Hobby Warts

Welcome to my new series called Hobby Warts. In this series I examine a Wart on the Hobby of boardgaming. A person, place, event or thing in our hobby that makes the average person cringe and in many cases repels a newbie from entering our domain.

This week I would like to take a look at an ugly Hobby Wart, Ted Alspach's Board 2 Pieces. This boardgame themed comic strip is so devoid of wit it would make Oscar Wilde puke and then be speechless. Take a look at the most recent offering:

opinionatedgamers.com/2011/07/26/board-2...american-gamer-pt-7/

The purpose of any comic strip is at the very least to provide a slight smile or to entertain for a brief moment or provide a hint of sarcasm on a topic to make one think but this strip does nothing. What is worse is that it is produced with a professional appearance but in most cases makes no sense. Even to the most hardened insider in the hobby that loves inside jokes it falls flat.

Our very own Eugene surpassed this turd of a comic strip by leaps as bounds. So much so that it is embarrassing. Board 2 Pieces is so dry that if it was actuially printed on paper it would declared a fire hazard!

Why this miserable comic strip has been going so long is beyond me. I actually physically cringe when I see it posted and its not because of the meeples but the whole lack of humor, wit and intelligible cohesive writing smacks me in the face so hard as to render me so full of nausea that I want to volunteer as a test subject for the new Pepto Bismol Turbo.

Board 2 Pieces is a Hobby Wart that needs to be frozen and removed.

Completely agree.

I don't know that anyone reads it. I never finished one before until today. I just can't get through it. Generally I find board game in jokes really cringe worthy. Simon gets away with it because his are either very vague (so we can all get it) or simply just for the F:AT crowd. Which means I still get it. These things have to stay simple and B2P is just too much text everytime I see it. That's mainly why I don't bother. There isn't a lot to say and the jokes run our pretty damned quickly. Relegating your strip to being about board games only really limits what you can do and makes it very difficult to keep it entertaining.

If anything the guy is persistent, I'll give him that.

The question is Steve. With all this shit that's bad for the hobby... what is good for it? I don't think it needs anything personally. I find more then enough good games each year to buy and in fact need to get rid of some from time to time.

"Who invades my home at this early hour" trumps any single line out of any wall-of-text comic that has been produced thus far.

The question is Steve. With all this shit that's bad for the hobby... what is good for it? I don't think it needs anything personally. I find more then enough good games each year to buy and in fact need to get rid of some from time to time.

What the hobby needs is really good ambassadors to welcome the willing newcomers into the fold. I believe soon the pendulum is going to swing the other way and we are going to have a huge backlash against technology and a back to basics approach. The conditions are ripe for this and boardgames will be a prime entertainment feature in the home again. Many people are facsinated with boardgames and would like to give them a try but they feel they might be too complicated or they will lose badly and feel foolish. I pride myself in being a good Ambassador of gaming. If I am playing with a new group I keep it friendly and don't go for a crushing defeat. I have a game ready for almost any kind of crowd you can think of from any background.

One would think that conventions would be a good place for these Ambassadors but I find just the opposite. Most are deep insiders and believe it or not they actually like keeping the membership to the hobby small because it makes them feel like a member of an exclusive club.

You would think game stores would be prime spots for this kind of "welcoming ambassador" but again this is not my experience. Every game store I have been in has never recommended a game for me, nor shown any hint of good customer service, its no wonder they are failing.

However, don't get me wrong. There is a certain finesse in being a good game ambassador, you don't want to come across as an obnoxious used car salesman. You have to learn to read people, and this is a vital skill to a good salesman.

Pity.
Ted is actually a great guy, and great fun to play games with. (His taste is more toward either rampant insanity games or massively hardcore Euros. You'll never guess which sort we tend to end up playing.

But I can't stand Board2Pieces either. It is just so...painful. But then so are most webcomics. I think I'm just sticking to XKCD myself. Part of the charm is that you really have no idea what sort of thing is posted each time.

Pity.
Ted is actually a great guy, and great fun to play games with. (His taste is more toward either rampant insanity games or massively hardcore Euros. You'll never guess which sort we tend to end up playing.

But I can't stand Board2Pieces either. It is just so...painful. But then so are most webcomics. I think I'm just sticking to XKCD myself. Part of the charm is that you really have no idea what sort of thing is posted each time.

I'm sure he is a fine person and if you are a friend you should tell him that the comic doesn't work or at least try a different approach. I can't imagine him sitting at a booth at Essen signing one sheets of the comic and glad handing fans while they praise the smiling meeple.

2 best webcomics after XKCD:

www.theoatmeal.com

dailysuperpower.tumblr.com/ (Personal favorite: Being able to fart peace)

B2P is dreadful. Never anything besides painful.

And if people don't mention Dinosaur Comics , well, they just don't know good webcomics. I do love The Oatmeal though.

Personally I like Perry Bible Fellowsihp comics.

www.pbfcomics.com

JonJacob wrote: Personally I like Perry Bible Fellowsihp comics.

www.pbfcomics.com

I really loved PBF, but it's essentially a dead comic these days. Bummer, that.

Yes, that's the other in my top 3.

Glad someone bought up PBF.

Personally I can't get enough of this:

www.redmeat.com/

Are we supposed to not mention Penny Arcade or something? They are the Light That Shines upon the webcomic world.

I also enjoy Hark! A Vagrant and the editorial stylings of Big Fat Whale .

While uneven, the Blams can be the funniest things on the web. Here's the one that made me keep looking for them, featuring The Airhornsman . And here's the most NSFW Alliday song ever . Note: Your slizz becomes a jizz prison.