It’s too long and features way too much. So much information is thrown at you.

I had to unsubscribe to this podcast. I love what Candice brings to the board gaming community, but most of this show is endless banter going on and on about games I haven’t played. There are a few things that could be done to make this podcast much better. First, there is a problem with some board game podcasts that they can become just listing out a bunch of games and describing them. For most people who haven’t played all those games, they don’t really have enough context to know what it’s like to play, so continuing to describe them for more than a few minutes is really a waste of time. Further, when you’re just listing games without any debate over whether they are good games, you’re just creating an infinite list with no way to differentiate between all these things. Candice is too nice to ever push back and will just keep saying she wants to play it. We can’t play everything! There are plenty of interesting topics within the industry that are much more interesting to listen to than simple audio listicles. Second, there is a technique common in podcasting which is not practiced with this one where when one person talks, the other people are silent. This makes the listening experience much better because they can easily identify what’s being said. It also makes editing easier. Plus, unless the hosts are in the same room, there will always be some delay between the reactions and the causes of those reactions such that it can be very distracting. To me, it’s worse than when someone says umm and uhh a lot. If the hosts are silent, they won’t have that issue. Third, episodes could be edited down to about half their current length without sacrificing much important content. Currently these episodes run super long due to all the continuous banter. If the chats and discussions are tightened up a bit, keeping it to an hour per episode would be easy. I hate having my time wasted so when all I’m hearing is a lot of banter, I tune out. Again, love Candice. Saw her at GenCon this year and I wish I said hi. But this podcast is currently kind of a mess and when I already have so much I’m listening to, tuning in for over an hour is not a good use of my time.

I listen to podcasts all day long (mostly about this hobby), and I believe Candice Harris to be singularly talented. On my first couple of tries, I didn’t connect with the format. But like a lot of great media, once it clicked for me, I got hooked. Some things I enjoy about her as a host: ▪ Insightful - she makes amazing connections and offers comprehensive yet terse descriptions, making complex, sometimes esoteric games understandable. ▪ socially intelligent - her interviews are engaging, diplomatic, and solicitous. I find her to be skilled at navigating the ebb-and-flow of conversation. ▪ enthusiastic - this is self-evident, but she also brings a natural energy to traditionally “dull” games or even ones she isn’t crazy about. ▪ open - “the omnivore” she seems to be able to pivot to almost any genre with ease and is most excited about gaming frontiers where she has yet to explore. In short, I could not imagine a better person to host this podcast - it’s just a delight! As for my criticism, not enough episodes!! Cannot wait to listen to more.

I think Candice is great. When’s she’s in the game brain podcast she’s awesome. Here however, I do not believe she hosts very well. A podcast that features a main host with guests from episode to episode should have the host talking less and the guests more. In this podcast, Candice does twice the taking that her guests do, and this was especially apparent in the most recent episode with Uli. “Have you played that one?” “Have you heard of that game?” Uli responds with a “I Have” or “no I’m not familiar” and that’s it Candice proceeds to go in in detail about the game. This is a little painful to listen to. My suggestions: - in your fresh plays, pick 1 or 2 games you want to talk about if you want to continue to be overly detailed. If you can be succinct, go on - if a guest hasn’t heard of a game (or you don’t think your audience is familiar) then try to compare the game to another popular title. This helps get your points across I enjoy the guests that you have on the show. Be a good host and make them the star 😊 talk less and don’t overexplain the games If we want more details we’ll go to BGG ourselves

Things that work for me: *The host is definitely passionate about the hobby and projects that well *The focus is on board games (without too many unrelated topics) *There is a good variety of topics and perspectives Things that don’t work for me: *The episodes run very long, probably almost twice as long as they could be *The discussions tend to meander and could use more focus and editing to keep the topics moving *As others have said, descriptions could be more succinct for a podcast setting Overall there seems to be good bones here, it could just use more focus and trimming.

Candace is amazing. She has such enthusiasm for the hobby, and it is incredibly infectious—even in an audio-only format. As a white, male gamer, it is so important that our hobby includes more variety in the perspectives, viewpoints, and experiences shared—especially to new gamers. I can’t think of a better resource for someone who really wants to dive into more about board gaming. I can’t wait for more! Plus, as someone who listens to 30+ hours of podcasts per week, I really appreciate that each episode has VERY detailed time-stamps that allow the user to skip to what they want to hear.

I’m not gonna be around the bush, Candice is somehow not a great host. It’s weird, because she has a magnetic personality and an extremely vibrant presence. I cannot begin to say how much I wanted to like this podcast. I think the biggest issue for me really boils down to her word economy. Consider a deck of cards in a board game. A lot of folks might drop a quick description of the deck, focusing on maybe one or two cards to present the audience with the concept of what they might find inside. Candice will describe half of the cards in the deck. I suppose in a way one might appreciate the detail, if it didn’t turn what should probably be a 45 minute podcast into an hour and a half long podcast- and they are getting longer. Sigh. While it certainly hasn’t worked for me, I would still recommend folks give it a shot.

I had to unfollow this podcast due to my frustration with Candice’s overly in-depth explanation of games. It’s like sitting through an entire teach of a game without being at the table. We don’t need to know every detail of how a game plays or the full decision tree. Her guests do a great job with succinct explanations. Hopefully, this feedback can be seen as constructive.

I'm a big fan of the host Candace. I think she does such a great job and I love hearing about her gaming experience.

An excellent show, I’m so glad that I found it. The hosts are wonderful and they provide a ton of great content. I hope they continue on for many, many, podcasts into the future. Keep up the great work!