The Tao of Gaming

For someone who writes a game blog, I don't play many new games. Just to bring that point home, Bruno's nominees for game of the year. Of the 12 games listed, I've played -- Three. And I only have a strong desire to play Tribune.

So this is a Zen game blog. We think about playing games. Om.

Clearly I do not love Age of Steam enough, since my 7 odd expansions feel like too many, when another 16 are coming out at Essen.

Om.

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."

You know, until today I don't think I've ever played FFF two-player. I expected it to be fun (and was surprised that "She Will Soon Be Nine, Don't Forget Presents" suggested it). One of the subtle design decisions was, no doubt, making Ice Cream a suitable two-player option, since no child will open a chain of salad restaurants.

I'm preaching to the converted, I know. But for any heathens reading, get a copy. It's a crying shame how few games are logged on BGG.

My loyal and faithful readers have never led me astray.

Sadly, several of you have now lost your "loyal and faithful" status, as my copy of Boom Blox shipped sans fun.I mean, it was more fun than a tie or shirt. But I was happy to turn it off after 30 minutes both times I've tried it. The kids seem amused, though. (I'll admit that the competitive games may be fun, if I were playing against an adult).

And I think that the designers for the Wii really need to understand — I don't play video games so that I can go through a menu every 1-2 minutes. This isn't rocket science.

Rock Band appears to be shipping for the Wii next week, though.

Pastor Guy (Mark Jackson) is counting down the his top 100 kids games. Anyone who names R4TG as his game of the year should be heeded, I say.

Speaking of Race, I noticed that 25 players now have 100+ games logged (and soon the Top 50 players will all have 75+ games logged). That's slightly better than Carcassone, (which has been out 8 year, but presumably got most of its plays before BGG started logging games).

Chris Farrel reviews the remake of In Teufels Küche. There seem to be quite a few rules changes. "Press one ... two ... three, pop go the Nazis!"

As for me, I just picked up Hamsterrolle, Das Amulett, and the Jambo Expansion in a math trade, so there may even be new content eventually.

David Fair posted his "Pimp my Agricola" show.

Played two more games of Kutschfahrt. The second game was interesting in that both teams quickly discovered identities quickly, but then had to jockey for position and time attacks to best use the items and identities. Probably half the game was spent with known teams, which meant attacks were quick (all people instantly declare support). There were a few trades to share information or get items into the correct position. I'm still enjoying this, and its now got ~10 plays from our group.

And a few more games of Race. Perhaps I'll write up another card review at some point. Not right now, though.

Well, the latest acquisition for our Wii is WiiFit. I generally stand with the reviews:

• The balance (Yoga) and strength training seems reasonable.
• The basic idea is sound.
• The implementation sucks.

All the little details scream that nobody thought this through. There's no 15-30 minute workout. To do 30 minutes of work requires doing 15-20 different things, each of which takes several clicks to start. So 20 minutes of exercise takes 40 minutes. Lame. Where are the pre-built routines? (Strength, Flexibility, etc?) There are only two trainers (Male and Female) instead of a variety of personas (like a supportive instructor, drill sgt, etc). The games have a few good ones, but are mostly lame. And again, you waste about 50% of your time, since most of the games take 30-90 seconds, then you have to go back to the menu.

I'll probably go through it at least to see all the various strength & yoga exercises, but I could have gotten those from a book. For $5, instead of $90.

If WiiFit inspires people to actually exercise it would be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. But I think it will wind up being wasted money for most people, since it will give them the illusion of working out.

Update: OK. After having done (and watched) a bit more, I think part of the issue is that the Wii unlocks things slowly. One of the things that it unlocks is doing longer duration (time or reps) exercises. And it also gets less chatty fairly quickly. That helps. Also, you can see the Consumer reports initial thoughts.

You can see Matt Leacock's talk to Google (about Pandemic) on YouTube.

There are several good ideas listed there, particularly 'flow' and 'embodying the players.' (I've heard the ideas before, but never really had a good terminology). He also discusses how he dealt with the known issues of cooperative games.

(The fact that Google puts their technical talks online? Glorious).

Also, by sticking around through the Q&A, it sounds like Matt's dice game has been picked up and will be out later this year.

[H/T -- Aldie].

[Full Disclosure — I've met Matt.]

Larry does a wonderful job explaining why I have a "play no prototypes" rule, although I'm sure that wasn't his intent.

I, on the other hand, wasn't terribly impressed with Kingsburg or Airships. Stone age earned a few plays, but I don't think I'll be picking up a copy. I (obviously) didn't try any of the prootypes.

I tried "In the Year of the Dragon." It's worth playing again, one of the 'generally good but not huge' Alea games. I could see this growing on me or ... not.

I updated my geeklist on Tom's games ... I'm sure others knew he has a card game being published by Z-Man later this year, but I didn't know. I did know about the Race Expansion, natch.

Update: Just to clarify one thing, I actually don't mind playing prototypes during the rest of the year. Just FYI.

Rather than re-hash it, let me just concede that my experiences with Agricola may be due to:

1. Small sample size
2. Two games 'tainted' by some imbalanced cards (The frunkee "Patron" game, and the Chamberlain game).
3. A lack of sharks (I'll assume Frunkee and Geoff count).
4. One hundred games of Caylus.

I'll update my thoughts after my set arrives and I get more data points.

Speaking of Shark games, I really should have recorded the shark Phoenicia game in some detail. (On the other hand). It would have made an interesting session report, and we could have a freeze frame on when exactly my position fell apart. "On my first bid" (Dye House for 4) is a potential answer ...

Well, I did play Die Mauer again (finally opened my copy), and it's a quickly little psychological/tactical game. Blind 'bidding' sort of. The leader places one of their pieces in hand, and everyone tries to match him. If nobody matches, the leader gets rid of his piece. If others match then they get rid of their pieces and the leader doesn't. (But if the pieces can't be placed by all the matchers, then the leader discards after all). It also allows for 'empty fist' as an option.

The sort of game for people who like that sort of game. I think I'm one of them, although I've probably had this for 3 years without opening it.... (I'd played before).

In other news, I'm witnessing a career destroying season by Matt Holliday. Too bad I drafted him as my first pick. (And yes, I know that 40 PA is way too small to make a statistical statement, but I'm getting my amusement where I can).

And no jokes for you this year.

Update: Although, let me go on record as saying that I've had a suspicion that the Risk-Black Ops thing is Aldie's prank this year. I haven't followed the thread, but it just strikes me as off...

Update: And I should mention that JKLM's online games now allow for turn-based games. Which means you can do your "Login once a day" game of Phonecia (or Tulipmania or On the Underground).

Do I preorder Galactic Emperor? (Have you?)

Should I buy more Combat Commander stuff? I really need to get that to the table again...

Do I sign up for BGG Con, knowing that life will conspire against my attendance?

Now that my Strat-team has Edgar Renteria (as a backup DH, mainly) should I stand pat or exchange my 11th pitcher for something?

I never met Gary Gygax, but he was (by all accounts) a nice person. It’s easy enough to praise Dungeons and Dragons (and role-playing games). But I want to praise Gary for something that (I think) gets lost in the shuffle. So let me put a bit of hyperbole on it:

Mr. Gygax did more for young boys than all the teaching colleges of this country.

To be clear, I don’t think he did more than ‘teachers’. But he did more than those who taught the teachers. They provided techniques. But his games ... those provided motivation. How many people learned the basics of probability from D&D? I don’t think I saw a Bell Curve before the Dungeon Master’s Guide. How many ‘wasted’ weekends (and months) playing these games? And all they had to show for it (apart from the sheer enjoyment) was an introduction to various mythologies, military history, literature (say what you will about the D&D novels, which I’ve never read, but many of my generation went from D&D to Tolkien, instead of the other way around), philosophy, acting, writing, or other interests.

I like role playing games, but more in theory than in practice. (That being said, I may as well reveal that we organized an actual D&D game recently, but it was delayed until ... this Friday). I don’t actually enjoy role playing as much as the system ... which is why I gravitated towards board games. But D&D remains one of the most tinkerable systems around.

Not everyone is inspired by D&D (or even games). The sports page has taught more than even Gary dreamed of. I’m not convinced that you can get a PhD in statistics without following baseball.

These ‘recreational pastimes’ matter. I’ve learned more outside of the classroom than in it, because what I learned outside was more fun (and important to me). And it’s not just role playing. How many kids (and adults) grasped economic concepts because of Magic, Pokemon and other collectible card games? When I was in North Carolina, about a decade ago, a ~15 year old boy tried to trade away his laptop for several hundred dollars worth of magic cards. His mom forbade it, since she had bought the laptop, but then came into the local game store to discuss it with the owner. The boy argued that the laptop was depreciating, but the cards were gaining in value. When she confirmed that he was right, she allowed him to make the trade.

My kids (like many before them) are going through a Pokemon phase. My daughter has been learning the perils of eBay (buying cards, and games for her Nintendo DS, a device that the 10 year old me would have killed for). I have real hope that Pokemon (the CCG) may finally spur my son to take reading seriously. Right now he can spell roughly four words -- his name, Mom, Spider, and man.

So, Rest in Peace Gary. Your praises are being sung by us, while "right thinking, serious" people ignore you so that they can make the world a better place by doing important things, instead of ‘wasting time playing games.’

Got in two games today. We played the second game with my "Near Heroic" variant, which gives one player a fifth action once/game.

We almost won.

(The other game was a normal game, which we won).

Pretty much the only non-Race game to get any love over the last two months is Glory to Rome. The second edition changes a few cards (I need to update my building analysis...)

Today we got in another two games, and I still pull this out. There's a tension between the need to get 1-2 cheap buildings finished (to increase your influence, which limits the number of clients and vault cards) versus getting out a large building, when can completely change the nature of the game. Our first game saw one player able to finish the Catacombs (which ends the game) fairly quickly, so the other players maneuvered to ensure that someone else always led in VP. Few goods got 'stolen' (put into a vault). Eventually the game ended by decking ... a late Sewer let one player keep his stockpile slightly full after merchanting. So he got 4 cards to everyone else's 1-2, which secured 2 bonus chips and the victory.

Our second game was merchant-rich, by comparison, with plenty of legionnaire (and anti-legionnaire) plays. A nice variety, with an ebb-and-flow nature to it.

Now that I've played a few times with the 2nd edition, I've got to say that I like pretty much all of the changes that were made. Race has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations, and I doubt I'll have trouble finding opponents any time soon, so I'm glad that Glory's influence is growing in San Antonio. Hopefully elsewhere, too.

Well, having crunched the numbers (except that I didn't mention total # of plays - 625), what do I think about '07.

I think 2007 was a great year, personally. Two games I loved got published, a game I've come to love dropped into my lap (although its several years old). I'm told I'll love Agricola (and perhaps Cuba).

That being said, I only tried a smattering of new titles. I wouldn't say I actively avoided them, but I did shy away a bit. Today I saw Container at the store and wasn't tempted at all. (I know its not up my alley, but I just don't feel as much need to own new things. Ah, aging).

Just for giggles, I ran a search on BGG for recent ('07) games with a 6+ average (100 ratings or more). You can see the results.

On one hand, I feel too many new games are in the Top 100. I think one game of Tide of Iron has been played by SABG. I don't think any games of 1960 (and this from a group that tried to start a Twilight Struggle tournament). Starcraft got several plays. [That's mainly caused by BGG's growth, I wager].

I'm behind the curve for the newer stuff. Way back in the Usenet days, I was ahead of it. But those days are passed. The last few years I've been happier playing older games. In fact, I've been (slightly) obsessing about raising my Friendless stat. I still have something like 50 games in my collection that I haven't played this decade or so. Half of those I should just dump.

So, was 07 a good crop? I currently judge by the cream. I'd rather see a great game (or three) instead of ten good ones. I've got good ones.

Will I judge the current games harsher in the future? Undoubtedly. I don't play Caylus, Puerto Rico, Settlers, El Grande (etc) as often, just because. I suspect that will be true for the new batch, but Race, Phoenicia and Glory will always have their place.

Before I moved I played ~100 titles a year. In '06, around 150. Now I'm over 170 (although some of those are just expansions, so the 'true' number is probably 165). Most of those titles were, as usual, single plays. Thankfully few of them were games I bought (although a few were owned as trades, briefly).

1. No points awarded for a correct guess. If I get in a few more games before New Years, Race will get 75 plays.
2. I'm declaring an upset at number two, with Glory to Rome. I suppose it's really just a tie with ...
3. Phoenicia, but I think G2R will have more long term potential in our group. Or I may be biased in that I've been playing Phoenicia for years, and I played a ton of it online when I was between jobs.
4. Notre Dame, which also grabbed some online time (via BSW) is one of those mildly addictive inoffensive games. I'm willing to play even though I don't think it has unexplored depths, because it does reward skill but has enough luck to keep my interest. I'll probably get to 25 plays eventually.

Ordering is already pretty arbitrary at the #2 spot, so lets just go with categories:

Other games I liked:

• Caylus Magna Carta -- Good enough to make me wonder if I'll ever play Caylus again, except against the uber-strong.
• Kutschfahrt -- Really only got in a few games (over about two weeks), so it's hard to call this a glowing recommendation, but this is worth checking out.
• I played the games of Through the Ages at the Gathering. I'd like to play again, although I'm not nearly as desperate to buy, thanks to the delay. (And I haven't tried Agricola).

Looking back at my '06 choices: I'm generally happy with my picks. They all had the fall-off of second year games, but I played all of them (I think). I'm even happy with most of my '05 comments.

New Games I won't miss:

• Antler Island
• Garden Gnome Society
• Imperial
• Neuroshima Hex!
• Portobello Market
• Ruse and Bruise (although it had it's moment)
• Space Dealer
• Struggle for Rome
• Venedig

One of the nice things about skipping Essen/BGG.CON/etc is that my wallet avoids all those trap games. I almost added Zooloretto, but I'm sure someone will offer to play and its not bad. It just lacks oomph. On the other hand, I want to play Galaxy Trucker again, but when our local sold his copy (?!) I wasn't heartbroken. Time has cooled my desire for this, too.

The Monster Games: I played 7 Ages twice, Mare Nostrum twice. My PBEM game of Here I Stand is approaching its first birthday, may it never reach two.

... To be continued ....

I was thinking about World of Warcraft. Like Runebound, it's really just a race against the other players to beat the badguy, but with a sudden death timer. (One variant removes that). Talisman is similar, but it's a race to grab the sudden death timer, which kills the others. Are all fantasy games like that? Then I started thinking about the various victory conditions ... and it seems like most of them are just a variation on a race. First across the line. First to do X. First to do X a certain number of times. First to connect the sides of the board.

I'm sure this has been done before, but I'm going to try and catalogue various victory conditions. Let me know what I've forgotten.

• Most Stuff (Victory Points, Money, Land)
• Race (First to cross the finish line, do X, do something X number of times)
• Last Man Standing (Player Elimination, maybe eliminate a single piece, or have any piece)
• Capture the Flag (subset of race?)
• Deduction
• "Divest" (Get rid of all your cards, race?)
• Set Collection (subset of race?)

It could be argued that "Most stuff" is just a "farthest past the post" type of race (instead of the more typical "First to the post.") That requires serious linguistic wrangling, but it's only a mild stretch.

My initial wonder that almost all Fantasy RPG-esque boardgames are races doesn't seem surprising anymore. Most games are races or "most stuff." Perhaps the detailed taxonomy of victory conditions is just a taxonomy of races? To be sure, there's lots of variety in the details (and quite a few games that mix in a few types).

This is the point where everyone points out the obvious categories of games I've forgotten. Is it really races vs most stuff, with a few logic games?

Anyway, today I got a letter from SimplyFun stating that they had tested the pieces in Ribbit (which were made in China) and that we should set them down and back away slowly. Lead in the paint.

I've got no beef with SimplyFun, which offered a full refund (or replacement toads, presumably safe to lick to my heart's content). But no way was I going to pass a chance to post using this title.

Anyway, given the number of games made in China these days, you should probably keep the game-licking to a minimum.

Update: SimplyFun's note about the recall.

I see (via Linnaeus) that there's a book of essays on "The Best 100 Hobby Games" with noted game designers penning essay tributes. I should look into it.

I've played roughly 1/2 of the list (which includes CCGs, Miniatures, and RPGs, as well as Euros and Wargames). I've snarked on lists like that before, but this one's pretty good. First of all, any list that includes My Beloved Shadowfist shall be absolved many sins.

Second, even the games I haven't played I recognize, and those that I don't like do have some claim to fame. The only real reach is "My Life with Master." [I'm basing this on Greg Costikyan's online review from a few years back]. The game clearly intends to more Art than Fun. But Costikyan has always stretched the boundaries, so his nod to MLwM is true to form.

Anyway, looks worth a read. And seeing as how I just finished up the Aubrey-Maturin series, I need more reading material.

[Linguistic discussion of my title construction at Language Log]