Meeple Like Us, January 2017

You can read more of my writing over at the Meeple Like Us blog, or the Textual Intercourse blog over at Epitaph Online.  You can some information about my research interests over at my personal homepage, or on my profile at Robert Gordon University.

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What is up, fam! I believe that is what the kids are saying these days.

Well, 2017 has been quite something hasn’t it? Remember how in 2016 we just worried about whether our favourite celebrities would make it out alive? You’d best get your board gaming done early this year because odds aren’t good we’ll see another.

BUT ANYWAY it’s time for our monthly round-up of Meeple Like Us content and news!

We hit the ground running in January when we published our review and teardown of Love Letter. I didn’t expect these to generate an awful lot of traffic but the teardown is now, by far, the most read post on the site. What on Earth happened there? I don’t know, and I fear what demons I’d find if I went investigating. I’m just going to admire the traffic spike and move on.

We then followed up with our Lord of Vegas review and the associated teardown. It’s a great game, with a sadly disappointing accessibility profile. Still, that’s a circumstance to which I have become accustomed doing this blog. It’s always somewhat frustrating to see the games I love being difficult to recommend.

Next up was our review and teardown of Forbidden Island. We’d done Forbidden Desert off in the early days of Meeple Like Us, but while the games are similar they have subtleties to their accessibility profiles that means they deserve their own dedicated attention.

An editorial this month focused on some myth-busting regarding the concept of socioeconomic accessbility - it’s by far the section of the teardowns that generates the most angst and upset. Now I can just point people to the post when the more predictable objections are raised. This will likely be revised in the future as the arguments and debates rage on - suffice to say, I believe inclusion and diversity are important accessibility issues, and they will continue to be a key part of the teardowns.

We rounded out the month with a look at the Legend of Drizzt and its accessibility profile. Speaking of socioeconomic elements of accessibility, I rewrote that section several times as I attempted to put my finger on why the idea of the Drow is a problem in terms of representation.

As to other news, I was delighted this month to wake up to a mention in the Guardian’s monthly boardgame column. It’s a huge boost to the cause when a major newspaper takes the time to raise the issue of game accessibility. It also means that the work of Meeple Like Us is more likely to end up in front of the people that may find it useful. On a similar note, we also finally got listed on boardgamelinks so if you fancied throwing us a heart over there, it would be much appreciated.

That’s it for January! Good night everyone. Thanks for reading. Let’s hope we all survive 2017 until the next morning.