Best Mike Walker And Mark Bigney Podcasts (2025)

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#361: What Makes Longer Games Worth It 57:03

6d ago57:03

57:03

Walker and Mark almost come to blows over Flip 7 this week. Their disagreements over the merits of the product (Game? Experience? Way of Life? Sub "Roll a 6, Win a Cookie" distraction?) have long simmered, but the fundamental schism can no longer be ignored or papered over. They finally have it out. 02:27 AYURIS: Knarr (Thomas Dupont, Bombyx, 2023)…

1
#360: Hot Streak 1:12:06

13d ago1:12:06

1:12:06

"Observers brought attention to [Gritty's] appearance, which could be construed as frightening, while The Guardian described him as an "acid trip of a mascot." Response to Gritty's introduction was immediate and sharply mixed, with many fans on social media expressing bewilderment and some fright at his appearance. Public perception of Gritty becam…

1
#359: Gibberers 1:12:00

20d ago1:12:00

1:12:00

"gibber--intransitive verb :to speak rapidly, inarticulately, and often foolishly" -Merriam-Webster "gibberer--noun :the hosts of SVWAG" Games Played Last Week: 01:17 -Sausage Sizzle (Inka and Marcus Brand, 25th Century Games, 2012) 05:22 -Landmarks (Rodrigo Rego & Danilo Valente, Floodgate Games, 2024) 09:11 -Skara Brae (Shem Phillips, Garphill Ga…

1
#358: Tricky Edge Cases 58:45

27d ago58:45

58:45

Chaka Khan, let me rock you Let me rock you, Chaka Khan Let me rock you, that's all I wanna do Chaka Khan, let me rock you Let me rock you, Chaka Khan Let me rock you, 'cause I feel for you -Chaka Khan, "I Feel for You" 01:26 AYURIS: Barcelona (Dani Garcia, Board&Dice, 2023) Games Played Last Week: 03:10 -Snap Ships Tactics: Swarm Box (Josh Derksen…

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#357: Post-Easter Update 1:10:11

1M ago1:10:11

1:10:11

While we pride ourselves in playing more games in a week than many play in a month, when we take a week away from the SVWAG studio we often face a truly herculean backlog of games to discuss. This two-week period is no exception. Rest assured, we would never leave our dear listeners in the lurch, so we will keep you updated so you need not miss a t…

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#356: Endgame Scoring 1:09:31

2M ago1:09:31

1:09:31

Tiebreakers are arguably a kind of endgame scoring. I respect the fact that they are invariably necessary (I mean, if for no other reason than if they're omitted some smartass like me will complain). That said, clearly if the scoreboard goes to 200+ I don't imagine we'll be hauling out the second tiebreaker condition all that much. Frequently the e…

1
#355: Rise & Fall 1:13:21

2M ago1:13:21

1:13:21

When is a thing like another thing? Is Albedo like Core Worlds? Is Cat Blues like Rummy? Is Through the Desert like Go? Is a nudge as good as a wink to blind bat? Are all Roll & Writes inferior to Roll a 6, Win a Cookie? Is Christophe Boelinger France's Vlaada Chvátil? Probably, because it's all just like Mage Knight in the end. Games Played Last W…

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#354: 20th Century Games 1:16:01

2M ago1:16:01

1:16:01

People have favourably described our physical appearances as "borderline tolerable" and "just short of hideous", and that was just our mothers. In light of this, we put ourselves forward as candidates for all manner of game show. Mark is quite fond of Rice-a-Roni and thus would be more than happy to just have a consolation prize, and Walker just wa…

1
#353: Rebirth 58:10

2M ago58:10

58:10

In logic, conditionals are always true if the antecedent is false. You can't falsify the conditional if the conditions aren't met. For example, if Mark can bench 500 pounds, then vinegar tastes like cotton candy. Rest assured that I ain't benching that much, so don't worry about it; the conditional is true. Similarly, I can invite pretty much whoev…

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#352: Ascending Empires: Zenith Edition 1:15:57

3M ago1:15:57

1:15:57

I was donating blood while wearing my Transformers Converse shoes, and two different phlebotomists commented positively about them. "We have won the cultural argument," I said, deliberately burying the lede that demographic destiny is probably the chief cause. I suspect that the same forces explain increased societal acceptance of toys, and board g…

1
#351: Flexing New Muscles 1:09:17

3M ago1:09:17

1:09:17

As is readily apparent from the show's subject matter and our general presentation, we here at SVWAG are stone-cold jocks who excel at the sports and are thoroughly ripped. We trust the launcher and never ever skip leg day. 00:57 AYURIS: Expeditions (Jamey Stegmaier, Stonemaier Games, 2023) Games Played Last Week: 03:04 -Coloretto (Michael Schacht,…

1
#350: Beyond the Horizon 59:52

3M ago59:52

59:52

Despite the welcome relative absence of anthropomorphic animals this week--aside from some sundry ducks in Lorcana--we see a lot of animals and various critters this week. We eschew sacrifices to a dodgy snake in Imperium, we fling sheep with abandon, we throw down with some wrestling bugs, and that's on top of comparatively mundane animal husbandr…

1
#349: A Plowful of Games 1:05:28

3M ago1:05:28

1:05:28

While we hate to confirm your most reductive of preconceived notions, snow removal in Canadian cities is no joke. The fleet of vehicles required to allow for daily life in even a small Canadian city after major snowfall is impressive. The balletic dance of some of their formations while in operation calls to mind the precise of mid-air refuelling. …

1
#348: SETI 1:04:15

4M ago1:04:15

1:04:15

Colour nouns are essentially arbitrary; how one decides to chop up the visible spectrum of light is a matter of contingent taxonomy. Some languages have one noun for both blue and green, for example. English has a word for light red (pink) where other languages don't. Russian similarly has a word for light blue. And then there's magenta, which we c…

1
#347: How Expansions Can Fail 1:05:11

4M ago1:05:11

1:05:11

Our upcoming convention, July 25th-27th 2025, is in its planning stages! We have a venue but nothing much else yet. Not even a name! Suggestions welcome. Mark quite likes So Very Wrong About Games Fun Times Good Vibes Only Trans Rights Are Human Rights Boardgame Jamboree, but he worries that it might be too pithy. Few things are off the table! Spec…

1
#346: 2024 Year in Review 1:36:14

4M ago1:36:14

1:36:14

If you can choose to be the regular version or the spicy version, you obviously choose the spicy version. I mean, sure, the capsaicin may sting, but one assumes that the canonical version is caliente. Put another way, would you prefer "SVWAG" or "SVWAG en fuego?" The choice is clear. It is a corollary of sorts to Winston Zeddemore axiom that when s…

1
#345: Thunder Road: Vendetta 1:07:15

4M ago1:07:15

1:07:15

"Robert! This here is velvet--not velveteen. A gentleman must learn the difference." -Gilbert Fontaine de la Tour D'Haute Rive Games Played Last Week: 01:53 -Fishing (Friedemann Friese, 2F-Spiele, 2024) 08:04 -Revive (Helge Meissner, Eilif Svensson, Anna Wermlund, and Kristian Amundsen Østby, Aporta Games, 2022) 10:46 -SCOUT (Kei Kajino, Oink Games…

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#344: Only at Certain Player Counts 1:02:52

5M ago1:02:52

1:02:52

The editorial department of So Very Wrong About Games has several sub-divisions, and admittedly the orgchart gets a bit baroque at this point. The rules errors office is technically a sub-branch of the fact checking desk, but it is funded out of the game design sub-budget. This muddies the line of accountability, and as anyone who works with gibbon…

1
#343: Fromage 1:07:11

5M ago1:07:11

1:07:11

It has come to our attention that there has been a great deficiency in SVWAG through the years, namely our shameful neglect of the French language. The sheer Gaul! Games Played Last Week: 01:34 -The Isle of Cats Duel (Frank West, The City of Games, 2024) 04:28 -Res Arcana: Lux et Tenebrae (Thomas Lehman, Sand Castle Games, 2019) 08:00 -Worldspanner…

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#342: Sheep in Wolves' Clothing 53:45

5M ago53:45

53:45

Trust the launcher. 01:28 AYURIS: Darwin’s Journey (Simone Luciani and Nestore Mangone, ThunderGryph Games, 2023) Games Played Last Week: 03:49 -Iron Forest (Brian Gomez, Brain Games, 2024) 10:22 -Slide Quest (Nicolas Bourgoin & Jean-François Rochas, Blue Orange, 2019) 14:00 -The Gang (John Cooper and Kory Heath, KOSMOS, 2024) 17:08 -Harmonies (Joh…

1
#341: Holiday Catch-Up 56:48

5M ago56:48

56:48

Walker's glorious return portends a bumper crop of games to discuss, so we will forego a feature game or topic this week in favour of a deluge. 02:11 AYURIS: Stationfall (Matt Eklund, Ion Game Design, 2023) Games Played Last Week: 07:08 -Tiny Mini Golf (Kamis Kamiński, Self-published, 2023) 12:46 -Green Team Wins (Nathan Thornton, 25th Century Game…

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#340: Frustration with Randomness 1:11:59

6M ago1:11:59

1:11:59

In addition to having to struggle with new hardware on account of gravity murdering his tablet of 10+ years, we now must try to adjust to capturing the sweet, sonorous tones of the elusive Jimbo. It's hard to get audio levels right when the mic's compressor itself swoons from sheer bliss. 02:43 AYURIS: Revive (Helge Meissner, Eilif Svensson, Anna W…

1
#339: D.E.I.: Divide et Impera 59:57

6M ago59:57

59:57

We're trying this YouTube thing in earnest, now, doing the video podcasting thing. This is our inaugural attempt at plastering our mugs on the internet in a podcast form. You have to be where your audience is, and also, Mark hopes that a link to a video can serve in lieu of his having to travel to see anyone ever again. https://www.youtube.com/@SoV…

1
#338: Managing Tempo 59:11

6M ago59:11

59:11

All of our musical references are at least a decade out of date, even when we attempt to reference contemporary artists--I must assume, because Mark knows her name, that no one listens to Billie Eilish anymore. We think Drake is suing Kendrick Lamar over claims he plagiarized a board game design, but the details elude us. 01:43 AYURIS: Gatefall (Ja…

1
#337: Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game 53:45

6M ago53:45

53:45

When you are obliged to cite your sources is a fraught question, full of nuance. Even in academia there is some disagreement as to when yo quote, when to paraphrase, and when simply to assume common knowledge. Like the preceding sentence, for example--I assume it is common knowledge not requiring a citation, but then again maybe not, and were I usi…

1
#336: Opening the Box Downers 1:09:27

7M ago1:09:27

1:09:27

Apparently there were scrapped plans for the Gorn (the lumbering rubber lizard suit dude Kirk fights in that famous episode) to show up in other Star Trek properties. One plan had a Gorn show up as Worf's guest to Riker's bachelor party in Nemesis, and frankly despite how awful those latter movies were I would have been all over that. I can only im…

1
#335: Catching Up 1:18:44

7M ago1:18:44

1:18:44

Thrill to the latest superhero epic, "X-Men: Layover in Dulles." When the Blackbird is grounded due to an unexplained indicator light (meddling from the sinister Magneto? Who can say?!?!), the elite group of heroic mutants must navigate the perils of terminal D. Wolverine is having problems with the metal detectors again, which is troublesome as he…

1
#334: EGO 1:06:39

7M ago1:06:39

1:06:39

Walker: But, indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see Freedom Five and to rejoice in its triumph. Mark: Wherefore rejoice? What delight brings it home? What enjoyment follows it to the table, To grace in fun times its board presence? You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! Games Played Last Week: 01:08 -Freedom Five: A Sentinel Comics …

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#333: Expectations in Crowdfunding 1:18:31

7M ago1:18:31

1:18:31

An auspicious palindrome of an episode number! Granted, in triple digits one encounters a palindrome every ten episodes or so, but I'm sure the numerologists amongst us have special enthusiasm for the mighty TRIP THREE. I mean, primes, and threes, and all that. Anyway, it'll be a minute until we reach episode TRIP FOUR, so let's savour this while w…

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#332: Undaunted 2200: Callisto 1:09:54

8M ago1:09:54

1:09:54

Once again, a primer on some of the differences between the US and Canada. We Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in early October, in honour of our second governor general, the Right Honourable October G. Thanksington. Rather than turkey and football, we do latkes and rugby. Games Played Last Week: 00:55 -Black Forest (Tido Lorenz and Uwe Rosenberg, …

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#331: Our Favourite Factions 1:14:25

8M ago1:14:25

1:14:25

It is October, the month of Fat Bear Week, Decorative Gourd Season, Halloween, and Arkhipov Day! Sure, it has less candy than some of those other celebrations, but I'll wager neither a corpulent bear nor a kid dressed as a pirate has ever saved the entire human race. 01:00 AYURIS: IKI (Koota Yamada, Sorry We Are French, 2015) Games Played Last Week…

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#330: Andromeda's Edge 1:04:47

8M ago1:04:47

1:04:47

Generally we here at SVWAG prefer sci-fi to fantasy, especially if it is of the general sort. There is something joyous about the weird flights of fancy that sci-fi can enable, such as Andromeda's Edge with its "Jelluloid Technoblorps." That said, there's something particularly odious about importing generic fantasy into your sci-fi, like space dwa…

1
#329: Replayability 1:10:48

9M ago1:10:48

1:10:48

If you replayed all the published SVWAG episodes back-back, it would take over 355 hours, or almost 15 days. This is not necessarily how we would recommend you spend your time. Indeed, for our purposes, we are equally wrong regardless of whether anyone is there to hear it; while we sometimes engage with Western philosophy due to Mark's academic bac…

1
#328: The Vale of Eternity 58:10

9M ago58:10

58:10

I find so many mnemonics to be profoundly disappointing. Unless there's a structural element to tie the components together, a mnemonic will not serve to dispositively disambiguate a dyad. I assure you, that lamentable bit of alliteration was unintentional. For example, "I before E except after C" also works qua slogan as "I after E except before C…

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#327: Game Mastery 1:10:33

9M ago1:10:33

1:10:33

Solidarity, dear listeners, on this most august September Labour Day. Of course, Labour Day is the labour holiday invented for the US and Canada so as to undermine global solidarity. Nearly everywhere else celebrates International Workers' Day instead. One must marvel at the ingenuity of inventing Labour Day so as to undermine global labour solidar…

1
#326: Deep Rock Galactic 1:05:14

9M ago1:05:14

1:05:14

Some important editorial notes! -the game walker mentioned is Völuspá, and no we don't know what work those accents are doing; -SVWAG does not engage in the eating of seal meat (no one's thought to offer, really); -we hope that Undaunted 2200: Callisto will follow in Battle of Britain's excellent example of having a badass Sikh pilot. Games Played …

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#325: Collection Organization 1:06:39

10M ago1:06:39

1:06:39

The full title of the Spider Lord is Spider the Third, by the Grace of God of the Unfinished Basement, Canada and His other Realms and Territories King, Head of the Subterranean, Defender of the Faith. 01:56 AYURIS: Ginkgopolis (Xavier Georges, Pearl Games, 2012) Games Played Last Week: 05:02 -Knarr (Thomas Dupont, Bombyx, 2023) 08:12 -Primal: The …

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#324: Design Pet Peeves 1:06:11

10M ago1:06:11

1:06:11

It is Festivus once again here at SVWAG, where we shall once again vent our collective spleen over features of games that irk us. Sometimes we will assert that our umbrage is righteous and ought to be shared, and other times we will concede we are merely motivated by idiosyncratic pique. Our feelings, in either case, shall not be denied. 00:46 AYUR…

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#323: Wilmot's Warehouse 1:03:11

10M ago1:03:11

1:03:11

Who is this Wilmot? What wares is he housing? Few answers are offered. We are merely told, rather imperiously, that we work at his warehouse. Sure, we have weekends off, but on occasion the fickle demiurge Wilmot commands us to speak in monosyllable, or move seats, or hide secrets from our colleagues. One shudders to imagine what terrible fate befa…

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#322: Michael Walker Revolutionizes Physical Therapy 1:07:04

10M ago1:07:04

1:07:04

We here at SVWAG take pains to differentiate between two conflated ideas. We say "approachable" for rulesets that are easily learned and internalized, reserving the similar-sounding term "accessible" to refer to games that are usable for people with disabilities. Relatedly, MICHAEL WALKER IS BACK. 02:43 AYURIS: Oak (Wim Goossens, Game Brewer, 2022)…

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#321: Captain Flip and the SdJ 1:25:06

10M ago1:25:06

1:25:06

Our guest host this week is the estimable Mark Besada of the Golden Geek Award-winning podcast, Board Game Barrage! Known as the Green Tank because he is more swole than the Hulk (rumours persist that Lou Ferrigno learned all he knew about bodybuilding from Mark), he nonetheless exudes generosity and hospitality. Unless you throw down in Ghost Blit…

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#320: Slay the Spire 1:36:29

11M ago1:36:29

1:36:29

Our next guest host during Michael Walker's recovery is Efka Bladukas, half of No Pun Included! Efka is an internationally-renowned board game critic and dog enthusiast, known for his detestation of whimsy and tireless tolerance of Mark's yammerings. He once split a mountain in twain with his bare hands while simultaneously inventing cold fusion, b…

1
#319: When to Go Digital 1:08:51

11M ago1:08:51

1:08:51

Our first guest host while Michael Walker is recovering is James de Moss, aka Jimbo! Many a human being has become lost in the deep recesses of Jimbo's sonorous voice, and thus one must take care lest you become consumed by his powerful charisma. Jimbo brings his extensive experience of digital board games, and board game adaptations, to SVWAG. 02:…

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#318: Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan 57:04

11M ago57:04

57:04

One of the under-appreciated virtues of an auction game is that each session can provide its own economy. While daunting to new players, who don't know what things might be worth, their flailing speculation actually helps determine what things are worth. If they buy that share of red for a squillion moneys, guess what, that is what that market woul…

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#317: The 180 1:15:57

11M ago1:15:57

1:15:57

While we pride ourselves on our internationalist focus here at SVWAG, we have been remiss in our multilingualism lately. While we reliably rendezvous with French on a semi-regular basis, a skosh of Japanese here and there, a quantum of Latin periodically, and whatever language AYURIS pretends to be, our Spanish could use some work. We thus devote o…

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#316: Le déluge 58:59

12M ago58:59

58:59

There are certain portentous events that presage massive upheaval and transformative revolution, both good and ill--Mark regards travel as one of these cataclysmic convulsions (ill), but the same is true of the arrival of the man known as Doctor Stallone (good). Both have coincided in the world of SVWAG this week, a confluence more consequential th…

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#315: Games that Make You Uncomfortable 56:25

12M ago56:25

56:25

All I need to know about animal reproduction I learned from Uwe Rosenberg. I suspect many people have The Talk, which in my case was my father teaching me how to play Agricola. Navigating my twenties in utter ignorance wasn't easy, but now that Uwe has told me about the birds and the bees (and the sheep and the pigs and the cows) via Agricola I'm p…

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#314: Leviathan Wilds 1:12:06

12M ago1:12:06

1:12:06

After a prolonged period where we have not discussed Kramer & Kiesling (the Kramer & Ulrich duo yielded El Grande, which we mention rather frequently), here we see a bumper krop of K&K kollaborations. The gibbons are fickle, and even the mighty Wolfgang and Michael must yield to their whims. But fortune (and apes) have at last smiled on them, and w…

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#313: The One that Broke the Kallax's Back 1:03:54

1y ago1:03:54

1:03:54

In the vast panoply of human misfortunes, it is often fruitless to try to rank misery. Was historical tragedy X worse or better than atrocity Y? It seems callous to ask. That said, thanks to the applied research of a retired ethicist with the aid of Reiner Knizia's Zoo Vadis, we have conclusively discovered that it is better to be extorted by a mar…

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#312: Cascadero 54:30

1y ago54:30

54:30

Before the people of Quebec celebrated the Journée nationale des Patriotes (National Patriots' Day), they instead on the same day had the Fête de Dollard. A cynic might speculate that the timing of these holidays was chosen so as to pre-empt the English Canadian Victoria Day, and that cynic would be right. Games Played Last Week: 01:21 -Dice Flick …

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Mike Walker And Mark Bigney Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen