No topic is off-limits for the upcoming return of our Omnibus Questions, as we demonstrate in this episode by tackling such issues as pre-Reformation papal indulgences. And if you were to guess which host brought up that little historical nugge

#307: Galactic Renaissance

9 days ago 1h 11m

While we have little experience with Ed Sullivan's TV offerings, his legacy is a fascinating one. While he capitulated to pressure during the Red Scare, he did show remarkable courage in platforming African American performers despite oppositio

#306: What Brings You Back

16 days ago 1h

It is said that both politics and religion are not good conversational fodder among people you don't know well (and perhaps not even for people with whom you are close), but sadly those are among Mark's favourite topics. The sun having been dev

#305: Barely Alive

23 days ago 52m 19s

I never really understood the term "undead." I mean, it's a binary, right? If it's not dead it must be alive, at least in the context of things that could or were once alive. The negation never seemed to be doing enough work to imply what it wa

#304: We Are Sick

30 days ago 45m 8s

We haul ourselves off of our deathbeds to deliver this episode unto you. Prospects for our recovery seem dim, but we would sooner die than deprive you of that which is most sacred--namely content. Of course, illness may yet claim us, but we are

#303: Kutna Hora: The City of Silver

Mar 19th, 2024 59m 16s

We present to you a specially chemically-enhanced episode. Walker has been doping specifically in preparation, eschewing any sustenance other than military-grade lozenges. Mark will be performing his hosting duties while fully immersed in a tan

#302: Rules Explanations

Mar 12th, 2024 1h 17m

For reasons both personal and highly arbitrary, the SVWAG style guide (authored by gibbons, of course) does not countenance using the word "teach" as a noun, with the possible exception as a casual nickname for a teacher. Thus a game does not,

#301: Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicester

Mar 5th, 2024 1h 9m

Before shouting about toys professionally, Mark taught ethics at a health sciences university. He discussed matters of life and death, of cutting edge controversial technologies, of war and politics, and matters of fundamental rights and duties

#300: Patrons' Top 20

Feb 27th, 2024 1h 21m

Walker was all like "there's this card effect in Successors" and Mark was all like "nuh-uh" but Walker was like "yeah, fer sure" and Mark goes "no way" and Walker says "way" and that's a 100% accurate transcript.01:53 AYURIS: Dice Realms (Thoma

#299: Nucleum

Feb 20th, 2024 55m 20s

The theory of the atom first posited by the pre-Socratic philosopher Democritus in roughly the 4th Century BCE. None of his actual writings have survived. The great thing about the pre-Socratics is that so few of their works are available, you

#298: Deckbuilding

Feb 13th, 2024 1h 7m

Every man wants to be a macho, macho manTo have the kind of body always in demandJogging in the mornings, go man goWork outs in the health spa, muscles glowYou can best believe that he's a macho manReady to get down with, anyone he canYou can t

#297: Envelopes of Cash

Feb 6th, 2024 1h 8m

Let us, following in Andy Schwarz's example, highlight the fine work of Nancy Skinner, a California state senator whose "Fair Pay to Play Act" granted college athletes in California the right to profit from their name, image, and likeness. This

#296: Dexterity Games Revisited

Jan 30th, 2024 1h 20m

It has been many a year since our early days, our salad days when we were younger and dumb and didn't know what we were doing. Much has changed, in that we are now older and dumb and don't know what we're doing. But the inexorable march of time

#295: Federation

Jan 23rd, 2024 1h 5m

A pretty solid rule of thumb is that if you've been disappointed in a kind of game, try David Thompson's version of it and see how delightful it can be. Hidden movement got you down? Sniper Elite is the cure. Abstract chunky tiled fighty thing

#294: 2023 Year in Review

Jan 16th, 2024 1h 18m

As ever, and with no clue what a lang syne is (much less an auld-y type configuration), we embrace the new year by commemorating the old. We would venture that the new year only truly begins once SVWAG has given its imprimatur on the best game

#293: Out of Print Games Revisited

Jan 9th, 2024 1h 18m

Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher, claimed that you never step in the same river twice; for it is not the same river and you are not the same person. Such as it is with games! They are reprinted and thus reborn, all along some blurred sp

#292: Arborea

Jan 2nd, 2024 1h 20m

"This here's a jam for all the gamersTryin' to do what those rulebooks offerGet shot down 'cause you're overzealousTake too long, opponents get jealousOk, smarty, go to a partyGames are on the menu for everybodyYou wanna play a game that's more

#291: Adventure Games

Dec 19th, 2023 1h 34m

Just before Mark is de-platformed, he would like to remind the SVWAG audience of two very important facts. First, he is but a man shouting into a can, and just because he doesn't like the thing you like doesn't make either less worthy of respec

#290: Mindclash Games

Dec 12th, 2023 1h 3m

A review of So Very Wrong About Games, not actually by Werner Herzog:"To listen to SVWAG is to court madness. One host is beholden to the delusion that if he utters sufficient words in a short period of time he may stave off his inevitable deat

#289: Daybreak

Dec 5th, 2023 1h 23m

Dexterity games, dismissed by many in the board game world as children's toys (whereas, by contrast, we laud them as children's toys), can offer a unique window into the player's soul. A fine dexterity game is a crucible in which one's true cha

#288: All the Games

Nov 28th, 2023 1h 32m

There's no time no time at all we must get to the games there's been so many all the time one after another hurry hurry we must get to all of the games01:26 AYURIS: Riftforce (Carlo Bortolini, 1 More Time Games, 2021)Games Played Last Week:03:0

#287: Voidfall

Nov 14th, 2023 1h 21m

The shift from Beckett references to low-grade puns might strike one as jarring, but it is important to note that both hosts have essentially been twelve going on sixty for most of their lives. If it's not juvenile and/or obscure, it is difficu

#286: Through the Desert

Nov 7th, 2023 1h 10m

One has to be careful in buffet situations. There are so many options, and you are pulled in so many different directions. You must differentiate the false urgency from the genuinely pressing, and it is a test of your evaluation and timing skil

#285: Updating the Canon

Oct 31st, 2023 1h 22m

"'Well, I remember it as though it were an episode ago'Said Walker the Host as he reeled back to clear whatever foreign matterMay have nestled its way into his mighty throatMany a poor design had met its demise while staring point-blank downThe

#284: Zoo Vadis

Oct 24th, 2023 1h 17m

On October 27th, 1962, a man named Vasili Arkhipov saved the world. Literally. Had he not stood up to his commanding officer and refused to launch a nuclear warhead during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the resulting retaliations would have oblitera