The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines game as an activity engaged in for diversion or amusement. It also says game is a physical or mental competition conducted according to rules with the participants in direct opposition to each other.

Trevor and Danny discuss these two different aspects of gaming.

Are you with Trevor in saying a game has competition with a clearly defined winner, or are you team Danny in saying a game can be an activity where the players just participate to have fun? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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Have you ever bought a board/card game that came in a big beautiful box and then open it at home to find it only uses about 20% of the space inside?

Does that irk you like it does Trevor? Or do you appreciate the big box as an eye catcher on your shelf like Danny?

Trevor and Danny discuss their pros and cons about board game packaging/boxes that are much larger than they need to be to store the components. Let them know in the comments if you agree with Trevor and Danny.

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Trevor opens up both Root and Root: The Riverfolk Expansion to show us the contents.

Root is a game of adventure and war in which 2 to 4 (1 to 6 with the ‘Riverfolk’ expansion) players battle for control of a vast wilderness. In Root, players drive the narrative, and the differences between each role create an unparalleled level of interaction and replayability.

The meeples for this game are unique and the artwork is adorable. The game boards look amazing. Can’t wait to bring this out at game night.

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Monopoly is a staple of most board game collections. Most people have played some version of Monopoly in their life.

Even if you were never subjected to the rigorous real estate game, you undoubtedly know of the game and the basics of how it is played.

Danny and Trevor take opposing viewpoints on the game of Monopoly. Trevor is not a fan of the game, while Danny enjoys it when played by the rules. That’s right, most people are not playing Monopoly as it was intended to be played.

Using the rules that come with the game, it cuts down on the play time drastically and makes it much more fun.

Do you agree with Trevor or with Danny? Let us know in the comments below:

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Danny from ZiaComics.com teaches us how to play the deck building game, Shards of Infinity, from Ultra Pro.

Manufacturer Description

One-hundred years ago, The Infinity Engine was shattered and its reality-bending shards have destroyed most of the world. Now, it falls upon you to gather your forces, defeat your adversaries, and rebuild the Infinity Engine! Will you survive?

Shards of Infinity combines an unprecedented level of strategy and customization into one small box. Rather than competing for points, players must outlast their opponents and reduce their health to zero, which can be done in a number of ways. Each player starts the game with a basic deck of cards, and they can acquire new cards from a central display of six cards (as in Ascension) and add these new cards to their deck or use them immediately, depending on what they are.

Every character starts with fifty health and zero mastery. On each turn, you can spend one gem (a.k.a., money) to gain a mastery point. The more mastery you have, the more powerful your cards become. This lets even the weak cards in your starting deck become more powerful as the game progresses. If you reach a total of thirty mastery, you can activate your Infinity Shard, which instantly defeats your opponent.

As you acquire new cards, you can employ allies and champions to craft your strategy. Mercenary cards can be added to your deck as in other deck-building games or they can be played immediately from the center row for their ability; this adds even more drama to each player’s turn as a key mercenary flip can alter the very outcome of the game!

Will you neutralize your opponents before they can fully master the Infinity Shard? With careful planning and aggressive gameplay, only one player can emerge the winner!

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Talking Table Top Versus/Non-Cooperative Games

This episode of Talking Table Top has Trevor and Danny presenting their top 5 “versus” games. Versus Games are usually referred to as non-cooperative games.

In non-cooperative games there is a competition between individual players. All choices are decided by the players based on their own self-interest, presumably without sharing knowledge. There are two basic forms of non-cooperative games.

In the strategic form the payoff for a given player depends on the strategy of that player and all other participating players. The rules and all available strategies are assumed to be common knowledge. There are no unfair advantages or insider knowledge.

The prisoners dilemma format has two prisoners (convicted for committing a crime together). They are interrogated separately and have two obvious choices. They can either tell on the other or remain silent. There are different boundary conditions for each choice.

We hope you discovered a game in this list that interests you. As always, Keep Playing Games!

https://youtu.be/IeMn82QQuM8

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Top 5 Cooperative Games

Zia Comics resident Game Gurus, Danny and Trevor give you their top 5 list of favorite cooperative games.  Co-operative play encourages or requires players to work together to beat the game. There is little or no competition between players.

Cooperative board games generally involve players joining forces against the game itself.  Usually they can be played without any player in the role of the opposition.  The game is typically won by reaching a pre-determined objective.  All players lose the game if they don’t reach the objective before a certain event happens.

In some cooperative games, one or two players take on the role of traitor. Traitors typically win if the other players lose. Some cooperative games might have an added layer of intrigue by giving players personal win conditions. In many contemporary cooperative games cards are drawn each turn from a deck of random events. These provide the conflict or challenge in the game and make it progressively more difficult for the players.

We hope a few of the games in Trevor and Danny’s lists were intriguing to you.  You can stop in Zia Comics on any Saturday and we can demonstrate/teach the games to you.  As always… keep playing games!

We experienced camera issues near the end of the video.  Apologies for the audio quality at the end of this video.

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Top 5 Drafting Games

Trevor and Danny are back with another episode of Talkin’ Table Top. This week they give you the run-down of their top 5 favorite drafting style games.

The card drafting game mechanic is where players pick cards from a limited subset (common pool) to gain some advantage or to assemble hands of cards that are used to meet objectives within the game. Games where cards are simply drawn from a pile are not card drafting games. Drafting implies that players have some sort of choice.

Hopefully this video has exposed you to some games you didn’t know about. Drafting games can be a lot of fun. By their nature, the game play is usually different every time. Please like and share this video, but most importantly… Keep playing games!

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Trevor and Danny from ZiaComics.com have compiled a list of their Top 20 favorite board games. They have different tastes in games so their lists have very little in common.

Danny prefers abstract strategy games while Trevor enjoys games with captivating artwork and ease of play. They both like ALL types of games, these are just their favorites.

This is the first segment in the countdown. This video covers #05 through #01 on their lists. Trevor and Danny tell you what games squeaked onto their list. A little bit of info is given for each game to help you decide if it is a game you’d like to look into a bit further.

Click here to watch video

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Trevor and Danny from ZiaComics.com have compiled a list of their Top 20 favorite board games. They have different tastes in games so their lists have very little in common.

Danny prefers abstract strategy games while Trevor enjoys games with captivating artwork and ease of play. They both like ALL types of games, these are just their favorites.

This is the first segment in the countdown. This video covers #10 through #6 on their lists. Trevor and Danny tell you what games squeaked onto their list. A little bit of info is given for each game to help you decide if it is a game you’d like to look into a bit further.

Click here to watch the video

Zia Comics

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Zia Comics YouTube

Trevor and Danny from ZiaComics.com have compiled a list of their Top 20 favorite board games. They have different tastes in games so their lists have very little in common.

Danny prefers abstract strategy games while Trevor enjoys games with captivating artwork and ease of play. They both like ALL types of games, these are just their favorites.

This is the first segment in the countdown. This video covers #15 through #11 on their lists. Trevor and Danny tell you what games squeaked onto their list. A little bit of info is given for each game to help you decide if it is a game you’d like to look into a bit further.

Zia Comics

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Trevor and Danny from ZiaComics.com have compiled a list of their Top 20 favorite board games.

They have different tastes in games so their lists have very little in common.

Danny prefers abstract strategy games while Trevor enjoys games with captivating artwork and ease of play. They both like ALL types of games, these are just their favorites.

This is the first segment in the countdown.

This video covers #20 through #16 on their lists. Trevor and Danny tell you what games squeaked onto their list.

A little bit of info is given for each game to help you decide if it is a game you’d like to look into a bit further.

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Top 20 Board Games Honorable Mentions

Trevor and Danny from ZiaComics.com have compiled a list of their Top 20 favorite board games. They have different tastes in games so their lists have very little in common. This list is just the honorable mentions.

Danny prefers abstract strategy games while Trevor enjoys games with captivating artwork and ease of play. They both like ALL types of games, these are just their favorites. The games that made honorable mention are The Resistance, Smash Up, Can’t Stop, San Juan, Dead Man’s Draw, Here Kitty Kitty, Quoridor, Red Dragon Inn, Dragonwood, and Council of Verona.  To find out who picked which games and where they ranked them you can look at the list below.  If you want to be surprised just click on the video link and ignore the list.

This is just a little teaser intro for the actual Top 20 list of board games. Trevor and Danny tell you the games that just barely missed the cut. A little bit of info is given for each game to help you decide if it is a game you’d like to look into a bit further.

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