I haven’t watched Tabletop but I do watch another of the shows on the same Youtube channel: Spellslingers (the Day[9] vs. Everyone Magic: The Gathering series).
The producer was also fired. Wheaton then issued a public statement saying that the producer had done a good job for two years but he had failed to catch rule violations on several occasions this year which caused Wheaton to be embarrassed. Wheaton said he was “fucking pissed” at the producer so he fired him.
Now on the one hand, the guy’s job was to make sure the rules were being followed and he failed to do this. If you’re not doing your job, getting fired is a consequence.
On the other hand, Wheaton should have handled it better. Wheaton gave the impression he was more angry that he ended up looking bad than he was about the actual problem. Wheaton said he was taking full responsibility but the only thing thing he did was to say it was all the producer’s fault and fire him. Wheaton says nothing about why the producer was able to do a good job for two years and fell apart this year - or indicate that he had made any effort to find out why this was happening. And most importantly, Wheaton posted all this rather than just keeping it in the family.
Yes… I’m a fan. The show is generally fun to watch. I agree, there are a few I’ve turned off because I just thought the game wasn’t that interesting, or the guests were boring. But for the most part, I’ve watched them all through.
Mostly, I like to discover some fun games for the fam I wouldn’t have heard of otherwise. I own several games strictly because I saw them on Tabletop (Sheriff of Nottingham, Tsuro, Qwirkle, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Pandemic and Dixit) that I had either not heard of, or disregarded prior. With a handful more on “the list” (Takenoko, Castle Panic, Small World)
I’m looking forward to Mice and Mystics tomorrow
Out of curiosity… I looked up the controversy. Here is a link to Wheatons apology:
Which includes this:
“Ultimately, I am the host and the face and the identity of Tabletop, so ultimately this falls on me. I take responsibility for these mistakes. I am the executive producer and creator, and it’s my responsibility to ensure that everyone is doing their job. It’s my responsibility to deliver the best show I can, and too many times this season I failed to do that.”
So… I’m not sure why people are feeling like he is absolving himself of blame.
It seems like a lot of hubbub over nothing.
Bit of a storm in a dice cup, no? Personally I’ve always found Will Wheaton a tad grating, but I’m grateful for being pointed to his show - I enjoy most of his guests and some of the games.
Wheaton is a pussy sissy who has admitted several times that I know of, on his blog, that he can’t take criticism. He says he’s gotten over not being liked for being Wesley but he really hasn’t.
His apology on his blog is embarrassing to read. He mentions several times that he is embarrassed, angry and sorry and that it’ll never ever ever happen again I promise with sprinkles on top.
I’d like a cite that he actually fired someone because if he did I’m losing a lot of respect for him.
Seriously you’re going to put someone out of a job because some whiny game nerds, who care more about following the rules to a T than having fun with your friends, threw a hissy fit over a stupid rule. If that ruins your experience your a baby and should go back to your mommys basement.
We’ve kicked several people out because they were whiny little babies because we didn’t follow the rules exactly because we altered them to make the game more fun to us.
I actually wondered when I posted the thread if it would devolve into the controversy. It is hardly a big deal to me, but I wondered if I could get away posting about something without people obsessing on its, to me, irrelevant minor controversy.
I agree it’s a silly controversy. I don’t know Will Wheaton. I don’t know the producer. Why I am going to get worked up over this? But some people in the gaming community have nothing better to do.
There is a different problem I have with the show that’s more related to gaming. I’m a regular gamer (two or three days a week). Wheaton is also a very active gamer.
But Tabletop is not really a show about gaming at that level. Wheaton brings in celebrities who are often happy to admit they’ve never played the game before the day they sit down to tape the show. So while they’re often fun people they’re not great gamers.
To make an analogy, suppose you were a serious baseball fan. Which would you rather watch: the Yankees playing the Red Sox or the cast of Glee playing the cast of Game of Thrones? Now if you’re a serious fan of baseball, you’re going to want to watch it being played by top professionals. But if you only have a casual interest in baseball, you might rather watch it being played by celebrities, even if they’re not playing the game as well.
I like the show and if “the gaming community” doesn’t like it, that makes me like it more because fuck those people.
I’m okay with sloppy game play. The point of the show is to show people having fun playing games and it usually does that well. People get worked up over nonsense because that’s what the Internet is now.
I agree, except that was not the approach Wheaton appears to have taken with his apology. I think he should have.
This is the first I’ve heard of it.
Is it as good as Fun With Flags?
Sadly no. Most games do not have flags in them. 
Well, I’m not calling for anyone’s head but I’ve used Tabletop in the past to determine whether or not to get a game and when they do things like discard influences in Coup when they win a challenge, really they’re making it a different game and it makes me gunshy to purchase things based on the show.
That being said, his apology was terrible and I hope he at least painted something fun on the underside of the bus he threw that producer under.
Wheaton does a great job with that. Tabletop has probably brought more new people into the gaming hobby than anything else out there.
Bolding mine. Given the rest of your post, I’m not sure how much respect you have to give at this point.
As a fairly serious board/card gamers…I really enjoy the show. I think it’s mostly really well done and a lot of fun to watch. The thing about Wil Wheaton is that he is generally a normal guy. He’s not perfect. He’s nerdy, has an ego, is a bit too competitive, like to be the center of attention. Basically, he’s a lot like many gamers I know and hang out with. And that’s fine! He doesn’t have to be perfect. If I hosted a show like that, I’m sure there’s plenty of snarky things you could say about me.
The long-form RPG show he’s doing right now (Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana) is also really good. I’m enjoying his GM style a lot. He engages the players and draws them out, gives them a lot of agency and emotional growth. It’s a lot les munchkin then I expected and a lot heavier on storytelling and roleplaying. All good things, IMO.
I’m going to echo what a lot of other people here have said. I generally like the show but have also turned off a couple of episode due to either the game or the guests. Though I think I like the first two seasons the most as that coincided with the time I was starting to get into the hobby and so Tabletop was often my first introduction to many of these games.
Many of you may be aware already, but I’m going to suggest checking out the boardgame geek youtube channel and their “Gamenight” series. It’s similar to Tabletop in that it’s just watching a game being played. The differences are that (1) it is (mostly) the same 4-6 people playing, (2) there’s a fuller explanation of the rules of the game, (3) while it is edited, you get to see pretty much every move or action taken in the game, (4) there is a closing review of the game. I enjoy it a lot. You get a really good sense of how the games are played.
If I’m looking to get a sense of what a game is like and whether I’d want to play it, I like Rahdo best. I’ll also check out Dice Tower, Starlit Citadel, Undead Viking, and Watch It Played.
:bump:
I have been watching Wil Wheaton’s Titansgrave: the Ashes of Vulcanna show and loving it. I like it even more than Tabletop.
Was there an rpg season of a show he did last year? I thought I heard there was, but I can not find it.