Matt Evans of Board Game Replay
Today’s featured board game media personality is Matt Evans of Board Game Replay. Matt lives NH with his wife and two awesome kids and works in IT. He was first introduced to board games around 5 years ago when a friend invited him to try Dominion. He immediately fell in love and soon owned everything there was for the game. One day a Google search for "Dominion Dividers" lead him to discover Board Game Geek, and that's when the obsession took hold. A few years later Matt and his friends found themselves spending countless amounts of time talking about games after they'd finishing playing them. Anything from impressions and strategies to particularly exciting moments. They decided it might be interesting to record these discussions and that lead to starting the series. Matt will be joining us in May at Granite Game Summit.
Three Random Facts About Matt:
He named his first born after his favorite character from X-Men.
He has a matching tattoo with his best friend. Years ago when his friend was getting married, Matt asked him what he wanting for a wedding gift. He mentioned a tattoo would be cool but couldn't decide on what to get. At one point someone (jokingly) suggested that they should get something together. They thought that sounded like a funny idea, so three hours later they had Mario and Luigi tattooed on opposite shoulders.
He loves Star Wars and can get pretty weird about spoilers. When Episode VII was first announced, he was so excited to experience what could be the first GOOD Star Wars film to come out in his lifetime, that he wanted to know nothing more until he could see it for himself. He avoided any rumors, discussions or articles about the film and didn't watch any trailers. When the release day finally came, he waited in line for 11 hours just to be sure he could see it before anything could be spoiled for him. Overall he acknowledges that it was pretty ridiculous, but totally worth it!
Questions by Kimberly Bullock (KB), answers by Matt Evans (ME).
Three board game media related questions:
KB: You have a unique approach to your board gaming videos, did your channel start this way or did it evolve into it?
ME: First of all, thank you! Our format has actually been mostly the same since the beginning. When we started out there were already so many great content creators out there that we wanted to try to put our own spin on things. We thought the post-game discussions would be a good way to present a sort of "group review" with the highlight clips helping to capture some of the experience. That basic concept remains largely unchanged, but over time we've definitely tried to make our discussions feel as natural as possible. Early on I would spend several minutes after a game writing out talking points and lead ins to each clip. But in the end we felt things just flowed better if we kept it a free form discussion.
KB: Was there a specific video, or point that it really felt like it clicked? Like you were reaching your target audience and it was growing well?
ME:I think it was probably a few weeks into it, after our Spartacus video that I really felt we were capturing what we wanted from our sessions. We were a bit more relaxed behind the camera and that comfort helped show everyone's genuine excitement for board gaming. Also, Spartacus is one of those games that looks terrible at a glance, but ends up being amazing. So it was fun to showcase the best moments to explain why it's so great.
KB: Do you have any tips on balancing work, family, gaming and content creation for others?
ME: Umm, I wish…if you know any I'm all ears! :)
Nah, but seriously the best thing I can recommend is just good communication with your spouse or significant other. I owe everything I've been able to create for Board Game Replay to my incredible wife Jen. She's a legendary full-time mother and commits every bit of herself to our children. Our schedules are certainly crazy with work and the two little ones, but we do our best to stay in constant communication and work out the best times for the both of us.
Three questions just for fun:
KB: What game in your collection has gotten the most play?
ME: I think Dominion has definitely seen the most play. It was the only game I owned for a period of about six months when I first got into gaming and we played it dozens of times every week. However, I'll cheat a little a say that my runner up game is probably Battlestar Galactica. It's my all time favorite TV series and the game captures everything from it so perfectly. The vast majority of my friends love it as well, so naturally it's hit the table many many times.
KB: What are your three favorite beverages?
ME: Coffee, Red Bull, Jack Daniels Single Barrel. Can you tell I'm a parent? haha.
KB:What is your favorite place in NH?
ME: I really love the lakes region. I spent a lot of time there as a kid and have some great memories from it. It’s such a beautiful area and there’s so much to see and do up there. I hope to be able to bring my kids there a lot as they grow up.
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