Hello you three! Welcome to Spotlight. Together you are Greatway Games, but please tell us more about your individual selves!

Nicole: I’m Nicole! I’m from Australia, but now live in Canada. I did a little family gaming when I was younger (and lots of regular card games, Uno, Life etc), then in University started playing D&D and eventually board games (thanks, University games club!). I work at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto as an executive assistant, and I’m passionate about all things museumy. I’m a dog lover (understatement of the millennium) and spend a lot of my free time gaming, and talking/writing about games too.

Adrienne: I’m Adrienne, I live in Chicago and have been gaming with regular enthusiasm since around 2012. I have an MFA in Media Art, where I focused on board game design. My thesis was a board game about living with chronic illness. My desk job is working at a non-profit trade association, but I still work on games and art on the side!

Erin: Hey! I’m Erin, and I live in Massachusetts, right on the New Hampshire border. I work in research during the day and I’m currently working on my Master’s in Social Work. I played board games a lot when I was little, but I only picked them up again about seven years ago when I met my husband.

Nicole and Jake

Adrienne and Wedrats Yellav

Adrienne’s thesis: A board game called Bitter Pills about living with chronic illness. There is no win condition.

Erin and The Cardboard Republic logo.

I have fond memories of playing battleship on the floor with my dad where I argued with him about the pronunciation of ‘debris’. (he was right). What’s your favorite childhood game?

Nicole: I weirdly had the most fun with Life. I think that, given I was so young, the novelty of playing out the progression of someone’s life and picking their path was interesting. Looking back I see it’s kinda problematic (and heteronormative much?). But it was a good introduction to choices in games.

Adrienne: I was one of those horse kids (you know the type, absolutely obsessed with all things equestrian), so my favorite game was obviously the 1993 masterpiece for horse kids, Herd Your Horses.

Erin: I used to play a ton of games with my grandmother. I don’t know if I had a favorite of those, but I was a big fan of the ones she let me win. On my own, I played a lot of the Babysitter’s Club game . . . well, sort of. I I mostly used it as a map for my matchbox cars.

Could you give a quick pitch of your podcast to those who aren’t subscribed yet?(You should totally subscribe though, because Greatway is gre- really good.)

Adrienne: Our tagline is “Games, Culture, and Everything In-Between,” and I think that’s a pretty good summary. Instead of focusing on individual game reviews and playing notes and the like, we talk about what it means to be a gamer and to love this hobby so much.

Nicole: Also we like to keep it around 1 hour long because all of us find it hard to keep up with longer podcasts and didn’t want to make something too long, either.

Erin: Also also we like to talk about our pets.

The pets thing is not an exaggeration. You did however forget to add ‘we are totally awesome and very chill and fun to listen to because we’re all good friends and you can hear the joy in our voices when we talk about games’ but that’s ok, I got you covered.

Nicole: We’re nothing without you, Calvin!

Let’s talk our shared love: Games. What is the best game you’ve ever played? Was it a board game?

Adrienne: The game that got me into gaming of any sort was Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon, so I would say that’s probably the answer I should go with? But our collective love of Stardew Valley should be mentioned!

Nicole: Oh wow, the best game ever? That’s so ridiculously hard to pick. You could think about the best game as far as experience with the game itself, or the people you play with, the memories created.. One particular time with a group of good friends, I played about 3 - 4 hours just of One Night Ultimate Werewolf, for instance. So many choices.. I choo-choo-choose.. To not answer specifically!

Erin: OMG I can’t. I would say . . . Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura was the first game that really got me thinking about what it meant to tell a story and still allow a player to have some agency. It was also the first game I ever modded, so it taught me a lot about balancing difficulty and player power. It was just a fantastic world, too! Like, steampunk and magic, but before those were as trope-errific as they are today.

Great answers; sorry for putting you under the spot. I wish more Tycoon style board games existed; I lost so many hours to those. Steampunk Tycoon? Any publishers listening?

Nicole plays Mars Tycoon Terraforming Mars.

Speaking of which: If you were given a blank check and your pick of talent, what game would you make?

Adrienne: Whatever the board game equivalent of Hamilton is.

You are an unapologetic fangirl and I love it.

Adrienne: I am nothing if not overly obsessed with things that bring me joy.

Nicole: I’d make, ahem, ask nicely for Rob Daviau and Matt Leacock create a Twin Peaks legacy game for me :)

Erin: Murder, She Wrote-themed escape room.

To circle away from the geekery for juuust a moment: What’s your favorite non-gaming thing right now? What’s got you jumping out of your socks in excitement?

Adrienne: My answer is still pretty geeky - I’m obsessed with Noah Hawley’s Legion adaptation and really excited to see where this goes and what it means for comic book adaptations. The X-Men are pretty important to me, and I have felt the franchise has needed a kick in the pants, and it looks like Deadpool and Legion are making the X-Cinematic Universe a far more compelling place to tell stories. And as of writing this, the Oscars haven’t happened yet, so there’s a chance Lin-Manuel Miranda could get an EGOT, which would make my entire DAY because everyone knows how charmed I am by him as an artist and overall human being.

Edit: NO EGOT HOW DARE YOU, ACADEMY.

Legion is so on my to-see list. And also shakefist @ Academy.

Nicole: Non-board gaming, yes? I’ve been enjoying quite a bit of video gaming in recent times. Gone Home, Firewatch, Skyrim (remastered), Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing & the Witness. It’s interesting diving back into video games a bit more to discover the stuff that’s been coming out and providing some different experiences. Ummm that’s pretty geeky. I mean, there’s not much about my life that’s not geeky? Ummm. I got excited about an upcoming exhibition at my work about blue whales! Yeah, still geeky…

Whaaaales! In case any of our readers have not played Firewatch, one of the best games ever if you like story.

Erin: I don’t have a ton of time to spend on other interests right now, but my schoolwork has me pretty excited. I’ve found a field that I really love and I’m thankful for that every day!

(refers to his notes) I was also told that you enjoy cats.

Adrienne: Nicole is a pup person! We forgive her for this.

Nicole: DOGS ARE SO PURE YOU ALL!!!!

Erin: Cats are cool. Dogs are neato. But snails carry their houses on their backs! Come on. That’s amazing.

Adrienne’s cat Zeke.

It’s been said that we’re in a golden age of board gaming. What’s your take? Are we in an Age of Great(way)ness?

Adrienne: If we’re gonna do “ages” in the same way comics did, I think we’re in the “Modern Age” moreso. The hobby is becoming mainstream, exploring more topics, and really finding a contemporary stride. I’d even go as far as to say that the “legacy” gaming concept parallels the rise of the anti-hero in the sense of how it’s redefining how we THINK about gaming. If you suggested 15-20 years ago the idea of a board game you could only play through once, people would have shit themselves in how transgressive that sounds. That said, there’s definitely a lot of good going on, and like I say with comics, it’s only better if we get even more exposure. The more people who pay attention, the more money there is to make amazing things! I don’t understand why people get so protective of their hobby and begin to “gatekeep” instead of realizing that having more people means more chances for awesome things. To bring it back to comics (again and again and again), yeah there’s a ton of bad comic book movies, but it’s better than not having the movies made at all – and we get to see a lot of really awesome things because there’s opportunities to try everything!

Nicole: Hmm, maybe it’s a “great” age? Definitely a Modern Age as Adrienne says. It’s starting to permeate wider into nerd circles and further out into the world. I’m a fan of encouraging play, so it’s always something I love seeing pick up speed.

Adrienne being the ghost in Mysterium.

Do you have any other podcasts or board game sites to recommend?

Adrienne: This is where I begrudgingly admit I don’t regularly listen to board game podcasts or visit many sites - I try to keep up, but fall behind! My weekly podcast rotation is all non-gaming; my favorites are The Weekly Planet Podcast out of Australia, two guys who talk about comic book movies and other nerd culture things, and Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR, where we draw a lot of our own inspiration for Greatway.

Nicole: For board game podcasts, I love the Five By, Shut Up and Sit Down, Vox Republica, League of Nonsensical Gamers, Board Game Blitz.. I could go on. Sites - I have to be selfish and recommend the site I write for, the Daily Worker Placement :)  But oh gosh my fave non-BG podcasts have to be Pop Culture Happy Hour, 99% Invisible, Tanis and Good Job Brain.

Erin: Well, I’m also part of The Cardboard Republic, so I’d totally recommend that, and Nicole’s Daily Worker Placement. A lot of the podcasts I listen to regularly aren’t gaming-related. Here they are, though: Stuff You Missed In History Class, Lore, Crime Writers On, Criminal, Casefile, My Favorite Murder (I like true crime, sorrynotsorry), Pop Culture Happy Hour, Up and Vanished, Stranglers, All Killa No Filla, How to Be a Girl, Pod Save America, and The Daily.

Thank you all for coming on Spotlight. Please let our audience know where they can find you online!

Nicole: Thank youuuuuu Calvin, for being a great supporter of us! We’re on Twitter at @GreatwayGames, and Facebook at Greatway Games. Our podcast archives are here, and you can also find us on iTunes, Google Play & Stitcher. Plus, we have a Patreon!

And that was Greatway Games. Thank you for reading.