Old Chestnut Game Reviews

Board gaming has really come a long way since the days of the moldy oldies like Monopoly and Clue. I have written about this before here and here; so, there is no need to rehash that story. What surprised me was those two posts got more views than any posts I had written on this blog in a long time. While I really don't care one dot or tiddle about getting hits, going viral, or becoming the next big social media influencer, it did surprise me. What had initially been a one-off blog post flight of fancy that I did not think anyone would care about given the nature of my blog content turned into something that apparently some people who occasionally come to this blog are interested in.  

As such, I have been pondering getting into some sort of social media commentary on board gaming. There are tons of well know board game Youtubers out there like Alex from BoardGameCo, Dice Tower, Sir Thecos, and tons of other ones that are great content. I would certainly have no idea where to even start in trying to compete on that level of content creating, nor do I have any desire to do so. I am not big into trying to recreate the wheel.

What I do think there is a little niche for is looking critically at some older games. One of the quirks of the modern gaming scene as I have come to see it is that content creators on the subject are like squirrels. They are sitting on piles of stockpiled nuts, but a new game drops, and they are all like, "Oooh, look at the new flashy nut over there..." So, a lot of content on board gaming is focused on what Alex from BoardGameCo called the "Cult of the Now"-what new game just dropped from KickStarter or Gamefound. BoardGameGeek has a rolling list called "The Hotness" which is basically a top 50 most popular games right now. 90%+ or so of that list is almost always games that have been out less than 6 months. There are always relatively modern classics on the list that stay relevant like Spirit Island or Everdell that have come out in the last 10 years or less. (This oldest on the list as of this writing in February 2025 are Scythe and Terraforming Mars from 2016.)

So many games come and go in the gaming universe every year. It's truly staggering. In all seriousness, I am guessing thousands world wide if you include PnP games in the mix. It really is a bit of a golden age in terms of board games right now. That has both its positives and negatives. The creative explosion of content is truly amazing. All sorts of new mechanisms and variations on old mechanisms in gaming
are constantly being vamped and revamped. Stories and themes of all kinds being mined for content, from Arthurian legends to Ancient battles to Fantasy/Science Fiction. Short games that can be set up and played in 15 minutes like Friday (one of my favorites) to epic campaign games that claim to have over 200+ hours of content like the forthcoming Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era (which I really want to try, but I can't bring myself to pay $200+ for a single game I am not sure I will like or not because it appears to be a really complex, rule heavy game, which always gives me pause for that price point.)  

On the downside, as with a lot of consumer "throw away" culture, things are mass produced and if they don't "take" with the public, so many games end up in the dump, the thrift store, or in back closet, never to be played again. And I very much include myself in that indictment. I have a stack of games I rarely play. I generally am pretty good at getting rid of the ones I know I won't play again because I don't like that particular game for whatever reason. The problem is, I have some really good ones that I love playing, but there are only so many free hours in the week. Many languish for months before I pick them up again.

So, I am going to start a new occasional series where I will be reviewing some board games that are by no means new but are still worth the time to play and enjoy. I am going to call it the Old Chestnut series. The term "old chestnut" goes back to a badly written London stage play from the early 1800s that seems to have coined the phrase. The phrase basically means what we would now refer to as a "golden oldie" or a "old classic." Originally, it referred to a tale told over and over to the point it is well worn but still worth the telling. 

I will start with written blog entries discussing some older game of my choosing. I may eventually get into some video production again. It has been a long while since I have done film editing and production, but I still enjoy that. I will try to give the basic rules, and my thoughts on why it still works as a game (or doesn't). I will try not to waste anyone's time by reviewing a stinker, but I will try to review some games that maybe you missed or have forgotten. Board games tell a story of sorts, and there are many still worth telling, even if the board game squirrels have moved on to the next new shiny thing.

So, stay tuned for that...

So, stay tuned for that.