Critical Products - product reviews vs critical reviews (Topic Discussion)
I love Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory. It's an amazing economic simulation with huge ambitions. And yet, it rarely comes to the table. The reason is simple. It takes about half an hour to set up. You have to separate card decks, shuffle them, put a number of different components into different locations and do various other things before you can start playing. While Hegemony is a heavy game, it's not its complexity that is the problem. It's the effort of setting it up. That made me think about whether a critical board game review should consider this or if this is more the remit of a product review.Read the full topic discussion article here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2025/08/12/critical-products-product-reviews-vs-critical-reviews-topic-discussion/Useful LinksStonemaier Games: https://stonemaiergames.com/Fled review: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2025/07/26/fled-saturday-review/Mystic Vale review: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2018/12/08/mystic-vale/MusicIntro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot (https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/)Success by Mixaund | https://mixaund.bandcamp.comMusic promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.comMusic by: BensoundLicense code: XYJHH24GPPT8BJ8GArtist: : Benjamin TissotMusic by: bensound.comLicense code: H45DI1U3YDTYLGF5Artist: : Lunar YearsMusic I Use: https://www.bensound.com/free-music-for-videosLicense code: ZX5IAGTXWISS2AEZArtist: : AventureMusic by: https://www.bensound.comLicense code: DMMTAKZV5MTBQDPIArtist: : Yunior ArronteSupportIf you want to support this podcast financially, please check out the links below:Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/TabletopGamesBlogPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/tabletopgamesblogWebsite: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/support/(Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash)
