Operation Game Night
Travis Smith, Jared Erickson, and Clay Gable get together to discuss the latest and greatest in board games in this weekly podcast. What's hot, what's hitting the table, featured discussions about board games and the board gaming culture, and the primary mission objective- to play more board games!
Operation Game Night
Donuts & Downsizing
A friendly debate about donut etiquette spirals into a funny, honest look at indulgence, shame, and small comforts. We pivot to downsizing a board game collection, handheld story games, coaching youth wrestling, and the media that keeps our spirits up.
• donut orders and the unspoken dozen rule
• cost, value, and the myth of donut shame
• using background audio to calm pets
• moving logistics and cutting 150 board games
• criteria for keep, sell, or gift in collections
• Dispatch on Switch as a story-first game
• time-boxed play with kids in the house
• youth wrestling coaching style and mindset
• West Wing optimism vs Veep satire
• Lord of the Rings extended re-release buzz
• Shady Maple Buffet and food pilgrimage ideas
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Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast. Back and better than ever. Today we are going over the fence with our good friend Mike from Bearwin Playsboard Games. How you doing, Mike?
SPEAKER_03:Hey, hey.
SPEAKER_02:I'm good. That was a that's good. I I introduce these guys and they go, they do like a salute or something, something that's terrible for audio. You actually have like a catchphrase. Hey, hey, hey.
SPEAKER_03:Hey, boo-boo.
SPEAKER_02:I like that. All right. Uh joining me as always, Clay and Jared. How you doing, boys? Wicka wicka what what? Oh, yes. His signature catchphrase, wicka, wicka, what what? That's Jared Erickson. And Clay again gave a salute. So hi Clay. Hey, what's up?
SPEAKER_01:Before we uh I'm gonna cut you off, Travis, because um I just want to say thank you to everybody in this room right now because I live for over the fence. Okay. Uh yeah, I'm in a bit of a dry spell. Everybody knows it. It's it's no denying it. These guys are giving me crap between you know recordings about my unwillingness to get things to the table. Not that I'm not trying, okay. I played Go Shark Go with my daughter the other day. That counts. And uh, you know, she struggles with understanding making pairs, but it was still fun, okay?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I'm getting things to the floor, not to the table anymore. All right. I'm getting things to the floor. Okay, I yield back my time, Travis. Sorry to cut you off. I have a very important question to ask you guys.
SPEAKER_02:Uh so the other day we woke up and we're like, we haven't had donuts in forever. It's a Saturday. I want to celebrate with some donuts. Not that we need them, but decide to drive to the donut store. Jared, you have a similar family makeup to me. One spouse, one small child. You go into a donut store. What is your like go-to order?
SPEAKER_01:One sprinkle donut.
SPEAKER_02:And that's it. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:What about the uh what about the other members of the family? Oh my god. Uh if if I mean we're just getting one for Gemma. I mean, okay.
SPEAKER_00:Dude, who are you? Get out of here.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. When I go up and I go to Maple Donuts up in York, Pennsylvania.
SPEAKER_00:That was gross, Jared. I can't believe you just said that.
SPEAKER_01:When I go up to York, I'll get a maple bar. Yep, maple ring. People actually recently who who was I with? They didn't even know what a maple bar was. I feel like that's maybe people in the north, north, uh east don't know what maple bars are. Yeah. And that's a travesty. Okay. It is a travesty. It's horrible, heresy. But we do go for the maple bar. Okay. But we we try to, we don't even get dozens anymore. Like we we just get like three. Okay. Because and I think this is maybe where you're going with this, Travis. When we were in Alabama, you'd get a dozen donuts. Depending on if you want to go to mom and pop, yeah, you're spending like 25 bucks for a dozen donuts. That is true. Um, and does a family of three, maybe two and a half, really need a dozen donuts? That's where I'm going with this because I could Clayton, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, we just fired them up. Are you? What never have I gone to a donut shop and ordered less than a dozen? Why? Really? Yes. Maple donuts, I can get a dozen for like 14 bucks. All right. And even when it costs more, it's just the thing to do. You get a dozen, you eat them all, you feel like crap, and you move on with your life. You don't have to be on here virtue signaling that you go and get one sprinkled donut. Good grief. Uh this friendship's over. I'm off. I'm out.
SPEAKER_02:Well, he's gone. He left. What the hecky?
SPEAKER_03:Uh Mike, what's your what's your go-to order? Um, well, being that I'm diabetic and recently had a hospital issue, uh, none. Okay. At this point.
SPEAKER_00:He's allowed to say he's allowed to say that.
SPEAKER_03:He's allowed to say that. However, prior prior to last week, I'm with on the clay board here or on our side. Um, and I would probably order like six maple, two French curler, uh, a couple apple fritters, um, and then I don't I don't know if they do this at your donut shops, but uh a ham and cheese croissant. Oh like they they serve our local one, but that would be like what I would get. Okay and easily$25. Yeah. Nice. Well, I don't know what Wonderland he lives in. That's$14 for a donut.
SPEAKER_00:It's called York, Pennsylvania.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. We're not talking about Judy's donuts in Fresno, California anymore. Uh, but the other day when I woke up and I said we should go get some donuts, Rachel's like, I don't want to go. It's like, I will bring back donuts. But I I went there, I'm walking to GNS Donuts, Montgomery, Alabama. Yep, thank you, Jared. Uh, and I I just feel obligated to get at least a dozen. Like, there's two people eating donuts and one little child that's probably licking frosting, and I cannot get less than a dozen donuts. And they sat on the counter forever, and we kind of picked away at them until we were shameful of eating so many donuts. And I just I can't do it. I cannot say no to anything less than a dozen, especially you walk into these mom and pop shops, there's nobody else there, you probably are like the one person to visit that day, even though the donuts are great. Don't get me wrong, GNS knows what's up. Yeah, but I felt obligated.
SPEAKER_01:GNS will sell out though. So that's true. And if you buy at a lower rate, you're spending more, boosting the economy more because they're charging you more. You know, high low sell high for the donuts. Yeah, what you're telling me.
SPEAKER_03:I I think I found the problem too of your your logic here is that you guys feel shame about it. Um, you you shouldn't feel shame about eating a dozen donuts. I mean that I I don't. Thank you. But I'm also I'm also like 300 pounds, so that there's probably a correlation there.
SPEAKER_01:So I have a a cousin who his claim to fame is he went to Krispy Kreme, got a bunch, uh a dozen of the hot glaze, yep, and was like, well, on my way home, I'll just eat a couple, you know, and they're so like they're so hot and they're warm. You want to hit them when they're warm. By the time he got home, he didn't realize that there was only like three, like two or three left. Okay. So he just went back to get another dozen because he ate so many of them. And then, you know, he left the other, you know, three in his truck for the next morning because he ate like nine on his way home.
SPEAKER_00:So Krispy Kreme serving size should be like three or four at least. Those things are they're small, yeah. Basically donut holes.
SPEAKER_02:The real the real move there is that not that he felt shame in eating the nine donuts, but that he went back and pretended like I didn't eat any donuts. Here's a fresh dozen blocking with the box.
SPEAKER_01:But the only reason why I know that story is because he has disclosed it, right? Maybe, maybe there is such thing as donut shame. You know, the only reason why he told us he'd be you know, he had to get it off his chest. He had to tell everybody, he had to tell the world.
SPEAKER_03:We we should sort of movement a bit against donut shame. Yeah, take that as a platform, a political platform.
SPEAKER_02:Our very first t shirts, our first t-shirts for the site are gonna say, Don't you don't shame me.
SPEAKER_00:Donut shame me.
SPEAKER_02:Don't shame me. Love it. Wow, the pun was right there, and I walked right past it. Yeah, uh, I seed my time. You guys talk about whatever you want to talk about because I just had to get that off my chest.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, I also have one thing that I wanted to get off my chest. Um, I don't know if you guys saw a spike in the uh listens to Operation Game Night, but I have recently been putting on Operation Game Night for my dog while we leave her for extended periods of time. And I think she really takes a liking to Travis's deep uh just command voice that he has on the Operation Game Night, like the leadership, and then obviously, you know, I chime in every now and then for a good catchy whippy, you know, something or other. Um, but I think it calms her down when I come back. She's not as like sad. So I think Operation Game Night could also be, you know, we could change the mission to more donut themed dog um companionship themed. Uh well, I think we probably need more views. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I'm gonna test this theory. That's a fact.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna test I was trying to see if there was like a sound effect for like a uh like a doorbell or something. There was not, but or a dog barking. Is there barking? If you are leaving the house at any point in time, go ahead and put the podcast on for your furniture or nets, goldfish, goldfish. We have the same memory span, so yeah, keep keep playing Operation Game Night for anybody and anything that will listen. Oh yeah. Uh Mike, what you got?
SPEAKER_03:What are you um uh uh two things really going on? One is uh both are board game adjacent, but uh I'll be moving in the next month or two. We're finally done. Uh we actually spent the weekend moving Riley in, so I didn't get to play any in-person games this weekend. But with that, I have to take this uh mess up here and downsize it by about 150 games uh for space restraints. Um, so we've been cultivating a list for that, uh, which weirdly enough, Riley says no to more games than I do. I'm like, no, we can get rid of that. She's like, nah, not yet. No, let's keep keep keep that one. Uh money. So yeah, go going down there is uh pretty rough. And then the other thing, and I know Travis and I discussed it, but I needed to find another dispatch uh video game because that sucked me in hard, especially the last ending of it. Um so uh I don't know if I know Travis has played, I don't know if Clay or Jared have played. I played like the first chapter.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you did? I got busy. Yeah, I I was digging it. I oh man, but then it became a bit hard to get it in but when the kids weren't around because it is a little um mature themed. Yeah, so they walked in during one of the scenes and there was some colorful language, and one of the superheroes was hanging dongs, so it was like yeah, like 20 minutes and 20 minutes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, some of the episodes are like 45 minutes long, so it goes pretty quick.
SPEAKER_03:But you can always run them out in the desert like I do Eleanor. I mean, there's a perfect way to tire your kids out.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well give me a lap back to dispatch.
SPEAKER_01:Is that on uh switch? What I guess it is actually.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, is it now? Yeah, oh because I know I know this. I know this because the cover art for the game, uh it's not that it has anything terrible on it, but there's definitely some like scantily clad characters. Uh and for the Switch art, they edited it so subtly where you don't see any like cleavage or revealing bathing suits, and they like just barely changed it enough to get approval for the Nintendo eShop, which has all sorts of terrible things on it anyway. So I don't know why they took the effort, but yes, it is on Switch. Highly recommend, especially if you can play it in handheld, put some headphones in and just play it for 45 minutes to an hour.
SPEAKER_00:Basically, like watching a movie. I mean, I didn't get that far, but I was I was like, I'm watching a movie, but I get to like decide how it goes. Yeah, that's go ahead, Mike.
SPEAKER_03:I just I was just gonna say I imagine Jared in the closet with a switch like this with the dog in his face.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my gosh, superhero dog in the closet, you know me.
SPEAKER_03:Hiding from his kid so he could play it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but it's a great match.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so good. Nice. Uh Clayton, what you got?
SPEAKER_00:Oh man, it's just uh a lot of wrestling these days. My nine and seven-year-old are in youth wrestling, so we go to that several nights a week, and then on the weekend, it's like a whole day of wrestling, and I help coach. So it's just uh consuming life right now. And my dad and stepmom coached the girls' high school team, so we end up going to those events as well on other nights of the week, helping out with things, so a lot of wrestling. It's been a while since I've been this involved in uh the sport of wrestling. I'm trying to find the passion again, but you know, it's I've I've got other passions in life. Well, no, it is. I mean, you know, I the sport spark isn't quite there, but I do like when you see the kids and you start to form relationships with the kids and you see them win and learn, and you kind of want to see them succeed, and so uh against my will, I'm starting to care about them, and so there is there is that keeping me going.
SPEAKER_02:So uh uh damn it. I I would love to see you coach children wrestling. Um, but what do my I thought you just said that you were part partially coaching?
SPEAKER_00:I am, but I don't offer much okay good advice. I I walk around the room and I usually just shake my head.
SPEAKER_02:I was I was gonna ask, like, are you more of a Ted Lasso or like a Roy Kent? Like, where do you fall on that spectrum?
SPEAKER_00:Uh probably more like a Roy Kent with the with the youth wrestling. Whistle, what are you guys doing?
SPEAKER_01:Roy Kent. Roy Kent.
SPEAKER_00:Were you even listening when he described the move? Because this looks nothing like what we were doing.
SPEAKER_01:Gotta hit him with some book of Joel, you know, some push the pace.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, just some F words, lots of those, you know.
SPEAKER_00:But yeah, wrestling, you know, can't get away from it here. We'll see how long my kids like it. They seem to they don't enjoy going to it, but they've pushed back a little less about every practice, so that's nice. And then in other news, I'm just gonna rally right on to something non-wrestling related because I just mentioned that out of obligation. Oh, you because it commands a lot of my time. But not to get political. Look, I see Travis's scare, scared face and Jerry.
SPEAKER_02:This has been Operation Game Night Podcast.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, no, no. Listen, I started uh watching the West Wing.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, the walking talks.
SPEAKER_00:Love it, love it, love it, and I'll tell you what, especially in this day and age, it is just refreshing to see like an aspirational look at what politics could be sometimes, you know. The president on there is you know, he's a guy you can relate to, and you know, see him trying to make the right decisions and go through these, you know, tough choices, trying to do what's right. And I just appreciate that that hope of uh a political future. So the West Wing has been buoying my spirits.
SPEAKER_01:I I don't remember, I've only watched like one or two West Wings, and I just remember robots not doing very well. I remember them. Yeah, I needed I probably need to revisit my West Wing.
SPEAKER_00:Uh yeah, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_01:I mean they were getting they're getting blasted in the face, and oh West Wing! Oh gosh. I was like, I don't even remember there was a president.
SPEAKER_02:I was like, what about Westworld?
SPEAKER_00:Oh my god, that's crazy, dude. That's amazing. He's looking at me this whole time, like, what's this guy talking about?
SPEAKER_02:Uh nowhere. Damn, okay.
SPEAKER_00:No, the West Wing was when was that made? Like early 2000s. 2000s, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Uh I think I just finished it '78 or something.
SPEAKER_03:Toby Toby is my guy from that show.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Toby. Yeah, dude. Freaking Sam Seaborn and well, what's the what's the cocky guy's name? Josh. Josh Lyman. Josh Lyman. And a lot of those TJ.
SPEAKER_02:A lot of those guys went on to make uh, I mean, not the actors themselves, but like the directors, producers, went on to work on so many other political shows. Yeah, and I know some of them kind of spun themselves into um veep, which is also a great political comedy. Maybe the antithesis to West Wing. I almost said West World. Oh, yeah. Almost the antithesis in that it's so like a just uh Veeep is more satirical.
SPEAKER_00:Satirical.
SPEAKER_02:We'll say satirical, sure.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. I mean, it should be satirical.
SPEAKER_02:It's probably a little more realistic, but that's okay. Yeah, yeah. Super good show. Great, awesome. Watch the West Wing, Jared. And then maybe go back and watch Westworld just in case. Yeah, compare and contrast.
SPEAKER_03:Change them every other episode.
SPEAKER_02:West something, yeah. Something West. Oh man. Mike, you got anything else? No, I'm good. Are you gonna go see the re-release of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, extended editions for the 25th anniversary?
SPEAKER_03:Uh, I will probably do that solo. Um, yeah, I don't know if I can get her to sit that long. Uh, but yes, I'm going to.
SPEAKER_02:Man, I wish that I could carve out like 12 hours of my day to go sit through all three because that sounds amazing.
SPEAKER_03:That's uh Mike's sick from work day.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, call it in. That's right. Yeah, I heard I heard uh, at least from what I'm seeing, the initial people going to see it. It just started, I don't know, two days ago, as of time of recording, three days ago. Uh, the stuff they have a message from Peter Jackson before the movie rolls, and he'll actually tell you like some of the things that people don't notice that I had never seen anybody talk about in the Lord of the Rings movies before. So if you go see it, you'll have to follow up and let me know how it is because I'm really interested.
SPEAKER_03:You know, it'd be cool is to play the trick-taking game for each one during it.
SPEAKER_02:There you go. Go to the uh the Alamo draft house and play on the little tables. Yeah, that'd be cool. I like that. Did we do it?
SPEAKER_00:Jared, did you say everything you wanted to say? I mean, I feel like I didn't really hear these are your episodes, Jared.
SPEAKER_01:The last, yeah. I mean, I don't want to drag us into more food talk, but I there was something. Yeah, I'll go for it. I think I think Clay saw it on my face. I know, I know. I also have been gallivanting around Pennsylvania and I went to Shady Maple uh Buffet. Yep. It is apparently the largest buffet in North America. I don't know if that's true. It might oh Mike, you know I've heard of it. I've heard of it, yeah. It is It is impressive. They know what they're doing. Um, the food is top notch. Um I did enjoy myself, but it didn't really feel that big. It felt like I was on a cruise line. Like it wasn't it didn't really seem that big. But I I do want to go um with Klay's brother-in-law to to breakfast there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, breakfast is the is the way to go, I hear.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I I did have some the most amazing ham balls. Like they were like meatballs, but they were ham and they had like uh pineapple glazing on them. They were pretty I'm just salvating thinking about them.
SPEAKER_00:Um only in South Central Pennsylvania.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, and there was hordes of people, I will tell you. There was and it just kept coming. Um and there was a downstairs gift shop, also quite massive, and I almost got an Axolotl t-shirt, but I it did get denied. Um but I will probably be reattending the Shady Maple uh yeah buffet. And I I hope to one day maybe maybe we do an OGN sync up there. I don't know. I don't know. It could be it could be an option.
SPEAKER_00:Pretty easy for me, but so you guys just let me know when the rest of you once think some uh packs unplugged and then make the pilgrimage up there. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, you'll be back for that, right? He should be. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'll be there.
SPEAKER_01:I'll be there.
SPEAKER_02:All right. With that mention of handballs, that is our obligatory end of the show. This has been Operation Game Night. I have been Travis, he has been Clay, he has been Jared, he's the button, the one and only Mike from everyone plays board games. We are out of the way.
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