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Author Topic: The PODCAST now known as "Mentioned in Dispatches" !  (Read 194949 times)

bayonetbrant

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Reply #165 on: May 03, 2019, 11:44:03 AM
You talked about Canadian government zombies without me!?!  :censored:

it's not like we didn't have any Canadian representation on the call, besides

Only one of those was made up, but you'll have to listen to figure out which one.

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bayonetbrant

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Reply #166 on: May 10, 2019, 04:40:47 PM

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Bison

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Reply #167 on: May 12, 2019, 10:43:52 AM
Interesting discussion. Good job y’all.



bayonetbrant

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Reply #168 on: July 10, 2019, 09:57:55 AM
RSS Feed for podcast subscriptions


https://www.armchairdragoons.com/feed/podcast


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Peter Mogensen

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Reply #169 on: August 23, 2019, 05:57:20 AM
I listened to your podcast on the Scramble for Africa thing.

As someone who is outside of the US political mess, who don't care about Scramble for Africa, and who don't regard myself a on either "side" of the discussion you are having... I don't agree with those getting enraged about SfA being cancelled, but I also certainly don't agree with the (in lack of a better word) "SJW" side of this whole thing:

I  think you are totally missing some important points about this whole issue. So many in fact that it's hard to enumerate all of them here.
But overall, it very much seems like you view the entire thing in a context of US politics (which you also admit) ... but it's not only that you (correctly) notice that all of this just comes a football in a larger picture. You are doing it yourself - at least to the point of you simply ignoring any non-extreme point of those who think, say, the NYT article was stupid, and only making this a 2-sided issue based on the current domestic US situation.

As a European it often seems this kind of online debate are trying to impose US thinking on all of us, sometimes in absurd ways.




bayonetbrant

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Reply #170 on: August 23, 2019, 06:27:42 AM
As a European it often seems this kind of online debate are trying to impose US thinking on all of us, sometimes in absurd ways.

I think there's a lot of people that absolutely agree with you (incl me) and moreover, there's a lot of people in the US that think that the absurdity is getting out of hand.

But in this specific context, you had a US company making a game that was primarily for the US market reacting to public feedback from an audience that was primarily in the US.

That's not to say GMT doesn't sell a lot of games overseas, or that overseas customers don't get a chance to weigh in, but when you're weighing sales figures, you're focused on the dollars, not pounds, euros, yen, kroner, rubles, or anything else.




I  think you are totally missing some important points about this whole issue. So many in fact that it's hard to enumerate all of them here.

Agreed, but we ran 1:40 for our longest podcast ever, and still missed a whole lot of points.

Cyrano and I were just discussing a follow-up podcast last night, and we'll look to get it scheduled soon(-ish) before the start of our third season of the regular podcast.




Thank you for listening, and for the feedback :)

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Peter Mogensen

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Reply #171 on: August 23, 2019, 06:42:29 AM
But in this specific context, you had a US company making a game that was primarily for the US market reacting to public feedback from an audience that was primarily in the US.

That's not to say GMT doesn't sell a lot of games overseas, or that overseas customers don't get a chance to weigh in, but when you're weighing sales figures, you're focused on the dollars, not pounds, euros, yen, kroner, rubles, or anything else.

Yes... as I said... I have no issue with SfA or GMTs decision. They are entirely in their right to make such business decisions.
I didn't participate in the SfA discussion... I thought it was silly.

But I also think that it clearly shows that there's some internal problems in the US which cause a lot of tension, and some of what comes out of that appears genuinely absurd to many Europeans. Sometimes you just have to shake your head an wonder why everything coming out of the US has to be about "race". ... and the whole parallel to "Gamergate" ... it just makes NO SENSE AT ALL in context of the board game scene here in Europe.
... and then the issue that it's totally impossible to discuss the reasons for all this, since it very quickly ends up being political - because it's actually rooted in a larger political context - but a context which is very different in the US than it is in Europe.






mirth

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Reply #172 on: August 23, 2019, 07:17:20 AM
Sometimes you just have to shake your head an wonder why everything coming out of the US has to be about "race". ... and the whole parallel to "Gamergate" ... it just makes NO SENSE AT ALL in context of the board game scene here in Europe.

Because race relations and gender issues are two of the biggest political/social issues in the US today and they are very big issues as well.


I imagine there are current issues in Europe that would make no sense at all in the context of the game scene here in the US.

Being able to Google shit better than your clients is a legit career skill.


Peter Mogensen

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Reply #173 on: August 23, 2019, 07:25:22 AM
Because race relations and gender issues are two of the biggest political/social issues in the US today and they are very big issues as well

Yes. I know. ... sadly ... I and can understand why that is.
I would just hope it didn't contribute to make the whole discussion so two-sided with an element of "if you're not with us, then you're against us".
That totally drowns out what people not soaked in those US socials issues might think.



bayonetbrant

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Reply #174 on: August 23, 2019, 08:53:30 AM
Because race relations and gender issues are two of the biggest political/social issues in the US today and they are very big issues as well

Yes. I know. ... sadly ... I and can understand why that is.
I would just hope it didn't contribute to make the whole discussion so two-sided with an element of "if you're not with us, then you're against us".
That totally drowns out what people not soaked in those US socials issues might think.


The "with us or against us" dichotomy not limited to the US in its stupidity.  We just happen to better than most at broadcasting it.


There's all sorts of room for nuance in these discussions, but that involves more intellectual capital than I think a lot of people feel like expending.




Regardless, I think a couple my points still hold true:
1. There's no "bright line" out there between what is acceptable content and presentation of challenging issues in games; the line gets fuzzier the closer you examine it
2. The "line" (as it were) is in different places for different people.


Not stated on the podcast, but still relevant: there are always people willing to enforce their lines on other people.  Usually with good intentions, but rarely to good effect.

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mirth

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Reply #175 on: August 23, 2019, 09:00:10 AM
Socio-political considerations aside, SfA was not a very good game concept. It should have never made it on to GMT's p500 list imo. Having it yanked didn't bother me in the least.

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Peter Mogensen

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Reply #176 on: August 23, 2019, 09:11:29 AM
Socio-political considerations aside, SfA was not a very good game concept. It should have never made it on to GMT's p500 list imo. Having it yanked didn't bother me in the least.

Neither did it bother me. I don't know much about the game, but from what I've heard I most likely would not have spent time or money on it.
The point I raise has nothing to do with that game or the discussion around it.



Peter Mogensen

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Reply #177 on: August 23, 2019, 09:30:11 AM
Not stated on the podcast, but still relevant: there are always people willing to enforce their lines on other people.  Usually with good intentions, but rarely to good effect.

Yes.
And there's too much "group think".
I'm not "a part" of a hobby. I *have* a hobby. ... Some of the relations I create while playing might end up in social relations and the creations of some small community, but I don't feel like I"m a part of a larger "board game community" with thousands of other BGG users. We're not a "group" ... We're individuals who just happen to share a hobby.
So it bothers me when people discuss what "the community" should do about "problematic" issues and proclaim stuff like (say) black SS units as problematic and insinuate that there's some sort of "whitewashing" going on. The headline aside, there was a few things in that NYT article which just came across as trying to invent problems.
So when people who regard all this as a big community comes with moral finger-pointing and tell everybody who don't agree that they are bigots or worse ... it just becomes too much.

Now, -  bigots do exist... I've even once bumped into a Holocaust denier... but come on ... some times you just want to play a strategically challenging game and not be expected to have moral considerations about whether the game art and components are sufficiently condemning of historical people deserving condemnation.



mirth

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Reply #178 on: August 23, 2019, 09:44:24 AM
but come on ... some times you just want to play a strategically challenging game and not be expected to have moral considerations about whether the game art and components are sufficiently condemning of historical people deserving condemnation.

The hobby has become more mainstream in the past 10-15 years. Those considerations are going to become an increasing part of the discussion.

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BanzaiCat

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Reply #179 on: August 23, 2019, 09:53:28 AM
I just listened to an older Dice Tower podcast on the way in to work this morning, in which they read a missive from a listener that said he'd been with his gaming group at a restaurant. They were playing Secret Hitler and he said he chose to not participate as he wasn't feeling it that particular day - that's absolutely fine, of course. What's not is, the guy said his friends started saying "HEIL HITLER" and throwing up a Nazi salute - right there in the restaurant.

It's definitely gotten more mainstream but behavior like that is going to act a lot to put the brakes on perception of the hobby. It bothers me that there's people that stupid to be utterly clueless as to how they appear, especially in a public place, to be yelling crap like that - whether or not they are serious - and having a board game laid out in front of them. This falls right into the NYT's narrative by lumping board gamers in with Klan and Nurenburg rally pictures. I'd like to think 99% of us are smart enough to be positive ambassadors for our hobby (regardless of the games we enjoy, wargaming or otherwise), and it's a shame that 1% (or whatever it is) are oblivious.

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