Introduction

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TableTop

On April 2nd, 2012, Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day created Tabletop on a YouTube channel called Geek & Sundry. Tabletop was first hosted by Wheaton on March 30th, 2012, aiming to gather fans of board games to play together. Each episode is about 30 minutes, featuring a new game and new cast of players. The games featured on Tabletop come in a variety of forms, from role-playing games to card games. In each episode, Wil Wheaton gives a brief introduction to the game and invites three or more guests, who have learned the instructions of the game behind the scenes, to play alongside him around a wooden card table. The table, stationed in front of a brick wall with ever-changing decorations specifically designed for each game, is strategically positioned to keep the game pieces and players in camera shot at all times. Aside from standing in front of the "winners' wall" or being sent to the "loser's couch," the stakes on Tabletop are not exorbitantly high.

Tabletop became one of the most popular game series on Youtube in a very short amount of time. The first episode, “Small World,” has been viewed more than 3.6 million times.

Meet the players!

People of many backgrounds, including actors, writers, comedians, musicians, game developers, voice actors, and content creators, join Wheaton on Tabletop. While players are given a brief opportunity to promote themselves and their content, many players explicitly mention accepting invitations to appear on the show because of their personal connections to Wil. In other words, publicity does not seem to be their main motivation for joining the show. While some of the players are self-proclaimed gamers, others simply mention being Wil's friends or co-workers. The players always seem to compete to the best of their ability, but they also seem to come on the show to have fun with their friends.

Why Tabletop?

We all enjoy playing games ourselves, so we were interested in observing how others learn to excel at the activity. With such a dynamic selection of players and games featured on the show, Tabletop seemed to offer a solid representation of how people learn while gaming. Hence, it seemed like an opportune observation site to pursue. Through our observations of Tabletop, we wanted to understand how people learn to play, adapt, and strategize. As different games require different skills and tactics, we thought it would be interesting to observe how learning varies from game to game, as well as from player to player and group to group.

Tabletop, as a Youtube series, seemed like a convenient outlet through which we could make observations. We had the 30-minute episodes at our fingertips at any moment, without having to worry about any potential scheduling conflicts or barriers to entry. The video medium also provided us with the ability to pause at direct time markers, allowing us to identify, track, and rewatch key examples of learning.

While a Youtube series presented us with the ability to dive deeply into conversations and behaviors by rewatching clips, we knew the medium would also pose some concerns. Since we were watching a popular prerecorded series, we were curious as to whether any manufactured drama or careful editing might influence our observations. While we assumed learning was happening in the games beyond the screen and under the camera, we worried that the content presented in the videos might deviate a little from the real, authentic situation. We thought the celebrities on screen, for instance, might act dramatically because of the presence of a camera. With that in mind, we tried to proceed cautiously and take note of what conversations might have been edited or even added in post-production.