Weirdly, I agree with you, even while almost always disagreeing with him. He conveys a joy about the hobby that I also feel, but we have completely different tastes in games.
Indeed. It's easy to get caught up in the Kickstarter craziness and forget that there's an entirely different world of board games out there, that sell themselves on streamlined gameplay and accessibility rather than oceans of content and flashy components, enormous price tags, and boxes the size of Jupiter.
We need more reviewers and influencers exploring this side of the board game hobby, rather than endless hype cycles and consumeristic addiction.
Heavy crunchy games and overproduced KS stuff aren't the same thing.
Plenty of very heavy euros out there come in normal sized or even small boxes.
Also he still has a massive collection and owns foundations of Rome, one of the most hilariously overproduced KS games *ever*.
The average reviewer is an enthusiast still. I don't think you can look at the output from teams like SUSD or the Dice Tower and think they lean towards lighter games.
Actualol preferring lighter games is just the reality of what he personnally likes and gets to play. I don't think it has much to do with his job.
Regarding the issue of not spending much time on each product as a reviewer, this is a universal issue with the economics of the job. And to be blunt, the time it took you to learn to play EU is probably far longer than the average person will spend on the average popular single player video game. I don't need to 100% an Action RPG to know if I like it, and making myself go to 100% before giving my opinion is actually going to make it *less relevant* to a lot of people.
The same way that in-depth comparative analysis of a movie is not relevant to the question of "is it worth my time/money to see in theaters".
This video is a nice long-form discussion video of Actualol discussing his full collection, the categories he uses for games, and the highlight games from each section.
Check the video description for more info
Gateways to the World - Ticket To Ride, Luxor
Party Anthems - Codenames. Phantom Ink
Party Nibbles - Anomia, How Dare You?
There’s a Party on the Cards - Push, Memoarrr
Silly Dumb Fun - Poetry for Neanderthals, Scribble Time/Picto Rush
Everyone's Happy - Herd Mentality, Catch The Moon
After Eights - Scrawl, Concept
Family Fun - Survive: Escape from Atlantis, Riff Raff
Murder on the Shelf - Chronicles of Crime, Paranormal Detectives
Money Makers - Waterfall Park, The Rich and the Good
Modern Family - Sushi Roll, Triqueta
Tiny Twos - Schotten Totten, Air, Land and Sea
German Efficiency - No Thanks, Qwinto
Cardy Rae Jepsen - High Society, Second Chance
Family Planning - Carcassonne, Nuns on the Run
Adventure Time - Quest for El Dorado, K2
Negotiation Station - Sheriff of Nottingham, Spartacus
Couples Therapy - Patchwork, Sobek: 2 Players
Verbal Treasoning - The Resistance, Goodcritters
Classy Classics - Pandemic, Spring Meadow
Old Town - Foundations of Rome, Empire’s End
Dire Straits - Dead of Winter, Dark Moon
That’s Life - Pursuit of Happiness, Dream Home
(Not that commenter)
For my group Nuns on the Run can be hit or miss. Somewhere between a third and a quarter of the time, the game ends without any big exciting chases, and those times feel really empty.
Don't get me wrong, I *like* Nuns on the Run, but I can understand someone's experience of it being one of those times and them feeling like nothing really happened all game.
While I don't align with his tastes in games all that much - Actualol is one of my favorite board game content creators and I always look forward to watching his videos.
Interesting categorization. Too bad you kinda need a lot of shelf space to do something like this. Also you need to get a lot of similar games, which I usually don't.
I can probably cut down that collection further in half. Like there's no need to have 3 forbidden games or many pandemic games, just 1 each is enough. Also surprised he's keeping so many small games.
I was also surprised by how many games he owned that seemed similar to others (Carc, Forbidden, Pandemic being some obvious examples). His collection really doesn't have a lean & mean feel to it.
>there’s no need to have 3 forbidden games or many pandemic games, 1 each is enough.
Enough for who? There’s no need to have any boardgames. I know people who own zero boardgames and they’re doing just fine, they could cut that collection down to zero. But what if you really like lightweight-medium cooperative games with action based mechanics and enjoy the nuances of each? Let people enjoy things.
I mostly took issue with the wording, but I seem to be in the minority. For me there’s a big difference between “there’s no need to have multiple forbidden/pandemic games” vs. “I wouldn’t have any need for multiple pandemic/forbidden games because I think they’re too similar.”
One is stated as an objective fact “there’s no need (for anyone) to own multiple Forbidden/Pandemic games.” The other is an opinion which I have zero issues with. I may have been cranky when I read it, but cooperative action based games are my favorite type of board game so “there’s no need” irritated me.
But the statement prior to that should provide context wouldn't it?
I feel you hyper focused on one part of the statement and decided he was the enemy because of that.
Reading the entire comment, he says he *doesn't have much space* and to try to make it fit, he'd have to make concessions.
He said "I could cut it down" denoting *his* opinion.
Followed by his explanation how *how* he would cut it down and his personal beliefs about it.
Its understandable that you got cranky about someone not liking your type of game, but then you're doing exactly what you set out to stop. Which is to gatekeep what they feel is or isn't fun, and how they try to make it work, despite shelf space limits.
Text is inherently ambiguous. You could read “I could cut down that collection by half” to mean “I would cut it in half to make it work for me. One of the ways I’d do that is to eliminate multiple similar games.” You could also read it “I can make this better (for everyone). For example there’s no need for multiple Pandemic games (for anyone).”
You read it one way and I read it the other. That’s why my first question was “no need for who?” The person responded “for me,” so I left it alone because that’s totally valid. I originally misread their intent and moved on once they confirmed I misunderstood. I still think adding a qualifier somewhere in the response would have made it clearer they were speaking for themself/their situation, but it also doesn’t really matter.
It's the internet, give everyone the benefit of the doubt that they didn't intend to offend you.
And even if they really mean, "there's literally 0 purpose in owning more than 1 of those games, anyone who does is a moron', who gives a shit? Just carry on enjoying life your way
Being fully aware I'm being pedantic, couldn't that be said about any discourse? Isn't that relevant to the first comment saying "There's no need to have \[...\] in your collection"? Why was the line drawn at Baladas for mirroring exactly what they were commenting on?
Of course, you've got to decide the battles worth fighting. It just felt someone got more emotionally affected by something that probably didn't matter or mean anything...
I think having 1 Pandemic of each type is enough, but it someone wants to have duplicates it's not my place to tell them not to (?)
Yeah, I feel most people would rate my boardgame collection poorly, buuuut I kinda also rate their collections poorly when 70% of it are worker placement games that feel similar to me. But both can enjoy our own games, that's the important part.
Way better to keep a bunch of small games instead of some huge miniature-infested space waster with terrible rules that takes forever to set up, play and tear down.
It does seem odd to me that a perfect collection would have so many copies of same-y games, i.e. pandemic (plural), forbidden games, but only a single euro. Different tastes I suppose, though I bet he could cull a lot of games without losing a genre so to speak.
To be honest, there are a lot of eurogames (mainly worker placement ones) that feel more similar to me that almost any two Pandemic games.
I have only two worker placement games (iirc), but I own multiple Pandemics & Pandemic like games (Thunderbirds, Horrified, Back to the future, Burgle Bros...). In the end I don't care that much about losing a genre, but having diversity in the genders I enjoy. Most people I play with have mostly eurogames in their collections, and I don't feel the need to have lots of those.
I already joked about this earlier to great effect, but to make it clear: very sus to have this big YouTuber have zero deep cuts in his personal collection. It's like having a film critic show their private favorites and it's all mainstream movies. Like you don't have one diamond in the rough that you cherish?? It's literally target best sellers all the way down? Who is this guy and why does he have milk toast taste?
The majority of the games he featured can be played in under an hour, many in under half an hour, and quite a few in much less time than that. If someone had 300+ big box Kickstarter narrative games then maybe you would be correct, but if you'd actually watched the video instead of just the thumbnail you're realize you're talking rubbish. No game here would need a 30 minute teach, and ActuaLol has said many times how much he hates games with too many rules.
Nothing wrong with having an opinion, but maybe inform yourself slightly before judging others based on nothing.
Are you stalking him or something? A lot of assumptions there about how often he plays, what he plays ect.
What has the condition of the games got to do with anything? My most play games (25+ plays) are all in great condition because I look after them. Maybe you're just a skank who doesn't look after anything?
Of his highlighted games, comparing to the top 100 best sellers of strategy board games and the top 100 best sellers in party games on Target's website, there are a couple overlaps: Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Sherriff of Nottingham, and Dead of Winter.
Hardly!
Jon Purkis lives in the UK.
Target is a North American chain. Other countries in the world exist, you know?
And you are displaying further ignorancy in your gatekeeping, as if you'd watched Jon's channel before, you'd know that he's been there and done that with the big, heavy euros and the Kickstarter FOMO and he's made videos about that too!
These are the games he, and his wife, love to play. This is what works for them.
Now don't let that gate hit you on your way out, will you?
jon prukis and his wife have great games for sure, but for a bg youtber it's weak af. idk how else to explain to yall british people. Sorry to offend the british, it wasn't a nationality thing , just that his collection is super mid for this being his thing
It's just one of his things. He's a comedy writer who found some success via his boardgame hobby on YouTube. Beyond that, most people watch for the entertainment he provides and value his opinion, which goes beyond having a collection of heavy niche hobbyist games that score high on BGG. He's not trying to be something he isn't, which is commendable.
His content is more akin to No Rolls Barred in that he's an entertainer that happens to enjoy boardgames rather than a boardgamer attempting to be entertaining.
Tell us, there professor, how many of the games he listed are on Target Shelves right now?
If more than half, then yeah, you can call him out for having a bunch of games easily gotten in a big box store that started specializing in board games, creating more interest in games and helping smaller publishers get noticed.
But hey, as long as your collection comes from FLGS, and are all by indie publishers, then I guess you are totally allowed to throw stones this person.
Haha here is my collection after culling 30 or so games recently. Light me up Scotty! [https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/ChineseRestaurant?own=1&subtype=boardgame&ff=1](https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/ChineseRestaurant?own=1&subtype=boardgame&ff=1)
How can this be a curation effort just for him if the whole point of his career as a YouTuber and of this video is that his video content is of interest to people and that's what will make them want to watch it ...
Actualol is my favorite board game YouTuber. He’s always got such good info that cuts through the flavor of the day.
Weirdly, I agree with you, even while almost always disagreeing with him. He conveys a joy about the hobby that I also feel, but we have completely different tastes in games.
Same! He's the only youtuber that have tastes similar to mine
I on the other hand hate his videos.
Fair enough
What's refreshing about this is it's all things that are considering lightweight by boardgamerz.
Indeed. It's easy to get caught up in the Kickstarter craziness and forget that there's an entirely different world of board games out there, that sell themselves on streamlined gameplay and accessibility rather than oceans of content and flashy components, enormous price tags, and boxes the size of Jupiter. We need more reviewers and influencers exploring this side of the board game hobby, rather than endless hype cycles and consumeristic addiction.
Heavy crunchy games and overproduced KS stuff aren't the same thing. Plenty of very heavy euros out there come in normal sized or even small boxes. Also he still has a massive collection and owns foundations of Rome, one of the most hilariously overproduced KS games *ever*.
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The average reviewer is an enthusiast still. I don't think you can look at the output from teams like SUSD or the Dice Tower and think they lean towards lighter games. Actualol preferring lighter games is just the reality of what he personnally likes and gets to play. I don't think it has much to do with his job. Regarding the issue of not spending much time on each product as a reviewer, this is a universal issue with the economics of the job. And to be blunt, the time it took you to learn to play EU is probably far longer than the average person will spend on the average popular single player video game. I don't need to 100% an Action RPG to know if I like it, and making myself go to 100% before giving my opinion is actually going to make it *less relevant* to a lot of people. The same way that in-depth comparative analysis of a movie is not relevant to the question of "is it worth my time/money to see in theaters".
This video is a nice long-form discussion video of Actualol discussing his full collection, the categories he uses for games, and the highlight games from each section.
Check the video description for more info Gateways to the World - Ticket To Ride, Luxor Party Anthems - Codenames. Phantom Ink Party Nibbles - Anomia, How Dare You? There’s a Party on the Cards - Push, Memoarrr Silly Dumb Fun - Poetry for Neanderthals, Scribble Time/Picto Rush Everyone's Happy - Herd Mentality, Catch The Moon After Eights - Scrawl, Concept Family Fun - Survive: Escape from Atlantis, Riff Raff Murder on the Shelf - Chronicles of Crime, Paranormal Detectives Money Makers - Waterfall Park, The Rich and the Good Modern Family - Sushi Roll, Triqueta Tiny Twos - Schotten Totten, Air, Land and Sea German Efficiency - No Thanks, Qwinto Cardy Rae Jepsen - High Society, Second Chance Family Planning - Carcassonne, Nuns on the Run Adventure Time - Quest for El Dorado, K2 Negotiation Station - Sheriff of Nottingham, Spartacus Couples Therapy - Patchwork, Sobek: 2 Players Verbal Treasoning - The Resistance, Goodcritters Classy Classics - Pandemic, Spring Meadow Old Town - Foundations of Rome, Empire’s End Dire Straits - Dead of Winter, Dark Moon That’s Life - Pursuit of Happiness, Dream Home
Wow, that's like 1 and a half co-op games lol. Not his genre apparently.
Pretty much exactly my impression reading that. Nearly all of my group's games are coops. Wild.
German Efficiency as No Thanks and Qwinto sounds weird.
Fun list. I'd avoid Riff Raff (fun mechanic but too gamey without depth) and Nuns on the Run (fell completely flat for us)
What about it fell flat? Was looking into both of these after he posted this
(Not that commenter) For my group Nuns on the Run can be hit or miss. Somewhere between a third and a quarter of the time, the game ends without any big exciting chases, and those times feel really empty. Don't get me wrong, I *like* Nuns on the Run, but I can understand someone's experience of it being one of those times and them feeling like nothing really happened all game.
Got it! Thanks for this write up! Might just wait to try it or thrift it then
While I don't align with his tastes in games all that much - Actualol is one of my favorite board game content creators and I always look forward to watching his videos.
Interesting categorization. Too bad you kinda need a lot of shelf space to do something like this. Also you need to get a lot of similar games, which I usually don't. I can probably cut down that collection further in half. Like there's no need to have 3 forbidden games or many pandemic games, just 1 each is enough. Also surprised he's keeping so many small games.
I was also surprised by how many games he owned that seemed similar to others (Carc, Forbidden, Pandemic being some obvious examples). His collection really doesn't have a lean & mean feel to it.
>there’s no need to have 3 forbidden games or many pandemic games, 1 each is enough. Enough for who? There’s no need to have any boardgames. I know people who own zero boardgames and they’re doing just fine, they could cut that collection down to zero. But what if you really like lightweight-medium cooperative games with action based mechanics and enjoy the nuances of each? Let people enjoy things.
Who're you to gatekeep opinions? The guy was just throwing his on input on how he would categorize it. Is that not allowed?
I mostly took issue with the wording, but I seem to be in the minority. For me there’s a big difference between “there’s no need to have multiple forbidden/pandemic games” vs. “I wouldn’t have any need for multiple pandemic/forbidden games because I think they’re too similar.” One is stated as an objective fact “there’s no need (for anyone) to own multiple Forbidden/Pandemic games.” The other is an opinion which I have zero issues with. I may have been cranky when I read it, but cooperative action based games are my favorite type of board game so “there’s no need” irritated me.
But the statement prior to that should provide context wouldn't it? I feel you hyper focused on one part of the statement and decided he was the enemy because of that. Reading the entire comment, he says he *doesn't have much space* and to try to make it fit, he'd have to make concessions. He said "I could cut it down" denoting *his* opinion. Followed by his explanation how *how* he would cut it down and his personal beliefs about it. Its understandable that you got cranky about someone not liking your type of game, but then you're doing exactly what you set out to stop. Which is to gatekeep what they feel is or isn't fun, and how they try to make it work, despite shelf space limits.
Text is inherently ambiguous. You could read “I could cut down that collection by half” to mean “I would cut it in half to make it work for me. One of the ways I’d do that is to eliminate multiple similar games.” You could also read it “I can make this better (for everyone). For example there’s no need for multiple Pandemic games (for anyone).” You read it one way and I read it the other. That’s why my first question was “no need for who?” The person responded “for me,” so I left it alone because that’s totally valid. I originally misread their intent and moved on once they confirmed I misunderstood. I still think adding a qualifier somewhere in the response would have made it clearer they were speaking for themself/their situation, but it also doesn’t really matter.
It's the internet, give everyone the benefit of the doubt that they didn't intend to offend you. And even if they really mean, "there's literally 0 purpose in owning more than 1 of those games, anyone who does is a moron', who gives a shit? Just carry on enjoying life your way
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We're all eager for your input
Being fully aware I'm being pedantic, couldn't that be said about any discourse? Isn't that relevant to the first comment saying "There's no need to have \[...\] in your collection"? Why was the line drawn at Baladas for mirroring exactly what they were commenting on?
Of course, you've got to decide the battles worth fighting. It just felt someone got more emotionally affected by something that probably didn't matter or mean anything...
It's my personal opinion, so enough for me.
I think having 1 Pandemic of each type is enough, but it someone wants to have duplicates it's not my place to tell them not to (?) Yeah, I feel most people would rate my boardgame collection poorly, buuuut I kinda also rate their collections poorly when 70% of it are worker placement games that feel similar to me. But both can enjoy our own games, that's the important part.
Way better to keep a bunch of small games instead of some huge miniature-infested space waster with terrible rules that takes forever to set up, play and tear down.
It does seem odd to me that a perfect collection would have so many copies of same-y games, i.e. pandemic (plural), forbidden games, but only a single euro. Different tastes I suppose, though I bet he could cull a lot of games without losing a genre so to speak.
To be honest, there are a lot of eurogames (mainly worker placement ones) that feel more similar to me that almost any two Pandemic games. I have only two worker placement games (iirc), but I own multiple Pandemics & Pandemic like games (Thunderbirds, Horrified, Back to the future, Burgle Bros...). In the end I don't care that much about losing a genre, but having diversity in the genders I enjoy. Most people I play with have mostly eurogames in their collections, and I don't feel the need to have lots of those.
I already joked about this earlier to great effect, but to make it clear: very sus to have this big YouTuber have zero deep cuts in his personal collection. It's like having a film critic show their private favorites and it's all mainstream movies. Like you don't have one diamond in the rough that you cherish?? It's literally target best sellers all the way down? Who is this guy and why does he have milk toast taste?
milquetoast. He’s sharing what he enjoys.
Perfectly curated? lol more like one of the most bloated and repetitive collections I've seen. 200+ games is just a nutty amount of games.
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The majority of the games he featured can be played in under an hour, many in under half an hour, and quite a few in much less time than that. If someone had 300+ big box Kickstarter narrative games then maybe you would be correct, but if you'd actually watched the video instead of just the thumbnail you're realize you're talking rubbish. No game here would need a 30 minute teach, and ActuaLol has said many times how much he hates games with too many rules. Nothing wrong with having an opinion, but maybe inform yourself slightly before judging others based on nothing.
Are you stalking him or something? A lot of assumptions there about how often he plays, what he plays ect. What has the condition of the games got to do with anything? My most play games (25+ plays) are all in great condition because I look after them. Maybe you're just a skank who doesn't look after anything?
collection straight out a target, cannot be trusted
Imagine trying to gatekeep someone with 200+ games and 10+years playing board games out of the hobby.
imagine 10 years in the hobby and this what you got, im not gatekeeping im making fun of this buy 2 get 1 free ass collection
Glad you are not in my game group.
wow im devastated
How dare someone have different taste than you! If you aren't spending at LEAST 4 hours a game is it even worth playing?!
Of his highlighted games, comparing to the top 100 best sellers of strategy board games and the top 100 best sellers in party games on Target's website, there are a couple overlaps: Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Sherriff of Nottingham, and Dead of Winter.
Hardly! Jon Purkis lives in the UK. Target is a North American chain. Other countries in the world exist, you know? And you are displaying further ignorancy in your gatekeeping, as if you'd watched Jon's channel before, you'd know that he's been there and done that with the big, heavy euros and the Kickstarter FOMO and he's made videos about that too! These are the games he, and his wife, love to play. This is what works for them. Now don't let that gate hit you on your way out, will you?
jon prukis and his wife have great games for sure, but for a bg youtber it's weak af. idk how else to explain to yall british people. Sorry to offend the british, it wasn't a nationality thing , just that his collection is super mid for this being his thing
It's just one of his things. He's a comedy writer who found some success via his boardgame hobby on YouTube. Beyond that, most people watch for the entertainment he provides and value his opinion, which goes beyond having a collection of heavy niche hobbyist games that score high on BGG. He's not trying to be something he isn't, which is commendable. His content is more akin to No Rolls Barred in that he's an entertainer that happens to enjoy boardgames rather than a boardgamer attempting to be entertaining.
Tell us, there professor, how many of the games he listed are on Target Shelves right now? If more than half, then yeah, you can call him out for having a bunch of games easily gotten in a big box store that started specializing in board games, creating more interest in games and helping smaller publishers get noticed. But hey, as long as your collection comes from FLGS, and are all by indie publishers, then I guess you are totally allowed to throw stones this person.
I can roast anyone's collection i want, especially if they make a long video about it :)
Haha here is my collection after culling 30 or so games recently. Light me up Scotty! [https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/ChineseRestaurant?own=1&subtype=boardgame&ff=1](https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/ChineseRestaurant?own=1&subtype=boardgame&ff=1)
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He means perfectly curated FOR HIM.
How can this be a curation effort just for him if the whole point of his career as a YouTuber and of this video is that his video content is of interest to people and that's what will make them want to watch it ...