Am I missing something, or would basically any old smartphone work in place of this? I have a Pixel which sits in a cradle and takes care of anything I’d use this for. I guess a physical button or dial might be nice, but I have a volume dial on the car dash.

Seems plainly obvious that it’ll require a sub. It’s a Spotify box.

It’s the least offensive type of advertising I see day to day. I couldn’t care less how my listening data is shared, and I don’t understand the zero tolerance some people have for adverts - it’s not all bad.

If they ramp up the adverts, people will vote with their feet.

Ah that’s a great story, I had the same experience early on, got heavily into video games for a long time before wanting something more tactile and social. I enjoy Slay and Monster Train, maybe I should check out Dominion. I’m not very good at them…

If I start dating again, board games will be an essential requirement :D

I do really enjoy Wingspan now, the artwork and production quality is a huge appeal, I also use the Wingsong app when my son’s around, as he enjoys hearing the birds.

I love Cascadia, it’s not deep and I feel I’ve maxed out my strategy, but it’s such a pleasure to play, especially with non gamers.

I was looking at Parks last week, do you have either expansion? Was hoping for a big box, but there aren’t any plans.

I’ve not come across that, but I’d probably just stop playing, it’d drive me nuts. My crowd tends to turn up with laminated rule sheets…

On taking back turns, I’m lenient once or twice if done quickly, or if it’s a genuine mistake, but otherwise, no chance.

Love the sound of that, I’ve always wanted to try Mah Jong, and those tables look very cool.

Yeah it’s a shame so many people associate board games with boring roll and moves, or family arguments.

Tell me about it, they’re so hard to resist, especially when you’ve got a gaming partner. I love the nature themes like Meadow, Wingspan, etc.

I took Cascadia over to a mate’s, who expected something like monopoly, and he was blown away.

Love it! I hope I’m setting my kids up to enjoy gaming. Been playing chess with one since he was 6, have enjoyed watching him discover strategies and understand how to defend.

I’ve still not played Catan, but I’ve converted a few friends with Cascadia. Catan is the most controversial game I’ve come across, plenty of lovers and haters in equal measure

I feel the same way about the people, in my case anyone who takes it too seriously, takes ages every turn or doesn’t like losing can cause me to lose interest.

Are there specific genres you don’t like, or is it a light/heavy weight thing?

My family always played the standard 80s/90s board and card games, I picked up Carcassonne in 2012 but it didn’t really click, plus my girlfriend wasn’t into it.

It wasn’t until 2021 when I picked up Azul and Sagrada, that I realised how amazing games have become. The pieces, rulebook, simplicity and depth.

First time playing a worker placement Euro was a real eye opener, having been raised on roll-and-move.

We don’t play many junior versions, I find my boy outgrew them very quickly - though he still likes Catan Junior.

He likes Mancala, Kingdomino isn’t hard to pick up, and it really helped his maths skills. His favourite is the normal Carcassonne (we don’t play fields, and I give him a 50 point headstart, so it’s still a challenge for me). He loves the Dragon expansion, too.

We play Rhino Hero and other dexterity games, I ordered one for next Christmas called Menara - off a recommendation here (!) - it looks like a coop dexterity tower building game.

As for collaborative games, he loves helping me with some solos, Under Falling Skies, Aerion and Nautilion for example - you can tell a story and get them to help throw the dice.

Not really a game, but story cubes are also a win at bedtime.

I will pay full price, day one

It’s that small moment when you realise other people do things differently.

I remember being a bit horrified with the amount of handling that goes on with pizza+scissors. Guess I was considered one of the family…

This reminds me of staying overnight at a friend’s house when I was a kid, and discovering a slightly sinister family habit, like cutting pizza with scissors or everyone drinking hot tea with dinner

I do enjoy Azul, I find people easily mis-score themselves so we tend to score one at a time after each round. I have little desire to expand, it feels very well balanced for what it is.