I was expecting Tabletop Scotland to be a good event. I wasn’t really expecting it to suddenly leapfrog to the top of my, admittedly modest, convention hitlist. That’s what happened though. We found an event small enough to be welcoming, yet large enough to be exciting. A programme of events…
Category: Editorial
How do we make accessibility sexier?
Accessibility has an image problem, and it’s perhaps the biggest barrier to progress that hasn’t been seriously confronted by those of us working within the field. We all know it, but it’s the uncomfortable kind of knowledge that just makes things harder when we confront it. It’s so much easier…
Some Honest Reflections on Patreon
I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so anxious as when I pressed the button on launching our Patreon. Job interviews don’t phase me. My PhD Viva was a source of some temporary butterflies but was pretty much fine. Buying a house and getting six figures in debt was a…
Our Advice for UKGE 2018
The UK Games Expo is coming up very soon. Our experiences with it last year were mixed, but overall it was more of a hit than a miss. We’re making plans this year to try and ensure that the baseline level of fun we have is much higher. We learned…
We’ve launched our Patreon!
You can’t possibly miss it because it’s plastered all over the right hand side of every post now… but we just started up our Patreon and BOY AM I ANXIOUS ABOUT IT. This is the first time I’ve ever gone to the community to help fund anything I have ever…
The New Board Game Journalism (with apologies to Kieron Gillen)
An occasional topic of conversation with which I engage on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms relates to the norms of journalism in game related spaces – specifically, what I’ve come to think of as the New Board Game Journalism. All apologies to Kieron Gillen for that, because I undoubtedly massacre…
The Ethics of Affiliation
I think… I think… this might be my last post on the ethics of reviewing for a while. Those of you who read the site regularly will be aware this is a topic I discuss a lot. I can’t help it – much as with my borderline obsession with the…
The Inevitability of Favourable Board Game Coverage
One of the points I made in the last editorial was that, generally speaking, people that run board game blogs and sites are somewhat loathe to publish negative reviews. That’s not a universal trait and in many respects it depends on just how prolific an outlet’s output can be. The…
The Ethical Compromises of Paid Reviews
In a previous editorial I spoke a bit about the biases of review copies and how the semi-financial relationship implied by their presence actually does likely introduce a number of biases into coverage. Generally though I tend to assume that in this environment – where a largely unremunerated hobbyist ‘press’…
Acquisitions & Consumption – You’re Welcome in this Hobby
Imagine this. You’re a new gamer getting into the hobby for the first time. You don’t really know where to start but you know a few things. You know about Boardgamegeek. You know about Reddit. You know that people talk about boardgames on Twitter and other social media platforms. You’re…
The Biases of Review Copies
Let’s talk about review copies since it’s one of those topics that consistently bobs up to the surface of the reviewer community like a dead rat in a sewer overflow. Note here that I’m not going to talk about the emergent trend of ‘payment for reviews’ – that is a…
The Computer Games Journal – Special Issue on Accessibility in Gaming Call for Papers
Hello! The Computer Games Journal is a Springer academic journal focused on – as you might expect – computer games. They are doing a special issue in early 2018 on the topic of accessibility in games and that is awesome. There is a guest editor for this, and spoiler alert, it…
The Myth of the Objective Review
People often ask for people to give an objective review of the games they cover. ‘Less opinion, more fact’, they demand. So let’s talk about the objective review; the objective review in the context of criticism; and why an objective review is an impossible ask in any discipline where it…
Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2017
The last time Global Accessibility Awareness Day came around Meeple Like Us was a mere six or so weeks old. We were still very much finding our feet as a blog – a process which is still ongoing. However, it was obvious quite early on that we had found something…
UK Games Expo 2017
Are you heading to the UK Games Expo this year? If you answered yes, then you might find us there! Myself and Mrs Meeple will be wandering around, looking lost and aimless, as we face a new and unfamiliar environment. This is, for both of us, our first gaming convention. Wheeeeeee! …
A Year of Meeple Centred Design – Talking about You and Me, and the Games People Play
One year ago today, I decided it was time to start a blog on board-game accessibility. I didn’t really think that was a thing anyone might find interesting – I just thought it was a thing I would enjoy writing. I’d been gradually getting into board-games for years…
Busting the myths around sociological accessibility
One of the common threads of feedback I receive regarding Meeple Like Us relates to our exploration of sociological issues of accessibility. I’ve been told point blank on many occasions that this ruins the site; that it turns otherwise useful guidance into ‘social justice bollocks’. I accepted early…
180 Days Later…
We’ve just passed the point where Meeple Like Us has been running for 180 days. That’s not quite half a year, but it’s close enough and a round-ish number that makes for a satisfying blog post title. I thought it would be worthwhile here to do some…
Accessibility Teardowns
As part of our roster, we include academic researchers into inclusivity, accessibility, and human-centred computing. Some of these directly associated with the site, other are involved in a consultative capacity. It’s only natural then that some of us may look at the board games we play and think ‘Huh, that’s…
On Board Game Accessibility
I believe that game accessibility is important, but it’s often difficult to convince people of it. Full participation in popular culture offers an important opportunity for people to build cultural capital and socially integrate with others in a community. For youth in particular, cultural literacy involves a wide-variety of transmedia…