The Tao of Gaming

Apart from Bridge and Rock Band, a few other games have managed to hit the table.

Notre Dame remains a nice middle-length game from last year. Requires a little bit of thought, but isn't really taxing. The sad part (for me) is that N.D. seems to have a 'one-true path' to victory. Actually, it's more of a "one path to avoid." Early game victory points are rarely worth forgoing resources for. (In last night's game, I got 5 VPs in Turn 5, doubling my score, and won by a dozen points).

In the "Blast from the past" category (one that's showing up more often) is "Two Hedgehogs #$(*ing in the dark." [One point of Geek-cred to any who explains where I got that title from]. I've no doubt that the sheer number of included variants means that there's one combination of 2+ variants that makes this the greatest game ever made. Sadly, the sheer number of included variants and my rate of play means the universe will end before I'll discover it. So I've settled for just owning an amusing filler.

I don't remember the last game's name, but it's a "Think of objects the fit the category." Everyone gets 30 seconds to write down the answer, and then secretly bids a number they think they can read. Players read from low-number to high (with ties broken clockwise by the moderator, who moves around the table). And it's boggle-style. Once someone says an answer it's done. But whoever bid lower gets to score it. If you make your bid, you get it. If not, get zero. This scoring could be transported to any boggle-style game.

I should play Ticket to Ride:1910 more often. I slightly prefer Marklin, but 1910 has a much simpler setup. I also tried a second game of Nexus Ops, which works by giving plenty of incentive to expand and attack, and (almost) no incentive to turtle. Other designers should take note.

Aviday Airfay posted a dominion sneak peak at la geek. As I may have said before, I thought the idea was intriguing but I wasn't hooked (after one game). Still, there has been a lot of development work done and many of my (remaining) faithful and loyal readers are avid supporters, so feel free to ooze enthusiasm (or hatred) in the comments.

What bugged me about the game? In my pondering afterwards, I thought it's an economic game with a) a growth curve b) randomness in opening resources and c) unequal number of turns. Everyone will earn 7 gold in the first two turns, but those could be divided 5+2 or 3+4). Now, since you don't get your stuff until turn 3, it doesn't matter if you are 5+2 or 2+5, but depending on the action cards available 5+2 or 3+4 could be much better. (Not all cards are played each game, imagine a great combo that involves a 3 cost and a 4 cost card out for one game). But mainly it just felt like the same damned thing over and over. An impressive feat for a 30 minute game. Each turn you look at your hand, play one (sometimes more) of your action cards and make the best purchase. There's a hell of an optimization idea here, and absolutely nothing that links turns together. Maximize your turn, toss away unused cards, draw for next turn. Of course, if all your opponents are buying the "Thief" cards (or whatever) you'll want to buy "Anti-thief" and that's interesting, but turns are "Fire and forget."

Although wii are also out $150, thanks to Rock Band. Although if you have the ability to create a personalized character (ala XBox version) then I haven't noticed it (either in the rules or menus). Is that an unlock-able? Don't know.

Sometime soon someone is going to make a video game that teachs actual instruments and makes it fun. (I've seen videogames that do just that, but they were poorly executed). Arguably Rock Band does just that for the drums (It sure looks like the same skill set to me, apart from reading music, but I'm not a drummer ...). Until then we'll always have Sousaphone Hero.