I like the show quite a bit. I’ve used it to find new games and, more importantly, convince my wife to let me buy a game.
As per the controversy. I really, really didn’t care about the rule changes. I didn’t like the apology one bit, though. Praise in public, criticize in private. He did not do that.
I’ve finally been able to get a regular casual gaming group together in my remote neck of the woods and TableTop has been a godsend. Most of the group are inexperienced gamers, so the level of game play in Tabletop is just about right, rather than the more thorough, but a lot drier, gameplay videos on most gamer sites. I had stopped buying games entirely because I got tired of stockpiling games with no one to play with. Tabletop has gotten me started buying games again, and around half the games I’ve bought are from Tabletop, with Sushi Go being the most recent.
I recommend Splendor. It’s a really fun game that’s easy for non-gamers to pick up.
I have 4 left.
I wish I liked it, I like a lot of the guests. Wheaton’s manner never fails to annoy me. I never heard about the supposed controversy until I read this thread, I just don’t like the guy. He did the audio version of the book Ready Player One, which is a really truly bad book, and he managed to make it even worse. For me, just me, it’s fine that other people like him and even RPO.
I’ve watched pretty much every episode with my kids, and it’s been a great way to get them engaged and interested in games that we did not know about. We are very much a part of the Wil Wheaton Effect, in that we bought a fair number of games that he’s done on his show. His mannerisms can be annoying but he can also be very funny.
Wait, why would you listen to the audio version of a book you don’t like? Masochism?
I like Tabletop a lot. It doesn’t always work - sometimes the players are working too hard at having fun, sometimes they’re trying to be funny and missing, but sometimes they’re really just playing a game and having a good time. And even if they sometimes miss a rule, they’re still giving me a ton of information about the flavor and mechanics of a game, which helps me understand if I’ll like playing it.
Sometimes I finish a book I don’t like to sharpen my appreciation for the ones I do. Also, to say mean things about it on Goodreads.
I’ve seen it the trade mags. The problem is that my game group usually has five people showing up, which can limit some of the game choices. Also, right now I have enough of a backlog of unplayed games that I’m only looking for shorter (and cheaer) warm-up games.
I highly recommend Titansgrave, the rpg show he just completed the first season of.
It was a lot of fun to watch and I liked it even more than Tabletop.