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TEN FLIPPIN' YEARS! SU&SD Newsletter #55
🕑 Added 2022-06-22 18:10:47 +0000 UTC
Quinns: OH MY GOODNESS!
This summer SU&SD turned 10 years old and you - the person reading this - helped to carry us past this milestone. From the whole of our team, thank you.
Ava, Matt, Tom, Quinns: THANK YOU!
Quinns: That’s kind of crap in text, isn’t it? Never mind. The point is that you’re great. You’re just great. But in our 10th anniversary donation drive video we promised that this newsletter would be a special one. We said our whole editorial team would recall their favourite moments from the last ten years of Shut Up & Sit Down.
For me, my favourite moment is an obvious choice. It’s Gen Con 2014, as immortalised in the Very Professonal Gen Con Special
Gen Con 2014 wasn’t just our first Gen Con, it was our first big con, our first company trip overseas, and just generally an absolute farce.
SU&SD was not a successful company at this point. The flights alone were a wild extravagance. I remember Matt and I shared a bed with Brendan sleeping at the foot of the bed in a cot, like we’d gone on some ill-advised family vacation to central Indianapolis. Then we actually got to the con and discovered that it was LUNACY.
I love Matt’s description of Gen Con as “Super Marriott World”. The thing is, while other cons take place in convention centres or hotels, Gen Con outgrew its convention centre long ago and now sprawls between hotels and across whole city blocks, let loose, uncontrolled, rampant.
We were utterly out of our depth. As you can see from the video, we had no idea quite what we were even filming. On the rare occasions that we knew where we wanted to go, we’d get lost trying to get there. Most publishers wouldn’t give us games or appointments because they didn’t know who we were, and so treated us like an inexplicably overconfident troupe of British panhandlers.
But for every hurdle we ploughed straight into because of our naivety, for me there was some life-affirming moment that this was where I was meant to be. Our team had spent the last three years trying to get people back in England excited about board games, and suddenly we found ourselves in this... seemingly limitless Babylon of cardboard.
At that Gen Con we had our very first live podcast, which has become one of my favourite memories not just of the site, but of my entire life. I remember we were on our way to the room where the show was scheduled and unexpectedly turned a corner to find the 300 people who’d bought tickets queuing outside the door. 300 people that were here for us, all coming into view at the same time.
This was our first ever experience of meeting fans, but also the first ever chance for SU&SD fans to meet us. I remember we were rushing, afraid of being late, basically in a daze, we rounded the corner and saw all of these people, they saw us... and 300 people broke out in spontaneous applause. It was absolutely humbling.
As I say, Shut Up & Sit Down wasn’t a functional business in 2014, and it wouldn’t become one until after several more years of hard work. But when I saw how excited those fans were to meet us, I swear, it gave me so much of the bravery and confidence that I personally needed to keep going.
I recently went back to re-watch the Terraforming Mars review and found myself positively wheezing at both the ‘greenscreen bit’ and beautiful rendition of our national anthem. City of Remnants is a game I still haven’t played but even touching on its utterly bonkers review during my take on Oath... felt great. The Concordia review made me actively excited to play a eurogame in a way I previously wasn’t interested in, which was a huge turning point in my soon-to-be katamari-like collection of games. The hideous intro to Loony Quest haunts my dreams on the regular. Watching all the Season One episodes after getting used to slightly more polished SU&SD was a similar fever dream. Reading the Cards Against Humanity review got to the core of that cursed box after some truly terrible, uncomfortable interactions with it during my first year of university.
But during my stay at the Shut Up & Sit Down company boarding school, I could share a fun memory of every review I filmed while we were hanging out in person. Every video with Mr Lees was a delight - Pipeline was pure nonsense, Azul: Summer Pavilion introduced my favourite one-off character, and A War of Whispers just got a bit weird. Being forced to run through Brighton Central for Cthulhu Wars was maybe the most embarrassed I've ever been, but I’m nevertheless soon to boldly make another video with Quinns - wish me luck. Maybe the most fun of all was the Oink review - although I feel like I must have frustrated both Matt and Quinns with my constant corpsing. Looking forward to getting back to that energy in the near(ish) future.Tom: So, obviously, I’ve not been around for much of the Shut Up & Sit Down history - but as a fan of the show in all regards, I’ve got fond memories of rather a few reviews!
Also endless podcasts have been a joy to record - rambling about family games in Tom’s Family GameZone™, Matt’s deep dive on Mr Carnegie, the Game Of The Year Special,and a podcast all about Glenmore Chronicles II - the greatest game ever made. AND THAT’S NOT ALL! I have such fond memories of doing the games news with Ava where we got freaky with our english creds and put lizards in all the images! Goodness!
I’ve properly rambled about a bunch of work from this year - but looking back on all the stuff we’ve put out this year gives me so much joy and hope for the future in making that stuff here, for you lot. This year has provided maybe the strangest start to doing this job possible and still everything we make is giving me a huge amount of satisfaction, energy, and laughs. I can’t wait to do this horrible top 100 series, and I have so many visions for what the episodes will look like.
Ava: Oh no! Tom’s been so intensely thorough! How am I supposed to out-do that! I also have not been here for very many of the last ten years. Except that’s not really very true, is it. I’m pretty sure I was here from very, very early on. I remember Quinns crashing into my Rock, Paper, Shotgun habit and recommending the sublime Escape from Atlantis, and the absolutely tedious Tobago. Those were two of the first five board games I owned (as an adult, at least, I really do need to dig into my parent’s garage at some point and see if we still have my car-boot-sale copies of DungeonQuest, Talisman, Valley of the Dinosaurs and that one about spiders). That led me to those early Four Tet-inflected episodes of Shut Up & Sit Down, and I’ve been in love with the site ever since.
I don’t know how many people know this, but for years I was the most over-enthusiastic commenter on the site, pitching in with opinions, applause and puns underneath almost every post. Pretty sure I repeatedly provided vegan alternatives to Matt’s recipes for the Opener? I was an odd one, I reckon, and I’m glad that the team overlooked all that backseat driving and eventually let me get in the front of the car myself.
And now I’m here. Writing and streaming and podcasting. Learning how to edit and film. Learning how to be funny and not just earnest. Still feeling like I’m just at the start of this journey, with so little idea what’s in store. Joining the editorial team at Shut Up & Sit Down has been one of my proudest achievements, and in many ways, I’m only just warming up.
But none of those are really my favourite moments, are they? My favourite moment on the website is Matt ripping off a fake moustache to reveal another moustache underneath. That one moment of perfect physical comedy is a shining pinnacle that had me in actual tears.
But it’s not really that. It’s getting to know the wonderful Tom Brewster over successive Monday morning google docs. It’s going to Quinns’ house to play cosmic encounter, not being entirely sure whether it was a job interview or not, but still collapsing into a Brian Blessed impression for unclear reasons. It’s editing footage of Matt and watching him oscillate between talking to himself, talking to me and talking to the camera, and getting to cackle at my own private gag reel. It’s running a buzzer to speed people up during a live podcast and realising that I actually know how to do this bizarre, ridiculous and wonderful job.
It’s getting to work with these wonderful people, getting to learn from these talented people, getting to play with these silly people, and getting to be held and supported by these lovely people.
And it’s not just that. It’s you lovely people too.
Getting right down to the heart of my favourite moments? It’s those late night Q&As at AwSHUX, answering questions from the audience. It’s getting to feel proud of myself and the team and the audience for putting together something that connects us all to each other. The magic of boardgames for me will always be about the opportunity to bring people together in laughter and silliness, and getting a taste of that at a time when it was basically illegal or dangerous to do that in real life? And to be able to do that for people all around the world? That’s something special.
Matt: What’s to say that hasn’t already been said? I’ve been finding it tough to find the words - which anyone who knows me will be aware is... unusual.
If I can be real with you for a moment? In many ways the last decade has felt like an almost constant struggle. In the early days, it was a united push to get the thing off the ground: could we possibly turn this website about board games into a JOB? Amazingly, we could! And then we never stopped working. Behind the scenes or front of stage, there has always been something that required just a bit more hard work - just another little push and then we can relax. Just another big project, just another person to hire and train. It feels like just yesterday we sat down to celebrate five years of SU&SD, and now - somehow - a whole decade has passed.
The moments in which I wasn’t able to be a part of that push - of which there were many - that weight fell onto Quinns, whose hard work and enduring spirit has quite literally held this company together, through difficulties and circumstances that would leave most endeavours sputtering out and dying.
And while the passage of time across the last two years has been undeniably cruel to us all, I think it’s a huge achievement that we’re still here today: still ostensibly doing the very same thing we were ten years ago, but with a thousand new things going on in the background.
I don’t think the struggle is bad, you see. It certainly can be - and it certainly has been - but the reason the last 10 years have been an uphill journey is because we genuinely aspire to be more: to be better. We’ve no desire to sit on our laurels and coast, and in 2021 that couldn’t be more true. The cool thing about walking up a bloody big hill is getting to look back at what you’ve achieved with a sense of distance, and clarity. And I think that maybe I’m struggling with knowing what to say here, at this milestone, is that I’m not ready to turn around just yet: we’ve more hill to climb, more things to do.
When I do look back on all the things we’ve done, so much of it seems like an unusual dream. The experiences we’ve had, the amazing opportunities, the unbelievably quantity of deeply raucous laughter. In 10 years though there are two things haven’t changed, the two things that will keep me doing this indefinitely. Firstly, just knowing that what we do brings joy to people is a powerful motivator that keeps on going. Secondly, I still really really enjoy playing board games with Quintin Smith. Other people too, sure. But it’s really good fun playing board games with Quinns.
What are we video games! 🎮
Quinns: Mini Motorways had its Steam release this month, which means (a) I’ve finally been playing Mini Motorways and (b) I’ve been comparing my high scores to Tom’s high scores with great interest.
Tom: 👁️✍️
Quinns: This sequel to the award-winning Mini Metro sees you doodling roads, bridges, roundabouts and highways in a cityscape that’s constantly growing and redoubling like a kind of civic fungus. I’m not certain how high the skill ceiling is on it yet, but I’m having a lot of fun finding out. Slicing a highway overpass across the top of your city and watching the traffic drain out of it is wildly satisfying, like lancing a juicy, motorised boil.
Tom: Disgusting! I am overwhelmingly charmed by Mini Motorways as a slightly relaxing little puzzler to wind down with in the evenings or have a coffee with in the morning, but I am definitely concerned about that skill ceiling too. Every time I play it I seem to trundle up to the 1.5k mark and then demand just goes through the roof in a way that feels kind of arbitrary - and the ‘traffic lights’ upgrade has felt real useless in almost all scenarios - which sucks because they’re very satisfying things to plop down!
I’d still recommend it to anyone though - the daily challenges are delightful and even just the slight visual twists that come with each map are sublime. I really, really dig it - especially when my high score is just a shade higher than Quinns’. I’m going to go and play some right now. And I’m going to win.
Also in videogames, I’ve been playing a bunch of Death’s Door - a lovely little indie that ticks my zelda/metroid/dark souls boxes. A visual treat with some chunky combat, a boppin’ soundtrack, and chuckleworthy writing that’ll dip its toes into serious territory now and again - highly recommended if you want something to scratch a more Zelda-tinged Hollow Knight itch while waiting for Silksong to drop out of the sky.
What are we reading? 📖
Quinns: I apologise in advance for recommending this, but this month I’ve been reading Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica. What should you know about it? Um, it’s enjoyed some good press, it’s by an Argentinian author, and uh, the protagonist is a meat packing worker in a future where cannibalism becomes necessary for human survival.
Am I a certified sicko? A little bit, yes, but I’m actually recommending this book because I’ve always been disappointed by horror novels. I so rarely find them properly frightening. Tender is the Flesh, on the other hand, gives me chills with every single chapter, and I’m genuinely dreading where the plot is going. And that’s all we want from life, isn’t it? Just a dash of dread to let us know that our lives could be a whole lot worse. No? Just me?
On the off chance you don’t want to read an exhaustive explanation of how we might harvest humans for corporate gain, I’d thoroughly recommend picking up Temporary by Hilary Leichter. One of the cover quotes describes it as “Alice in Wonderland set in the gig economy,” which sums it up nicely. I giggled my way through the whole thing in less than a week.
Ava: I had a bit of a complicated couple of weeks, that I’ve partly coped with by falling into a rabbit hole of John and Hank Green videos. That’s not a book, I hear you cry, and you’re right, but it did lead me to a couple of books, and I feel I need to be honest, because you’ll be able to spot that it’s entirely books by people whose name ends in Green.
The Anthropocene: Reviewed went first, and it’s a deeply heartfelt collection of essays that are clearly intended to make you fall in love with life, the world, and hope itself. I can’t think of much more powerful than that, and it even nearly made me think about supporting Liverpool’s football team, purely on the strength of the sing-a-long. Please nobody tell my die-hard Arsenal fan siblings.
I followed that up with Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and the sequel A Beautifully Foolish Endeavour. These are two of the books I’ve read the fastest in my entire life. Completely gripping. Relentlessly optimistic. Often heartbreaking and so deeply earnest that it occasionally hurts. It probably helped that I’d been saturated in the author’s reckons for a while before hand, but I think it’s rare for a book to get across so many specific political and personal points, while still being very, very fun and very warm. If you’re starting to lose faith in humanity, and want to spend some time thinking about why, whilst also having some hope restored? I could think of few better books. Oh. I guess I should mention that they’re about aliens and fame and social media and people.
What are we music! 🎵
Tom: Ritual Music from Christopher Port is a wonderful little electronic EP that uses some real tactile percussive elements amidst its digital bloopery. CH RGM(+234) is a highlight. Kim Brown’s Wisdom Is a Dancer has some great house cuts for a long editing session or two - perfect monotony to make that horrible tier list to. Finally got round to listening to What’s Your Pleasure by Jessie Ware, and some of the more danceable cuts on there are the most ferocious earworms - especially ‘Ooh La La’. Bopper!
Normally this is just a music section, but I’ve also been really enjoying ‘Poppy Hillstead Has Entered The Chat’ - a podcast where the titular heroine delves into seedy internet sex chatrooms to talk to weirdos, and then re-enacts those conversations with her mates; fully acted out and fabulously soundtracked. The ‘Songs With Strangers’ episode had me barking with laughter (it is utterly disgusting), and that was after the highs of a Goodfellas-themed sex chatroom (also disgusting).
Quinns: Ooh, are we going to start talking about podcasts in this bit? Tom, did you just blow the doors off this thing?
Tom: Renegade!
What are we watching? 📺
Tom: I started watching Neon Genesis Evangelion after my favourite episode of The Infinite Review yet. It’s on Netflix, I’m halfway through, and I’m still laughing every time the theme tune kicks in after you’ve seen something lightly traumatising. On the YouTube side of things, Channel 5 (previously All Gas No Brakes) made an excellent gonzo piece about their descent into a QAnon conference. I deeply appreciate that man’s ability to go from high ‘meme value’ content directly into some legitimately affecting journalism - well worth your time if you haven’t found out about him already - he’s gotten ferociously popular very quickly!
Ava: Oh my word I rewatched the Matrix sequels. Probably don’t do that. I kind of admire them for attempting to keep a hold on so many tones at once, but they really needed to take themselves a few notches less seriously to land any of it. They aren’t as bad as you might remember, but in some ways they’re worse. I don’t even know how that’s possible. On the plus side, Ted Lasso has started it’s second series, and I’m rooting for it to remain the kindest imaginable television.
