Changes to the Website

But there are going to be some changes for what is coming out in terms of articles. Mainly around the 10 Minute Marvel podcast. If you are a fan of the podcast, that has been consistently coming out the whole time. In fact we just wrapped up talking about Daredevil Born Again. They are not going to be cross posted to Nerdologists.com anymore, at least for right now. Just because they come out Monday or Sunday and they’ll show up a week late cross posting.

If you have been using Nerdologists.com as your way to get the podcast, subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can find that here.

Also let’s talk streaming. Streaming on the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel is going to return. But it’s going to be on a different cadence than it has been in the past. My normal schedule now is going to be to have Friday’s off of work. That means I write all the articles on Friday, stream, hopefully, during the day. And then Friday evening the goal is going to be to stream again and get back to play Baldur’s Gate 3 and finish up that playthrough.

What’s Not Changing

The articles that are being written aren’t going to be changing. I plan on covering crowdfunding games. I plan on doing reviews and writing about different types of games and creating lists. And come October, I plan on doing my Top 100 Games, of all time, 2026 edition.

And with that, I want to announce a series of articles that is going to be coming up where I’m on my way to 1000 board games rated on Board Game Geek. Right now I’m at just over 800 board games and just over 900 board games and expansions.

These articles are going to be two different types of things. The first type is going to be mini reviews and full reviews of the games that I’ve played since I wrote articles last. Mainly because some of the games got one play and then passed on playing more. The other is going to be going through all the games that I’ve rated on Board Game Geek and taking about them and why I rated them where I did.

Thanks for Sticking Around

I appreciate those who are checking out this article and who are going to be returning to Nerdologists.com and the articles coming out. I hate going radio silent like I did, but it’s hard to mentally even write an article about taking a break to let people know, especially when I don’t know when I’ll be back. But I’m back now, and I’m excited to keep on writing and to be back.

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What Were 2024’s Resolutions?

I just did Board Game ones which you can read here.

Play Unplayed Games – I did okay with this one. I played quite a number of new to me games last year. I played 81 new games, so that did put a dent into my unplayed games. However, that is also going to include games from Gen Con that I played. And there are certainly games that I added throughout the year as well. So we’ll call this one a wash, I did some but I could and can do more. And I did say that my target for unplayed games was 75 to play, so I hit that number.

Buy Trading Cards/Games with Store Credit – I won’t lie, both of these fell off fairly quickly. Now, not completely. I do feel like I purchased fewer games overall without store credit. But there are certainly a number that I did purchase. Also trading cards, not so much. But I managed a couple of good sales of games through trading them in or through a board game sale.

2025 Nerds-Year Resolutions

So let’s talk about this upcoming year. What resolutions do I have, or goals am I trying to set for myself when it comes to nerdy things. Let’s be clear, it’s mainly going to be around board games, but I want to give myself some different challenges than previous years.

Prototype Game Idea/Work On Other Idea

I have two game ideas that I want to continue to work on. Both of these are of course board games. I have stuff to prototype one of them. i just need to get to it and get some prototypes into the wild and get people playtesting them. Because I would love to get a board game created at some point in time. Even if it’s just something that I use Game Crafter for, great resource by the way, and have fun with. Plus I have a bigger idea that I want to keep working on, it’s going to be a big passion project if it ever get completed, but I want to try.

Learn A New Game Per Week

Thanks to Board Game Arena this should be pretty easy for me to do. But I want to learn and play a new game on there, or in person, per week. Now, this is going to be different than last years goal. Last years goal was simply to play new games. With this I want to be intentional about learning something new. This is the first full week so a great time to start this one.

Watch Seven New Anime

I think this is setting the goal low for me. But I want to watch more new anime. I am pretty sure that I crushed that resolution this past year. But I want to keep it up. Especially since I know that I will have a lot anime returning in 2025 that I want to watch. So if I want to get to this goal of seven, I need make sure that I make time to watch new stuff as well.

Read 100 Marvel Comic Issues

This one is probably going to low again. But I know myself. I go in runs with this, and I want to be very intentional about it. I want to read more comics this year. That said, I am off to a solid start by reading a bunch of Ultimate Spider-Man comics by Brian Michael Bendis. So I want to keep on building on that.

And a sub resolution to this one. I want to put out comic book content videos on 10 Minute Marvel. Basically, with this reading, I want to use it to help grow that channel and see that continued growth be around news, rumors, comics, and more, but the additional content being around what is in different books, and what is worth checking out or themes and stories worth checking out.

Four Videos a Week on 10 Minute Marvel and Four on Malts and Meeples

So this is changing up the numbers slightly from what they were last year. I ended doing three on Malts and Meeples and five on 10 Minute Marvel. I still want to do five on 10 Minute Marvel. But that might be for the channel and if my co-host does one per week, fingers crossed that habit gets started, that can mean I do four. But also, I want to start doing more not live content on Malts and Meeples. I love my live game plays and that schedule will stay the same, but one uploaded video per week is my goal beyond the live stuff.

How About You?

What are your resolutions around nerdy things for 2025? Let me know in the comments section below.

I definitely set a few more harder/more challenging goals this year. In particular around videos, but I hope that I can hit some of them and at least start off strong with them. Because I want to keep this website growing and the YouTube channels as well.

I did drop off some this year around Gen Con because my goal is just to go, play games and have fun. And that’s going to be my goal for a long time. We’ll see if I make it any other cons, but I don’t want to assume or overextend myself with them.

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Five Other Random YouTube Channels

5. Neil Newbon

This is a new one to me, and I don’t know how much I’ll keep watching after I finish up what is currently their main show. Neil Newbon is the voice for Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3), a game that I am enjoying a ton. He and a friend are streaming and playing through Baldur’s Gate 3 as well as interviewing other cast members. So it’s just a fun time and a weird way to watch the stream, also to watch them struggle to stream. They are not streamers, they do stream more than just BG3, and it’s not always the best, but it is fun.

4. The Breakroom

There are a number of channels that I could put here. I’ll do a quick honorable mention to Screen Crush and New Rockstars. The Breakroom is a spin-off channel for New Rockstars. New Rockstars didn’t want to dilute the brand of their channel and wanted to spread a net wider, so The Breakroom, which had been a show on New Rockstars moved over to it’s own channel as well as it’s own Twitch channel. I watch it after the fact on YouTube. They do a few times a week edited videos around some of our favorite nerdy things.

Right now I’m watching it less. They are doing episodes regularly about The Boys and House of Dragons, two shows that I have watched and don’t have a ton of interest in. But when they do their headlines shows, and in particular, when they talk Marvel, I’m into it. And some of the people on The Breakroom are amazing, and some are just good. But it’s always entertaining and a bit more of a chance for them to be silly versus the regular New Rockstars channel.

3. PokeRev

You might have caught me doing a sneaky stream last week. It is down below this. But PokeRev is a Pokemon YouTuber. Not the video games, but the collectible cards. And he does things like box breaks that you can buy into (I haven’t ever and won’t likely ever. But the more common thing that he does is that he’s opening up the new sets, he’s opening up the Japanese sets, or he’s finding various products out there. A lot of them are the mystery boxes and sometimes they are good and sometimes, like the mass produced ones, they are terrible. But it’s fun to watch and he’s a very engaging host.

2. NFLStockExchange

Now what if you’re into football. But not just into football, in particular you are into the NFL Draft. Then the NFL Stock Exchange podcast might be the one for you. Trevor and Connor the hosts are great. Another more light hearted handling of football and just a chance to sit back and be excited. They do a lot of Mock Drafts around the NFL Draft season, they talk college football players throughout the year, and right now they are doing summer scouting. Both of them bring interesting thoughts to it and they’ll disagree.

One of the things, though , that I really like is what when they disagree, it’s never that negative. Their is almost always a positive end to it. The number of times when someone likes a player better than the other the person who likes it less hopes the other person will be right. And it is genuine because they want the college players to succeed in the NFL. So it’s nice to have a very positive football show, not everything is roses, but positive.

1. Viva La Dirt League

Finally, this is one that I’ve been catching up on again, but Viva La Dirt League (VLDL) is amazing. They make a ton of sketch videos but they generally fall into different categories. There is one about a business, retail tech company, that is good. But the main one that I love is Epic NPC Man. They create a video game world for these videos and it’s just over the top and a ton of fun. The NPC wavers on the edge to sometimes fully knowing that they are in a video game. And it pokes fun at a ton of different video game tropes. Highly recommended for sketch comedy.

Final Thoughts

There are more that I could have mentioned as well. To toot my own horn, I have a channel for the Marvel podcast, 10 Minute Marvel. I watch AhnaldT101 for videos around Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes a game that I play daily on my phone. And there is ViniiTube a channel that I’ve stumbled across which I mainly use to find out what anime is coming up. Taskmaster, to watch episodes of the show Taskmaster. And well, I think I could find more, but that’s about where the watching regularly drops off.

What are some of your favorite random YouTube Channels, let me know them in the comments section below.

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Favorite vs Best and Dislike vs Worst in Fandoms

Let’s start here and talk about what the issue is. And I’ll talk about why I saw it come up. It was a post on one of the board game groups on Facebook. “What’s a board game that you’d never recommend?” Firstly, provocative and not great for the hobby because it’s just going to make people get defensive. The bigger issue, though, wasn’t the question, it was the responses.

And before I make a broad sweeping statement, there were good responses in there. We’ll get to what makes a bad one versus a good one in a second. But most of the responses were along the lines of – “This popular game is the worst.”. Which that has several issues with it. Let’s start to break it down as we look into the issue here.

Favorite vs Best and Dislike vs Worst

I know that I fall into this trap sometimes. But it’s one that I’m very aware of, so I think about it when I see it pop up in fandoms. The difference between what I find to be my favorite and objectively the best. Or what I dislike and what is the worst. Fandoms like to slap the best and worst tags onto things when they really mean their most or least favorite. And for a healthy fandom it’s knowing that difference and then allowing space to create that dialog after saying a favorite or least favorite.

Now, I’m going to make another sweeping statement here. I find that almost no fandoms are doing this well. It’s an issue that is driving people out of fandoms which is why I wanted to write about. And I should be clear, I’m not calling out a specific person or the person who asked the provocative question. Those can be fine discussion points. But it requires awareness on that difference between what I like and what is best versus what I dislike and what is worst.

A Non-Board Game Example

Let’s talk about an example of what I mean about this. And I’ll go with myself with both a positive and a negative.

I dislike Captain America: Civil War

That’s a provocative statement. A lot of people really like that film. But if someone were to ask me a Marvel movie I think is overrated, I’d say that I just don’t get the love for Civil War. But as I talk about it, I’m not going to say, your opinion is invalid or make statements like Civil War is the worst. Instead, I’m going to say, something along the lines of, it didn’t work for me because while the accords were the starting point, it became about Bucky and how Captain America was going to be right about Bucky no matter what.

Let’s do the flip side.

I really enjoy The Last Witch Hunter with Vin Diesel

This is objectively not a great film. The plot is not amazing. The action sequences are fine and the acting is so so at best. But I really enjoy this movie. It is definitely more serious than it should be, but there is something about it being played seriously that just makes it more entertaining to me. But I understand it’s not the best movie out there. In fact, if someone were to ask me if I’d recommend it, I’m not sure I’d always say yes. If I say yes, there would be caveats for sure.

Fixing the Problem

So how do you fix the problem? And let me say, this is a problem. This is something that fandoms are doing that is actively chipping away and eroding the fandom that they love. Because the mindset is, you need to love this fandom in the way that I love it.

So let’s go back to the question, how do you fix the problem? Firstly, understand language. Know that best and worst mean best and worst. Whether that is your intent or not, you might mean favorite or least favorite, best and worst especially on the internet raise hackles. People respond being defensive and dialog and discourse can’t be had.

Dialog is a Healthy Goal

A healthy looking fandom can have a ton of differing opinions. And it should encourage discussion around it. When I say, I dislike Civil War, or when I say that I dislike whatever popular board game, I open up a conversation on it. I can say, I dislike how the plot focuses on Bucky and a gut feeling as the catalyst for most of the movie. Or with Dominion, let’s use that as a board game example, I can say, I dislike how it feels like the game can play itself and it’s who identifies the optimal strategy from the beginning.

Now instead of saying that Dominion is the worst, I’ve made it clear what doesn’t work about it for me. Let’s go back to the example of a “game that you’d never recommend.” Because I did see both healthy ones and non-healthy responses for fandoms.

Real Life Examples

First let’s start with a more positive one. One person said that they didn’t like Flamecraft and followed it up that they would still recommend it to some people even though it wasn’t for them. This is a great example of understanding the value of a game. They maybe found it too simple in what it was doing, they didn’t get into details. But they didn’t dismiss something because it wasn’t for them. Also, because it wasn’t completely dismissive people felt comfortable to ask questions and to not come back at it defensively.

On the flip side, most of them were written in styles of “Spirit Island” or “Terraforming Mars is bad.” Making a statement of just a game name is pretty traditional online. I say that I find “x” to be an issue so I just write “x”. But it doesn’t encourage dialog. It is read as a blanket statement. The same with calling something bad. Both shutdown dialog and for people who love those games, they are beloved, it’s fighting words.

Final Thoughts on Fixing Like vs Best and Dislike vs Worst in Fandoms

This is something I really do want to see fixed. I saw poor actors, meaning people who didn’t have positive intent, show up in things that I’ve liked before. Doctor Who is a great example of this. I love Doctor Who, Capaldi was not my favorite Doctor so I fell away during his time. But that is only part of the reason. The fandom is another part of the reason. The fandom became less inclusive and more combative in nature.

I still like Doctor Who. I want to checkout some of the new stuff that is coming out. My wife and I talk about going back and rewatching the stuff we really like. But it is harder to want to come back when I know that the fanbase is not that accepting. Now, maybe that has changed, but it is hard to reintroduce myself into that fandom or want to.

So the reason I talk about this and talk about intentionality is that I want fandoms where people can join, grow and appreciate a series, board games, movies, whatever it might be, for different elements that resonate with them. And that people can spend time and have discussions about what works and what doesn’t for them because it’s an opinion and discussions and conversations are healthy. So converse, even online, with intention and the hobby or fandoms that you love will grow and be a better place for it.

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But what I am collecting for this article goes beyond sports cards. Yes, it is sports cards, but it’s also comic books. I want to talk about if collections are worth grabbing or grading? Because some collections and collectibles can be graded and they might be worth grading. Is it something for you or me to do though?

What Are Graded Collections

First off, let’s just say that the whole collection isn’t graded. But part of what you can collect might be graded cards are comics. So let’s talk about what grading is.

Grading is when a card, comic, or other collectible that can be graded is sent in to a grading company. This company, CGC, Beckett, and PSA being three of the biggest, then look at that time and generally scan that item looking for defects. Once they look at it, they assign a grade to the card (let’s say) and then send it back to you in a case with that grade.

Basically, you are paying someone some money to tell you how nice your card is. If the return grade is a 9 or a 10, the card or collectible likely is worth more than if it is just the item ungraded. Why, because people now know what condition it is in.

Why Grade

So why might you grade a card, comic, or other collectible that a company might accept? I see it as being two main reasons. The first reason is that it might increase the resale value of that item. If you, and I plan on doing this soon, send in a sports card or I will be sending in a Magic the Gathering card, and it comes back as a PSA 10, I know that condition and that the card is going to be worth more. If I sell the card, people see the grade and know the condition. None of me saying, this is a mint card or a near mint and hope that I’m telling the truth.

The other thing is that it maintains the grade of the item. Once something is graded you can assume that the grade is going to remain steady. This again comes down to value in some ways, but also as I store a card or comic, if I am taking good card of it, it might still get bumped being moved around. So I now know what grade it is supposed to be and will maintain to be.

Why Collect for Graded Collections?

But why might you want to collect like that? Firstly, and I think most simply, it makes it easier to collect them. Let’s use my sports card collection out of all my collections. Actually, let’s use comics from my collections. I buy the first issue of X-Men Days of Future Past. This is an iconic comic and an iconic cover. When I buy it, I see pictures on eBay or elsewhere of what I am buying. But they might be stock photos. I know what the person tells me, but I really don’t know the condition.

So when I buy graded cards or comics for their collections, I know what condition I am getting. And I know in ten years if I want to sell it what condition it is going to be in. I appreciate that knowledge because it means I won’t ever be surprised. And in five years, that is not going to change, my value and my grade is going to be the same. If X-Men are more popular in two years or in five years, I now sell for more than I bought guaranteed.

Should You Grade Your Collections?

Let’s wrap it up here. Should you grade what you already have? Honestly, the answer is probably no. Why, because a lot of what you own and what I own is going to be in a PSA 8 or 7. That is near mint condition and is good for a collection, but not going to be worth grading. Is it worth it to grade a $10 card to get a PSA 8 and have it still be a $10 card, not really. Is it even worth it to grade a $10 card in general? Not really.

What it does make sense to grade are rare things. If you break open a pack of cards or a box of cards and stumble across, like I did, a x of x cards, so a 1 of 100 or 1 of 500 that is more worth it. Why, because that is going to be rare. And people might not grade them all. Or if they do grade them, they might grade as an 7 or an 8. And if you get a 9, now that value is going up, and the cards value is going to be set in stone.

Or I might grade some older comics. I got them relatively cheap and the comic pool is going to be shrinking in terms of newly graded of those comics. So it might be a worthwhile investment to see what grade I get on those. But know that anything you grade is going to cost money.

Final Thoughts

For me I like the idea of collecting some things that are graded. Why, because I know what I’m going to get. And it is holding a piece of history in my hands. I mentioned baseball at the start. I love baseball and baseball history. Willie Mays just passed away, and it made me realize that I want to own a Willie Mays card. Do I go buy a random ungraded card, no. I buy a graded card, even a PSA 4 because a lot of old cards won’t be high grades. Now I own a piece history for a sport I love.

What I never plan on doing, which a lot of people do, is this idea of a box break. Or open up boxes and packs on stream looking for those graded cards. That is expensive and a bit of a roulette. I love opening packs, but it isn’t worth it. So know what you want, if you get into it. Maybe some day I will open packs, but right now it isn’t for me to search for a ton of cards to get graded. But I love my collection and that history that I own.

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You Can’t Do All the Hobbies

Let’s not bury the lead and pretend either way for a little bit. But no you can’t do everything all at once. I want to find more time to dedicate to some hobbies. Mainly, I want to start painting minis. I wrote about Lego last week, I want to start my build for that. Then there are comics which I do read, but I want to read them faster than I do. And I’m sure that I have other hobbies that I’d like to do.

So, if you are like me and want to try a lot of things, the answer is, you can’t do all the hobbies at once, at the same time. But there is some good news out there. Because I think you don’t need to, as much as you want to.

Taking Turns

And this idea of taking turns is why I don’t think that you need to do them all at once. And it is the reason that hobbies can be balanced out. I own painting supplies, I will paint sometime. But when is that time going to be. Probably when something else goes on the back burner.

What is that going to be, I’m not sure. When is that going to be, I’m not sure. But when I look at my painting stuff, I still want to paint. I see it right now and I want to take the day and paint instead of going into work. But it is okay to rotate hobbies. I might wrap up my D&D campaign and not start another for a year. That is a year in which I could paint. It all depends on what works best for me.

Combining

Another great thing is that a lot of hobbies can be combined. And while it might not always be something that you think about naturally, let’s talk about some of them. And let’s start with Lego who has made it easy to start combing with Dungeons and Dragons.

Lego made a Dungeons and Dragons castle and scene. It is officially licensed Dungeons and Dragons. So much so that Dungeons and Dragons made a scenario for the castle. That means that you can sit down and start playing a game around what has been built. I hope this means that Lego is going to come out with more Dungeons and Dragons set. Maybe you want to build with Lego and make your own scenes, why not do that as your Dungeons and Dragons settings?

Or for me, once I finish up playing Baldur’s Gate 3, so this one is a bit of both combing and taking turns, I want to catch up on some anime. Well, that might be the time to combine some hobbies for me. I want to pay attention while I watch anime, but there are a number where I don’t need to pay complete attention. So I want to wrap up Quintessential Quintuplets, throw it on and start painting. If a key moment is happening, I pause painting, but I can do two things at once.

So combine your hobbies.

Finally, Enjoy Your Hobbies

Let’s wrap this up nicely. I started out with some bad news, you can’t do anything. But it is okay. Not everyone needs to do all the hobbies at once. In fact, if you work, it isn’t possible to all the hobbies at once. And if you don’t, you probably can’t afford all the hobbies at once.

That again is negative. But on the positive side of things, doing the hobbies that you can is great. I get to enjoy playing Dungeons and Dragons. I get to enjoy watching anime, playing Baldur’s Gate 3, and more as hobbies. Not doing a secondary hobby to it doesn’t make it worse. It just means that eventually I’ll have more to explore.

I think at times it is possible to get into the mindset of we must own it all. We must play it all. But instead, I want to think and spend my time enjoying what I am doing. I know I need to remind myself of that sometimes, but all the hobbies are great. And some day, I plan to explore more.

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2023 Nerdy Goals

Go To GenCon

How is this even a goal? I don’t know, but I want to go to GenCon again. But I’m excited to go again this year, and I think that it might be a bigger group going who I know this year, which will be exciting if that’s the case. This is going to be my big shot to try a ton of new games like always. And it’s a chance to connect with some of the Man vs Meeple and Tablenauts crew and others potentially as well. And at this point in time, those evenings are as exciting as anything else to me.

Watch my Backlog

I said that there would be some things that feel like repeats. But this is about catching up on movies and TV shows that I need to catch up on. Mainly things like the latest season of Dragon Prince. Or movies like Sonic 2 before Sonic 3 comes out. There are others as well that I want to catch up on because there were a lot of good shows and not enough time. Wheel of Time and One Piece are two more. Of course, I mean the One Piece Netflix show, I’m not starting the 1000+ episodes of the anime, I’ll wait for the new one.

Plus, I know that there are a few new shows or seasons coming out that I want to see. Dragon Prince is having another season, and the live action Avatar: The Last Airbender are both exciting. And I talked about the anime that I want to watch. You can see those here.

Read More Comics

I did an okay job of this last year. I won’t say that I hit my goal, which I talked about on 10 Minute Marvel, of a comic a day. But I would guess that I ready 100+ comic issues. My goal is to keep on reading and improve upon that. I got a few trade paperbacks for Christmas, so that is a solid spot to start. I finished up King in Black yesterday, and Time Runs Out (I think that is it) in the past few days. But I already have a bit more that I know I want to read. Secret Wars, Ultimate Universe, and more as well.

Read More Manga and Backlog

This one is a bit of both, I am really enjoying diving into manga. But I want to get through more of the backlog of manga and the ones that my wife has read but I haven’t. I really enjoy reading those as well, but make it a more intentional, read comic or manga right before bed versus fiddling on the phone. And I just got some new manga this past week, read two of them last night, so now I have more coming from one of the series thus far. We’ll see if I get more of the other one as well.

Get Into a Workout Routine

What does this have to do with being nerdy? Well, it’s when I can work through some of my backlog. I have weights, I have a stationary bike, let me use them. What shows or movies might my wife not be interested in, and then do a workout and watch something. It’s not that hard, I just need to get into the routine. And more of a routine the better because I’m a generally healthy nerdy person, but I want to do even better.

Final Thoughts

I’ll be touching on Malts and Meeples and the plans for that tomorrow. But these are the nerdy things that I want to do in 2024. And I think that a lot of them are attainable, I want to keep them small. So what are your reasonable and attainable nerdy resolutions? Let me know down in the comment section below.

And do you ever set your goals on a theme? Mine is to get through backlogs across the board. Instead of running towards whatever is new, always, to work through some of the things that I’ve been wanting to watch, read, play, whatever it might be. Obviously some are outliers from that, but more fall into that category.

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Different Ways to Start a New Hobby

Skimming

The first way is what I would call skimming over hobbies. That is where a new hobby interests you so you give it a whirl. You grab the minimal amounts needed to start the hobby and you get going. You see if you like it without much investment.

This is how I started divining into painting during the pandemic. I bought the minimal amount that I needed. A couple of brushes and a few paints. But I never got that into it. Some of it is that I bought less than I needed. I didn’t have primer so was just a bit of a mess as I tried to start.

Deep Dive

Another way, and this way I kind of am splitting into hairs with, is the deep diver. The person who will spend and get everything for a hobby with it. Let’s take painting miniatures again as an example. What happens if you do a deep dive there?

There are a ton of things you can get for painting. You buy things to hold miniatures, you get a ton of paints. There are things you get for storing paintings, magnifying glasses stands so see finer detail, and really so much that you can decide to pick-up. All of that before you even start the hobby. And with something like mini painting, they go deep into watching videos and learning techniques before even picking up a brush.

Preparing

And I think that it is splitting hairs some with deep dive and preparing. When you do the deep dive you get everything. When you prepare you get most of the things. But it is focused on making sure you have enough to start started well and enough knowledge to make it work.

In the case of painting minis, that is buying a good variety of paint colors, some different brushes, primers, varnish and more so that you are set for painting. I think even watching a video or two about being new to painting is good for preparing. It lets you know what you might not know, for me for example it was about varnish. But it isn’t so far down the rabbit hole that I’m looking up advanced techniques.

How Do You Start a New Hobby?

So what is your preferred way? For me, I think I wanted to just go and get started, which, I found, didn’t work for me. I am too much of a planner, that is part of what I do. Now I don’t plan everything, but I want to know a bit more of what I’m starting to do. And I did watch some videos but things like varnish, totally missed that when I started. And knowing a bit of why things are done, such as thinning paints is useful as well.

So now, when I start painting again, plan to do it this Fall, I am more of a preparer. I don’t think that I went into the deep dive stage, but I do think that preparer and deep dive are close. I own now more paints, varnish, and more brushes. But there are other things, like holders for all my paints, lighting, or whatever else it might be that I haven’t gone into. I will like watch a video on starting painting again, but that’ll be about it.

What is a new hobby you are starting?

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Go To GenCon

Yup, I want to go back again this year. And what I really hope is that I can meet up with some of the people I did the previous years. Seeing the Tablenauts Discord crew and gaming with them was great. Same with Man vs Meeple, so I hope to see them all again this year. And I also hope that some others, like from GloryHoundd will be able to make it this year as well just to continue to get to know the people I chat with on videos and through discords. Plus, of course, there is buying probably a few more games in the mix with going to GenCon as well.

Anime and Manga

I want to start covering those areas a bit more again. I know I do it from time to time, but I’ve been reading more Manga lately. So I want to continue to read more, and we were just at Barnes & Noble so I picked up some more. But to get through some of that and get that into the rotation for the site. I find that I enjoy reading comics/graphic novels/Manga, and Manga is an area that I’ve read less. Plus, there are some shows getting new seasons or new shows that I’m watching to checkout and some that I want to get back into.

Beat Frosthaven

Hahaha, just kidding, that’s going to take more than just one year to do. But I want to start playing Frosthaven this year. I know it is going to happen, but it’s something that I’m really excited about. I want to get it to the table and see what the new characters are like. From what I’ve heard, it takes up the complexity of the characters a notch. And I am there for that, and for the city building new stuff and puzzles and everything that the game is offering.

Crowdfunding

Yes, this is a dangerous one to have on the list. But you can look back at my list of a lot of games coming to crowdfunding that I’m excited for. Three really stand out at me though, Stonesaga, as I’m friends with one of the designers and it’s a legacy game. I want to get my hands on a copy of that one. Marvel United: Multiverse, mainly because I want to know what characters they are going to give me. And then Rogue Angels, I got to play that one again and it’s still an amazing game. So I hope it comes to crowdfunding and does an amazing job. Plus there are more like the Elder Scrolls game that Chip Theory Games is doing.

10 Minute Marvel and Malts and Meeples

For these two, it’s pretty easy, I just want to keep on putting out content. I’m excited to start with Malts and Meeples a Lands of Galzyr game and then more Marvel talk on 10 Minute Marvel. We’re going to hopefully hit a big number, I’d be shocked if we didn’t, in the first half of 2023 with 10 Minute Marvel as we’ll get 10,000 downloads. Maybe we’ll do something special for that. And I have some promo cards I got from a Kickstarter that I might be giving away somehow in the new year, so more details on that. But it’s a lot of exciting stuff or stuff I’m excited for with both of those.

Final Thoughts

Will all of these happen? Probably some of them will. Is it fine if they don’t happen like I plan, for sure. But I’m excited to see what nerdy things happen and what games I get to play or shows I get to watch. And then go on from there and continue to build on the nerdy things that I already love to do.

Do you have any nerdy resolutions for 2023?

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Lunch Time Gaming At Work

I’ve started a new job so this has gone away, for now, but maybe once a week at my old job, I’d bring in a game and we’d play it. It was just a nice chill time and it was fun to introduce people who maybe hadn’t played many board games, some new board games. Plus it was a chance for me, and I need them, to play a game that I hadn’t played before. Biblios and Arboretum stand out as some of the favorites of the group. And then there were some duds like the Copenhagen: Roll and Write, or Hexroller. They were worth trying, but not great games.

GenCon

I could break this down even further, but the whole experience was amazing. And I can’t wait until the 2023 GenCon. But having some people I knew there was fun, and I got to chat with them some. Plus then Discord communities. I got game with people from Man vs Meeple and Tablenauts and their discords and it was just a great time. Plus I got to play so many different games. GenCon is an amazing experience every time and I think that I found a rhythm that I like for being there. Though, we’ll have to see what might be fun to try next year.

10 Minute Marvel

This one is more recent, but getting a co-host for 10 Minute Marvel has been amazing. Yes, it makes more work for me editing, but it’s just to have a scheduled nerdy Marvel conversation every week. And I want to have more of them, maybe without the editing all the time. But it was great to get a co-host and a friend to go to the movies with and just dive into all of the fun nerdy stuff. And I’m excited to see all the new stuff coming out and talk about that as well.

Getting a Gaming Table

It feels like it’s been longer but that was this spring that I went through, found a lot of games to sell, sold them, and got a gaming table. I love my gaming table. It makes playing campaign games so much easier since I can leave it set-up. I sometimes wonder if I could leave one game set-up on one half and another on the other half. But then again, a lot of them take up more than half of the table. But I basically always have whatever campaign game I’m streaming set-up on there.

Stars of Akarios

Speaking of Streaming, Stars of Akarios. I figured I’d like the game, but I didn’t realize I’d like it as much as I did. The game is just great, the story is fun, and that tactical space combat really shines. So an easy pick, it was hard to take it down. I kind of wanted to continue, but also, it is good to show off more games than just one.

The Dragon Prince, Locke & Key, and Stranger Things

I put them all in one because, well, they are all Netflix shows. And all of them are some of my favorites. I feel like I’m probably missing a show, but these three were great. Locke & Key ended strong. The Dragon Prince, it had been a bit but used it as a chance to watch the whole series again. And while, Stranger Things, Season 4 was the best one since Season 1, and I think it’s really close between those. There were just a lot of really good and fun shows that Netflix put out. And then GBBO is always good, but I kind of consider that to be a little bit of a different thing.

Campaign Games

Technically Stars of Akarios would have fallen into this group, but overall I had an amazing time with campaign games. Sleeping Gods, even though I played it wrong, was so much fun. Tainted Grail, we finished up the second campaign and are into the third. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game was great. Spire’s End and Spire’s End Hildegard have been a ton off un. Even the weird campaign from Paper Dungeons was a lot of fun to play through. So lots of campaign style games that were fun.

Final Thoughts

I don’t think that 2022 was completely a normal nerdy year. I have a four year old now and that means that some nerdy things happen less often or at least getting out for them does. On the flip side, I got to do GenCon and I got to play a lot of Tainted Grail and get a lot of games in. So it’s been a very fun and fulfilling year of nerdy things. And I didn’t even touch on the anime that I’ve watched, not all of which have been great. But there are a good number of fun ones of those as well.

I am really looking forward to what 2023 has as well. Like I said, we’ll talk about some of those things coming up. But it’s going to be another fun year. And hopefully you’ve had good nerdy things happen to you in 2022 as well.

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