Written by Ed Carter, Nov. 29, 2018
There are a lot of reviews and opinion channels for the world of board games. When it comes to learning a game, however, one of the best is Watch It Played. Here one can learn everything from the setup to all the basics. Nerd Alert News had the wonderful opportunity to talk with Rodney Smith about the channel.
Ed Carter: How did Watch it played come about?
Rodney Smith: “Watch It Played” started in 2011 after I found myself unable to decide whether or not I wanted to buy the first edition of Mansions of Madness. I had read some reviews saying it was amazing, and others saying it was terrible. It made me think to myself If I could just see it being played – I could make up my own opinion about the game.
That’s when it occurred to me that I could make those kinds of videos. At the time no one was doing that sort of content, and I realized this was an area where I could bring something different to the hobby. As I’ve always loved learning and teaching games, it was a natural fit!
EC: Before partnering with BGG, how did you pick the games to teach?
RS: Board Game Geek and I joined forces earlier this year, but I still make the final decisions about what games I’ll feature. That aspect of the show hasn’t changed. There are a lot of games out there to potentially cover, but I can only feature about 45 a year if I’m going flat out. It’s the nature of tutorial-based content.
I follow a few basic steps when picking a game. First of all, I have to have a personal interest in the game. Although I don’t review on the channel, I spend quite a bit of time with the game, both creating the tutorial video, and supporting it for years after, personally responding to every comment on all the videos we’ve created (with some help from my co-host Pep if I’m traveling). I’ve been doing that for eight years now. If I was supporting videos that way for games I didn’t really care for, it would have burned me out long ago. I have to like the games.
The games also need to be a good fit and have “potential”. This is a hard thing to explain, but basically, I want to cover games that I think will still be around a few years from now. Artwork, component quality, the design, so many things feed into this, and I try to make my best guess at which games I think have the right ingredients for that potential long-term place in our hobby. In that way, my videos can also have a long-term usefulness to people.
Lastly, the publisher needs to partner with me. I charge for the tutorial videos. However, if the first two elements aren’t satisfied, then I won’t cover the game. I need to protect the value of the channel, the time of my viewers and my personal interest first.
That said, no one has ever offered me a million dollars…I might change my tune at that point.
EC: You present the tutorial so smoothly and make it easy to follow. How much work goes into making the tutorial?
RS: I don’t want to oversell it, but quite a bit. I want each video to be both comprehensive in its coverage, but also as concise as possible. These are two challenging goals to service. Ultimately, I need to learn the game thoroughly. This involves taking good notes as I’m reading the rules, to uncover issues or inconsistencies, so I can follow up with the publisher to get the clarifications I need. I’ll also read the forums on Board Game Geek to see what questions others are having and get the answers from the publisher on those as well.
In this way, the videos we create are often more up to date and accurate than the rulebook itself.
Once I’m confident in the rules, I sit down and entirely rewrite the rulebook as a script that I can use while filming. Often, I find the structure and layout of the original rulebook different than how I would choose to present it, and I think at least in part that’s a particular skill I bring to the process. The ability to reduce excess wording, refine the presentation and re-order the information in a way that is more intuitive. This is arguably the most involved part of the process.
Then we will typically spend a day (or more) recording the video. Then it gets edited, shown to the publisher (to ensure we have things accurately presented) and then it’s published.
EC: What’s the next evolution in “Watch it Played”? A twitch channel perhaps?
RS: We did fire up our Twitch channel again recently. We’ll be doing more there, but we also have plenty to keep us busy with new tutorials, the edited game plays and new content that we’re working on for Board Game Geek. That said, the show has evolved and changed over the years and that will continue, even if it’s just in subtle ways.
I started a side project recently, on my old channel: where I create vlog styled content that shows some of the behind-the-scenes aspects to being a YouTuber, but also just what it’s like living in a small town and some of the things that go into my day. I have found this to be a good creative outlet, and it’s a much looser style to the tutorial videos – and I think it’s going to make my tutorial content better. There are things I’m learning in creating the vlogs that will spill over into the “Watch It Played” videos as well.
EC: I love that you teach the games with no bias, no opinion just how to play the game. I think this lets the game speak for itself. Is that a fair assessment?
RS: I hope so. Obviously, the rules won’t tell the whole story. Sometimes the fun exists in a space that isn’t quite covered by the rules, however, the same is true about reviews or other content. Someone might tell you that a game is fantastic, and you’ll play it and be bored to tears – or you might hear a game is horrible and then play it yourself and have a wonderful time. No one source is going to be perfect, but I believe art, games, music, and movies are all examples of subjective things. There is no objective truth about “what will be fun”, but I prefer to steer more towards the objective aspects of games (like the rules), and hope it gives the viewer a chance to assess for themselves whether or not the game would be a good fit for them.
EC: Now with Board Game Geek, you certainly have been busy. Do you enjoy the conventions?
RS: Board game conventions are a wonderful area that has really grown in our hobby. There are more and more popping up all the time and the ones that have been around for a while continue to get better and better. People are ravenous to find new board gaming experiences, and conventions offer these in spades.
I’ve been fortunate to have been able to attend several conventions because of my work, but the relationship with BGG has allowed me to experience them in a new way. At the larger conventions, like Gen Con and Spiel, I spend the majority of my time in their booth, creating videos – and I am finding I quite prefer this way of spending time at the larger conventions. I like that at the end of the day, I know precisely what I accomplished. I enjoy working, and being in a booth gives me an outlet for that.
I think I’m at a point in my career where I prefer to game at the smaller conventions, where things are a little slower paced and intimate overall and work at the larger ones, where it’s more about the bustle and the buzz.
EC: I also am impressed with how you answer the questions on the channel and have a great rapport
with the viewers and fans.
RS: I knew early on that I wanted to be deeply involved in the hobby. I wanted that connection to the larger gaming community. I also knew that wouldn’t just happen because I had shown up. I needed to make an effort. I needed to prove to people that I wasn’t just there to collect subscriptions and increase my view count. I wanted people to know that when they showed up to my channel, they mattered as an individual.
I think it’s tempting to get quite obsessed with growing your subscriber count and watching your view numbers rise. That matters in some respect, but it can either be your highest priority, or it can just be a background reality. I prefer to keep that in the background, and focus entirely on creating the best videos I can, and engaging as closely as possible with the people who have made it possible for me to do what I love for a living.
For me, that means staying engaged online with people as much as I can and being as accessible as possible to the people who take the time to be a part of our community.
EC: Last question, do you personally prefer Euro or Ameritrash games. what in your opinion defines a great game?
RS: This is going to sound like a dodge, but I am truly an Omni gamer these days. In 2011 I would have said Ameritrash, but over the years things have really evened out that way for me – and many games are a hybrid anyway. Those lines are blurring.
