Two things for you, free of charge.
1. Mental Floss said really nice things about Tabletop:
So Wil Wheaton has a YouTube show about boardgames, and it’s awesome. It’s called TableTop, and it’s a long-form (about a half hour per episode) look at various good boardgames, including a basic explanation of how to play each — plus an actual play session so you can actually get it. Whether you’re a boardgame nerd or a “normal” person looking for a fun diversion for your next party, this is for you.
I'm crazy about Mental Floss, so this means a lot to me. I think Mental Floss reaches people who don't already know about Tabletop, and I'm hopeful that this will bring some new viewers and eventual new gamers into the world.
Also, I met a woman in Trader Joe's today who watches Tabletop. This is how I recounted it to Twitter:
Girl in store: Do you make that tabletop show? Me: Yes! Her: My husband and I love it! We have a game night because of it! Me: AWESOME!
Then:
Her little girl: Daddy's favorite is the trains! Her: We love Ticket to Ride. Anne: Careful with the board. Me: Voice of experience, here.
Her husband told me via the tweety box that she was there to get snacks for their weekly boardgame night, which exists because they were inspired by Tabletop.
Mission: Accomplished*
N: 2nd Watch will be living on the web. In what ways will the show’s format be taking advantage of its portal?
WW: Hopefully, it will let us reach out to and embrace the audience in a more interactive way than we can with television, which is one-way communication.
N: With after-shows like this and Talking Dead, you and Chris are acting as ambassadors to the community on behalf of those shows. Do you think networks are finally seeing the value in personally connecting with the audience? And how does having the trust of an audience weigh on deciding whether or not to take on a job like this?
WW: It’s a huge responsibility to host one of these shows, because we need to know as much about the individual episodes and the cast as the most über of überfans. We’re essentially acting as a bridge between the fans of the show and the people who make it, so we absolutely need to have our shit together. I take the responsibility very seriously, and I know that there’s a certain amount of “this is awesome” implied when I agree to do something like this, which is why I wouldn’t have said yes if I didn’t absolutely love the show.
The networks are taking baby steps, as younger executives who have grown up with the Internet replace retiring executives who are still trying to fight the Napster battle. One of the key areas (in which) indies are destroying the majors is with fan outreach, no region-locking, no DRM, and things like that. It makes me really, really happy that TNT and AMC are seeing that the old style of one-way, top-down network to audience relationships need to adapt and change to meet what audiences expect right now.
There's a lot more to our interview, which I hope you'll read because I spent a lot of time thinking about and writing my answers down. For you. For science. You monster.
*And not in the fake codpiece way.
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And this is for you Wil: Thank you! Thank you for all the awesome stuff that you do, thanks for being an awesome person, thanks for making me laugh time-and-time again, and above all else, thanks for not being a dick!
Thanks for Tabletop (and you other sundry awesomeness) Wil! My family got Ticket to Ride from our Reddit board game secret Santa so we popped open a laptop and watched you explain the game to us.
Oh, and Mental Floss is 1 of only 2 magazines I am willing to maintain a subscription to (Mother Jones is the other). They are great to stick in the bathroom for toilet reading.
Ditto what Loveassassin13 said. I have a Tabletop shirt, and usually get a question or two about it when people see it, so I’m happy to pimp your show. Thanks for being open, human and awesome.
Thank you for Tabletop! Just got my Munchkin Gameboard from Warehouse23. They tossed in a few goodies, particularlly nice was a Munchkin card that has an image which looks quite like Felicia Day, that states; “Lie to your own Webcam – Go up a Level”.
My local community loves table top. I have got several of them interested, and a lot of games have been sold because of it. Which brings up a question.
My local CBG (Comic Book Guy) is trying to get the games shown on Tabletop and have them in stock, however, they seem to be out of stock. Does anybody know where he can get a list of games that will be on upcoming shows? He doesn’t want any spoilers, just a list of games that are coming up on future shows so he can stock them. Does anybody know where he could find this?
Our local comic store has seen the definite influx of business. He commented to me how he hardly ever sold Zombie Dice, until one day someone came in and bought his entire stock. So I told him about TableTop, and now he’s stocking extras of what’s showing.
I said it on Twitter but I’ll say it here too.
Thanks to you and everyone involved in making TableTop for bringing these games in to our lives.
Because of the show, I’ve bought, Tsuro, Settlers of Catan and it’s Expansion for 5-6 players, the Traders and Barbarian expansion for Settlers and its 5-6 player expansion, Zombie Dice (which I also have on my iPhone too) and I’m seriously thinking about getting Small World and Ticket to Ride too.
You’ve re-energized our Game Nights now – and as a matter of fact i have 3 buddies from work coming over Saturday night to play Settlers of Catan and we’ll subsequently be playing D&D’s Wrath of Ashardalon (any plans on having that game on your show?!?)
So again.. Thanks not only to you – but the people behind that camera that make the show possible!
Ha!! That’s Awesome!
We’ve watched every episode and have bought Ticket to Ride as a result. Damn you Wheaton 😀
The other day I went on Amazon to add Small World to my wishlist. I couldn’t help but notice that the first 2 pages of “Customers who purchased this also bought…” were games from Tabletop.
If you’re not making an incredible commission from games sold after they’re featured on your show, you should be. Tabletop’s selling power has to be phenomenal.
Bit late to the party here, but my husband and I both *love* Tabletop. We sporadically play board games anyway, but Tabletop has really inspired us to play more (and buy more). I don’t know if you play it in future episodes, but if not and y’all decide to make more episodes, you might want to consider Zombies!!! We would certainly be interested in watching you play it.
In other news, I don’t suppose you have any pull over TNT and how they allow people to watch Second Watch, do you? I live in the UK now, and I don’t have a cable provider with which I can log in to watch Second Watch. I was able to view the first episode over here, but subsequent ones show some of the ads, say others are not available, and then hang on 9 seconds, never allowing me to watch the show. Frustrating that I can get ads, but not the show the ads are paying for. I would have loved to watch Second Watch because I found it interesting, and you hosting it would be the icing on the cake. At least it was for the first episode…I fear I’ll not know for the rest–somehow I doubt that we’ll suddenly gain access to Second Watch when the second season premieres over here (this week!).