Introduction To My Podcasting Journey

Hi everyone!  Arwen from the Cardboard Time Podcast here.

A bit of background: The Cardboard Time Podcast is about my journey to reduce my shelf of shame (unplayed games) from what was a massive 330+ games down to 0.  I release it every two weeks.  Honestly at this point, it's as much about being a driving force that gives me a structured excuse to play my games as it is providing content for people to consume and give another data point as they look to make informed purchasing decisions.  

I've always been involved in media production in some small shape or form ever since I was young.  I grew up operating cameras, editing videos, and operating live production equipment at my local Public Access station (I remember using Amiga computers for graphics and Betamax tapes for recording, so that might date me a bit).  I was involved with making videos with friends and ultimately made a full length movie that I might talk about...eventually.  I was a Twitch streamer for a couple of years as well, but nothing ever really seemed to click just right.  It's been a journey to try to find something I was comfortable doing not just for others, but for myself.

 

Then comes in my love of board games, which from a hobbyist perspective didn't really come in until 2011.  On a work trip to Fayetteville, NC, I visited my friends Justin and Tweed on a hot summer day and needed to stay inside, so Tweed decided to pull out his copy of Dungeonquest.  It's not the most technically balanced game (far from it), but we had a great time playing a bunch of times that day and I was hooked, starting my buying frenzy.  With so many unique games, mechanisms, and themes, I kind of went on a buying spree...which gets us to 2017.  With a basement full of games and 330+ of them that weren't played, I started on my journey to start getting them all out to the table, one by one.  With over 1100+ logged plays, my love for the hobby has only grown.

 

One other note, aside from my journey in content creation, I'm also on another journey that began in late 2019 in becoming my true self.  I discovered that I am transgender and have been transitioning for a little over a year.  It's been hard not being able to play with friends in person and show them my unfiltered self, but the love and support online that I've received from my friends and the board gaming community has been wonderful.

I love talking about board games after I've played them with friends and seeing what their thoughts are.  To me, it's as much a part of the hobby as playing the games themselves, which led me to create Cardboard Time.  Cardboard Time started as an Instagram photo review profile (Which is still absolutely going strong to this day), then branched out into a short-lived Youtube review series, then bled into a couple of livestreams.  My growing dysphoria caused me to lose confidence about recording YouTube videos, but I still really enjoyed talking about games.  After talking with my friends about it and kicking around ideas, I thought about podcasting as a supplement to the Instagram channel as I already had some decent enough audio equipment from my Twitch streams.

Doing the podcast has been a ton of fun so far and a great way to stay connected with gaming friends.  I love getting feedback that someone's purchased a game based on a review that I've done and really enjoyed it, I think that's probably a common thread in a lot of board game content creators.  I've also been able to already meet some great people through it and reduced my shelf of shame count by 30+ games since its inception in November 2020.  Another nice side effect is that it's also helped me with the tone and pitch my voice, something that I've been struggling with since I started transitioning a year ago.  Having to listen to myself talk week after week in depth gives me cues as to what I need to improve and it has been uplifting to hear friends talk about how my voice has improved from the initial episode.

So the question is, why am I here with the Tabletop Mentorship Program in particular?  Well, a few reasons actually:

1.) It takes me FOREVER to edit my podcasts.  A 1 hour podcast takes me anywhere between 8-12 hours to edit.

2.) I'm looking to grow my base and meet new people through this.  I've met some of the nicest people through gaming and I feel that as a hobby it tends to mostly bring people together.

3.) I'm looking to improve the quality of my podcast.  I think my audio is fairly decent, but doesn't have that extra polish and crispness that I hear in many of the more popular podcasts, so I'm looking to get through that and maybe make a few investments in my setup.

As my journey progresses, I'm going to touch on these things and talk about my progress, some of the advice that my mentor gives me, and just overall thoughts about the program in general.  I hope this will provide some insight to current and future mentors/mentees and I can't wait to hear about other stories as well.

-Arwen

Podcast: http://www.anchor.fm/cardboardtime
Instagram & Twitter: @cardboard_time