The Tao of Gaming

Erik Arneson, desperate to give me something to write about (Thanks, Erik) lists the Fifty Most Significant Games since 1800. This is cultural, historical list (not game development).

I thought I'd have nothing to complain about. (The gripping sense of panic ...) The only game not mentioned is Bridge, but I figured that he wasn't including card games. But I see it on the honorable mention page.

OK, if you are mentioning it, it's in the Top 50. Trust me. Bridge has appeared in countless Movies, TV shows, etc. It's in the newspaper every day. It's dying, but still significant (and in the mid 20th century, it was huge).

And I think Carrom should make the cut (as the first "Flicky" game published, although undoubtedly part of a long line of games).

The only other omission I see is the first slot machine. Those have been huge (its arguable that its not a game, as I refer to it, but the public probably disagrees). Was Bingo pre- or post-1800? Wikipedia says 1530 (who knew?).

But I can't find any real faults, so I guess I have nothing else to say. Check it out.

The BGG community seems much less pleased.

Played Take Stock Monday. Not bad, not great. So I read Shannon Appelcline's article on game math, which discussed Take Stock. While everything said is true, its taken out of context. [I'm going to dispense with the mechanisms, which are summarized at the link].

Playing an 11 or 12 as a certificate scores you more ... but playing it on the stock locks in your gains. 3 shares at 11 is worse than 6 shares at 7 (33 vs 42), but the round keeps going. Many events knock share prices down. 3 Shares at 11 beats 6 shares at 3. And if you have six shares of a stock ... well, nobody else will help it. [If the 11 or 12 is your last card, then playing it as a certificate will also end the round, making that the superior play.

I'd say that one of the standard decisions many games offer (good or bad) is "Small gain now vs larger (but riskier) gain later."

On the other hand, I've only played T.S. once and we never had someone play the 11/12 to end the round. So Shannon could be right. There are three or four ways a round can end, so I'd like more data points. We only played a few rounds; I can't tell if that's a style issue.

I'm not anxious to try again, but it's a reasonable filler.

In other news, I feel dizzy.

Played the Benelux map of Power Grid last night. A nice variant map, fast. (You remove two plants/turn during Phases I & II -- the highest goes under the Phase III card, the lowest is just out). Combined with the cheap connection costs, it shaves a few turns off the game. We took an hour or so. I love cheap expansions.

It seems like Tumblin Dice is everywhere these days, but I remember it from the Gathering a long time ago (it feels like 5 years or so, can that be right). Did it just find a distributor or something?

Curmudgeon to the core, I don't truck with no Secret Santa. But its a great week for packages at Casa de Tao. I got Here I Stand in a math trade. BattleLore arrived. I swapped half a dozen titles for Antiquity. Traded some GG for some Lost Worlds books (and won a cheap auction for an Arcana Evolved campaign book). And I shipped out Successors and Totaler Krieg.

Back when Magic came out, the trading occupied a good chunk of time. {Ditto most other CCGs, although I'm at the point with Shadowfist where I have everything except a few spares from the latest set). It's just fun to wheel and deal, and often possible to make good trades (for everyone). I do that with games (off and on), but shipping costs dampen my enthusiasm. And now I have several games to try ...

And I bought the latest Power Grid Expansion. Good times. And I'll hopefully get to play it soon. A careful inspection of the boxes reveals "playtime not included." Well, that's what vacation is for!

Family pesters me for gift ideas. I'm tempted to ask for Imperial. (Which should be $40 + S/H or $60 retail), but I didn't like Antike. But it's intriguing. Ditto Space Dealer, although the bloom may be off that particular rose. The local game store has Emira, but I'm ambivalent. I'd like to try all of the above ... Passing on Leonardo.

So I haven't named a game yet. Maybe I was traumatized by Hanukkah Harry.

Open thread -- what did you ask Santa for? Or what should I ask for?

Little Princess Tao wanted to play Ubongo. So we played. (She finished most puzzles in time, and often beat me).

This got me to thinking about polyominoes. I can look at a basic grid arrangement and a set of -ominoes and tell if it's impossible by counting squares, and some arrangements because of parity issues. But I suspect that with some thought I could knock out more possibilities. Are there other tricks? Is there a good reference for the theory behind this that doesn't involve massive math?

The fact that Wikipedia had nothing leads me to believe I'm spelling this wrong, or missing a technical term.