I am a bit of a board game fan. I very rarely get to actually PLAY board games but I am a bit obsessed with reading about them (usually at the
Board Game Geek website), and watching video playthroughs and reviews.
You can see a few of my previous posts about board games on the forum here:
Over the last year I have been watching quite a few board game review videos and playthroughs.
Board game reviews are usually pretty short and entertaining if the game is one I'm curious about,so the technical quality of the review (video and sound) is not critical. So if you're interested in a review of a particular game, you can't go too wrong just searching for it on youtube.
Long playthroughs are quite a different matter though. The long playthroughs can end up being several hours long spanning a dozen separate video uploads over the period of a month, as you watch someone play a full game. For these -- it's really quite important that whoever is doing the recording and editing do a good job of it, or it becomes exhausting to watch.
Anyway, I thought I'd post some of my favorite board game youtube "channels" -- that is, people who regularly post reliably good quality videos either reviewing or playing through full games.
My favorite Playthrough channels (multi-part full game playthroughs):
- Watch It Played - This youtube channel, run by Rodney Smith, is the high water mark of board game walkthroughs -- you'll not find another source of walkthroughs done with higher production quality or with more love for the process. It's genuinely fun to watch Rodney and his children play through board games and you get a real feel for whether you would enjoy the game as they play. Rodney also does a better job of (and takes more time) explaining the rules of each game than anyone else, by a large margin (Board game designers have caught on to this and are starting to hire him to do their official tutorial videos). Highly recommended.
- Black Belt Gaming - Usually just playing by himself (often taking the role of multiple players), Robert takes his time playing through full games. With good sound and video you feel like you are learning the game from a friend.
- Box of Delights (Ricky Royal) -This channel is much like Black Belt Gaming; Ricky takes his time playing (alone) through some great games and by the time the series is over you have a very good feel for how to play the game and whether you would like it. I'm currently watching his 18 part series on "Arkham Horror"
- Gamenight! - Non-rushed long playthroughs as 4 friends learn and play a game
- TragicTheBlathering - Nice solo playthroughs (horror board games, etc.)
- The Lonesome Gamer - More great full length solo playthroughs
My favorite Review channels (these don't teach you how to play or go over all the rules) but tell you if the like it:
- The Dice Tower - Tom Vassel regularly puts out a high volume of very watchable and informative board game reviews (and year-end top 100 lists), and has recently gotten into previewing kickstarter games. Definitely one of the best channels for board game reviews. His reviews are medium-depth and quite opinionated -- sometimes he loves and sometimes he doesn't.
- Board to Death - This channel is run by a bunch of fun canadians; it's a little uneven but they have a good time and review quite a few games; usually don't review games they dislike but will rate the game
- Star Lit Citadel - Very brief reviews of board games but well filmed and highly watchable; only review games they like, no ratings
- Cat and Mouse Game Store - Again, brief reviews of board games but well filmed and highly watchable; only review games they like but make recommendations of similar games, no ratings
Now -- what are your favorite youtube channels? They don't have to be about board games -- maybe you have a favorite person who posts a lot of reliably good videos about cooking, sewing, etc?
ps. A shout out to my own
Web Link Captor tool which took my list of favorites and found the websites and autoformatted them for me.
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