It's interesting he described Root as Hobbesian as Space Biff has been writing a couple articles about how it's the ultimate expression of Foucault, but Hobbes makes far more sense in the context of root to me. I mean, "nasty, brutish and short" does describe the average life of a character in Root haha

Fred, I really appreciate that you didn't stick to your script and actually took the time to respond to the things Cole was saying. It's clear that he has media training and knows how to steer interviews, but you both engaged in some interesting topics and it would've been too bad if you've missed the deeper ends of those discussions just to get your own questions out. Even if there was hours more of conversation to be had, it was a great balance of personal, promotional, light and more cutting topics - I enjoyed following the discussion. Question: Would you consider not monitoring chat yourself during your interviews? It always changes the energy when you bump a lot of them on the screen and it feels like you disengage, even if you are clearly still listening and asking questions afterwards. Maybe somebody could moderate that, or you could take some time after the interview for the community?

This was amazing, the whole channel is amazing.

Fun to see how accurate Leder was with Arcs fulfillment at this point

Fantastically intellectually stimulating interview. Superb!

I absolutely loved this video, and am coming to love your channel overall! 😊

This is the first video I've seen on your channel, and this is definitely the best interview of Cole I have seen (and there are a lot of them). You are asking questions that are specifically designed for Cole, you went deep inside some subjects whereas other interview tends to have the same generic questions for every board game designer. Thank you for this great video.

Thank you for this interview! Just found this channel and can’t wait to watch more. Love cole’s take on game design. Root is incredible.

In game desing practice there comes time of hardship and true grind. Cole always inspires me to make the thing I am currently making the best version I can and to rethink my stance on the subject (whatever it may be). Thanks a lot for this Fred & Cole and keep it up.

An excellent interview, thank you for doing this.

Absolutely brilliant interview and not even halfway. Glad I discovered your channel. Early on, this reminds me of a desire to make a cdg war game where players are journalist outfits collaborating or competing to cover an on-going world/conflict in both accurate and propagandized ways.

Homo Ludens était le nom du club de jeux que j'avais créé dans mon école à Reims en 1992 ! Inspiré par l'excellent essai de Huizinga

Interesting he says - no 2 player for Arcs? I could swear it says different in the game I bought.

this is brilliant

I think there is a good chance that the next game published by Wehrlegig games will be Tyranny Of Blood ;) he mentioned that the next game is not his design (he is just helping) and Fred later asked him if he will pick up a Zenobia finalist design and publish it, the answer was 'we will see' or something similar :) if that happens I think it will be a really good thing. I heard Cole talking about his fascination with that design a couple of months ago and I imidietely thought about that there is chance he will pick it up. (Earlier he also mentioned that he'd like to do that-to pick up historical games that are somehow related to his designs) Cheers

very excellent and rewarding interview! I‘m just afraid, that I have to buy every game of Cole one day.. actually I‘m thinking about buying John Company although my group doesn‘t like negotiation neither dice..

i loved this interview

I know I'm a year late, but I remember playing with Cole at Great Hall Games in Austin. I was at UT doing my own grad work as a musician. I'm sure Cole probably doesn't remember me, but we played a handful of times (I believe), and he was just one of the nicest gamers that I vividly, distinctly remember during my time there. So happy to be able to say that "I knew him when"... LOL

such a good talk!!

If boardgames is art, Do you medan it as performance art, or is it the object itself or is it conceptual art. Or Do you mean it is it’s own kind of art.

the Russian publishing house acted shamefully (crowd games). unfortunately, there is reason to believe that if John Company is localized, then it will be the same, and not a more honest publisher, cooperating with GMT and similar publishers (GaGa Games). Interestingly! in the recently localized edition that arrived at the end of December 2022 of the second edition in Russian of "Pax Renaissance", there are no such notes: "Please note that the historical reference and the images used on the cards are the author's vision of the events of the Great Game" I just took out the box specifically to see what will happen at the end of the rules. I didn't even know about this translation if I hadn't seen your video. By the way, hello from a russian marxist! sorry for my translate google. and thanks for the interesting interview... that's what I was looking for after reading Cole's great essay about imperialism in games. unfortunately, the vast majority of boardgamers in Russia (and I think in Europe and America) are not interested in topics related to society and politics. relatively recently in Russia, localizations of such games about society, history as No Retreat, Twilight Imperium, Pax Pamir, Pax Renaissance, Reds!, Watergate and maybe something else. waiting for the Imperial struggle, Cuba Libre and Red Flag over Paris of course :)

This guy is a true savant...thx for the great games

I just watch this and I feel like a very stupid person :c

Has Cole ever stated if he is a Marxist? ❤

I'm a little suspicious of how Wehrle talks about Pax Pamir. I don't think he credits the Eklunds enough. It is essentially an Eklund game which he has pared back and rethemed.