Jun 5, 2026 · 1 hr 23 min · 13 segments
What makes a board game a "Lifestyle Game"? What games in our collections do we wish we could treat as lifestyle games? What games do we wish existed when we were younger so they could have been…
Yeah.
First off, I just wanna say, uh, glad to hear that Desmond's doing better.
So, um, okay.
I, like, you see this happen with a lot of games.
Like, you just in the past few years, like, in, and even in the past few months, you've seen it a lot with games like, uh, the Concordia Special Edition being done by Awaken Realms, um, for various reasons, mostly due to the AI art.
Um, you've seen it with, like, Legacy of Mars recently, which is, like, the Legacy version of, uh, Terraforming Mars.
So you see these games getting, like, really, really low ratings on BGG, and then there's people who are rating it a 10 to balance out those people, and you see the comments that comes acro- Like, if you scroll through, it's, I don't know if it's sad or if it's funny or if it's both, because the amount of, like, it, it seems pretty petty when you see people saying like, "Oh, rating it a 10 to balance out the ones," and then like, "Rating it a one to balance out the 10s." And, you know, I get that there's, like, the idea of ...
And, and I'm even a little conflicted on the idea of, like, how do we, like, what is the best way to voice your displeasure with something like this happening? Like, if you don't support something that a game is doing, like, yeah, going on BGG and rating it a one probably isn't the best way.
But, like, I don't know.
My point is, a lot of games get rated a certain way, and then people don't follow up.
They just write the game off, and they give up on it, and then they're just, that's it.
And whether it's a poor review or a bad rating on an, as your average BGG score, like, there's a lot of things that can really just, like, kill a game right from the start and, and, you know, prevent any chances it has of ever succeeding, of ever having any sales, getting other positive reviews.
It goes into the discount bins, et cetera.
And so I kinda wanted to not only talk about this kinda, like, rating system on BGG, but also, um, s- highlight a specific game that's been kind of on my radar off and on for the past, like, couple years, I would say, uh, called Fled.
Um, so it's designed by Mark Swanson, who most people might just re- uh, f- recognize his game Feudum, which is, like, one of the heaviest, most complex games of the past few years that kinda had, like, some mixed reviews and whatnot.
Um, published by Odd Bird Games.
This is a 2025 release, and if you look at, I'd like to direct you to the thread on Board Game Geek, uh, called, if you just sort by top-ranked threads, it's called What's With The Theme? So this game currently has a 5.6 rating out of 10, okay? So most people who see that, like, the second, I would say, like, 90 perc- percent, 95% of gamers probably who go to this game's BGG page and see that are immediately just backing away or might be, like, scrolling out of curiosity to see the bad reviews.
But, like, most people are gonna write that game off just from seeing a score that low.
Like, we talked, Dylan, a little bit in the first episode, episode one of this podcast, our board game laws, about, like, how much stock we may or may not have put previously or want to going forward.
Like, obviously one of your laws had to do with, like, the BGG ratings and player count and that kind of thing.
Um, and I'll say right now, like, myself, if I saw a game rated lower than a six, like-for most of my, you know, like life as a board gamer that I've been checking BoardGameGeek, I probably wouldn't have given it another look either.
Yeah.
First off, I just wanna say, uh, glad to hear that Desmond's doing better.
So, um, okay.
I, like, you see this happen with a lot of games.
Like, you just in the past few years, like, in, and even in the past few months, you've seen it a lot with games like, uh, the Concordia Special Edition being done by Awaken Realms, um, for various reasons, mostly due to the AI art.
Um, you've seen it with, like, Legacy of Mars recently, which is, like, the Legacy version of, uh, Terraforming Mars.
So you see these games getting, like, really, really low ratings on BGG, and then there's people who are rating it a 10 to balance out those people, and you see the comments that comes acro- Like, if you scroll through, it's, I don't know if it's sad or if it's funny or if it's both, because the amount of, like, it, it seems pretty petty when you see people saying like, "Oh, rating it a 10 to balance out the ones," and then like, "Rating it a one to balance out the 10s." And, you know, I get that there's, like, the idea of ...
And, and I'm even a little conflicted on the idea of, like, how do we, like, what is the best way to voice your displeasure with something like this happening? Like, if you don't support something that a game is doing, like, yeah, going on BGG and rating it a one probably isn't the best way.
But, like, I don't know.
My point is, a lot of games get rated a certain way, and then people don't follow up.
They just write the game off, and they give up on it, and then they're just, that's it.
And whether it's a poor review or a bad rating on an, as your average BGG score, like, there's a lot of things that can really just, like, kill a game right from the start and, and, you know, prevent any chances it has of ever succeeding, of ever having any sales, getting other positive reviews.
It goes into the discount bins, et cetera.
And so I kinda wanted to not only talk about this kinda, like, rating system on BGG, but also, um, s- highlight a specific game that's been kind of on my radar off and on for the past, like, couple years, I would say, uh, called Fled.
Um, so it's designed by Mark Swanson, who most people might just re- uh, f- recognize his game Feudum, which is, like, one of the heaviest, most complex games of the past few years that kinda had, like, some mixed reviews and whatnot.
Um, published by Odd Bird Games.
This is a 2025 release, and if you look at, I'd like to direct you to the thread on Board Game Geek, uh, called, if you just sort by top-ranked threads, it's called What's With The Theme? So this game currently has a 5.6 rating out of 10, okay? So most people who see that, like, the second, I would say, like, 90 perc- percent, 95% of gamers probably who go to this game's BGG page and see that are immediately just backing away or might be, like, scrolling out of curiosity to see the bad reviews.
But, like, most people are gonna write that game off just from seeing a score that low.
Like, we talked, Dylan, a little bit in the first episode, episode one of this podcast, our board game laws, about, like, how much stock we may or may not have put previously or want to going forward.
Like, obviously one of your laws had to do with, like, the BGG ratings and player count and that kind of thing.
Um, and I'll say right now, like, myself, if I saw a game rated lower than a six, like-for most of my, you know, like life as a board gamer that I've been checking BoardGameGeek, I probably wouldn't have given it another look either.
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