Welcome to Punched and Played

What happens when three friends who love board games get together? Well, I’d imagine they’d play board games.  But what about three friends who love board games so much that playing them simply isn’t enough? Logically they create a multimedia website called Punched and Played to share their passion and insights on board games with the rest of the world. What’s that, world? You didn’t exactly ask for this? Well of course not. The problem is you don’t even know what you want, and that’s where we come in.

Each week Shawn, Jonathan, and Clint provide articles, videos, and reviews about the important stuff in life, or board games if that’s not what you consider important. The flagship of this site is the Punched and Played Podcast, a bi-weekly podcast all about the world of board games and the unique experiences they create. We want to keep things upbeat, sometimes funny, sometimes analytical, and hopefully always entertaining. But most importantly we want people to discover a love for board games whether it’s strategic designer board games, epic thematic games, party games, or something entirely different. We truly believe that board games can achieve things that no other medium can, whether it be the social interactions they produce or the stories these games tell (both formally and informally).

One trend that we’ve noticed is that once you go down the rabbit hole of board games, you can easily find yourself with more board games than you can reasonably play. The act of getting a new board game and punching out the cardboard bits can be an exciting and maybe even a cathartic experience, yet a telling truth is that you’ll often find board games for sale or trade listed as “punched and unplayed”. This makes us sad. Here at Punched and Played we want to encourage the mantra that if you’re going to punch’em, make sure you play’em. This is something that even the three of us can learn to embrace more. This is a grand journey for all of us, and we hope you will join us as we take this little adventure.

Welcome to Punched and Played.