Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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Social media has had a real impact on board game design! We’ve been 3 major trends throughout the last decade or so, whether or not a game has been kickstarted or not. From feels good outcomes, to drawing a lot of cards and seeing new information, instagram has definitely made things have better accuracy, or better first impressions. We can see this in many popular BGG games, whether or not they’re Euros, as this applies to campaign and Ameritrash games too! Even the 4x genre is left changed. But this isn’t a bad thing, it just means that the tabletop experience is changing, with the cream of the crop strategy gaming tending to rise to the top.

Table of Contents:
Intro - (0:00)
Insta-Plussing - (1:05)
Feels Good Gaming - (8:19)
Design Considerations - (15:03)
Discovery vs. Mastery Discussion w/BrotherMing - (17:01)
Aesthetics over Depth? - (20:32)
Final Thoughts - (22:08)
Quick word about TCGs - (26:18)

Games featured: Earth, Wingspan, Root, War of the Ring, Twilight Struggle, Thunder’s Edge, Twilight Imperium, Dune Imperium, Everdell, Wyrmspan, Finspan, Chess, Boop, Lords of Waterdeep, Splendor, Carcassone, El Grande, Yugioh, Sid Meier’s 2010 Civilization Revolution, Re;ACT, Dead of Winter, Hive, Shogu, Scythe, Puerto Rico, Nemesis Retaliation, Fate of the Fellowship, Terraforming Mars

Research: https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/memory-replay-prioritizes-high-reward-memories

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#boardgames #tabletop #tabletopgames