Hey, and welcome to episode 146 of Maple to Maple. This is the third in my content creator community series, so thanks for joining today. My guest joining me is such a dear friend who I've known for years, who is an amazing content creator, an amazing person, a power for this community. She is really well known not just for wandering around the game table, but wandering around the world. It's our very own wanderer, Maple Adrie. Mora Adrie, how are you? Hey DJ, that's awesome of you.
Thank you. I'm just glad to see you. Thanks for doing this, I appreciate it. I'm happy to do it. Yeah, you know, it's it's in the previous two episodes with Bonds and Rachel talked about how 2025 is just kind of a rough year. It is. And I was like, you know what? We're just going to quit with all that. And we're just going to build and nurture our community by getting to know everybody and just focus on your story. You know, you've got a voice and
a story to tell. I'm excited to share you with the world. Thank you, BJ. So let me ask you, what was the very first game? This is a two-part question. What was the very first game you ever played like as a kid? And then the second question is, what was the first game you played that got you into the modern gaming hobby? So back to when I was a kid, I used to play a lot of Snakes and Ladders with my brother. OK, Jenga, Scrabble, those like the basic games, you know?
Yeah. Hey, Snakes and Ladders. So there's a game here in America called Chutes and Ladders. Is it kind of the same thing? It is the same thing but I don't know if if it's a bit different, but the one that I used to play hot snakes snakes. So you climb up the the ladders and you go down through the snake. Yeah, it's so interesting how you can take one game and you just, you relocate it to another country in another culture and it's still the same game, just
slightly different. A slight variation, yes. I'm constantly reminded whenever I'm talking about the game Clue with all of our friends in England. I'm always got to remember to call it Cludo because they don't, you know, it's just, it's interesting. As different as we are, we're all the same and I love. That that's true, and we've played almost all the games, but in different versions. Also Monopoly is different in different countries too so. Yeah, So what about the modern
hobby? What was your first modern board game? You wouldn't believe it, but it was actually zombie side. Really. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, that's kind of hardcore. It was hardcore, but the I think it's the reason why is because like the person that got me into the board gaming, like the hobby itself was a hardcore gaming gamer. So he introduced me to some beside and I got hooked and that was one of the games I played. Wow, have you? Do you still play it
occasionally? Because Halloween is almost upon us. And that's a really good, you know, a lot of people like to play it at Halloween. Right. No, I don't actually own it. It was his. So Yep. I am never, I've never played zombie side. You haven't played any. No. No, it's a lot of fun. Yeah. When you have all of the zombies around you and you're trying to escape, super fun. I've I've played Dead of winter. I played last night on Earth. I mean, there's so many zombie.
Well, there's zombies, right? That's an old game too. Yeah. Yeah, zombies, right? The Walking Dead. I think there's zombie teen zombie kids. Yeah. A lot of games around zombies. Zombies are so Hey, did you know that I wrote a book on about zombies? Really. No, I didn't know that. Back in 2013, I don't even know if my listeners know this. So in 2013 I published a book on Amazon. You can go to Amazon and you will find it there. And it's called Z, how zombies Shaped History.
And it was a, it's an actual history, right? Because I mean, I was AI studied history in school and I wanted people to get interested in it. And zombies were so popular, and I was like, what if all the major events throughout history, ancient Egypt, Greece, the Mayans, just everything went all the way up to about the 20th century? What if the real reason these events happened were because of zombie outbreaks? Yeah, I think. That's really interesting. Yeah, I think I sold 30 copies.
Wow. There and you can. Go. I really want to read that now. Yeah, Z, how's Z shaped human history. Yeah. OK, so go check that out. Or don't. I will, yeah. I'm curious now. Yeah. So it's it's kind of interesting, but I love that. Sounds interesting. Zombie side not. Not Katan, not Carcassonne, not Ticket to Ride like everybody else, or I just discovered Bonds. She got into modern gaming through playing Castles of Burgundy, so that was pretty interesting. Really. That's awesome.
Last week, Rachel was talking about Copenhagen, so I was like, yeah, these are this is what I love about this series is learning how different creators got into gaming. And it's like, that's that's what is. Because I'm going to be honest, most of the games that I've played with you in person, they've been a lot of party games because we're usually in a big group. Yep. So I can't say that I know the answer to this question. What, he's your favorite player color? Yeah, I don't.
I don't think we've played a game with pieces that you had to choose. No, I don't think so. I don't remember if Obsession has The Color Purple, but that's my color. It's a good choice. Yeah, if I can't, if I can't find purple, then the other two colors that I would choose is black or blue. Black or blue? Hey, so, so why? I mean, I know, I know. Why for me, why purple? What? What is it about purple that has just attracted you? It's just my favorite color.
Yeah, I think it's like so different. And it is actually. I think that I have purple inside me, purple inside my veins for some reason. I used to have my I used to dye my hair purple too. So it's something about the color that he has always told to me. So yeah, that's that's the color I I will always choose for sure. Everybody knows I grew up in Baton Rouge, so purple and gold are the colors of LSU. Purple, green and gold are the colors of Mardi Gras. So that's in my cultural DNA. Yeah.
It jokes that as LSU fans, we bleed purple and gold. So if you were to cut me open, blood would be two colors. I play purple, Katie plays gold, which is just fantastic. So I'm really excited when someone else plays green. So like the Mardi Gras colors are represented on the table, which is fantastic. So good. So we'll have a problem playing purple, you know, because you like playing purple and we and I like playing purple.
So pick it up this time. No, I would totally let you play purple and just I would play gold if not I'd play green if not I'd play black if not. Yeah, Yeah, there are like a lot of options always. So many options, I love that. So do you have Cuz Homicide is kind of an interesting game. Do you have a favorite game mechanic that you really love? I have I think like two or three, but the ones I can remember them both right now are worker placement and tile
placement or tile lane. Yeah, those are my 2 favorites that I can recall right now. Also rolling, right? Yep. Sleep on, right. Yeah. You're just going to list all the. Some of my favorites. They're all good. I think for me, tile placement is like my favorite. Like I don't care what the theme is, I don't care what the game is. If it's tile placement, I'm in, you know, because I like to manipulate the map and the board and everything like that. Do you? Remember what?
Do you remember what your first worker placement game was? My first work placement. Wow. OK, maybe one of my favorites. Everdale. Everdale. Yep, that's a good one. That's definitely a worker placement. It definitely. Is yeah, it was, I think once. I've literally just sort of be one of my favorites and the
mechanic. Yeah, it's really interesting because and I have a lot of friends who are new to the new to the hobby or they're just getting involved people at work, friends, friends in the profession. So they don't, sometimes they don't know what I'm talking about when I talk about mechanics, I think why worker placement? And you tell me if you agree or not. I think what's so great about worker placement is it's so easy, right?
You place a worker and then you get resources so that you can do a thing later, right? It's just, it's easy to teach. That's what I think. But you actually played place the worker to get either resources or to get actions or to do both or get cards. Yeah, so it actually depends on the game, but it's easy to teach and also easy to play. And you will always have like a lot of options where to place your workers on most of the times. But. Yeah.
It's really easy, yeah. I think one of my one of my favorite, I don't know what to call this my favorite worker placement space on a board is from the game Stone Age, where you place two workers in the Hut so that you can get another worker in the next round because. It's you're procreating. Yeah, yeah, we all know that. No other game replicates that right? That you know, it's usually you, you take an action or you go here and you train a worker, right?
No mom and dad are going in the Hut to. To procreate. Yeah. Huh. Yeah, honey, it's so funny because everybody knows that. Everyone, everyone knows. But now it's it's so funny. You. You can't. It is really funny. Laugh. You just can't help but laugh. But you have to take that action because you got to make more workers. It's just. You need more workers. It's, it's hilarious.
I I think at the same time though, the big, the big complaint about worker placement is how limiting a lot of worker placements could be. If I place my worker, then you can't. I know that's not true in all games, but I know that can be a frustration too. It is a frustration because sometimes it's just one, like tight space for one people. But some games have the option to place more than one. Yeah, which is great.
This is really nice. But it depends on the game and sometimes it's frustrating because I wanted that let's see if I can get a next turn and then next turn I won't get it because I didn't end up being in the 1st, 1st place to get the next resources on the 1st place. So yeah, it's hard. Yeah, and I've heard people complain about like, like, not only do they complain about it, they don't like worker placements as a mechanic because of that, right?
Because of the fighting, yeah. I'm like, I get that, but you know, not all worker placements are the same, you know? Yeah. Yeah, which is so like back to Eberdell. So instead of putting 2 workers in a space to get another worker and procreate, you get them, right? It's some of they're up on a tree and you get to like a season, like it's like the first round is like autumn and then the next round's winter. I can't remember exactly but you get to a season and it unlocks
additional workers for you. Which is kind of you get different workers from the tree. Yes, that's true. Because you don't have to spend 2 because that's that's two workers dedicated to 1 action. Yeah, Stone Age. But yeah, so that's. That's true. Good. So do you have right? Do you have like a favorite game? This is this is twofold as well. Do you have a favorite game of all time? If not, because I know that's a difficult ask. It's a difficult do. Yeah. Do you have, like a favorite
game today? Like you're playing it a lot right now. It's hard to say because I'm playing a lot of games at the same time, mostly on board game arena. That's when I play the most, when I kind of always go to the games that I normally love playing. And right now I'm playing, well, some of my favorites from all time are Castles of Burgundy. So I get to play a lot of the Castles of Burgundy. I've been playing a lot of Seven Wonder Stool. OK. I've played that a lot, yeah.
I also love space based. I play that a lot. OK. That's. A lot. It's a game. I've I've only, I've only played that once. Really. Yeah, I've not played it. It's been a while. It's. Been a while every we should get get a game going on BDA. We should. Well you and I are currently playing Obsession and it's been your turn for like 3. Days. Nah, that's not true. I know I'm late, but The thing is that you normally I don't have the time to do it throughout the day, but only at
night. And if you normally select like to do a turn twice a day, that's complicated for me. So it has to be like 2 turns every two days or a turn every two days so that it will give me like a lot more time for me to play. Yeah. And we're playing with Goja, who's in Poland. So then there's the there's a time difference. So yeah, that's that is true as well. That's a toffee. Thus proving that you wander from game to game. I think I have around almost 60 tables right now. Wow, I have two.
I have. 2 tables. I'm playing Obsession with you and Goja right now, and then Goja and I are playing Arc Nova. That's it. Wow, that's it. Yeah. It's. It's it's hard to find the time to play and I don't want to. I don't like making people wait on me, especially with the time zone differences. That's. True. Two things that I've learned, 2 criticisms that I have of BGA. The first one is you can't use BGA if you don't know how to play a game. It's not good. It's not a good way to learn a
game. So if you don't know the game, forget about it. This, this cuz then you're like, what's going on? I did what? What? I don't, Yeah. And then the second thing is I was in a tournament. Someone invited me to a tournament. It's like a year ago and I was matched up with someone on the opposite side of the globe. I think maybe they were in Thailand or Australia, I don't know. And so the problem is, is that I would time out because they would take their turn while I'm asleep.
And then I'd get up in the morning and in my turn was over and I get penalized. And then I got kicked out and I'm like, OK, BGA can kick you out. Yeah, BGA can kick you out. It has happened to me too, Yeah. It can. So that's that's lovely. It's rough. But it's a great, it's a great tool for building our community because we can't all be
together. And it gives us a chance to, but I like to see your smiling face while we're gaming, you know, and I like to, I like to play out the actions that are happening at the table. You know, it's like if I'm playing Dinosaur World, I want to narrate the tour, then my Jeep's going through the park or in Obsession, I want to turn to you and gossip about what are what are opponents doing in their state, you know, or whatever. I can't really do that. I know, yeah.
But with the distance and different time zones and friends all over the world that I think that's the only way you can do it these days. It's it's true. You know it, you know it. So let me ask you about your transition from being a gamer to a content creator. We've certainly talked about this a lot recently. What's the difference? I think the difference is
intention, right? Yep. One day you're just you're playing board games and you're just taking pictures and you're posting them just to share with your friends. And then you become more intentional. Like I'm, I, I'm creating content with a specific message or a specific image or a specific purpose, whether it's because you've been given a review copy or you are getting ready to learn a game for and we'll talk about this a little bit later.
If you're going to teach a game at a convention that you are going to be working the Bender hall for, right, whatever that is, when when for you, when did you like make that transition to becoming like a content creator? That was I think some time ago because I only used to play board games with the person that I was with at the moment. Yeah. And he used to have, he still has an account.
I don't know if he's working on that or not anymore, but I saw that he was struggling a bit like creating content for the account itself. So I tried to starting connecting with a lot of other accounts to see fine. I don't know techniques or things to do or maybe how to reach out to publishers if that was an option.
At the point. At that moment, I didn't know that the community was such a welcoming space that when you actually reach out, even if you're in a different country, they will try to find a way to send you a game for you to create content about it. And they won't ask you for anything other than just do some of them. Just do whatever you feel like doing with the game that we're sending you. So I actually decided to start helping him with the account, like being in the background of
the account. At some point I actually started appearing also like posting my face and doing silly things and and we played the games and we posted about the games and we did reels together and all of that. But it came the time that we had to split up. So we broke up. Things didn't work out. We broke up and I had some games, like a few games of my own, but he had the bigger collection and the games that we actually asked as a review copies, he kept them all.
So basically what I have to do, I used to have a like a personal account. What I had to do was just to transform my personal account into a board game account because I wanted to continue because I have I have built connections at the moment, like a lot of friends around the world and also connections with publishers. Right. It was like hard to just step out of it. I didn't want to. So I switched my personal account into a board game
account. And after going, I remember after going into one of these past years, talks about, Oh yeah, I started posting more frequently about it. And did you become Wanderer Meeple before PAX or was it your experience at PAX is when you like, I'm going to change everything. That's when I actually decided to change everything like my name and, and after that it came like the new logo with the meatball around the world and, and all of that. So yeah, it was after that.
But I used to have two meatballs in guess I, I visited Washington once and I took a photo with two meatballs. So that's the photo that I used to have as my. I remember that. That's my photo and that's one of the when I started like fully into content creator and just like socializing and meeting people at conventions, I started like handing stickers out. So those were like the first stickers that I gave out, which was like really great. I have one. Yep, there you are.
You're right there. There you go. Yeah, that was it. Man, that's a that's a great. So PAX unplugged. Wow. Hey, so I've never been to PAX unplugged. What, Like you, You and I, You know, we've been to Origins, We've been to Geek Wage. Junk. What? How do you how do you compare PAX to those other conventions? Think I will compare it.
It's like, it's not like Jankon because it's not as big and it's not as Origins, but is I think it's something in between because it's not as big as Origins, I'm sorry, it's not as little as Origins, but it's not as big as Jack. So something in the middle so. It's in the middle.
It has a lot more gaming area and they also have like big library where you can just go and pick the games and play and, and they also have like a lot of publishers and stands and all everything like Jankon. But there's a lot more around it. Like, I don't know, it's, it's a different vibe just being in Philly and being around the restaurants over there and just hanging with people. And it feels different because it's also like almost Christmas
time. So it feels like you are like giving yourself a Christmas present because before Christmas or maybe getting Christmas presents at the convention because like you're buying games at boxing Club too. So just giving yourself and your family members and your friends games because you're like attending that convention before Christmas. What about because I worry about
this right? Being from Louisiana and even though I'm in the Illinois and it gets cold in the winter time I'm still not used to it. At Gen. cons in August it is hot. Towards. Is in June it is hot, but PAX is in December in Philadelphia. So what is that? What is it like going to a big game convention in the winter time when it's so cold? It's not super cold. I think it's not as cold. I mean, you feel cold, but it's still manageable.
It's not like all winter. Is there a lot of those pedestrian bridges that you can walk from building to building over the streets? You know, Gen. Con's got that. So there is OK. Yeah, you can do that there too. You don't have to go outside too much too. Long no, no, you you need to go outside just in case you need to eat something. But there are things for you to eat inside too. So if you don't want to go outside, just don't go. It's fine. Would you say PAX is your
favorite convention? That's tough. I don't think it's my favorite around. A lot. Of yeah, I think if I can pick a favorite convention, maybe it would be Pax. This is not as crowded as Jankon and it's not as small as Origins. So now that I have like the full picture I think I will pick Box and Block as my favorite but I haven't attended origins before so I didn't know. I think I do like blacks and blacks a lot more for sure.
Because just just hearing your story, I'm thinking PAX is like this integral experience for you, kind of blossoming and becoming who you are, right, as a gamer, as a content creator and just as an individual that it would hold a special place for you. Yep. Yep. It's also closer to you because you're in New England, You're up in New Hampshire, right? I think somewhere's up there, right?
Yeah. So, so you don't have to take the bus or the train or the plane all the way across the country to Indianapolis. To Indianapolis, Yeah, I remember like taking me around 24, a lot more than 24 hours for me to get to Indianapolis. It was insane, but it was worth it. It is always worth it. You are. You are so much braver than me. I don't know. I don't know if I could do it. It's just a long wait, but when you're there it's like, man, I made it. This feels awesome.
Yeah, so you create you, you kind of recreate yourself, you rebuild your collection, you go to PAX, you, you just immerse yourself in this community they've welcomed you in. You're here sharing how awesome you are. You're creating your content. Do you have, I've been asking everyone before and I will continue to ask throughout the series. Do you have a favorite platform that you like to use when you're creating your content?
I think the easiest, my favorite right now, and he has to be since the very beginning is Instagram. I've been there for quite some time now and it's simple. And you just, I mean, sometimes you just don't have enough space to write everything you want to say. That's the thing. But you have enough. If you don't have enough space in the post, you can still write in the comments. So I think there's another space for you to say everything you want to say.
And you can be artistic in Instagram too. You can post reels, You can edit through different apps and still post them to Instagram. You can, I don't know, like endless possibilities. There's apps also for you to just add thanks into your photos to change your photos to right now. Also AI, which I don't really like and I haven't used it, but a lot of people use that. So a lot of things you can use into Instagram these days. So I know that I love watching your reels.
I mean, you do some amazing work, you know you. Really do. Thank you. And I think that this is while I've never heard you say this, I believe that something that's important to you is creating a space to advocate for women in this community. You do a lot of collaborations with other female content creators across it, and sometimes you even visit them. I think there's one recently. You were with. Who were you with? And you with Meg? Yeah, y'all were. Dancing in front.
Of the Game Shelf, the Guinea, the Guinea pig mom. Yeah, but but you do you also do a lot with. Kareem. Kareem and a bunch a bunch of women over in Europe. I've seen you do like some smash up videos you. Know with Julie with. Julie, Julie's mom. Yeah. So talk to me about that. Talk to me about the community of women that you have surrounded yourself with at this time. I think it's important for for us women to know that we can do this too.
Because when I started into the board gaming hobby, I saw that there were a lot more men and there are still a lot of men in the hobby. And I get that. But we can also, we can also learn games by ourselves. We can teach games. We can advocate for women that maybe are not fully aware that they can do this. So that's why I am trying to just collaborate with women that I know that they are like doing awesome.
But if not, if they are not like big or or they haven't like find maybe their spark or their thing into the community, I will also like to help them. But I don't know. It's it's hard to just reach out to everyone because sometimes you don't know who's going to collaborate with you or I don't know, XY or Z, but it's not like I just want to do it with women. It's just like I see there are more women around the board game community with my same wife maybe.
So when I see their reels or when I see their content, I'm like, man, I would love to collaborate with them at some point. So I just reach out and with Irene was like, I really like what you do. So if you feel like we could do a crazy reel sometime, just let me know. And since then we have been having these crazy ideas about reels. The first thing was chicken banana. I'm sure you saw it. This is the craziest thing and it was silly, but we did it and it was fun for me, for her.
And the next one was this Spice Girls thing. But we come up with ideas from time to time because I know she's a mom, like she's busy. She has a work to do and all of that. She's teaching. I think she's teaching French also. So I know people is like a lot more busy than me. I get that, totally get it. I have a lot more time at hand to do things, but I want to do things with people. I want to connect. Which is why we're here, This is
why we're in this community. It's making those connections. And I know Meg is not as like me as much as me, but she's happy, still happy to create content with me. I didn't actually think that she would Just Dance, but she was up for it, which was awesome. That was great, I I have to admit. So why do One of the reasons that I love your content is your willingness to embrace the silly. Yeah. I am jealous. I, I'm too serious of a guy,
right? That's why I have a podcast, so I could just like talk to you and let you carry on. You know, I don't. I don't have to be silly because I'm not good at it. You don't know if you're good at it if you haven't done it before. I, you know, it's from a years of experience. When I try to be silly, it just falls flat. People are like, what did he just say? And I thought it was funny. It's why I love my friend Craig.
Get into games. Yeah, You know, it's why I love him coming on, because he kind of honestly hit between him and Adam from Tabletop Odds. The two of them, they make me look so good because they put up with me and they just do their silly shenanigans and I just, I go for it. Like I'm, I'm open, but I'm just, I don't know, I get in my own. Way you're open, but you're still serious about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I totally get it. Well, but I love it.
We can try to, we can try to do something BJ together for sure. We should, yes, yes, we definitely should do that. Yeah, that's the SO that's the real reason I had you on the podcast. OK, that's good. Good to know. Yeah. Embrace, CJ. Embrace it. I know it works, I know that's what people love and I'm like, I can't. You know, sometimes you think it will work, sometimes it won't work because it's some days are really good days, some days are really bad days.
But it depends also on the algorithm and the algorithm sucks. I am not trying to understand that anymore. I just do. I just create. That's it. The. Algorithm is interesting, right? We talk about the algorithm constantly. So just recently created Maple to Maple on TikTok. I mean, Tik Tok's got a lot of baggage right now.
Because TikTok is a lot. Even though the even though the federal government shut down the federal government's trying to tell TikTok what to do. Yeah, I recreated my Facebook account so that I can have a page for Meatball to Meatball don't care about me. I care about the podcast. So I'm doing all this stuff and here's what I've discovered. The algorithm for Instagram based on everything I've been reading. Because I'm like, because I'm the serious guy who does all the research right?
So that y'all could be silly. I'm like doing all the behind the scenes. Right. So the algorithm in Instagram caters to your followers, people who are already following you. So it creates kind of an echo chamber. TikTok caters to a larger audience, and people are using TikTok as a search engine, so they're using Google less, and they're going to TikTok to find that YouTube is doing this too. Find that video, find that instruction, find that song, find that, whatever.
And so it's interesting. So if you want more followers, you create a TikTok page and you post everything there, but then you got to transfer it to Instagram. Content creating is a lot of work, but y'all do it and y'all do it well. Sometimes you actually post into Tiktok, but that doesn't mean that it will bring followers to Instagram because that's not happening for me so. I'm, I'm figuring it out. I'm figuring out, you know, there are people who've already figured it out.
And so I'm just trying to, you know, so I'm constantly reaching out, going, hey, got any tips that you know, tell me what works. Tell me what doesn't. I'm not trying to steal your content. I'm just trying to mimic your strategy, as it were. What I normally do on TikTok is just to post every, sometimes, not all the silly wheels, but the unboxings that I'm doing on Instagram, I just post them on TikTok so that people will see the content or the board games that I am reviewing.
I think that's helpful. Yeah. So let me ask you unboxings, that's a really great example. So everyone does them. And my problem is. So as a point of fact, I had a box come in today. Nice. Had a game arrive and what happens is that my wife and I, we open the box, we open the wrapper, we open the game box and we start playing and then it's over and I'm like I should. Have the important. Yeah, right. Do people, do you like put everything back in a box and then record an unboxing after
you've already opened it? Is that something that people do like that's how stupid, Like what kind of questions that but. I think that's something that people do, but I also think that most people don't really care about unboxings but about the post or how to play or about the video on how to play because they will also see most of the components like in the video or in the post depending on how people does it.
I just do both because sometimes some boxes will show components that I won't be showing in my photos so that people will know that what comes in the box. And I do it differently because I try to, when I have like, the inspiration, I go to a different place and try to match the Bible of the game to the boy game. I'm so the Bible, yeah, the Bible of the place to the board game. That's what I meant to say. So let me see if this is a perfect example.
I think I got you. So just, you know what, a couple well, by the time you're listening to us November. But at the time of recording, this was just a few days ago. It's funny how time works. So there was the moon festival, right? And we have an Asian market here in Springfield. So we were able to go and we bought a tin of moon cakes Moon Festival. That was, I think we call it the Harvest Moon.
It was like Monday night or whatever and so we we ate moon cakes and these were the traditional Lotus paste moon. Cakes. Yeah, while. Playing moon Bunny by hot banana games right? I love that I do those little. Experiences. But then I posted photographs on my Instagram, my TikTok and everything of the game with a plate of moon cakes and even the little rubber moon cakes that are components in the board game, I put them around the real moon cake on the plate, Right?
Like, I know that sounds ridiculous. It's like, it's so obvious, but I think that is that kind of what you're talking about, matching the vibe. To the game, Yes, Yes, yeah. I'm really good at seeing it, but it's always after the fact that I'm like, oh, I should have done that. Exactly what I did. I don't know if you if you saw my unboxing of Lovecraft love letter. I do remember that now that you
say it, yeah. I went to I actually look for places in Salem in Massachusetts that are related to buildings that are related to Lovecraft stories. Right. So I did that research and since it's kind of close to where I am right now, I just went and visited those places, not all of them, but like 3 or 4 of them, and just walked because it was like a walkable distance. I just walk and just did a little shots, a little videos with the components of the boy game around the city.
And I think he matched perfectly with the vibe. But yeah, that's that's the point. For example, with this other game, Pergola, pergola, Yep, seems super, pretty, super beautiful. I just went to a park that is like full flowers. I just recorded a video around around the the park and it came out pretty great. So yeah, you. You, you, you travel compared to me. You travel more frequently than I do. Both around the United States as you're going to game conventions, but also around the world.
How intentional are you about carrying just board game components with you when you're traveling, right. You see people and it's like, OK, so they go to Paris and they've got, you know, they've got the like the Eiffel Tower cardboard cut out piece from Paris City of Lights and they put it down and they take that picture. It's like you have to, you have to know that you're going to or taking a picture of Acropolis while you're on the Acropolis in Athens, right? Like, yeah.
And you know, and my thing is, is I'm not thinking about carrying those things. Do you do that? And how intentional are you about making sure you carry some things relevant to where you're traveling? I do that and it depends on where I'm going and if I have any game components around the places that I'm visiting.
If I don't actually have anything, what I just do to sometimes record my experience on stories or on posts is just to carry a meatball and I just put the meatball in places or in cafeterias, restaurants, or wherever I go. I just put the meatball and took a photo and then that's how I create content, let's say board game content around the places
that I visit. But yeah, it actually depends because I've seen a lot of people like carrying game components, but I haven't like traveled to a big city with a board game before. So I wouldn't be able to tell. But I would love to do that for sure. The most that I've ever done is, in fact, I've got them over my shoulder here somewhere, but I've got a little Maple of a panda and a little Spock, and I've done reels and stuff. I'll travel, I'll go to the zoo and I'll just put them on like
the little rail. Yeah, I've seen them. Pictures. Yeah, I did that with. It was my first Gen. Con. And Katie and I went and we had the meatballs and it was like the adventures of Panda and Spock, right? And I'm like, OK, that's kind of cool. But then I forget. I leave them. I leave them down here on the shelf and they don't travel with me. And so I'm like, I should do
better. Yeah, but you know, there's a lot around conventions that's a lot to do and a lot to remember and a lot of people to meet and go here and go there. So yeah, it's just exhausting to remember everything and try to do all things. So just not taking your maples is I think it's fine for for one or two travels. You'll remember at some point and you'll do it for sure.
I think intentionality for me is the one that I struggle with probably the most is like the content that this is the kind of content I like to create is conversations with people and telling stories like, you know, that this is this is the stuff I really love. And so I have to work hard at being intentional about bringing a Maple with me if I'm going somewheres and and I fail at that a lot.
And I think that's why I don't have the the followers and the everyone that watching the podcast because I'm not doing all the things that need to be done because it's. OK. Yeah, I mean, you just said it. People realize how much work goes into board game content creation, you know? Yeah. And I actually, and I so I keep on just reaching out to the people that I know that want to and will at some point, which is fine too. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I reached out to as part of this content creator community series that we're in the middle of now that you are now a part of. I reached out to a lot. I had to reach out to a lot of folks. OK. I've had a couple of people who just never responded and I attribute that to their being busy. It's also part of that algorithm that you were talking about. Just because I send you a DM on Instagram, I can tell whether you've seen it.
And when I go look, they haven't seen it because it's buried under. I mean, they get so many. Cons of messages, yeah. But I was fortunate enough to start the I had bands from bands inator she was she started. She's awesome, I love her. You know, we had Rachel from Queen Games and you're here and I got, you know, we'll have Jerry from Tabletop Worldwide. Yay. Yeah. Grant Lines Grant lines will be on Lincoln Steam Bar Awesome will be on.
And then I'm reached out to so many creators across the globe. It was really important that I made sure that this was a diverse group of people, not just gender and sexuality, but I also wanted, you know, around the world. And I've got right, I managed to do and I'm still waiting for people to respond, so we'll see what happens. This was these past other. Yeah, they are fantastic people, just proving how great this community really is.
Yeah, that's true. So speaking about this community, you've also you've got a unique perspective in that you have been able to travel to so many conventions because you have while not on a not on a permanent basis, but you've been working for all play at their booths at the vendor hall. I was, I was wondering if you could just tell me a little bit about that experience. How did you get connected with all play? And once you got connected, was it easy to stay connected and keep doing it?
Because I know you did Origins and Gen. Con this year for them for for maybe people who are thinking about doing that in the future, maybe not would all play, but how easy was that whole process to connect? Well, I think it was pretty easy because they are pretty accessible to reach out. So you can just reach out through the Ms. you know, ask Delia is the one that's handling
media right now. She said only through emails, But I the first time that I reach out to, I think it was Mark, he's the one like in charge of like sales if I'm not wrong. So I reach out to him and I said, hey, I know that there's the option for people to work at booths. I don't know if I should talk to you or who should I talk to? And he said, yeah, we would love
to have you on board. Let me see if I can send you the form and if there's enough space for us to just give you the opportunity because we have like a lot of people like applying for every convention and we have to keep rotating. And yeah, you know, you know how it works. So, yeah, the first time that I did that, that I work for them was Junk on last year. And I am sure you remember that I was the mascot for River Valley Glass Works. That's right. Yeah, I was.
Was Rosie the alligator? Rosie the Alligator? Yes, I remember that. So how did you get that particular gig? I think it was just luck because I was like gonna work for the booth and just like play games, demo games. But he was like, well, maybe I can give you this offer. Would you be interested in doing that? And I'm. Oh yeah, just give me that. I'll gladly do it. That would be so freaking awesome for sure. So that's how I got it. We talked about this at Gen.
Con this year. I remember after hours we talked about this experience. But so for our listeners, tell me about what was that like being dressed up? You have no idea how awesome that is because you're like, fully covered with the costume. Like fully covered with all of it. Like the mascot is like super hot inside. They don't even have like a ventilator or anything, but just be in there and just get to see
how happy kids get around. Seeing the the characters from River Valley Glass works because it was not only me, but I was just doing, I was dancing and I was just saying hi and just doing things for the people to come around and smile and I don't know, just approach and try to get photos.
And people were so happy about it that it was just so heart warming for me. You have no idea because even though they didn't see me, I was inside that and I was almost trying how beautiful that experience was. I love that story, thank you for sharing that. Yeah. I love it. And I would do it again with any other mascot and any other
publisher. I would do it again because the feeling of just being there and seeing through the 2 little eyes from the mascot scene, all the people is smiling at you and waving at the kids hugging you. And can I take a photo with you? Yes. Everything is so awesome. Fantastic, fantastic. I love it. I love that. That is amazing. I think I didn't find out you were in the rosy costume until after. It's like I saw you. In the. Costume at Gen. Con, but I didn't know that was you.
I. Knew you were working, all playing. I think somebody was like, Oh, yeah, well, she was dressed up and I'm like, yeah, see, once again, I'm late to the show and. What I normally what I was doing so that people would know it was me, was posting and stories with her head or with part of her toes. Just that people would know that I would throw seeds. So come and say hi or friends will take pictures with me. And I remember Kristen approaching to me and saying,
Andrew, is that you? And I was, yes, it's me. So I took a picture together, and it was pretty awesome. Yeah. That's amazing. So so in your experience, what do you think the overall board game community just does really well like you were so happy to
be a part of? It I think the board game community accepts everyone in the community no matter what, no matter if you are like an expert, no matter if you're just starting, no matter if you are different, no matter if you have any type of. I don't know how do you call it if you have any difficulties being yourself or any difficulties in your world at this time, or if you have, I don't know, different references in your life, different religion, any of that matters. Actually.
They are just welcoming you into the community because they want to play with you. They want to teach you games. They want you to enjoy the world around games. I think that's what this community is doing. Most of the people that I know are like that. They will just accept you the way that you are into their tables. On the flip side, is there anything you've seen that you think we need to do better? On the other side, it actually depends.
I haven't actually encountered anything wrong, but sometimes when, and this is more of the following on following side of the accounts. If you go and check out into an account and say, oh, wow, I can't believe this content creator like as just this content creator is has just followed me and is, I don't know, likes my content.
And you reach out and you're thankful for that and and you meet this person to in the community and they feel like they are honest with the first interaction, but then for some reason they just stop following you so. It's. Like you actually. Numbers a little. Bit right follow you so you don't actually know if there was just manipulating numbers or if they just don't like some of the content that you just created
and it bumps you out. But you know that there are a lot of people is still supporting you that OK Yeah, well, this one follower that is leaving and the people that really want to stick with you, they will stick through think and then there will be always be there. So that's something that I don't really like. If you're going to be following me for my content and you don't like something about it, you can just approach and tell me. Listen, I don't think this is appropriate.
Maybe you can have a different approach or maybe you can do this different or just try to give you feedback instead of just following you out of the blue. Why would you do that? Or people that just keep on doing that game with you, following you. So you'll follow back and then they unfollow you and later on you find out that they'll follow you and then you're like, I'm not going to play this game anymore. Right, sure. It's Oh, darn it. I had a thought and I forgot it. Oh well.
Oh, I got it. One of the things that I've had this conversation a lot, just in general, not, not even, not even with gamers, just in. General. In general, I, I think, I think that we, I think we as Americans, because I don't see this with our with our non Americans followers and community members. I don't see this as much. The no is a perfectly good answer and it it's OK to say no. In fact, sometimes you should say no as part of self-care. If you can't do a thing, don't
over commit. We say that all the time, but but then we worry about how hurting people's feelings. Well, you know my telling you no is a perfectly good answer and just yeah, that's simple. Rather than telling stories and making up excuses to try to make yourself feel better. And then you're just waiting. Yeah, yeah, I see this outside the board game community as well. But, you know, and the, the the key is my listeners are going to get tired of hearing me quote Cicero.
But here he comes. You know, so Cicero was talking about how a Republic because he's like, he's he's in ancient Rome during the Republic period. And he was talking to how the republican only survived through respect and trust. And that if you take away friendships, OK, this is the quote here. If you take away friendships, then you take away our culture. So it's really important that we just treat each other with respect, trust each other, be honest, and our community can thrive.
So thank you. You just need to be genuine, yeah. That's it. That's it. So yeah, well, Adri, I've taken up more than enough of your time this evening. Thank you so much for being a part of this. Thanks for your honesty, your integrity, your inspirational. I love your silliness. I love that you embrace it so much, you know? So I'm still trying because I I still don't know if if people would like it.
So I still have a lot of doubts about it and I still struggle, but I am trying my best to keep on with it and if I don't have anything silly to do I just I will just keep on creating board game content because that's what I love. Keep doing it. So tell everyone where they can find you. If they want to collaborate with you, where can they find you on the socials? So I'm on Instagram, Wander meatball TikTok is mostly just to repost the videos that I'm doing, but I'm also on TikTok.
I'm also on Facebook because you know, like the board game community is like trying to also do Facebook and the board game video thing is also in there. So you have to like try to be in all the socials. The idea may be part of the unboxings that I'm doing just reposting those there. I've been thinking, but I still don't know. We'll see. That's an idea. I also have that and yeah, those are pretty much and board game arena. If you want to play with me,
just start a table. And you're Wanderer meatball on board game. Arena on board or meatball? All of them, yes. Yeah, will you keep wandering? And you know we will. We will see you at a game table soon, hopefully. Hopefully yes. So much for joining me. Thank you so much, Virginia, for the invitation and it was an honor to be here. Thanks. Thank you guys. Don't forget to hit that like and subscribe button. We need those numbers. You just.
Are yes the. Algorithm and as always, be kind to each other and let's play more games. Thank you.