Hey, and welcome to episode 153 of Maple to Maple.
This is number 10 in my content creator community series.
So thanks again for joining me today.
My guest is how shall we put this?
She has managed to prove that you can be a successful content
creator and a powerful influencer in our community
while living in a remote area of the United States.
And despite the flat landscape of western Nebraska, there is
nothing flat about her content or her influence.
Unfortunately, she has a knack for losing all the games today.
Joining me is Sarah from Sarah Always Loses.
Sarah, how are you? I'm great.
How are you PJ? You know it's cold.
It's very. Cold.
Very cold? Yes.
Lots of snow. No snow yet, but you know, it
is. It is just, you know, as a Cajun
from Louisiana, I still can't get used to the winters here.
Oh. Man, that's my favorite.
As soon as I'm back in school, there should just be snow on the
ground. That's my philosophy.
I mean, I like it, but then I have to shovel the snow.
Shovel drive in it. Yeah, we don't have to do
sidewalk. We didn't have to do that as a
it's just insane. But here we are and we're just,
and I guess it's going to be if anyone bothers to listen to this
and not listen to it later on, it's two days before Christmas.
So Merry Christmas everyone. Yes, Merry Christmas, I dug my
Christmas here so. I pulled out my Christmas Scally
cap. I'm so want these guys to be a
sponsor. So go to Boston Scally and get a
Scally cap today. I've been courting them for
months. It's like I wear these hats on
every episode and it's just like, come on, you can do it.
You can do it. My wife doesn't want me to spend
any more money on it. Board games.
We could spend as much money as we want on board games, but not
the caps. Yes.
This is how this conversation is going.
It's great. Love it.
Merry Christmas. It's just.
Yeah, it's the winter time. I love it.
So let me ask you this question. I've been starting it off with
everyone. What was the first game you ever
played as a kid? Well, man, as a kid, probably
like Candy Land or those fun games.
I, I remember a lot playing Hi Ho Cheerio in kindergarten.
I remember I have some good memories of that.
So that'll take you back. It will and just, you know, we,
I'm an only child and so I think that was one thing that my
parents and I did quite a bit. We played games and I always
asked for a board game for Christmas.
And so I have some really good memories of playing like the
game of life with my cousins at Christmas.
And I'm having those really fun early experiences with board
games that I think really did shape where I've gone now.
Nice, that's so interesting. I had a similar experience,
although not I was not an only child but playing board games as
a kid. I didn't have a lot of friends
so I ended up playing a lot of games alone.
Yes, in solo mode. Solo, yes.
I don't play solo modes anymore. You know, I can't get over that
emotional baggage. And I feel like I'm sure God
knew more than just this, but God knew this about me.
And he's like, you know what, I'm going to find a Yankee from
Ohio who's already a board gamer and I'm going to set it up so
that y'all meet in the deserts of Arizona because that's where
we were for grad school. That's why I met my wife and she
was already a gamer. So it was like there was a
moment when we were dating, we were in the we were in the mall,
we were on our way back. There was a, there was a board
game store in the mall and we were walking out and I just
looked at her and said thank you for being you.
Overwhelming gratitude for having met a gamer who would
take me in and love me and and get me and.
Such a big difference, like when you have that family that will
play games with you, you get to play so much more and it does,
it fills, fills my cup up quite a bit.
I when we haven't played games for a while, I, I feel it.
I feel that mental like man, my mental health is not good and we
haven't been playing games. I.
Know, I know I was reading an article, I think it was about, I
think it was a year ago, I think it was in 24.
There was, it was a committee or I don't know what it was, but
there was a Commission or something.
But the United Nations did a study on the positive mental
health effects of board games on individuals, family members and
whatnot. And I thought that was really
cool. And they were trying to push.
They had like, I think they're in an agenda of pushing board
games in the classroom. Which, Speaking of as a teacher,
do you bring the board games into the classroom?
Occasionally, yeah, it definitely has to be specific
situations. So we've been doing Fun Fridays
recently, and I'm a music teacher, so in my ensemble
choirs, we've been doing Fun Friday and they got to choose.
Yesterday was Friday. We got to choose whether they
wanted to play Green team wins or if they wanted to play
hipster. And so the way we do hipster is
if they can get the row of 10 in a row, then I, I lose and they
all get a Jolly Rancher. And so they, I had one class
that chose that and two that chose to play green team wins.
So I do bring them in a little bit.
So for the for the Jolly Ranchers, I'm just thinking
about with Christmas upon us, did you have like the sour green
apple and the cherry? So it was just red and green or?
They would hate that. They want blue, they want blue.
If there's no Blues, they want me to refill it.
So. OK, well, you know, dude, you
might be. Sarah always loses, but we've
got a good friend in England who's always plays blue.
So yeah, shout out there. Yeah, they should have a Jolly
Rancher jar filled with blue. Right.
Absolutely popular in my classroom.
What's the story with your username?
So when I first started posting, I was trying to come up with
that catchy kind of username and it was definitely a perception
that I had that with the board gaming I lost a lot and Drew won
a lot. I think that perception has
changed a little bit as we started tracking.
So I think if you feel that way, track your games because you
probably don't lose as much as you think.
And something that just Speaking of mental health and personal
growth, something that really came out of gaming for me was
the people pleasing aspect. And so when we are playing
games, it end up being more important to me that everybody
was having a good time and everybody had the that chance to
win. And so I would maybe not make
the most strategic moves so that keep the peace at the table.
And I think through gaming that's given me the confidence
that, you know, I can play my way, I can play my strategy.
I don't have to worry about hurting somebody's feelings.
And so I think that it's been a lot of growth.
And if you look at my stats now, I def it's definitely closer to
5050. But we've kept the kept the
username. Sure, I've had a lot of people
relate to it. It's interesting you bring that
up. So when we moved from Louisiana
to Illinois, that was the general perception.
I don't know that it was a perception.
I think it was the reality too, to be honest.
But my belief was that Katie beat me constantly, right?
And then I think 3 years ago she picked up BG stats and started
tracking. She loves to track everything
right, Our plays, number of plays, most played just, you
know, But what has happened in the past three years, four years
is I usually win the head to heads and then I'm not as much
of A loser. As a person to be.
As I think I am, yeah. And this year, this year I've
got pretty commanding lead. I mean we've, we're almost at
95% of our entire collection played for the year.
Jealous of that stuff. Still got, you know, still got a
few days left and it's a holiday, So what else are you
going to do? Is too cold outside.
So yeah. But yeah, I don't lose as much
as I thought. And it's really interesting that
you perceive that you lost more than you start tracking it.
You're like, wait a minute. We've even gotten so that it's
like specific games. So there's like, if one of us,
like you always win this one, well, let's check the
scoreboard. No, I actually don't always win
this one. In fact, you have won the last
three times we played it. Is there a game that you just
have like you have a winning record, like overwhelming?
There's a few. Everdell is probably the one
that stands out the most. I do tend to win that one.
My daughter has won a couple times and I don't think Drew has
ever won on that one. So.
Well, you know what, in this, in the spirit of the season, maybe
you should play it once and let Drew, you know, just go easy on
him and hear people please her. Once you know, it's OK.
Occasionally it's OK. For us, it's Hadrian's Wall.
I think it was like 20 out of 25 plays.
I won 24 times. Oh wow.
What was interesting is Katie was not discouraged.
She was like, I want to play it again and you know, I will beat
you. So yeah, she finally beat me.
But. The sign of a really good game
too, though, Like, do you care if you win or you lose or do you
just enjoy playing it? And so, yeah, that's kind of a
mark for us too, is like, oh, well, I don't really want to
play that one because I never win.
Well, maybe that's just not a game for us.
That's true. No, you're absolutely right.
There's there's definitely some truth to that.
If you can enjoy the game and lose, then it.
I think it's a sign of a good name and a good design.
I know I certainly feel that way about obsession.
Squeezed it in love obsession. I don't care if I win.
I just wanna, you know, get all Heidi Toidi and Victorian
England and. And I love the cards in that one
cuz I love reading the descriptions of all the people.
It's just that's the best part of obsession.
To me, Yep. So what we do, our house rule is
when you're playing obsession, you you kind of narrate the
event that you're hosting and you read the flavor text of the
card. It's like, so Lady Danbury, the
Blobberry, whatever the flavor text, she'll be having afternoon
tea with the Countess of whatever.
Now, we don't do that every time, right?
Only when it's a new guest coming out.
Otherwise that would get tedious.
If you had to hear me say Lady Danbury likes to every single
time. Yeah, every time.
Yeah, but the first time, you gotta, you gotta get into that.
So yeah, everyone's so tired of hearing me talk about obsession,
but deal with it. It is.
It's so good. So how about what was the first
game that got you into the modern hobby?
Yeah, So Drew and I had been married for a few years and we
were looking just for a couple activities that we could do that
weren't just, you know, sitting on the team, sitting on the
couch watching TV and being on our phones.
But I don't even think when we first got married that like
being on our phones was as big of a thing.
It was more just, we want to do something that's more
interactive and not just sitting next to each other.
And Drew is someone that likes to do a lot of research.
So he was researching all these different things and he found
Forbidden Island and that was such just like a experience for
me because you can play games and like work together.
You you don't have to lose, like you can lose all together or win
all together, but you don't have to have one person beating up on
another person. Like that was that definitely
opened our minds up to modern board gaming.
And we continued to go down that rabbit hole a little bit,
probably preferring co-ops for quite a while.
And then the pandemic hit and we were home a lot.
And that was really when our collection probably exploded
from maybe 40 games to I think we're pushing 400 right now.
Just too many. That's too many games.
We need to do a little culling on that.
But definitely Forbidden Island. We'll always have a place in our
heart just for those first memories.
A good one, Islands. A really good one.
Matt Leacock knows how to make a cooperative game.
Yes, right. Pandemic was right up there too
for us. I think we, we slept on Pandemic
for a long time because we thought it was going to be too
hard for us. That's something that we
struggle with as gamers is that confidence of trying something a
little outside of our comfort zone.
And so taking that step up, trying something a little more
difficult. Usually when we do it, we're
like, oh, this is great, we can do this.
And then the next time we see a weight rating on a game and
we're like, oh, that sounds like it's going to be be too heavy
for us. I just want to point out to
those of you who are listening to this on Spotify or other
streaming services and not watching the video, this lady
right here has Seven Wonders Architects and Wild Gardens
behind her head and she thought pandemic was too hard.
Well, this was like. I know.
Five years ago or more even. That it's just funny because
it's it's how our perception of board games just change and
evolve over time, right? And are are you and Drew still
kind of do you still favor co-ops?
It's. Probably closer to to half and
half and we're struggling probably to find a newer co-ops
that we really, really enjoy. I think the Co-op, the direction
co-ops have gone in is very difficult.
And so if we play a Co-op game and we play it on the easiest
level and we play two or three times and we we can't win and we
just feel like we can't like we shy away from those.
We want to at least have a shot at winning If we need an easy
win, like we can dial done that difficulty and be like, OK,
we're gonna win this one, right? Let's get into it.
But I think more often now we are probably playing competitive
games. But I think that also comes back
to the perception that we can track those plays.
We can see who's won. There's not.
There doesn't feel like there's an imbalance as far as one
person is always getting that win while the other person is
always losing. I would recommend, given that
you're out, you know, you're so you're out in Western NE, the
winters get very cold. I don't know what the snow day
laws are with school and how many, how often that affects
your job, but I imagine there's some time where you're kind of
you're stuck inside. So there's a great two player.
I don't know how you guys feel about campaign games.
It's a but it is an exclusively 2 player campaign game.
That's interesting. By Sky Sky Kingdom Games, it's
called Isopharian Guard. That was when.
We did that. It is like a, it's an open in
world narrative campaign. My wife and I've been playing it
for two years now. Because, you know, you do have
to get to commit for a long time, but it's like it's bag
building. So you put chips in your bag and
then when you when you fight a monster, you fight together.
So it's like you take a turn, then I take a turn and then the
enemy takes a turn and then do that again.
And you pulled the chips out of the bag that determine what kind
of what cards that are on your playmat in front of you.
You can activate powers. But it's really cool because
it's exclusively 2 player, yeah? That does sound.
Interesting. So you've got this board, it's
got a map and the miniature is the 2 figures that you're
playing. So it's one figure on the board,
but it's the two miniatures because you know, they're it's
that classic back-to-back, right?
Holding the sword or the crossbow or whatever.
But yeah, it's a unique story. It's done really well.
There might be something to look into.
Yeah. The caveat is that the box will
not fit in a Cal X cube cuz a Cal X cube is 13 by 13 by 13.
The box is 14 by 14 by 14. So if you don't care about that,
you're golden. We have all play shelves so we
don't have to worry. About Oh yeah, big fancy over
there. How you got them or this how you
got? Them or Yeah.
No, I don't know how you got them.
Yeah, I know the story of the shelving, but yes, no.
How did you get the all play? Show So we it was what two or
three years ago now that they ran a contest and you could
submit your space for a board game room makeover and we shot
my shot, played the teacher card and we won a board game makeover
from all play. I do remember this story now.
Wow, that well, congratulations, that's awesome.
I completely forgot. About it.
You are. Yeah, you are.
Yes. And that is one thing I will say
is that a dedicated board gaming table has made all of the
difference for us getting to play games when we don't have to
constantly clear off the dining table to be able to to play.
It's just like we play so much more now.
Absolutely. I completely agree with that.
Yeah, no, that's that is a must. That is a must.
Although they're, they're so darn expensive, you know
they're. Yeah, we, that was two or three
years ago and I think maybe now we would have saved up enough to
kind of get a table table if we hadn't won it.
So we were just so blessed by that, like.
Yes, she. Really did change our lives a
lot so. Yeah.
So you should be hold. You should host Western Nebraska
Con. In my basement.
In your basement. You know, we might all fit.
I don't know how many gamers we have out here so.
So have you so you've been oh so the modern gaming, right?
So that forbidden Island, do you remember when that was?
What year that was I? Want to say like 20/17/18
somewhere in there. Just before the pandemic, but
yeah. All right, so you you've been
playing for nearly ten years. In the 8 to 10 years you've been
in the hobby, do you have a favorite player color?
Yes. Green Green.
OK, so does that mean that green team wins is your favorite game
of all time? It probably should be.
Yeah, we do have. It's really funny though,
because we do have one couple in town that we play games with,
and his preferred player color is green.
So we always kind of have to Juke it out.
Like who's gonna get the green this time?
How do you how do you resolve that?
Usually we probably fight over giving it to the other person
even more and he's gonna take it so.
No, no, no. You be great.
No, no, you can have it. Yeah.
What about, you know, so 88 to 10 years is a long time and you
get a lot of review copies. You've you've made so much
content, like I said in my intro, I mean, you really are a
powerhouse influencer in the community.
Do you have a favorite game mechanic that you gravitate
towards that's. So tough because I really do
enjoy a lot a lot of things. I think if you tell me a game
has an engine that I can build, I think I'm there like if you're
it doesn't if you lead with that and then the rest of it I don't
care as much about like I think engine building is probably one
of my big ones. Wingspan.
Those kinds of games really speak to me.
This has become a little bit of a bad word in gaming, but if
it's multiplayer solitaire, I will be there.
I love being able to kind of do my own thing and have that
social interaction around the table.
But don't mess with my stuff. Like I don't want you to take
parts out of my tableau. I don't want you to force me to
discard stuff like leave my stuff.
Away. OK, OK.
Is it? Is that a bad word?
Yeah, it's, it's used, in my experience, it's used as a
negative when describing a game, especially in reviews.
Like OK, it's just, it's just multiplayer solitaire.
There's no interaction so. Yeah, I'm a little torn, right?
My wife and I deal with that a lot, right?
A game that we're still mulling over his Vantage, right?
Which So objectively, I think across the board, everyone
agrees Advantage is a fantastic game and the narrative is
amazing. I think the challenge, however,
is that lack of interaction. 2 of us are playing the game
because we've been burned by those before, right?
Like we're not interested in sitting across the table from
each other and just doing my thing right here in front of me,
you know? So I kind of get that talk about
that all the time. It's really important.
So yeah. So that's kind of an example of
one that we're, you know, we're been, we go back and forth.
Do we want to get it? It sounds good.
But yeah, I just don't think of it as a bad word.
It's just kind of a preference. And not?
Oh, definitely. Not an absolute, but I guess I
could see how, yeah. OK.
Yeah, I think for me personally, it's a preference.
Do you like a lot of interaction or do you not like a little a
lot of interaction? I guess my perception is that
people that like a lot of interaction will say that that's
a negative. Right, right.
I love cooperative games, and cooperative games are reliant
upon interactive. Interaction.
Although your your original observation about co-ops can be
you know can be problematic. They need to be too heavy and
too hard on the front end. The other, although what I found
recently is that recent cooperative games are coming up
with creative, asymmetrical ways to make it difficult to table
captain right, Because I think that's why people don't like
co-ops is you don't need PJ telling you what to do on your
turn. And it's like, why do I even
have to be here? I get that.
What about a All right, so this question is got two parts and
it's got two parts because it's out of compassion, because the
first part is difficult for most people, and I understand.
Do you have a favorite board game of all time?
So. The second part, the second part
will let you off the hook if that's too difficult.
Do you have a favorite board game, like right now?
Is there something that's hitting your table constantly?
So yeah. The good news is I have an
answer for both. So about once or twice a year I
try to do the Pub Maple ranking and just kind of figure out what
what I'm liking right now. I haven't done it for a while
and that's probably something that needs to happen soon as
we're wrapping up the year. And I want to figure out where I
where I stand right now. But I'm kind of a data nerd.
I like to see those numbers. I like to see where things go.
The last two years my number one game has been Earth.
And so that goes back to that multiplayer solitaire.
But I argue there is interaction because what the other players
choose effects what you're going to do too.
It kind of effects the strategy a little bit.
So I love that tableau. I think the photos are really
cool. It's something that Drew likes
to play because he is a horticulture major from college,
so he likes to see all the plants and the effects that they
have. And so I think it's a really
good couple game for us to play. Something that's hitting my
table right now, literally, I have had this game for 10 days,
maybe come sail away. I have probably played it 8
times in those tensions. So good.
So good, it's so. It's so good.
And it's such an easy solo game to just pull out and table.
And still interesting choices to make as a solo player as well.
OK, it is amazing too. It plays great at 2.
We've also played it at 4:00 and it is fantastic.
You know it is. Three, the first time we played
it, our daughter played this and so it was possible.
That was the first time that sold me on buying the game.
So yeah. Katie kept hearing about this
game. Everyone kept talking about it
because it's like a Japanese desire and I had heard things
independent of what she had heard.
And there was a copy at our local game store and she was
like let's I don't know why we would go back and forth.
Cuz usually if we're both on board it's yeah, like I said we
could buy board games, I just can't buy my Scally cow.
But so we picked it up and I think we played like 3 or 4
times that weekend, right? And then since we like anyone,
anyone who comes over, guys want to play, come sail away.
It's an. Easy teach.
It's an easy teach after a long day of playing two scenarios of
Frost Haven with our big game local game group, Get the Way to
Come Sail Away is a great palate cleanser at the end of the day
as well. Although that's not to say that
that's what Come Sail Away is a palate cleanser.
It's it's. It's got.
A lot. It's got a lot of strategy it
does, but it's so accessible and so easy, right?
Yeah, so. Good.
We had a similar experience because I had just heard so many
people rave and rave and rave about it, and then we had gone
to Spielbound in Omaha, which is a fantastic board game cafe.
We'll give them a little shout out.
OK, Yeah. I noticed they had a copy for
sale and then I was like, I wonder if they have it in their
collection, too. So we tracked it down, got it
out, played it, and I think about three turns and I was
like, yeah, that's coming home with me.
Yep. Yeah, we've got coming up in the
beginning of January is Geek Way Mini.
So so if you're familiar with Geek Way to the West in Saint
Louis anyway, with two to 3000 attendees, mostly open gaming
games, library, play to win, very small vendor hall, couple
of events. Geek Way Mini, I think is 400
attendees. It might be 700, but it's at
it's at a hotel in Saint Louis. They've got it's just one it's
one big hall and it's nothing but open gaming and play to win.
There are no events there. There's nothing That's all it
is. And we've been doing really well
the past few years. We, we each have won a game, so
we, we always take two games home every year to start the new
year, which is really cool. I say that I'm going to jinx
myself this year, but it's great to play a lot of games, to try
out a lot of games. We tried.
We played Earth in 2023 and it was boring.
Everything else that you said about Earth, I agree.
Yeah, the art, the design, yes, we did not.
It wasn't terrible because the game, I mean, it's it's a solid
game. It goes back to that preference.
We were just like, oh, OK, We just, it left us.
Wanting a little more? Yeah, and then we discovered.
So we discovered Civilution and Men Nefer at the beginning of
this year, in January of 25 and we we want a copy of Civil
Illusion and Men Nefer. Men Nefer, If you don't have it,
you need it. It is great.
It is the single game that it just marries theme and mechanics
so beautifully so. That goes back to our lack of
confidence and heavier games. Because I look at that one, I'm
like, oh man, I don't know if we do that one.
No, no, no, it's heavy. OK, yeah, it's a, it is a heavy
game, but you literally have like 7, 10 paths to victory.
There's so many ways to score points.
But I mean, it is so well informed by the social, cultural
and religious and agricultural practices of ancient Egypt.
And all the steps make sense. You must take this action in
order to take this action, which you want to take.
But, you know, you can't bury the dead.
You've got to embalm them first. And so that action, you know,
it's so good. It's so, so worthy.
OK, you might selling me on it, I was.
Yeah, yeah. An ancient Egypt nerd in in
school so I might have. To then you can't go wrong.
I also think it was a heavy game, so not I think that I
think we really enjoyed it. So we we played it like 3 or 4 *
a geek way mini and each time you play you get entered to win
that title. Oh, each time.
Yes, right. So there's a little tablet the
way, the Geek way. Any con convention should mimic
what Geek Way does in terms of play to win.
It is perfection extraordinaire. You check a game out, you play
the game, you have 4 hours to return it.
Then when you return it, there's a tablet you go up to, you give
it a rating, you put in your badge number and everyone who
played it with you, right, So I could check it out and then you
and Drew and Katie and I play it.
I will then enter all four of your badge numbers.
We will all get one entry to win that game that.
Is awesome. And then every time you play a
game, you go to this tablet and you do that every single time.
There are no sheets of paper in a cup.
I am looking at you, Tennessee game days.
A plastic cup with a piece of paper and a number.
No, no, it is the 21st century. Embrace technology.
You can do this. You can do it.
Speaking of play to win, yes new con to us last year was Great
Plains Game Fest and they had a fantastic play to win selection.
And I heard that it's similarly where you scanned your badge to
check it out and then they would also scan everybody elses in the
groups badge for you too. Yep.
Yeah, it's it's so worthy. But I think to your original
point, boy, I really said go it away.
I'm sorry, guys. You know what, it's Christmas.
I'm just going to talk. Is that it lets you try a bunch
of games. So geek way mini is a great, OK,
we try a bunch of games. So then we know what we want,
what we want and what we don't to be looking out for in the
course of the year. So by the time we get through,
you know, you get, you get I guess what we call real geek Way
in May and then you got, and then of course UKGE is at the
end of May. So all of our British friends
tell us these games are great, look out for them.
And then Origins in June and then Gen.
Con's in August. I'm just exhausted thinking
about it. 2025 was an exhausting year of going to conventions.
Then we know what we want and what we don't.
So like Gen. Con this year our list of games
we wanted was like 3. You know, we didn't, we really
didn't buy nearly as much as we had in the past simply because
we got to try stuff out. Yeah, and that that is
definitely a luxury I am jealous of.
Yeah, I know, I know. How far are you from Omaha?
You talked about? What is it called?
Let's plug them one more time. Great Plains Game Fest.
Great. Plains Game Fest, that's in
Lincoln. Talk to me about the Game Cafe
in Omaha. What is it Spiel?
Spielbound, yeah, it's, they call it Midtown Omaha, and they
have lots of tables and they have a fairly extensive game
collection and they have a nice retail area.
They have food and drinks and we have spent many an evening
having Spielbound pizza and some beverages and playing games
whenever we make it today. That is fun.
We will include a link in the description of the episode and
we'll. Definitely check.
Them out, we'll plug them. Yeah.
So Omaha, that's great. So do you have, I know you're on
Instagram, but do you have a favorite platform you like to
use when you're creating your content?
Yeah, Instagram is probably my preference.
We also have a YouTube channel with our friend that's local.
I talked about our couple friends that we play games with.
We have the YouTube channel with them.
But for me, Instagram has that instant connection with people.
You get the comments right away and you can respond and then you
can see what they're doing and like you just get that instant
connection with people, which is really cool.
What about TikTok? Yeah, I've.
Always had the perception that I'm too old for TikTok.
No, no, that's that's definitely not true.
I struggled with TikTok because Tik Tok's got problematic
existence here in. The US right?
And I think that's that's a big hang up for me as well.
Because I noticed a lot of our, a lot of our friends and members
of the community in the UK have really recently embraced TikTok
and are finding a lot of success.
So yeah, who knows, right? There's just so many, so many
platforms to choose from. So let's talk about content
creation. I'm interested in the story of
when you transition from a casual gamer to a content
creator, Right. So you and Drew, you play
Forbidden Island. You're like, oh, these games are
fun. At some point you decide to make
the intention of posting everything and then your world
changes and all play redoes your whole basement.
I mean that. That really was the turning
point, I think. Yeah, just having the more
photogenic area. But again, going back to our
friends that live in town, they had just moved to town and our
friend Brody had done some review work.
And so that was never something on my radar as some that I
thought I could do, that I was qualified to do, that was
possible for me. I think I'd been posting on
Instagram just for fun, just to get my game photos off of my
Facebook page because I thought my friends and family were a
little annoyed with me because I was just posting games all the
time. But yeah, so I was just casually
posting pictures. I did not have that instant
success. You hear those success stories
where I just started posting and I have 10,000 followers in two
months? No, that was not me.
I posted for probably 2 years and had 100 followers.
And so I, I think that's something that people don't
always realize is that they're to growth on any social media
platform. There is a strategy and there
are things that you should be doing.
And I had no idea on any of that.
I didn't have a marketing background, I didn't have a
photography background, I didn't have a theater background, like
I just didn't know. And so once I did kind of make
that decision, I think I started pushing a little bit more after
we had found out that we had won the the makeover, because the
process for that was we found out in like maybe February that
we had won. And then the, and makeover was
at the beginning of May. And so I had this whole long
time in between that I kind of was like, you know what, this
might be an opportunity to, to jump in.
And then we had to be quiet about it from May, from the
beginning of May until the middle of July.
And so like we weren't able to like show it off or anything for
about 6 weeks. So yeah.
So did they just like ship everything to you and said have
fun or did they come in and show shopping and.
And put us up in a hotel for two nights while they came in.
And they actually didn't want us to really do much cleaning or
like tidying and stuff. And so like they just took
everything out and then they themselves did it.
It wasn't like a crew really. They had some electricians come
in to do a couple things, but honestly, they did a lot of the
work themselves. And we, again, we're just so
grateful for that whole experience and we haven't really
changed anything. It's very functional for us, so.
Thank you all Play. Yes, thank you all play.
Thank you all Play. So how many games were in your
collection at that point? Do you remember?
Do you know? We were under 200 for sure.
Under 200. Yeah.
And they and actually they, they've gifted us probably about
60 games in that process as well.
And so I think that maybe put us right around 200.
OK. And that that almost felt
overwhelming at the time, like, Oh my gosh, these are all these
games unplayed on the shelf. I think at that point I was
trying to keep I, I call it shelf of shame, some shelf of
opportunity. I tried to, at that point, I was
trying to keep it in the single digits, like no more than 9
unplayed games in the house. And that that rule has gone out
the window at this point. But yeah, definitely an
experience. And again, completely changed
not only just the gaming, but also again getting into the
content creation a little more seriously and gaining what I
like to call a part time job that I don't always get paid
for. Right.
So I'm just looking it up. Check out Episode 78.
It's an episode exactly. And what you're talking about,
we do not call it a shelf of shame.
It is your board game backlog. It has alliteration.
Burn in July. Yeah, here I see Played a new
game every day right. That was.
A lot. There you go.
So we keep, we keep a backlog of probably I think at any given
time the most our backlog has of unplayed games is 3.
Well, I think for one thing, because I don't do reviews, I
don't get inundated with a lot of review copies.
So when I buy a game, I got to play a game, right, Because
that's what we're here for. Now what I do get, but they,
they come and go, are prototypes for play testing because my wife
and I do a lot of play testing. I mean, we've got a, we've got a
prototype upstairs right now that needs to be played, but
it's not part of the backlog. And because we commit to playing
our entire collection a minimum of once every year, this is
separate from the backlog, right?
We, you know, so we're like over 9090%.
Yeah. So, you know, it's just, I think
we have a backlog of one right now.
We have 11 unplayed game like we have never played it.
So that's because it's a Kickstarter that came in and.
And you don't have control over when those come in.
Right, we don't, we do not have control over that.
And I think that's always been a goal of ours, is we have a game,
we should be playing it, we should be playing it every year.
And if we're not playing it, then it's time probably to say
goodbye. But saying goodbye, it is so
hard, that is. Hard.
For us. I don't.
I don't experience that. No.
No, not anymore. No, because there's a reality
to, you know, we've got to manage.
Like we figured out, you said it yourself, you have 400 games and
that's too many. Too many.
Well, there's only one solution if we get rid of them, but that
doesn't mean that you can't. There are many ways to give them
to good homes, you know, you know, or you can sell them.
Use game sales are great. We've got one in our local game
store here in Springfield. And then we've got Origins.
And then Gen. Con is like the last ditch,
right? But usually we get everything
sold and the reality is as if a game's not hitting the table,
you know? Yeah.
And yeah, I think some of that might be a rural gamer problem
too, is if I get rid of a game, chances are I can't play it
again until I go to a con. So that's part.
But that's OK, and that's OK. Then you play it at a con.
Maybe if I have time, yeah. And then?
Even if you have time, you're going to make time to play a
game with me at the Great Plains game.
Game. Fast Festival.
Yes. Fast not.
Fast we do also have a really good game sale like a what do
you want to see? Yep, Sam, that was that was very
good for us as that was one place where we sold a lot of
games last year, right. But again, then being rural, we
have to truck them with us. Yes, the four hours to Lincoln
and then if we don't sell it there are really our only option
is online sales, which can be time consuming.
And so I think that's a hold up for us too is just.
I get that. If I get rid of a game, where is
it going? Right, right.
Yeah, no, that's that's fair. That's fair.
I mean there's like game trades and stuff too.
I'm never I don't know, because the reality is is like, you
know, I think there's like a math trade where they like math
out the value of the game that you're trying you're trying to
get rid of and the game that you want.
And so you're, I don't know the, I don't, I don't do math guys.
That's yeah, that's, that's, that's not for me.
So let's talk about the community, right?
Which is why we're here, right? This is all about unity and
diversity, right? You cannot have unity without
diversity, right? It's been said recently is like,
oh, you know, I, we want, we want to be, we want unity.
Well, OK, in order for us to be unified, we have to embrace
everyone so that we can be unified, right?
What, what to your mind? Because you're again, you're in
a very unique position. You're a school teacher, so you
see games differently, right? You have a different lens than
just a gamer or a content creator, even though you have
those lenses too. You're also in a very rural,
isolated area. And yet you managed to be
awesome, right? Like you don't have to live in
Chicago or New York or Los Angeles.
You could be in rural Nebraska and just take the world by
storm, see and all play recognize that genius so.
You bring all of that to the table.
So looking at the community, to your mind, what do we do so well
that you're proud to be a part? Of it I think the community is
so welcoming I think as soon as we see somebody new coming in
we're like you're one of us we want we want to support you we
want to see what you're playing tell us what your favorite
things are we so welcome that and when we see a new account
we're like yay come join us that's.
I think one of my favorite things is just how supportive,
and I don't feel that it feels competitive, like no one's like,
well, I have to do better than that.
And like we're all in this together.
We all want to share how awesome this hobby is and how this hobby
can change. I don't want to oversell it, but
I mean, it can bring you new groups of people.
It can change your life. It can bring you into a new
social social circle. So I think that's something that
the community does amazingly. When you were early on in your
content creation, did you feel like you needed to keep up with
other content creators? I still feel that way, but
that's my own issue. OK.
That's it's something that in just in general I struggle with
is comparison. And so just knowing that about
myself, when I feel that coming in, I'm like, wait, I'm my own
thing. Yep, it will happen when it's
supposed to happen. Take a deep breath.
Just keep doing what I'm doing. And I think that something that
people can really tell is if you're authentic, if you are
really putting out there what you are doing and not trying to
copy everybody else. Because I think if you start
trying to copy everybody else's style or format or things like
that, then you lose yourself in the prospect and people can
tell. Yeah, I agree with that.
I definitely agree. I hope, I hope that my sincerity
and genuineness through to the, to the 20 people who watch my
bike. Yeah, yeah, it varies.
You know, it's like I, that's why I started this.
Like I'm not really good at the whole review thing.
I'm all about the people I'm all about and I fail like everyone
else. I'm a Sinner who's fallen and
you know I've I've made a lot of mistakes in the past and try to
try to do better. I think we all have that piece
of content that we put out. And they were like, Yep, this is
great. Everyone's gonna love this.
And then, like, right, people watch it and you're like, yeah.
OK. Absolutely.
So we don't do that again. Yeah.
So what about the flip side? Is there something you've seen
in the community that you really we need to do better?
I'll put on my rural gamer lens again.
OK. I think that those social
connections are so important. And so when you are not someone
that is able to get to a con and get face to face meetings and
get be able to, to walk around and say, hey, this is me, this
is what I do. That's hard.
It really is hard to make those connections professionally.
And so we are 4 hours from our nearest major airport.
We do have an airport in town, but it flies to Denver.
That is all, that's all it does. So I mean that it helps
sometimes, but again, that's an extra cost that's associated
with that flight. And then, you know, we're
teachers. We're, we're, you know, not, not
the wealthiest of professions. And we both teach.
And so it's, there's a cost involved with attending those
cons and things like that. And so I, I wish that there were
a more centralized way to make those connections with people
when you can't do that face to face.
Yes, I agree. I think it's unfortunate there
is no solution. Our country is just so big.
I talk about this all the time. Like all of our friends in the
UK, they host these one day conventions, right?
And it's not even really a convention.
It's like, you know, 3030 of them get together and they bring
their kids and they just, they rent a hall for a day, you know,
and they've got little cute names for all of them.
When my wife and I were in England in 24, we were down in
Southampton and Gareth, my partner in the podcast, we
called it Cajun Con because, you know, a Cajun gamer, you know,
But no, it was like there was like 3535 or 40 people came from
around the UK to see me. Like, man, you want to warm your
heart like I am not, I'm not, I'm just not.
I'm not worthy of that, you know, And that was like, and the
British don't like it when you cry and.
Get all emotional. Yeah, I got, there was a moment
where I got him like we all took a group picture and everyone was
getting ready to go back to their table.
And I was like, guys, wait, hold on a minute, you know, And then
I just had to be a cage. And it'd be like, I love all of
you and thank you so much. And I just really, you know,
they welcomed my wife and I and and, you know, they took us into
their homes. We certainly we stayed with
folks while we were there. They're just lovely people.
Their country is small enough that they can drive one to two
hours or less and then do that and then turn around and go home
or get a hotel for the night. Right?
Like that's the problem is, OK, so I think I'm six hours from
Lincoln. That means I'm 10 hours from
you. And you can't just come to
Springfield for the day. You you'd have to drive, stay
the night, then game all day, stay the night and leave the
next day. So that's like a whole weekend
for a single day of gaming, you know, so I definitely get what
you're talking about. I think the only solution to my
mind is that maybe more content creators and publishers could
think about coming to these smaller ones.
Like you've got one in Lincoln, you know, and and visit, like I
told you, offline, like we're thinking about coming to great
lanes this year because, you know, we get to meet you and
we'll get to see Nick and Mandy again.
I've only had the pleasure of meeting once, you know.
So yeah, that's definitely, I guess we could do that.
We could certainly do that better to accommodate everyone
in the community, yeah. And I know margins are so, so
small in board gaming and like, I know financially it's not
viable to attend every single little convention.
I totally get that. It's just one of those things
that has been a frustration on my end is just the answer to
everyone has always been like, just go to the cons.
OK, Well I can't so. I think so.
I think if I'm not mistaken, you had a post.
I don't know if it was. I think it was Gen.
Con this year you had you had a post post or a message or
something you were expressing your FOMO and I think I DM D you
and was like don't no right. Cuz I kind of see my role as a
podcaster when I go to these conventions as a way of me to
bring it to you but don't switch.
You don't feel the FOMO rather than the look what I bought.
Look who. Gave me this.
It's more like, hey, look, you know, I try to do that.
I don't know that I succeed, but I definitely try to do so, and I
try to alleviate as much of our greater communities FOMO as much
as possible because I don't like emotional manipulation.
I try not to do it myself. Certainly sometimes I have both
intentionally and unintentionally, but as a victim
of it as well. So I'm very reticent to
manipulate one's emotions for whatever.
And I think that especially with that Gen.
Con aspect, I think we have already decided like, I don't
think that's for us. We're both very introverted.
We get very drained if we are around large groups of people
for a very long time. And we even felt that we, when
we were in Omaha, we went to the zoo and we were like, OK, we're,
we're peopled out. We can go home and be quiet now,
right? But we, we loved going to Dice
Tower W Dice Tower W was a great experience as far as you got to
play games. Like that was the main focus.
It wasn't necessarily going to meetings and things like that.
But we love gaming with people like we just wish we could more
easily do so. Sure.
Well, hopefully we will see you the Great Plains.
It would be awesome next year. I really, I hope that we can
make that happen. So the last thing I wanted to
ask you is that's not true. I have two more questions.
So who, when you were, when you dove into content creation early
on and even now, are there any content creators in our
community that have inspired you and maybe continue to inspire
you today? Oh, for sure, for sure.
I think that's something that's great about our our community as
well as just the inspiration that we can take from each
other. And you don't want to copy
somebody, but just being able to be like, oh, that was really
cool. I wonder where I could take that
for sure, Chris, from just three maples, 33 little, just three
maples, just just. Three.
Yeah, just three maples. He isn't as active now, but he
was super supportive, like he answered all my questions and
like he was awesome for for helping me get started.
Someone that I take a lot of inspiration from and I still
take a ton of inspiration from is Dana at Better Mood Board
Games. She is the queen of reels and I
just wish I had a modicum of her talent.
She is so awesome. Tell me about it, right?
Every time I'm like, Oh my gosh, how did you do that?
She's going to be part of the series, too.
She's yeah. That's what I want to talk about
is her reels. I think she's just.
She is. She is.
I think everything she touches just is technical.
Well, no, you don't want that. That could be bad.
Right, she has another one that has been so like if I ask a
question from like, Hey, how'd you do that?
She will tell me. She she doesn't gatekeep.
She's not like, well, that's just my little secret.
Like she wants everybody to be so successful in this as well.
She's awesome. And just, you know, as we go
through, everyone just really does support each other.
Rich from 60 minute Gamer always answers my questions when I have
them. Corinne from Game Changer by
Corinne. She and I really have been a bit
of a cohort as we've come up, and so definitely leaning on
each other and even not just content creation, but like, hey,
how are you doing? You didn't post.
Yeah, last week. Like, are you OK?
Like just being able to check in with people like that too is so
impactful so. Yeah, that is man, that that is
a full time job because most of my content is spent sending you
Adm going, just checking in. How are things going, right?
Yeah, I don't. Yeah, just.
But the problem is, is like, so if I haven't messaged you in a
while, Mayor Coppa? Mayor Coppa, I am not forgotten
about you. It's just the reality of life is
not our community is for as niche as our community is right.
This community is huge and it's so hard to keep up.
With everybody. Everyone and I always like it
keeps me up at night. I I lose sleep over the fact
that, well, I haven't reached out to so and so in like 3
months, six months. These are the these are the
things that are in my nightmares.
You're so awesome. Because that's, I mean, thank
you. I'm just going to leave it
there. Thank you.
That is very kind of you. Yeah.
It's just, it's, it's so hard. It's it's a real challenge.
Even just the the keeping up with like, oh, did they post
this week? I don't.
Maybe I just didn't see it. Maybe they have been on and I
just didn't see it. And I'm the awkward social
person too, so I don't ever want to be like, hey, what's going on
with you? Like I don't want it to be come
off like pushy. I worry about that too, OK?
Like I reach out and you don't respond and I'm like, Oh my God.
I came across just. Oh, no, yeah, it's never y'all's
fault. I just.
I'm just. Oh, internalized for sure.
I internalized. Y'all are, y'all are busy.
Y'all have more important things to do than to talk to this man.
Things are happening well and I am.
Super guilty of I open it and then it's not unread anymore and
then it gets buried. And so then I'm like oh, today,
today. Oh my gosh, that was like 2
weeks ago and I never replied. Yeah.
I also think the algorithm works against us.
I talked with Grant Lyon, who was on the series earlier.
There were some influencers and content creators that I had
messaged just like I messaged you, Hey, can I get your e-mail,
send you the pitch for this whole series, and I can go and I
can see they've never read it. It still says sent because you
get so many messages it gets buried.
Did it go to the spam folder? That's something that like I, I
forget to check, like I forget to check my request sometimes.
And so then that gets and then there's even a separate
subfolder in the request folder that's like hidden requests.
So Oh my gosh, if that doesn't show up then.
Yeah, I know. It's it's just, it's just crazy.
OK, last question. What piece of advice do you have
for someone who's thinking about getting into content creation
and they reach out to you? Go, Sarah, I love you, love your
work. How do I how do I do this?
Step 1 is just being true to yourself, putting your opinion
out there. Do your thing like if you try to
copy somebody, it's not going to go well, like you're going to
burn out because you're not being yourself.
And people just don't connect with if they perceive it to be
kind of fake or, or a copy. Like we're a small enough
community that we've probably seen a lot of each other's
content. And so if you're like, oh,
they're just copying that person, well, that's not gonna
go over very well, right? Step 2 is not the fun step, but
do the research, do some look in like tips for growth on your
platform. Watch some people that know what
they're talking about, but also make sure they know what they're
talking about cuz you can get some greater that are like,
well, this is what you do. And no, that's really not great
advice. So just got to be careful about,
about who you trust Step 3 as you can, if you, it just depends
on what you want to do. If you just want to do photos, I
think your phone camera is perfect.
You're, you're probably good. But if you want to get into some
video and stuff like that, you might need to upgrade some
equipment. And that's a financial
investment for sure. And for somebody that does this
as a hobby, how much? How much can I invest in this
hobby that is a hobby of my hobby?
Obviously. But my hobby of my hobby is
making content. Right, right.
So yeah, we don't get paid for this.
No, no it is not. If you were getting into this
because you think you're going to make a lot of money, then
that's probably not a good reason to get into this hobby
for sure. Yeah, that's so true.
There was one other thing I was going to say.
It's gone now, remember? Step four, yes, she'll let you
know you're going to get all kind of requests in the new
year. What was step four?
Well, Sarah, thank you so much. Oh my God, I'm so glad we
finally got to meet. It's been a real pleasure.
So tell everyone where they can find you.
Instagram, YouTube, all that. So Yep, Instagram and at Sarah
always loses. And then YouTube our channel
with our friend is called Let's table it.
Let's Table it. I'll link that in the title.
Of the episode yeah that'll that'll definitely guys as
always happy holidays season greetings, etcetera at nauseam.
Make sure to like and subscribe to this episode.
There's this is episode 153 I've done 152 before this so go check
it out. There's some great content out
there and this content series is become permanent.
This has just been really great. So going to line some people up
for the new year, but keep listening and as always, be kind
to each other and let's play more games.