Episode 200: CC

Release Date: Sept. 22, 2014

Running Time:  173  min.

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You just have to play. We celebrate our 200th episode with reviews of Enigma and Doodle City, a segment honoring the meeple, a look back at a gambling game named after a female Pope, plus a super-sized Game Sommelier with three tough challenges.

News & Notes: FallCon, Asmodee/Days of Wonder, Eclectic Games, Spiel stats
The List: Enigma
Playbill: Doodle City
Back Shelf Spotlight: Pope Joan
Truckloads of Goober: Meeples
Game Sommelier:  3 challenges!

Complete Show Notes continue after the break.

News & Notes

FallCon   Link 

The best game convention in Alberta returns this October 3-5.

Gaming Hoopla   Link

A great regional weekend of gaming for a great cause. all proceeds from the convention go to the American Cancer Society. I'll be attending next weekend and I'll be running some fun events. 

Asmodee - Days of Wonder  Link

French publishing giant Asmodee agrees to purchase Days of Wonder, publisher of Ticket to Ride, Small World and many successful gateway games.

Eclectic Games Link

Congrats to Becky and Darrell Ottery for winning Retailer of the Year for 2014 for the city of Reading UK! 

**Special thanks also to Becky for painting the awesome Spiel Meeples you see pictured above in the Episode album art!

Spiel-a-thon Questions  

We need 8 volunteers to write questions for our annual charity fundraiser for The Spiel Foundation. If you are interested, send a message to dave@thespiel.net

The Spiel by the Numbers

Web site: 200,000 unique visitors annually.

Downloads

Downloads of audio programs since 2006: 1.25 million

Creative Content Made by The Spiel

Total number of pieces of creative content produced since 2006: 455 

this total includes:

   regular episodes of The Spiel: 200

   audio convention coverage 93

   video convention coverage: 148

   films: 1

   Scribblers (print and play puzzles): 13

Time

Amount of time it would take to listen to all audio content: 18 days 4 hours 9 min.

Amount of time it would take to watch and listen to all Spiel content: 19 days 14 min.

Longest episode: Episode 169 Spielfest - 3 hours 35 min.

Shortest episode: Episode 2 King Me! - 53 minutes

Amount of time we have spent producing 200 episodes of The Spiel (using a very low estimate of 25 hours per episode): almost 7 months

Segments

Back Shelf Spotlight: 111 segments - 187 games covered

Game Sommelier: 126 challenges faced - 814 games covered

   Number of challenges faced by Dave: 54

   Number of challenges faced by Stephen: 58

   Number of challenges faced by others: 8

Truckloads of Goober: 102 segments - 112 games covered

Name That Game Puzzles: 100

Table Talk / Playbill: 36 segments - 49 games covered

Notes from the OCD: 7 segments

The List: 166 segments - 349 games covered

Total number of games covered in all segments of The Spiel: 1,516

Games

Total number of games with formal reviews on The Spiel: 400 

Number of games played but not covered on the show: 1200-1600

easily 3-4 times the number of games reviewed on the show. Let's be conservative and say for every 1 game reviewed and covered on the show, theres one that doesn't. That's 800 games in 8 years which translates to almost 2 new games played every week for eight straight years. More likely, the number of games played but not reviewed on the show is 1200-1600 games. Crazy!

The List

Enigma  BGG | Z-Man | Zoch Verlag

Playbill

Doodle City  BGG | Aporta Games

Truckloads of Goober

Meeples - Carcassonne  BGG | Hans im Gluck | Z-Man

Back Shelf Spotlight

Pope Joan  BGG | David Parlett

The Game Sommelier

On the Hot Seat: Dave and Stephen

Three challenges for us! The first two challenges are from Spieler Jay Bartelt and one challenge from ourselves!

Challenge 1: 5 games we are still playing and we think are still awesome.

Dave's Selections

7 Wonders

Ubongo

Tichu

Alien Frontiers

Robo Rally

Time's Up

Geistesblitz

Stephen's Selections

Pandemic

Ghost Stories

Ubongo

Dicetown

Kingsburg

Galaxy Trucker

1960: Making of the President

Challenge 2: 5 games we have covered that are no longer our cup of tea.

Dave's Selections

Dominion

Arkham Horror

Quarriors

Game of Thrones: the Board Game

Royal Turf

Stephen's Selections

Railroad Tycoon

Ra: The Dice Game

Zombies

Good Question

Assyria

Game of Thrones: the Board Game

Twilight Imperium

Challenge 3: 5 games that will be played 200 years from now.

Dave's Selections

Gipf

D&D

Acquire

Ra

Age of Steam

Stephen's Selections

Carcassonne

Settlers of Catan

Ticket to Ride

7 Wonders

Magic: The Gathering

Ascension

Gipf

Tichu

Music

Music credits include:

A Hundred Dreams from Now   by Ray Bryant Trio  |  the song

Guitar Boogie Twist   by Lester Lanin  |  the collection

200 Turkeys   by The Big Jazz Thing  |  the song

Tequila   by The Three Suns  |  the collection

300 Pounds of Joy  by Howlin' Wolf  |  the song

One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces  by Ben Folds Five  |  the song

Errata

I'm sure there are some goofs in there somewhere

Let us know if (when?) you find one:

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