About Miles Keaton

I'm a patent examiner, which means my job is reading claims closely enough to tell what's actually new from what's just prior art wearing a fresh coat of paint. That habit doesn't stay in the office. I read a rulebook the same way I read a claim, cover to cover before I decide anything, and a review here isn't a first impression, it's a rating I've usually sat on for a day before I'll commit to it in writing.

Several years in now as a patent examiner, remote, technically attached to a regional office I visit maybe twice a year. The actual work is claims, reading what an inventor says is new against what's already on file and deciding, in writing, whether the gap is real. It's slow, careful reading under a deadline, which turned out to be exactly the skill set that made me insufferable about board game rulebooks. I got seriously into games and books here in Duluth, where the winters are long enough that a Thursday game night with two or three regulars became a real fixture rather than an occasional thing. My partner Dana doesn't play much but has strong, usually correct opinions about which of the games I bring home are actually good, and was the one who talked me into keeping an actual paper log instead of just remembering how I felt about something, one line per book or game, plain and short. I bought everything reviewed on this site myself. No review copies, no publisher freebies. I rate things the way I'd write up a claim: plainly, and only once I've actually finished reading it.

(2026-08-21) Dana pointed out I gave Sky Team a 5 and Rising Sun a 3 and asked if that meant I like games more when I'm not allowed to talk during them. Fair.

Everything reviewed here I bought myself, no review copies and no affiliate links. If it's rated on this site, I finished it the same way anyone else would have to.

Email miles@mileskeaton.com, or grab the RSS feed. I read what comes in, replies might take a while.