Four Questions with Sarah Gloystein Peterson

Sarah Gloystein Peterson is the editor of Knucklebones, a magazine all about board games and card games. Published by Jones Publishing since November 2005, Knucklebones has featured articles about Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, Rummikub, and many more. Each issue also includes reviews, news and a Top 10 list. As Knucklebones approaches its one-year anniversary, Peterson says she's getting a lot of feedback from readers which helps make the magazine get even better.

What's your favorite recently played (for the first time) game?

I haven't had a chance to play too much recently. I played The Da Vinci Code Board Game from Warren Industries before its release. I like the code-cracking aspect of it and was glad to hear they are planning expansions, as there are currently only 15 different mysteries to crack in the basic game and I thought replayability would be an issue.

What game do you want to play most that you haven't played yet?

I'd like to try Ticket to Ride: Marklin to see how it differs from the other versions. One of my favorite games is TtR: Europe, and I'd be interested to see how well the new elements in Marklin work. Also, Greg Schloesser (one of Knucklebones' game reviewers) loves Dragons of Kir -- and I've heard great things about the game -- so that's another one I'd love to try out. If this game has him "enraptured," like he says in his review, it must be good.

You now have four issues of Knucklebones under your belt as editor -- how would you rate the magazine's editorial growth so far?

We're contstantly re-evaluating the magazine to see what we can do better and/or differently. Feeback from the readers has been a huge help. They're the ones reading it, after all, so the magazine needs to be tailored to them. Reader surveys have been enlightening -- we've learned what the most popular features are and which topics the majority of readers are or aren't interested in.

We're coming up on our one-year anniversary, and I think the magazine has grown so much since that first issue. And I always love to hear from the readers, so if you think we're missing something, have an idea for a story, or just want to say hi, drop me a line at editor@kbones.com. We're a very hands-on magazine and I'm usually able to respond to everyone that writes.

One of my favorite Knucklebones articles is the history of backgammon in the July 2006 issue. It was an interesting read and so well written. I love delving into the history of games and learning about their roots. I also like profiles on game designers. You can pick up bits of information here and there on the Internet about these people, but to have a writer actually interview them and bring it all together for Knucklebones' readers is quite a coup.

What about Knucklebones makes you excited to edit it, and who's the intended audience?

The great thing about games is that is spans gender, age, race, income level, etc., and it's something that just about everybody can relate to. Since this pastime hits such a wide range of people, the Knucklebones audience can be defined simply as adults (the magazine focuses more on adult game players rather than children and games, although we do occassional articles on kids' games).

It's a great magazine to edit because there's so much out there to cover -- games (of course), designers, publishers, history -- so that keeps it fun and interesting. It's a fairly mainstream magazine, but we try to include articles that gamers of all levels would enjoy. Plus, trying out new games at work in the name of "research" is a nice perk.

Full disclosure: I'm a regular contributor to Knucklebones.