Back in May we announced we were taking a bit of a break. You can go and read about it in detail but the tl;dr is that we were all pretty COVID-fatigued and hardly playing at all face-to-face and all that took a lot of the joy out of writing about games. Which is why we got into it in the first place.

To be honest, speaking only for myself here, it felt pretty good not putting pressure on myself to “create content” every week, and just…play games if and when I felt like it without thinking, “Oh, ummm…maybe I should write that up for next week?” I mean, I did get ideas for articles, but it was nice to just let them bubble around in my mind a bit. It also gave me ample opportunity to re-examine the DWP’s raison-d’être. Who are we? What can we bring to the table that can differentiates us from the dozens (if not hundreds) of boardgame sites out “there” in the mediasphere? 

Meanwhile, here in Ontario, the situation has kinda-sorta improved? A bit? Well, not actually if you really look at the data and listen to the accredited experts…but…enough of us here have been vaxxed-up that I was able to resume playing in-person in mid-July, and then Toronto’s main FLGS rebooted its weekly Meetup about a month after that.

The psychological/emotional boost I felt from this was tremendous for all the obvious reasons. Not only did I get to catch up with my gaming buddies after not having seen them for almost a year and a half, I’ve finally been able to start chipping away at my pile of unplayed games that have been accumulating for that same length of time. Not to mention finally breaking free from the fiddliness and screen fatigue of BGA, TTS, et. al. A necessary evil, to be sure–but in person is so much better.

This doesn’t just go for me, of course: most of our contributors have to some extent or other been able to recapture some tabletop normalcy, which has helped to recharge their batteries, too. The time seemed right to “reboot” the DWP.

Many times over the past year-plus I bemoaned the impossibility of inviting all the DWP regulars out for a pint and a chat. So I’d like to take credit for it, but it was new-kid-on-the-block Alice C. who messaged me to suggest bringing us all together via Zoom to check in and see how we all felt moving forward. Why hadn’t I thought of that?? Probably because I was Zoomed-out (ausgeZoomt) like the rest of us. 

And so it was that we gathered on Zoom over Labour Day weekend. We checked in with each other: how was everyone doing? What were people up to? Were we up to writing, and if so, about what? How do we focus our passion for tabletop games into something unique? How do we set things up so people don’t get burned out again?

It was an amazing discussion, the fruits of which you will begin to see practically right away when Alice C live-Tweets from GenCon, the first major post-pandemic tabletop convention, later this week. Then, starting at the beginning of October, we will start posting new content again–weekly at first, just to get back in the swing of things, but more frequently as time goes on. 

We will also be producing more content for our Patreon Page. We’re moving our What Have We Been Playing columns over there, and I’ll be posting short video “editorials” with hotter, spicier takes on tabletop goings-on than I would allow myself to do in a fully-public space. 

Our vision for the DWP is a site that: 

• has fun playing all kinds of games;
• only covers new and upcoming games in the context of broader themes around boardgame design and culture;
• does deep dives into games, designers, genres, and themes, revealing unexpected and meaningful connections ;
• takes you behind the curtain to reveal the workings of the tabletop industry from the inside;
• amplifies and advocates for underrepresented perspectives and voices;
• provides an inclusive, respectful, and safe environment for discussion.

We’re going to take it a day and a week at a time and see how it goes. We hope you’ll enjoy it and, who knows, maybe get something out of it.