On TTRPG First-Looks and Unboxings

Lately I’ve seen a bit of criticism about TTRPG “reviews” that are mostly about flipping through a book and sharing first impressions. I do agree that it’s wrong to call those “reviews” but frankly, most of their authors actually call them “first looks” or “unboxings” anyway, so I’m pretty sure they are aware of that.

What I disagree with is the criticism that they are “useless”. It generally takes this form: “they only read the back cover and flip through the book, and I can do that myself!” And sure, I could do that myself too… if I had the book.

I previously wrote about how I use “book reviews”, “play-informed game reviews”, and “actual plays” in different ways between buying a book and preparing to play it. For me, “first looks” and “unboxings” are filling yet another role, when I’m merely curious about what a game looks like.

In many cases, if I’m curious about a game, I can’t easily flip through the book, or look inside the boxed set. First, I’m lazy and I don’t want to put on pants to go to my local game store. Second, there’s a likely chance that the store doesn’t have that game. Third, if they have the game, it’s probably shrink-wrapped, especially if it’s a boxed set. Sure, some products have a “preview” of their digital version, but it’s rarely enough for me, and far from widespread.

So “unboxings” let me get a feel for what the game looks like. Most “book reviews” or “play-informed game reviews” only have a few photos or shots of the product. They focus on the words (in an article form) or a talking head (in video form), because the review part is the important part. For “unboxings”, the product is the important part. It’s the best way (so far) to see what it looks like, how the art comes together, whether it looks sturdy or flimsy, what accessories are included with it, how big that map really is, and so on. The commentary provides extra information about things that don’t translate to photo or video, like the quality of the paper or the grain of the box.

Is that all very superficial? Yes! Is that stuff also covered in “proper” reviews? Sometimes? Does everybody need to know that kind of stuff? Nope! But does it fill a need? Definitely! I only watch “unboxings” for a fraction of the games I’m interested in, and I often skip and jump around the video to look for specific things, but I’m happy that they’re there when I need them!

So keep unboxing, all you unboxers! But keep your boxers on! We don’t need that kind of unboxing!