Watchable board game content is becoming less about the basics and more about top tier entertainment. That is why it is exciting to see a group of board game streamers launch a coordinated Twitch block. Some of the internet’s most beloved gaming personalities will be collectively streaming for 12 hours, this Saturday, November 14th from 9am PT to 9pm PT. They were nice enough to provide the start times depending on the various time zone you are in for each board game streamer.
You should care about this because there is some good board game content on Twitch but it is not well organized and it is hard to find a good series of streams in a row without digging or taking some leaps of faith. This is all tried and true great content that you only need to go to one place to find.
This is planned to be a regular thing, so this is the first one, with more planned for the future.
SCHEDULE (November 14, 2020)
9AM PT | 12PM ET | 5PM GMT
This Game Gets Dicey – Paula and Matthew
https://www.twitch.tv/paulademing
11AM PT | 2PM ET | 7PM GMT
More Games Please – Ross
https://www.twitch.tv/moregamespls
1PM PT | 4PM ET | 9PM GMT
Luzapalooza – Dave and Ilka
https://www.twitch.tv/luzapalooza
3PM PT | 6PM ET | 11PM GMT
The Brothers Murph – Nick and Mike
https://www.twitch.tv/thebrothersmurph
5PM PT | 8PM ET | 1AM GMT
Board Game Blitz – Crystal
https://www.twitch.tv/boardgameblitz
7PM PT | 10PM ET | 3AM GMT
Tabletop Tonight – Ruel (and fam)
https://www.twitch.tv/ruelgaviola
HOW IT CAME TOGETHER
Board game personalities Ruel Gaviola and Nick Murphy of The Brothers Murph were sitting around one chilly fall evening in the sleepy town they affectionately referred to as “the cucs” (Rancho Cucamonga, CA just outside Los Angeles) having an outdoor social distancing hangout. Ruel lives there and Nick was bringing over an old table to sell him. Yes, when people say “board game community” they mean it. They were discussing streaming, the industry and what exciting things they can do moving forward.
“One of the biggest problems with live streaming board games is that a lot of people tend to stream at the same time and we all have similar audiences,” Nick Murphy tells us. “It was discussing this where we organically came to the idea that we should be doing a monthly board gaming marathon where we gather a bunch of really cool streamers and have them all steam, but do so on a schedule in 2-hour blocks and then raid the next stream.”
Ruel went on to discuss how much of his audience is shared with Brother’s Murph because Nick and Mike have been nice enough to send lots of community love and how that then led to discovering other streamers. “These are streamers that we love and really admire. For me personally, I was just excited because I get to stream with everyone, be part of this event.”
Nick had more to say about the board game community, “It is a very small industry so everyone kind of knows each other for the most part, and there has been a change over the past few years where there has been a lot more content across the board that is entertainment focused rather than information focused. All the people doing this kind of content gravitated towards each other because we all have a similar point in the content we are trying to create, so all the people that have fallen into this are all entertainment based and interaction heavy with the audience.”
“Everyone who is going to be steaming will be talking with the audience, playing games with the audience or there is going to be some kind of interactive element to the stream.” This is their first batch of six. Their hope is to continue to do these with a constantly rotating array of streamers.
Ruel also made sure to note, “the people we approached didn’t just say yes, everyone we talked to was on board immediately and fired up to do so. There was so much excitement surrounding this idea.”
THE STREAMER LINE UP
This Game Gets Dicey
Matthew Jude and Paula Deming create comedy board game content and play throughs for This Game is Broken, Things Get Dicey, Watch it Played, and Gen Con.
MoreGamesPls
Ross has loved games his whole life, and is now lucky to work in the board game industry full time. Whether that’s as a freelance board game photographer, community manager or streaming for fun on Twitch it’s safe to say he’s an all round tabletop enthusiast.
Luzapalooza
Ilka and Dave Luza give out virtual board game hugs every day on their channel Luzapalooza. You can join them there and play along with the many chat-inclusive games they play. Also expect random theatric outbursts and songs!
The Brothers Murph
Mike and Nick Murphy are real life brothers who love board games. Their goal with content creation is to bring as many people into the hobby as humanly possible. They try to achieve this through making a fun and welcoming community on Twitch and Youtube.
Board Game Blitz
Crystal Dax is a co-host of the Board Game Blitz podcast and video contributor to The Dice Tower, co-hosting a bi-weekly live show called Dice Tower Tonight with Eric Summerer. She infuses her unique brand of positivity and silliness into all of the content she produces and is dedicated to increasing the visibility of women and LGBTQ+ people in tabletop media.
Tabletop Tonight
Ruel Gaviola is a writer, podcaster, and livestreamer based in Southern California. A regular contributor to Renegade Game Studios, Geek & Sundry, The Five By, iSlaytheDragon, and more, he’s also on the Board of Directors for the Tabletop Writers Guild and on the committee for the American Tabletop Awards. He regularly plays board games with his family and friends on Twitch.
HOW THIS AND TWITCH WORKS
To participate in watching part or any of this event, all you need to do is head to any of the channel links (see schedule) at any time during the 12 hour window on Saturday, November 14th. No matter who the streamer is, if it is not their two-hour block they will be pointing to the person that is.
The way Twitch works, if you are unfamiliar, is that you go to a channel URL and you are there. Someone has made a channel and they are either using it or not. If they are live or put up content (like scheduling reruns) you can watch it and if they don’t then there is nothing on the main screen. Within their channel, you can watch old streams as full videos or highlight clips they have chosen to share.
To promote other channels and help guide your audience on Twitch you can do what is called a RAID. This is all the channel person and nothing you need to do as a user. This effectively sends your audience to another user’s channel but without you having to move at all. You are now streaming them and there is all this fun “Woo! There is a raid happening” excitement.
Ruel was excited to sound the praises of this unique Twitch feature. “We are trying to build the Twitch board game community and this is one cool tool that we enjoy using to make that happen.” Nick went on to describe it a little more contextually, “It’s like a lazy river, hop on at the beginning or in the middle and float from stream to stream to stream.”
BONUS: You can also go to any of the channels ahead of time and subscribe to them so you get the absolute latest updates and never miss a thing. Here are those channel links again just so you do not miss them:
https://www.twitch.tv/paulademing
https://www.twitch.tv/moregamespls
https://www.twitch.tv/luzapalooza
https://www.twitch.tv/thebrothersmurph
https://www.twitch.tv/boardgameblitz
https://www.twitch.tv/ruelgaviola
IS THERE A THEME FOR THIS STREAM?
If you are a parent, no need to be concerned because everything will be kept PG to accommodate everyone. Besides that this is all about entertaining streamers doing their thing. Ruel kept is very simple, “we just wanted people we admire.”
They have coordinated a bit so everyone will be playing a different game but for the most part, they know you are in good hands and they just want this to be a showcase of the individuality of some great people in this board game world. “The only thing we have in common is that we are all awesome streamers and we want that to be highlighted,” Nick jokingly delivered as a final thought.
