So Very Wrong About Games

Pickaxe

A podcast about all manner of hobby games by Mike Walker and Mark Bigney. Bad games don't go easy on you, so we don't go easy on them. Thorough analysis via reviews, news, and discussion of topics in gaming. We take context seriously, we value your time, and we're not into hype. Just because games are fun doesn't mean we can't take them seriously, and just because we take them seriously doesn't mean we can't have fun.

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421 episodes
Updated July 21

Episodes421

Newest first

Nov 29, 2022 · 1 hr 24 min
#240: Deal-Making
Walker has yet to inform us what agenda the aliens are pursuing in Argentina during their relentless campaign of cow abduction. Do the alien overlords practise colonialism in the same way as their human counterparts? Do the inscrutable...
Nov 22, 2022 · 1 hr 8 min
#239: Dwellings of Eldervale
Say what you want about the evils of filthy lucre, but I find it amazing how managers turn communitarian and high-minded when it comes to fair remuneration. "Don't you believe in the project?" "Aren't you committed to the team?" et al get deployed all...
Nov 15, 2022 · 1 hr 13 min
#238: Dealing with Rules Mistakes
Most of those time loop movies, while enjoyable, lack any degree of verisimilitude--clearly the chief use of a power to undo time or back up would be to get another chance at not saying something terribly stupid and embarrassing. One wonders if such...
Nov 8, 2022 · 1 hr 3 min
#237: Flamecraft
"Let us go then, you and I, When the board is spread out against the table Like a beast euthanized inside a stable; Let us go, through certain half-deserted tracks, The muttering attacks During restless nights of one-play bad games And sepia box...
Nov 1, 2022 · 1 hr 17 min
#236: Dead Reckoning
Replete with a robust menagerie in this episode, we perhaps begin to see why anthropomorphic animals seem to feature in every other game lately. We have Dalmations (plus a cow named Doog trying to impersonate a Dalmation), horsies, goats, weasels and...
Oct 25, 2022 · 1 hr 20 min
#235: Games, Games, GAMES
We apologize for the all-caps implied yelling, but really, given this volume we had to have a corresponding... uh, volume. The puns are also somewhat fishy--but those you can feel free to skip, jack. The nautical theme doesn't end with fishing, as the...
Oct 18, 2022 · 1 hr
#234: Live at SHUX!
Live at SHUX 2022, we are joined with extra-special guest Quinns from Shut Up and Sit Down! He was clearly thrilled to be with us, as evinced by the following exchange: Mark: "We're professionals, Quinns." Quinns: "Citation needed." 02:26...
Oct 11, 2022 · 1 hr 8 min
#233: Heroscape
We apologize for the poor quality of Mark's half of the audio this week. We offer two possible explanations. One is that Walker, motivated as he is by spite and malice, engaged in an elaborate act of sabotage so as to undermine Mark in public. The...
Sep 27, 2022 · 1 hr 19 min
#232: What a Campaign Needs
001 You approach a door. Test perception. If you fail, go to paragraph 105. If you succeed, go to paragraph 166. 105 You fail to notice a sharp thing, so you step on it and take 1 wound. Go to paragraph 166. 166 On the other side of the door...
Sep 20, 2022 · 59 min
#231: Capitol Lux 2
Even the steadfastly Imperial Americans are familiar with metric measurements of distance, volume, and temperature; but alas, the metric French Republican calendar has fallen by the wayside. Consisting of 12 months of exactly 30 days each (3 10-day...
Sep 13, 2022 · 1 hr 9 min
#230: Mosaic: A Story of Civilization
We encourage elaborate deception in this week's episode. Go on designers, up your game. While we can't accept anything from you in terms of gifts or donations, you can totally fool us. Stack yourselves three deep in a trenchcoat! Pretend to be...
Sep 6, 2022 · 56 min
#229: Efficiency Euros
Fatal Fury 3's subtitle was Road to the Final Victory, ironic given that there were then four more Fatal Fury titles (the first's subtitle was The King of Fighters, which is its own huge delightful kettle of fish). While Fatal Fury Special (the actual...
Aug 30, 2022 · 1 hr 4 min
#228: It's a Wonderful World/Kingdom
Not every game needs to be four huge boxes full of other boxes and plastic. Some can be delightfully simple games... with boxes that are too big due to crowdfunding. Other games could be underappreciated Reiner Knizia classics brought to a new...
Aug 23, 2022 · 1 hr 11 min
#227: Done with CMON?
I met a gamer from an antique land Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of plastic Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor...
Aug 16, 2022 · 1 hr 13 min
#226: Space Station Phoenix
The Smart Car was truly out-of-the-box thinking. "Why do passenger cars all have to be the way they are?" asked some clever group of designers, and designed the minimalistic teensy Smart Car. Of course, the challenges posed by manufacturing the little...
Aug 9, 2022 · 1 hr
#225: Carnegie
There was a time you could just stroll in a big box store in the United States and just buy a miniatures skirmish game that was actually pretty good. Sure, it didn't have analog movement or anything, but it used true line of sight and had amazing...
Aug 2, 2022 · 1 hr 14 min
#224: Does the Industry Demand Too Much?
Times are bad. Children no longer listen to their elders and everyone is running a Kickstarter. When I started this hobby I had no idea I would get a crash course in international shipping and logistics. Back in the day you might have had a friend in...
Jul 26, 2022 · 1 hr 2 min
#223: Stroganov
Much talk of animals this week, what with wombats and mass animal harvesting in Stroganov. Mark's experience was that despite covering many hot-button issues in his medical ethics classes, the one that invariably produced the most voluble emotional...
Jul 19, 2022 · 1 hr 5 min
#222: Fumbling towards a New Normal
We celebrate the release of a palindrome episode with the glorious news of the return of SHUX, the Shut Up & Sit Down Expo. Perhaps more relevantly, SVWAG are invited guests! Both Mark and Walker will be in Vancouver from September 30th to October...
Jul 12, 2022 · 1 hr 8 min
#221: Sakura Arms
It's a weird little thematic disconnect when you're not sure who or what your avatar in-game is. Perhaps we have swallowed corporate personhood so fully that we can easily accept playing as a corporation but balk a little at an amorphous group of...