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History

Gideon’s Gaming is run by a two-person team. Joseph, aka Gideon, handles most of the writing and reviews, while Abbee does the bulk of the graphic design and editing. Although, she may be branching out into some reviews of her own in the future! They have been together since high school and are loving dog owners.

Gideon’s Gaming was founded in 2018 and began as a video game review site. Around a year later, it branched into a board game and tabletop content which, continues to be one of our staples. Shortly after that, we opened a YouTube channel for video versions of our content.

Gideon’s Gaming believes in a gaming environment free from toxicity. Gaming should be inclusive hobby where anyone, regardless of sex, race, or gender, or sexual orientation are able to enjoy it without harassment. If you are racist, bigoted, or an otherwise hateful person. You aren’t welcome here.

The name Gideon’s Gaming is a brand name that Joseph came up with before he had any idea what he was doing. It’s simply based off of a nickname he went by in the SCA, combined with Gaming. Yes, we know it’s terrible, but it’s too late to change it now.

How We Review Games

For a long time, Gideon’s Gaming followed a scoring scale of 1-10. In October 2021. Joseph had a reckoning with that system after attending Origin’s Game Fair. You can read about it here.

In short, we believe that scores are a futile attempt to condense thousands of words of important context into a single number. No one agrees on what those numbers mean, so they are useless at best and misleading at worse.

We no longer score reviews. Instead, we list Pros and Cons at the end in addition to a list of our feelings on who we think will like a game, and who won’t. If a game ends up being a particular favorite, it receives a Golden Shield award. Golden Shield awards should not be compared with or used as a “10 out of 10” as the nuance is far deeper than that. They are just games we really enjoy and think deserve the award. Reviews prior to October 2021 still have scores but are slowly being updated.

We also believe that criticism is important, but only if it’s constructive and respectful. Farming negativity to take part in hate band wagoning for clicks and views is not a tactic we respect nor take part in.

What We Cover

We review and cover board games, and TTRPGs, as well as video games on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation platforms. That includes PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

When it comes to board games, we aim to review games that play well at 2 players as that makes it easy for us to review. While we do have a board game group, but it’s up to them if they want to play the games we need to review. We won’t hijack the table and force them. We review games with higher player counts as long as it’s playable with 2.

Gideon’s Gaming does not cover Nintendo Switch, Mobile, or VR games. Furthermore, Joseph keeps an updated blacklist of companies and creators we won’t work with. Publishers, designers, or creators with questionable histories or actions may be placed there. Being rude, disrespectful, or condescending in our interactions will also land you on the blacklist.

We do not cover, promote or work with anyone actively supporting an NFT Project.

Joseph’s Profile

Joseph currently runs the site and channel full time. He worked in several factories in the past, and as a traveling face painter with Abbee. He has no real childhood education, everything he knows is self-taught and that left him with very little opportunity.

He always had a knack for writing though, even without full knowledge of English grammar. After falling out with his last job, he took a chance with Abbee’s support to become a full-time writer and reviewer. He now hones his writing skills and knowledge while training himself to record and edit videos for the YouTube channel. He also writes books and aims to get one published sometime.

He says that every content creator has a schtick, and his schtick is that he doesn’t have a schtick. There’s no persona or mask he wears to review games or record videos. It’s just him, and any humor or lack thereof comes from him, and will never be forced.

  • Pronouns: He/him
  • Preferred Level of Challenge in Video Games: Hard Mode
  • Preferred Board Game Weight: Heavy
  • Current Favorite Board Game: Spirit Island
  • Least Favorite Type of Board Game: Party Game
  • Three Favorite Video Game Genres: Rogue-lite, Open World, Turn Based
  • Three Least Favorite Video Game Genres: Sports, Horror, Visual Novels
  • Favorite Book: A Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
  • Favorite Movie: Mad Max Fury Road
  • Hot Take: The Avengers game is awesome.

Abbee’s Profile

Abbee currently does most of the graphic design for the site and channel. Although she’s slowly becoming a more prominent personality in the space. She works full-time outside of Gideon’s Gaming. In the past, she has worked several types of jobs but always excelled in ones where she could put her social and artistic skills to work. At one point she owned her own face painting business.

She’s loud, vibrant, extroverted, and vegan. A perfect counterbalance as her other half is none of those things. She’s a crafter and has made many cosplay outfits, props, dresses, masks, and paintings.

One day she hopes Gideon’s Gaming grows to the point that she can join it full-time, as well as pursue artistic avenues of her own. Maybe even start her own line of nerdy fashion and home goods.

  • Pronouns: She/Her
  • Preferred Level of Challenge in Video Games: Challenging
  • Preferred Board Game Weight: Any
  • Current Favorite Board Game: Terraforming Mars
  • Least Favorite Type of Board Game: Multiplayer Solitaire…
  • Three Favorite Video Game Genres: Simulation, Turn Based Strategy, Survival
  • Three Least Favorite Video Game Genres: Sports, RTS, Platformers
  • Favorite Book: The Power by Naomi Alderman
  • Favorite Movie: Stargate
  • Hot Take: Lost Ruins of Arnak is boring in Multiplayer.

Say Hello

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