AggroChat #283 – Decade Tabletop became Normal

Featuring: Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen

As we work on our “Games of the Decade” show, one of the things that kept coming up was whether or not to put tabletop games on the list.  After some back and forth we decided that really the tabletop show was a show of its own, because this decade changed the status quo significantly.  There is a certain amount of hyperbole in the show title, but in truth this is the decade when D&D and Settlers of Catan started being sold at Walmart and Target, and you can’t get much more mainstream than that.  We talk about the meteoric explosion of tabletop gaming and some of the factors we feel potentially triggered it. It was a wildly meandering show and we found it impossible to come up with a bullet point list of what we discussed.  We almost completely missed miniature wargaming, which may end up being its own show at some point.

Topics Discussed

  • Pen and paper
  • Board games
  • Card games
  • Pop culture references

Bel Folks Stuff – Episode 1

A Discussion with MMO Syl

It has been over five years since I recorded this episode and sat down with my good friend Syl to have a discussion about life and gaming and all manner of random topics. She is best known for her work on the Battle Bards Podcast and the MMO Gypsy blog. She blogs considerably less than she used to but Battle Bards is up to episode 159 releasing the last one on January 1st. Life has conspired to make our paths cross less frequently as we don’t really have any games in common these days, so I dearly miss getting to talk with her on a regular basis. To be honest it was dusting off this episode and listening to it again that made me want to restart this process again and start sitting down to record a discussion with my friends.

Over the coming months it is my hope to reach out to a number of folks to sit down and record fresh episodes to start being released as I finish re-posting the original shows. I have a huge list of people I am interested in talking with and am in the process of starting to make contact and set up recording sessions. These original shows lacked much format, but my goal is to have a more structured proceeding in the hope of keeping them to an hour in length. Even though they were never listened to that frequently, I am still pretty proud of them. Now that I know a little bit more about the process it is my hope to do them justice with the re-release.

AggroChat #282 – 2019 Games of the Year Show

Featuring: Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Tamrielo and Thalen

It is that time again, time for another games of the year show.  As is usually the case we fire up a google form and have each member of the AggroChat cast pick their top 5 picks for the year.  This then gets collated into the final list that we talked about during the show. This time around we had thirteen different titles to talk about, with the highest voted title getting 5 different votes from staff members.  Since we have talked at length about most of these games, the resulting discussion ends up being more a trip down memory lane than a deep dive.

Topics Discussed:

  • 2019 Games of the Year Show
    • Trials of Mana
    • Anthem
    • The Outer Worlds
    • Devil May Cry 5
    • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
    • World of Warcraft Classic
    • Greedfall
    • Fire Emblem: Three Houses
    • Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
    • Jedi Fallen Order
    • Untitled Goose Game
    • Baba Is You
    • Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

The Original Blog Post on AggroChat.com

AggroChat #281 – Video Game Adaptations

Featuring: Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen

Bel is back but still sick and hoping his voice holds!  Tonight we have a short reprise of the Star Wars Rise of the Skywalker discussion from last week since Bel didn’t get to participate.  This tiptoes around being spoiler so your mileage may vary. From there we talk about A Short Hike a charming game about meeting animal friends while trying to get mobile phone reception.  Tam talks about his experience with the Battlefront 2 campaign mode and a bit of him replaying SWTOR campaigns. Bel talks about Video Games being ported to the small screen and how they are more “inspired by” than accurate.  The Witcher however has a shot for shot recreation of a battle from the first game and we dive into that. Bel also has been playing a ton of Witcher 3 and is completely enthralled with the game now. Kodra talks about his experience with Slay the Spire and then we talk some more Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Topics Discussed

  • Star Wars Discussion Reprised
  • A Short Hike
    • Animal Crossing With a Point
  • Star Wars Battlefront 2 Campaign
  • Revisiting SWTOR Campaigns
  • Video Games Adapted to Screen
    • Witcher Shot for Shot Recreation
  • Revisiting Witcher 3
  • Slay the Spire
  • Pokemon Sword and Shield
    • Merits of Shift vs Set

Original Blog Post on AggroChat.com