BEFORE I buy it. I've never done that. ☺️ I'm so lame sometimes. That's a totally excellent plan, Athena! Thanks for your knowing guidance - I certainly need it. 😄

@Cadet Stimpy I don't always read a rulebook before purchasing a game, but I always, always read the rulebook before backing on KS. Sometimes the rulebook is so heavy that I end up not backing! I know that if I don't have the will to read it now, I won't have either when I'll have many board games that will compete for the green plastic table. Last example: I'll have to drop my pledge for Legends of Void because I can't bring myself to go through these rules.

More than once I was content with just reading the rulebook. "Oh, OK, now I know how this game plays, good bye!". And more than once I realized this wasn't the game I expected or wanted.

@Zerbique A good piece of advice, Z. Thanks. I going to adopt it! Sometimes I fall into the, "Oh, look at the shiny thing" trap. 😄

@Zerbique Sorry for the late reply, I had to go to sleep last night (I think we have a 2 hour time difference). 😄

Even though Tom Vasel has played tons and tons of games, his 'authority' cannot be compared to that of a scientist who tells you that palm oil is bad. For you and me it is very difficult to confirm whether palm oil causes cancer, so we have to take this statement at face value. Same with covid: I believe what the doctors say and I will be vaccinated. Scientists are not influencers, though. They give you hard facts and you either follow their advice or you don't. With games, on the other hand, we can read the rulebook and watch playthrough videos, and actually see if we find them as bad as Tom says. Yes, his opinion will affect us but only to a certain extent. Same goes with books and movies. Personal taste is a decisive factor and there is no clear good/bad dichotomy.

Anyway, thanks for the discussion, it is nice to exchange opinions. And please never trust me blindly about anything. 😋

@Athena I'm always ready to trust someone blindly for something I don't quite care about, such as what to think of Tom Vasel or the Matchbox Collection!

I agree there's a chasm between science ideas and board games, but during the covid crisis we had a very established medical researcher, Didier Raoult, saying a lot of crappy things, and that influenced a lot of people, and which had a lot of impact here and there. So the boundary between facts and opinions is not always clear even in this domain (as the numerous discussions surrounding his papers showed). Were people to be blamed for listening to them? I think yes, partly, always (I'm influenced by Sartre's views myself), but of that blame, Raoult should get the lion's share.

When you have an authoritative position, your speech is more performative than anyone's ramblings. It's no longer an opinion: it's a force to be reckoned with, one that can imprint movement. Which is exactly what happened here, probably for the best (better rulebook, raising awareness about bing-blinding, JonGetsGames gets hired in the process).

Speaking of JonGetsGames, is he such a nice guy as it seems? I don't trust people that look nice, it's always suspicious (which is why my favorite LGS is the one with the jerk seller and higher prices; here I feel safe because I already know what's wrong).

@Zerbique Hey, I look nice too! 😋😋😋 I have no idea if Jon is a nice person, and it doesn't matter anyway as long as he explains the games well. We are not going to marry him. 😄