Yeah, every now and then I remember this blog exists, but it's mostly just historical record at this point.
Maybe I'll come up with something to say, but likely I won't.
Monday, January 8, 2024
Sunday, March 20, 2022
This isn't a real post
No promises of reviving the blog any time soon.
Just a note that I've been getting a lot of comment-spam recently. I have been trying to run in and delete the spam messages as soon as they arrive, but it's a tireless job...
Thursday, January 2, 2020
Happy 2020
More than a year since my last post.
Maybe this will be the year of my podcast.
Or maybe this will be my only post until 2021.
Maybe this will be the year of my podcast.
Or maybe this will be my only post until 2021.
Monday, December 10, 2018
2019 ...?
It's my annual "joke" post where I promise there will be good content this year and make one valiant effort and forget again.
Nobody reads this anyway. I thrive on a few good posts I made in 2012 about Red Dwarf X :)
Nobody reads this anyway. I thrive on a few good posts I made in 2012 about Red Dwarf X :)
Monday, April 30, 2018
I'm surprised the Asgard Catering Company hasn't fired me
I've pulled A Feast for Odin back off the shelf and trying solo again.
I've played 4 solo games in the last several days, and my scores are improving.
I should write something colorful up to track these things on the blog, and I will start to.
My current high score is 112. 100 is "very good" according to the rulebook, but there are those who claim that 140+ is not only attainable but consistently attainable.
I'll get there.
I've played 4 solo games in the last several days, and my scores are improving.
I should write something colorful up to track these things on the blog, and I will start to.
My current high score is 112. 100 is "very good" according to the rulebook, but there are those who claim that 140+ is not only attainable but consistently attainable.
I'll get there.
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Moseying or Galloping to Kansas City (Great Western Trail)
Great Western Trail was one of the "cult of the semi-new" games I picked up recently, and I really love it. It's a mid-heavy-weight game about traveling along the eponymous trail with your cattle and selling them, over and over. It's a euro where the theme could be anything, and some links are extremely tenuous, but fun and gives you a bunch of interesting decisions.
Last night was only the third time I've played (other than a brief experimentation with a solo variant).
I don't remember the scores of the first game, but I do know I won game 2 by a wide margin.
Game 3 was also the first time we used some more of the random setup elements (neutral building placement and A/B sides of private buildings)
Last night I was not so lucky.
Early in the first run from the geographically-unclear ranch to Kansas, I was presented with this:
If you know the game, you will know that this is the worst possible hand of cows you can draw.
When you reach Kansas City, your reward is based on having a variety of cows. Not only are these all the same, but they are the lowest value.
Effectively, upon arrival in Kansas, this hand full of Jersey Cows would be worth $1, with the only possible place to "sell" them being Kansas City itself, which gives you -6VP.
... But it also gives you +$6. Remember that for a moment.
Since my hand of cows was lousy, and I was a few steps in toward Kansas City, I decided to move slowly, through spaces that could (relatively inefficiently) cycle bad cows out of my hand.
This turned out to be a huge mistake.
I lost so much momentum from moving slowly, and couldn't get an economy going so it became a self-fulfilling defeat. All in the name of trying to sell my cows to a further-up city for potential long-term gain.
The end score was 81-80-56-49. Guess which one was me?
Looking at a spread like this, -6 VP doesn't look so bad when it also gives you +$6 and a full hand-cycle that guarantees itself to be worth at least 1 more. If I had "galloped" to Kansas City quickly with my crap hand, I may have built up to some strong followup turns.
I will remember this for next game. Which will hopefully be soon (whether in meatspace or on Tabletop Simulator). Will see what happens with a strategy of an early Kansas City rush.
My goal this year is to focus on quantity of plays of games I've already got, more than looking at shiny new squirrels. I won't completely be blind to the Cult of the New, but I always feel sad when I play a new game with substance only once or twice before being able to formulate strategies and see a game for what it truly is (or be able to appreciate its expansions). I want to spend a lot of time on GWT and Terra Mystica, primarily, and we'll see what else pops up.
Last night was only the third time I've played (other than a brief experimentation with a solo variant).
I don't remember the scores of the first game, but I do know I won game 2 by a wide margin.
Game 3 was also the first time we used some more of the random setup elements (neutral building placement and A/B sides of private buildings)
Last night I was not so lucky.
Early in the first run from the geographically-unclear ranch to Kansas, I was presented with this:
If you know the game, you will know that this is the worst possible hand of cows you can draw.
When you reach Kansas City, your reward is based on having a variety of cows. Not only are these all the same, but they are the lowest value.
Effectively, upon arrival in Kansas, this hand full of Jersey Cows would be worth $1, with the only possible place to "sell" them being Kansas City itself, which gives you -6VP.
... But it also gives you +$6. Remember that for a moment.
Since my hand of cows was lousy, and I was a few steps in toward Kansas City, I decided to move slowly, through spaces that could (relatively inefficiently) cycle bad cows out of my hand.
This turned out to be a huge mistake.
I lost so much momentum from moving slowly, and couldn't get an economy going so it became a self-fulfilling defeat. All in the name of trying to sell my cows to a further-up city for potential long-term gain.
The end score was 81-80-56-49. Guess which one was me?
Looking at a spread like this, -6 VP doesn't look so bad when it also gives you +$6 and a full hand-cycle that guarantees itself to be worth at least 1 more. If I had "galloped" to Kansas City quickly with my crap hand, I may have built up to some strong followup turns.
I will remember this for next game. Which will hopefully be soon (whether in meatspace or on Tabletop Simulator). Will see what happens with a strategy of an early Kansas City rush.
My goal this year is to focus on quantity of plays of games I've already got, more than looking at shiny new squirrels. I won't completely be blind to the Cult of the New, but I always feel sad when I play a new game with substance only once or twice before being able to formulate strategies and see a game for what it truly is (or be able to appreciate its expansions). I want to spend a lot of time on GWT and Terra Mystica, primarily, and we'll see what else pops up.
Friday, January 5, 2018
2018 maybe
Yet another meta-post.
I remember this blog exists. I truly do.
A year ago, I said 2017 was going to be the year I actually started updating the blog, and also started thinking about my podcasting aspirations. Neither of these things happened.
Let's see whether this blog gets any traction in 2018.
I remember this blog exists. I truly do.
A year ago, I said 2017 was going to be the year I actually started updating the blog, and also started thinking about my podcasting aspirations. Neither of these things happened.
Let's see whether this blog gets any traction in 2018.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Evolution: Podcast?
I've been throwing around the idea of a podcast for awhile, and what better use for the flailing blog.tornsignpost.com than to try to resurrect its name with audio?
I've just returned from Granite Game Summit, and I've (separately) been thinking a lot about Legacy games, so I definitely have a lot to talk about for at least a zeroeth episode.
I'm having a little trouble setting up accounts on some sites; amongst them is instagram. A few weeks ago, I tried creating a "tornsignpost" userid, got an error, and now it's in some sort of state of flux.
Different parts of instagram either think the userid has been disabled, doesn't exist, isn't associated with an email address, or already exists.
Their support tool through the app doesn't even work -- it claims that I'm not entering a proper country name -- so I'm trying to email their support.
So if I do start up the podcast, and give it an instagram account, there's a chance it won't match the naming convention.
But either way, please continue watching this space, and if I produce at least 2 episodes of the podcast in the next few months, consider subscribing to that ;)
Hope to talk to you soon. GRR on!
I've just returned from Granite Game Summit, and I've (separately) been thinking a lot about Legacy games, so I definitely have a lot to talk about for at least a zeroeth episode.
I'm having a little trouble setting up accounts on some sites; amongst them is instagram. A few weeks ago, I tried creating a "tornsignpost" userid, got an error, and now it's in some sort of state of flux.
Different parts of instagram either think the userid has been disabled, doesn't exist, isn't associated with an email address, or already exists.
Their support tool through the app doesn't even work -- it claims that I'm not entering a proper country name -- so I'm trying to email their support.
So if I do start up the podcast, and give it an instagram account, there's a chance it won't match the naming convention.
But either way, please continue watching this space, and if I produce at least 2 episodes of the podcast in the next few months, consider subscribing to that ;)
Hope to talk to you soon. GRR on!
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Still nope
Nope, not yet. There's lots of geekery I want to talk about, but no time to write, and it's getting less relevant as time passes. :/
Keep watching this space though.
Keep watching this space though.
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Of Rogue One, the Rouge One, The OA and Odin
Happy new year to my hundreds tens ones of readers!
2017 is going to be the year I consistently update my blog. I can feel it!
The subject line here should give you an idea of what's in my queue to talk about soon. I'll separate them into different posts, especially since there are some spoilers you might want to avoid.
Real Soon Now...
2017 is going to be the year I consistently update my blog. I can feel it!
The subject line here should give you an idea of what's in my queue to talk about soon. I'll separate them into different posts, especially since there are some spoilers you might want to avoid.
Real Soon Now...
Friday, September 23, 2016
RDXI: Samsara quick thoughts
Still more scattered disorganized thoughts, nothing as "insightful" as my comments on RDX yet.
And also trying to avoid deep spoilers since I'm even seeing the episode a week before many people actually in the UK, and certainly quite awhile before most Americans.
As a followup to Twentica, we now have kind of a baseline to judge the setting of RDXI.
Once again, things are slightly different than in previous seasons and unlikely to be directly explained.
This episode spent a lot more time on ship, even with a classic Rimmer/Lister bunkbed scene with familiar decorations from the past throughout.
The opening scene called back to Meltdown, with Rimmer's Risk story, but this time with Lister and Rimmer playing a game "Mine-opoly". Stuff happened in the game where there was a missed reference to the Luck Virus, which was certainly my first impression.
The overall plot was jarring at first, but it made a reference to another episode with similar sci-fi-explanation and after thinking about it, fine. That's OK.
The jokes were at par, although it still seems like the things that make Cat a Cat and the things that make Rimmer a Hologram have taken a back seat for the sake of the jokes.
For one thing, Cat makes references to things in Earth's past as if he grew up with them, and seems to just be "the human with the mind of a 3-year-old and sharp teeth" for the most part.
(Yes, one of the jokes is that he gets things completely wrong, but he still gets them wrong within the frame of reference of being human, if that makes any sense at all).
I really hope they do something with the "Cat episode" (I think it's episode 6) to call back to Cat being a Cat and even moreso to the Cat Religion and Cloister.
Rimmer is definitely still "dead", "electronic", and "a hologram", but he's been in Hard Light Mode through the whole last few series, which takes a bit away from him being non-human except when they specifically call attention to it. Even in the beginning of Twentica, they make reference to someone possibly "stealing his DNA" where they could have made reference to a digital copy (a la Me2), for example.
In context of this series, and the specific reference they *did* make to a past episode (with Kryten miraculously knowing all the facts about something he could have mentioned 30 years ago.. ;) ), this one was OK. It's still hard to judge until I see more. RDX was really trying to do more character-development stuff, while XI so far is "these characters we already know, in new situations", mostly. Not bad on its own, just hard to review in the way I think about the series.
As a side note, today I also watched 2 older episodes with my son: Backwards and White Hole.
Like I mentioned last week, Backwards and Twentica had a similar structure, but Backwards still did its thing way better, in my opinion.
In White Hole, Lister makes a little speech to how reliant humans are on technology, and he coincidentally made a similar speech at the end of Twentica... His White Hole speech was a little bit more "sincere", but the Twentica angle was all for the punchline.
Also, White Hole opens with the resurrecting of Talkie Toaster, who had been severely disassembled by Lister... which is definitely a reference missed in Twentica as well.
These thoughts were supposed to be quick, but I'll be back next week to try and tie things together a little more tightly.
So far, I think the series is still about on the same level with RDX all-things-told, and still outranking Series 8 in almost every way imaginable...
And also trying to avoid deep spoilers since I'm even seeing the episode a week before many people actually in the UK, and certainly quite awhile before most Americans.
As a followup to Twentica, we now have kind of a baseline to judge the setting of RDXI.
Once again, things are slightly different than in previous seasons and unlikely to be directly explained.
This episode spent a lot more time on ship, even with a classic Rimmer/Lister bunkbed scene with familiar decorations from the past throughout.
The opening scene called back to Meltdown, with Rimmer's Risk story, but this time with Lister and Rimmer playing a game "Mine-opoly". Stuff happened in the game where there was a missed reference to the Luck Virus, which was certainly my first impression.
The overall plot was jarring at first, but it made a reference to another episode with similar sci-fi-explanation and after thinking about it, fine. That's OK.
The jokes were at par, although it still seems like the things that make Cat a Cat and the things that make Rimmer a Hologram have taken a back seat for the sake of the jokes.
For one thing, Cat makes references to things in Earth's past as if he grew up with them, and seems to just be "the human with the mind of a 3-year-old and sharp teeth" for the most part.
(Yes, one of the jokes is that he gets things completely wrong, but he still gets them wrong within the frame of reference of being human, if that makes any sense at all).
I really hope they do something with the "Cat episode" (I think it's episode 6) to call back to Cat being a Cat and even moreso to the Cat Religion and Cloister.
Rimmer is definitely still "dead", "electronic", and "a hologram", but he's been in Hard Light Mode through the whole last few series, which takes a bit away from him being non-human except when they specifically call attention to it. Even in the beginning of Twentica, they make reference to someone possibly "stealing his DNA" where they could have made reference to a digital copy (a la Me2), for example.
In context of this series, and the specific reference they *did* make to a past episode (with Kryten miraculously knowing all the facts about something he could have mentioned 30 years ago.. ;) ), this one was OK. It's still hard to judge until I see more. RDX was really trying to do more character-development stuff, while XI so far is "these characters we already know, in new situations", mostly. Not bad on its own, just hard to review in the way I think about the series.
As a side note, today I also watched 2 older episodes with my son: Backwards and White Hole.
Like I mentioned last week, Backwards and Twentica had a similar structure, but Backwards still did its thing way better, in my opinion.
In White Hole, Lister makes a little speech to how reliant humans are on technology, and he coincidentally made a similar speech at the end of Twentica... His White Hole speech was a little bit more "sincere", but the Twentica angle was all for the punchline.
Also, White Hole opens with the resurrecting of Talkie Toaster, who had been severely disassembled by Lister... which is definitely a reference missed in Twentica as well.
These thoughts were supposed to be quick, but I'll be back next week to try and tie things together a little more tightly.
So far, I think the series is still about on the same level with RDX all-things-told, and still outranking Series 8 in almost every way imaginable...
Thursday, September 15, 2016
RDXI: Twentica, a spoiler-lite quick review
I really will need to let Red Dwarf XI sink in a bit, and I think this first episode "Twentica" is hard to review.
I did manage to watch it this evening, on my TV screen, via a far-less-convoluted-than-expected use of a VPN service, an Android app, and an MHL cable.
Comedy-wise, I think the episode was about on par with Series X. They're kind of easing back into it.
Plotwise, it was really similar to Backwards, in a way, although not nearly as clever of a premise. But in the same way as Backwards wasn't quite consistent with what "the universe is backwards" actually meant, the premise of this world they traveled to was just a bunch of setups for mismatched jokes.
That is not really a criticism though, because it goes back to the roots of it being a sitcom first, sci-fi second.
Still, a fairly contrived way to have a larger cast of "humans" than the 4 of them.
And they (likely deliberately) avoided any attempt at trying to deal with continuity. We may still never know what "actually happened" after Series 8.
Also, the crew seemed much more comfortable with technobabble, and less surprised by "whirly things in space", but then again, they've been together for hundreds of in-universe years, or at least 30, and they've seen it all.
In 2012 when I was going through Series X I picked up on a lot of subtleties (some of which weren't actually there, but I willed them into existence), and did some overanalysis. This is just a harder episode for that. Series X started out with Trojan and Fathers and Suns, which were "character pieces" while this one was a "situation piece", more like the Lemons episode.
So I'm reserving my overanalysis for a little later.
But all other things being equal? This episode wasn't terrible. Hard to give it a number of Rs on the good old GRR scale, but let's start out with a solid 3.
GRRR for Twentica.
(subject to change in retrospect)
I did manage to watch it this evening, on my TV screen, via a far-less-convoluted-than-expected use of a VPN service, an Android app, and an MHL cable.
Comedy-wise, I think the episode was about on par with Series X. They're kind of easing back into it.
Plotwise, it was really similar to Backwards, in a way, although not nearly as clever of a premise. But in the same way as Backwards wasn't quite consistent with what "the universe is backwards" actually meant, the premise of this world they traveled to was just a bunch of setups for mismatched jokes.
That is not really a criticism though, because it goes back to the roots of it being a sitcom first, sci-fi second.
Still, a fairly contrived way to have a larger cast of "humans" than the 4 of them.
And they (likely deliberately) avoided any attempt at trying to deal with continuity. We may still never know what "actually happened" after Series 8.
Also, the crew seemed much more comfortable with technobabble, and less surprised by "whirly things in space", but then again, they've been together for hundreds of in-universe years, or at least 30, and they've seen it all.
In 2012 when I was going through Series X I picked up on a lot of subtleties (some of which weren't actually there, but I willed them into existence), and did some overanalysis. This is just a harder episode for that. Series X started out with Trojan and Fathers and Suns, which were "character pieces" while this one was a "situation piece", more like the Lemons episode.
So I'm reserving my overanalysis for a little later.
But all other things being equal? This episode wasn't terrible. Hard to give it a number of Rs on the good old GRR scale, but let's start out with a solid 3.
GRRR for Twentica.
(subject to change in retrospect)
Monday, September 12, 2016
Eleven, but not in the Upside Down
I've been meaning to write a post about my feelings/thoughts on Stranger Things, and I'll get to that eventually. (TL;DW: I loved it, I care about Barb, and I wish the next season were a completely different story instead of a continuation of this one because the loose threads were perfectly spooky)
And yes, TempleCon was the Eleventh, which I did write about as well.
But there's another Eleven coming up in the next weeks, and I expect to be blogging about this one, too.
Back in 2012 I had a pretty good time blogging about RDX as it aired, and overanalyzing it to the extreme.. Hopefully XI will also have enough potentially-overthinkable content to be entertaining here.
I've read the official episode summaries, and my expectations aren't all that high...
But I have no choice except to watch :)
In 2012 I relied on torrents to get the episodes as they aired. This time around, I'm going to try using one of those location-masking VPN services and stream them directly. We'll see how that goes.
And yes, TempleCon was the Eleventh, which I did write about as well.
But there's another Eleven coming up in the next weeks, and I expect to be blogging about this one, too.
Back in 2012 I had a pretty good time blogging about RDX as it aired, and overanalyzing it to the extreme.. Hopefully XI will also have enough potentially-overthinkable content to be entertaining here.
I've read the official episode summaries, and my expectations aren't all that high...
But I have no choice except to watch :)
In 2012 I relied on torrents to get the episodes as they aired. This time around, I'm going to try using one of those location-masking VPN services and stream them directly. We'll see how that goes.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
TempleCon 2016 brief wrapup: A GRReat time!
Another TempleCon has come and gone, and I had a GRReat time.
Moving to August, in my opinion, was worth the extra 6 month gap.
I know it wasn't perfect for some groups (there was a distinct lack of Diplomacy Tournament and a shortage of War Machine), and the vendors overall didn't seem happy with the outdoor tent, but for me it was awesome.
I know it wasn't perfect for some groups (there was a distinct lack of Diplomacy Tournament and a shortage of War Machine), and the vendors overall didn't seem happy with the outdoor tent, but for me it was awesome.
No giant snow banks in the parking lot, no concern about driving to/from the con in a Noreaster, no need to run back to your room to get your coat every time you stepped outside, an easy walk to Dunkin in the morning, and also easier to schedule the time off which is no small thing.
This TempleCon was also different from all other TempleCons because it was the very first time I didn't play a single game of VTES! Quite possibly the very first con I ever attended at all since I discovered the game where I didn't play. Even at my first-and-only trip to DragonCon, when I hadn't been integrated into the "Boston Group" yet, I still have photographic evidence of meeting the crew and being the newbie.
But getting to see the old VTES crew and just hang out and eat and drink with them, and play Other Games, is something I always look forward to.
I got a chance to play so many games. I tried to write everything down; I think this is a complete list:
Imperial Settlers
Dead of Winter
Suburbia
Velociraptor Cannibalism
Rick and Morty: Total Rickall (I still have to watch that show)
Graverobbers from Outer Space
Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition (exceeded expectations, but probably out of my price-to-realistic-plays ratio budget)
Lords of Waterdeep
Above and Below
Legendary Encounters: Alien
Bottom of the 9th
The Grizzled
Tiny Epic Galaxies
Terra Mystica
...and honorable mention to Sushi Go, which I just played with my son before bed.
Also spent my fair share of time in the awesome "arcade", playing a whole lot of games like Dig Dug, Tapper, a bit of Galaxian...
And for my first time, a Scotch Seminar. Booze-illiterate as I am, I did learn a little bit there.
(Most important lesson: Apparently the term "peaty" translates to "OH MY GOD THE BURNING!" Not a fan.)
The vendors..
I was happy to see artist Heather Kreiter, who shares a bond with me over Ossian (from a conversation that did happen at an early TempleCon), and I bought a "Corpsey Puff" My Little Demon from her for my son (which he loved).
I didn't buy much else; just really the new Smash Up expansion so I could get it into my copy for the game library. I considered giving my ~$100 to the guy with the 3d-scanner to make a mini of myself, but resisted.
I didn't buy much else; just really the new Smash Up expansion so I could get it into my copy for the game library. I considered giving my ~$100 to the guy with the 3d-scanner to make a mini of myself, but resisted.
As is my way in life, I opened up the game room each day as early as made sense, did my library work, and caught up with that crowd that I really only see at the Con. I enjoyed watching people play games as much as playing (and ironically I can't understand why kids enjoy youtube videos of other people playing Minecraft).
The real fun-winner of the weekend (which I didn't get to play myself) seemed to be "Chopstick Dexterity MegaChallenge 3000", which speaks for itself. BoardGameGeek says this is a 10-year-old game, I had no idea. But everyone was using chopsticks to compete over food-shaped meeples in a bowl and it got pretty intense. Especially after the booze kicked in. :)
And then there was the wedding in the game room... Surreal, but not the strangest thing that could happen :)
Can't wait for next year!
And hope to keep up the gaming momentum until then...
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Squirtle has died of Dysentery
I've been thinking all too much about Pokémon Go, and why I don't understand (at least the Pokémon part of) its appeal.
(I respect it, I think it's fine if you like it. I'm not here to criticize you. See? I'm even using the accent mark and everything!)
And I think I figured it out, in a way.
There's an article that refers to people around my age, born in the mid-to-late 70s, as the Oregon Trail Generation, and that's very fitting to the story.
I received a Gameboy in 1989, when I was 13, as a Bar Mitzvah gift from my Hebrew School class. It was the most amazing thing for a kid.. A Nintendo, merely the size of a brick, that you could carry around and play games on (in adequate lighting). Like an even-more-scaled-down Super Mario. And everyone's favorite, Tetris. Amazing!
"Pokémon Red and Blue", the first pair of games in the series to be released in the US, came out in September of 1998, a "mere" 9 years later.
But you know where I was in September 1998? I was a fresh college graduate. I was working.
And I had long stopped playing with my Gameboy. It was a kids' toy. There wasn't a concept of "playing mobile games" for adults. We had our Palm Pilots running Solitaire games but that wasn't quite the same. We didn't have time for any Nintendo Link Cable to really attempt to grok what Pokémon was all about, and it looked kinda stale and boring and repetitive as a single-player game, some sort of Final Fantasy clone with even less story.
And our computer-game time was spent on more "computery" games. The Dooms. The Quakes. The Warcrafts. And our good friend, Civilization.
But those little kids just a couple of years behind me in school? The early "millennials"?
They got handed this "social mobile game" at the most social time of their lives: high school and college.
They bonded over it. They related to it. They knew their Pikachu from their Magikarp, traded their Mews for Mewtwos, and discussed how to find the elusive Missingno. They were really the first kids to "play mobile games" like it was a thing in itself.
Nevermind those kids a few years behind them. Those kids just took for granted that Pokémon was part of the world.
And those "little kids"? They're now in their early-to-mid 30s. They're full-grown adults who don't think it's strange to play Pokémon, and even feel "nostalgia" for something that was completely after my time.
Of course there are exceptions. There are 40 year olds who go to the Pokestops and the Pokegyms and play with their Pokeballs (ok, sorry, got a little disrespectful for a minute.. ahem). But tell me that you don't relate to this even a little bit.
What about the older folks?
People older than those of us from the Oregon Trail, well.. they just weren't in their late teens/early 20s at the right time to completely dismiss Pokémon out-of-hand. So they can irrationally dislike something else from pop culture; take your pick.
It's just us, whose formative mobile-gaming years weren't really allowed to blossom until we had missed the Pokémon train, who are destined to never feel like we "gotta catch 'em all".
And we like it that way! Get off our collective lawns!
Am I completely off-base here?
(I respect it, I think it's fine if you like it. I'm not here to criticize you. See? I'm even using the accent mark and everything!)
And I think I figured it out, in a way.
There's an article that refers to people around my age, born in the mid-to-late 70s, as the Oregon Trail Generation, and that's very fitting to the story.
I received a Gameboy in 1989, when I was 13, as a Bar Mitzvah gift from my Hebrew School class. It was the most amazing thing for a kid.. A Nintendo, merely the size of a brick, that you could carry around and play games on (in adequate lighting). Like an even-more-scaled-down Super Mario. And everyone's favorite, Tetris. Amazing!
"Pokémon Red and Blue", the first pair of games in the series to be released in the US, came out in September of 1998, a "mere" 9 years later.
But you know where I was in September 1998? I was a fresh college graduate. I was working.
And I had long stopped playing with my Gameboy. It was a kids' toy. There wasn't a concept of "playing mobile games" for adults. We had our Palm Pilots running Solitaire games but that wasn't quite the same. We didn't have time for any Nintendo Link Cable to really attempt to grok what Pokémon was all about, and it looked kinda stale and boring and repetitive as a single-player game, some sort of Final Fantasy clone with even less story.
And our computer-game time was spent on more "computery" games. The Dooms. The Quakes. The Warcrafts. And our good friend, Civilization.
But those little kids just a couple of years behind me in school? The early "millennials"?
They got handed this "social mobile game" at the most social time of their lives: high school and college.
They bonded over it. They related to it. They knew their Pikachu from their Magikarp, traded their Mews for Mewtwos, and discussed how to find the elusive Missingno. They were really the first kids to "play mobile games" like it was a thing in itself.
Nevermind those kids a few years behind them. Those kids just took for granted that Pokémon was part of the world.
And those "little kids"? They're now in their early-to-mid 30s. They're full-grown adults who don't think it's strange to play Pokémon, and even feel "nostalgia" for something that was completely after my time.
Of course there are exceptions. There are 40 year olds who go to the Pokestops and the Pokegyms and play with their Pokeballs (ok, sorry, got a little disrespectful for a minute.. ahem). But tell me that you don't relate to this even a little bit.
What about the older folks?
People older than those of us from the Oregon Trail, well.. they just weren't in their late teens/early 20s at the right time to completely dismiss Pokémon out-of-hand. So they can irrationally dislike something else from pop culture; take your pick.
It's just us, whose formative mobile-gaming years weren't really allowed to blossom until we had missed the Pokémon train, who are destined to never feel like we "gotta catch 'em all".
And we like it that way! Get off our collective lawns!
Am I completely off-base here?
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Adventures with Mice and Mystics
Whew!
So, several months ago, I bought the game Mice and Mystics to play with my family and maybe as a subversive introduction to RPGs for my 7-year-old son.
We made a few attempts at "Chapter 1" of the campaign, most of which failed, but most of those failures also included misunderstandings of the rules.
After setting aside the game in a "saved state" from September and picking it back up with my son over Christmas break, we finally finished Chapter 1!
We attempted Chapter 2 once and failed, but haven't tried again.
Last night, because I'm really curious about finishing the story, I decided to take the game off the shelf, write down a 'Save file' sheet of where we'd left off, and start my own parallel solo campaign going.
I played for nearly 2 hours.
Early in the game, I rolled incredibly well, on both Search and Attack/Defense rolls, and things were looking great.
I made a few tactical errors -- one of which was due to me being used to looking at the board upside-down so I went the wrong way -- but still, the game continued going pretty well.
I was doing well enough that I decided to try the "side mission" which rewards you with an extra token that will come up later in the story (the "Miz Maggie Ally Token"; I still don't know what it does). But completing this side mission actually causes the hourglass marker to move closer to the endgame, giving you less time to complete the chapter. (or so I thought!)
I finally made it to the final tile. I killed off the nasty centipede and 2 spiders (one who appeared as the result of a Surge). The field was clear. All I needed to do was get all my mice to the tree.
3 of my mice were at the tree.
Nez, the slowest mouse of the group, was the last in initiative order.
The Hourglass marker was on "Page 5", where "Page 6" wasendgame (or so I thought!)
The Cheese Wheel was at 5 Cheese; one more cheese and (or so I thought...) it would have caused a surge and game over.
And due to the rules, if an initiative round ends with no bad guys on the board, a cheese automatically gets added.
And Nez rolled poorly for movement. Very poorly. He didn't make it!
I thought this caused a technical loss of the game, and by decree of fudge-factor, I declared it a win.
And I bared my soul on boardgamegeek, asking for sympathy and reassurance that I should have gotten the moral victory.
But then the BGG community came in and saved the day, in 2 very big ways.
First: I forgot that you could take a second move action if you did nothing else. So Nez made it to the tree either way and they lived happily ever after (until Chapter 2).
But they also pointed out another rule that my whole family had been getting backwards all along, and caused a bit of frustration on its own.
Completing the side-mission (and fulfilling certain other minor "reward" tasks which I had been actively avoiding) doesn't give you *less* time. It gives you *MORE* time!! The hourglass doesn't move forward. The chapter-end marker moves forward!
So not only did I technically win. I won with time to spare.
And this was one of the mechanics, I think, that irked my wife and son and certainly at least indirectly contributed to many of our losses or decisions.
Maybe now that I know another rule we'd been getting wrong, they'll give it another chance!
Either way, I succeeded, and my solo campaign is off to Chapter 2!
Onward to victory!
So, several months ago, I bought the game Mice and Mystics to play with my family and maybe as a subversive introduction to RPGs for my 7-year-old son.
We made a few attempts at "Chapter 1" of the campaign, most of which failed, but most of those failures also included misunderstandings of the rules.
After setting aside the game in a "saved state" from September and picking it back up with my son over Christmas break, we finally finished Chapter 1!
We attempted Chapter 2 once and failed, but haven't tried again.
Last night, because I'm really curious about finishing the story, I decided to take the game off the shelf, write down a 'Save file' sheet of where we'd left off, and start my own parallel solo campaign going.
I played for nearly 2 hours.
Early in the game, I rolled incredibly well, on both Search and Attack/Defense rolls, and things were looking great.
I made a few tactical errors -- one of which was due to me being used to looking at the board upside-down so I went the wrong way -- but still, the game continued going pretty well.
I was doing well enough that I decided to try the "side mission" which rewards you with an extra token that will come up later in the story (the "Miz Maggie Ally Token"; I still don't know what it does). But completing this side mission
I finally made it to the final tile. I killed off the nasty centipede and 2 spiders (one who appeared as the result of a Surge). The field was clear. All I needed to do was get all my mice to the tree.
3 of my mice were at the tree.
Nez, the slowest mouse of the group, was the last in initiative order.
The Hourglass marker was on "Page 5", where "Page 6" was
The Cheese Wheel was at 5 Cheese; one more cheese and (or so I thought...) it would have caused a surge and game over.
And due to the rules, if an initiative round ends with no bad guys on the board, a cheese automatically gets added.
And Nez rolled poorly for movement. Very poorly. He didn't make it!
I thought this caused a technical loss of the game, and by decree of fudge-factor, I declared it a win.
And I bared my soul on boardgamegeek, asking for sympathy and reassurance that I should have gotten the moral victory.
But then the BGG community came in and saved the day, in 2 very big ways.
First: I forgot that you could take a second move action if you did nothing else. So Nez made it to the tree either way and they lived happily ever after (until Chapter 2).
But they also pointed out another rule that my whole family had been getting backwards all along, and caused a bit of frustration on its own.
Completing the side-mission (and fulfilling certain other minor "reward" tasks which I had been actively avoiding) doesn't give you *less* time. It gives you *MORE* time!! The hourglass doesn't move forward. The chapter-end marker moves forward!
So not only did I technically win. I won with time to spare.
And this was one of the mechanics, I think, that irked my wife and son and certainly at least indirectly contributed to many of our losses or decisions.
Maybe now that I know another rule we'd been getting wrong, they'll give it another chance!
Either way, I succeeded, and my solo campaign is off to Chapter 2!
Onward to victory!
Monday, November 30, 2015
Mayday wants to sleeve my whole game collection?
I already have most of my games nicely sleeved -- some with Mayday sleeves, some with FFG, some with UltraPro, etc -- but it intrigued me that Mayday is having a contest to give you enough sleeves to cover every game in your collection. That could save me some cash for sure.
I'll bite.
The contest is here in case you also want to enter as well.
(And yes, disclaimer: blogging about the contest gives you entries into the contest)
Friday, November 27, 2015
Arrowverse theory, still
So we're all caught up to the present now. And I still wonder if my theory holds water...
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Arrowverse theory
CAVEAT: I am neither up-to-date with Arrow/Flash (up to Episode ~15 in season 3/1), nor have I ever watched Gotham, Supergirl, or any other recent-ish DC Live Action TV show.
Please don't spoil me, but there are some minor spoilers here...
I have a theory (and it's not bunnies or midgets).
This might not even be an original theory, since we aren't all caught up, but this is my blog :P
Ever since we started watching Arrow, the comparisons to Batman could not be missed, with even just the basic premise: a rich socialite experiences traumatic events in his life and becomes a masked vigilante.
But specific elements of the greater Batman story do appear throughout the show as well:
The Suicide Squad.
Harley Quinn locked up in an Argus facility.
Constant references to Blüdhaven, home of Nightwing.
Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins.
In Flash, there's even a headline in the "future newspaper" related to Wayne Tech.
Even these few details point strongly to Batman's existence in the same universe.
But where is he?
Why aren't Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne old party buddies or business partners?
Why not even the faintest mention of Gotham City?
Now, you could say "because DC/WB lawyers, movies, contracts, yada yada".
But I don't (want to) think so.
At the same time, there is this show Gotham. (again, I haven't watched it)
A young Bruce Wayne loses his parents and sits idly watching the criminal goings-on in Gotham City. He isn't Batman yet, and might never become the Dark Knight in the continuity of this show.
But what if...
What if...
What if Oliver Queen *does* show up in Gotham City some time in the future?
What if Oliver Queen meets young Bruce Wayne, much like he found Roy, and decides to train him?
What if The Arrow and STAR Labs help to create the Batman?
(What if Cisco names him?)
What if this is all an elaborate secret buildup to a new Batman show "done right"?
Alright, I've gotten that off my chest.
Go ahead and tell me that something I'll see in the future leads to a contradiction of my idea.
Please don't spoil me, but there are some minor spoilers here...
I have a theory (and it's not bunnies or midgets).
This might not even be an original theory, since we aren't all caught up, but this is my blog :P
Ever since we started watching Arrow, the comparisons to Batman could not be missed, with even just the basic premise: a rich socialite experiences traumatic events in his life and becomes a masked vigilante.
But specific elements of the greater Batman story do appear throughout the show as well:
The Suicide Squad.
Harley Quinn locked up in an Argus facility.
Constant references to Blüdhaven, home of Nightwing.
Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins.
In Flash, there's even a headline in the "future newspaper" related to Wayne Tech.
Even these few details point strongly to Batman's existence in the same universe.
But where is he?
Why aren't Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne old party buddies or business partners?
Why not even the faintest mention of Gotham City?
Now, you could say "because DC/WB lawyers, movies, contracts, yada yada".
But I don't (want to) think so.
At the same time, there is this show Gotham. (again, I haven't watched it)
A young Bruce Wayne loses his parents and sits idly watching the criminal goings-on in Gotham City. He isn't Batman yet, and might never become the Dark Knight in the continuity of this show.
But what if...
What if...
What if Oliver Queen *does* show up in Gotham City some time in the future?
What if Oliver Queen meets young Bruce Wayne, much like he found Roy, and decides to train him?
What if The Arrow and STAR Labs help to create the Batman?
(What if Cisco names him?)
What if this is all an elaborate secret buildup to a new Batman show "done right"?
Alright, I've gotten that off my chest.
Go ahead and tell me that something I'll see in the future leads to a contradiction of my idea.
Friday, July 31, 2015
The Dark Tower
tl;dr skip to the end if you want to see my crazy spoilery theory about "the ending" of the series...
Back in high school, I have a hazy memory that I actually ... read... books.
One of the authors I couldn't get enough of was Stephen King. Christine, Cujo, The Dead Zone, Tommyknockers.. I read a whole ton of his work.
And then I came across the Dark Tower trilogy. It was a different sort of story than his usual stuff. A fantasy adventure in a strange world. A twisted Wizard of Oz with "cowboys" and magic doors.
I loved it!
Indirectly, my love of the Dark Tower "trilogy" was forever preserved in my high school yearbook caption, as I (the foolish young nerd) wrote an obscure reference to an RPG character (NERD!) that I had named after Roland (NERRRRRRRDDDDDDDD!)
If you're not familiar with the series, I'm not going to explain it to you very well. I couldn't do it justice. But it's basically the story of the journey of Roland, the Gunslinger, toward.. uh.. The Dark Tower.. which is as mysterious as it sounds. Along the way he is joined by a group (a ka-tet) of traveling companions, mostly from "our world". The story is very metaphysical and self-referential, sometimes weird with strange monsters, magic, and science.. and so hard to explain without giving away some spoilers about the nature of the Tower and ka.
But the ending of the third book.. is so... infuriatingly dangling. Acknowledged by King himself, it was just the place he decided to stop.
Those of you who have not yet read the books (and you should!) do not have to wait the excruciating 5-7 years to resolve the cliffhanger at the end of The Waste Lands. Like binge-watching an old series on Netflix, consider yourself lucky in this regard.
That being said, when the fourth book -- Wizard and Glass -- came out in my college years, I tried to read it. I really did. But... I just couldn't. I dunno why. It starts with a semi-satisfying resolution to the cliffhanger, but is mostly told as a flashback with character background that I didn't appreciate at the time. I wanted to know what happened next, after all this time waiting; not hear about what makes Roland tick!
So I went more than 15 years without picking it back up again. During that time, the 7-book series was concluded (mostly) and I have even spent my fair share of time logged in to a server named after a mystical word that's a central part of the last book. ;)
Just recently, in my wise old years, I decided to start listening to audiobooks to encourage more exercise.
And "just to see how things go", I decided to start this ordeal by listening to the whole Dark Tower series, from the beginning. The first 3-and-change books would be familiar enough that I could sort out the technical details while not having to pay 100% attention to the narrative.
The first book was actually significantly revised when the 5th/6th/7th came out on the scene, to put it more in line with some of the later ideas (but I have a theory about that too. See the spoilery part below). So there were parts where I said "huh. I specifically don't remember this part that I would have remembered." as I listened.
But I made it through the first 3 books again.. and the 4th book which was much easier to tolerate and appreciate this time around. (Still slightly dissatisfying that most of the book was such a tangent to the "current action", but at least I hadn't waited 5 years between books this time, and didn't have to wait another 7 for the conclusion).
And then I heard all-new-to-me parts of the story .. from book 5 onward it definitely gets... weird .... in lots of ways, some which would require a spoiler just to use a single word on how weird it gets. But it's amazing.
And the way the story ends.. I am satisfied with it.
There's apparently a new book that takes place between books 4 and 5, a couple of short stories, and a series of comics, and I might even check these all out.
Also, due to the.. multiversal .. nature of the story, there are lots of other works by King that tie into The Dark Tower, subtlely or not. I don't know if I'd count those in a completionist sense, but it's cool to know those references are there.
I definitely recommend this series, and I kind of regret not keeping up with it as it was being released.
On a general arbitrary review scale, I rate this series a GRRRRR!
Blogger's "spoiler tag CSS" didn't work properly -- sorry if you saw it already. But I've just moved my spoilery comments to a Google Doc. If you're interested in some minor spoiler-ridden commentary, go take a look here: Spoily thoughts!
Back in high school, I have a hazy memory that I actually ... read... books.
One of the authors I couldn't get enough of was Stephen King. Christine, Cujo, The Dead Zone, Tommyknockers.. I read a whole ton of his work.
And then I came across the Dark Tower trilogy. It was a different sort of story than his usual stuff. A fantasy adventure in a strange world. A twisted Wizard of Oz with "cowboys" and magic doors.
I loved it!
Indirectly, my love of the Dark Tower "trilogy" was forever preserved in my high school yearbook caption, as I (the foolish young nerd) wrote an obscure reference to an RPG character (NERD!) that I had named after Roland (NERRRRRRRDDDDDDDD!)
If you're not familiar with the series, I'm not going to explain it to you very well. I couldn't do it justice. But it's basically the story of the journey of Roland, the Gunslinger, toward.. uh.. The Dark Tower.. which is as mysterious as it sounds. Along the way he is joined by a group (a ka-tet) of traveling companions, mostly from "our world". The story is very metaphysical and self-referential, sometimes weird with strange monsters, magic, and science.. and so hard to explain without giving away some spoilers about the nature of the Tower and ka.
But the ending of the third book.. is so... infuriatingly dangling. Acknowledged by King himself, it was just the place he decided to stop.
Those of you who have not yet read the books (and you should!) do not have to wait the excruciating 5-7 years to resolve the cliffhanger at the end of The Waste Lands. Like binge-watching an old series on Netflix, consider yourself lucky in this regard.
That being said, when the fourth book -- Wizard and Glass -- came out in my college years, I tried to read it. I really did. But... I just couldn't. I dunno why. It starts with a semi-satisfying resolution to the cliffhanger, but is mostly told as a flashback with character background that I didn't appreciate at the time. I wanted to know what happened next, after all this time waiting; not hear about what makes Roland tick!
So I went more than 15 years without picking it back up again. During that time, the 7-book series was concluded (mostly) and I have even spent my fair share of time logged in to a server named after a mystical word that's a central part of the last book. ;)
Just recently, in my wise old years, I decided to start listening to audiobooks to encourage more exercise.
And "just to see how things go", I decided to start this ordeal by listening to the whole Dark Tower series, from the beginning. The first 3-and-change books would be familiar enough that I could sort out the technical details while not having to pay 100% attention to the narrative.
The first book was actually significantly revised when the 5th/6th/7th came out on the scene, to put it more in line with some of the later ideas (but I have a theory about that too. See the spoilery part below). So there were parts where I said "huh. I specifically don't remember this part that I would have remembered." as I listened.
But I made it through the first 3 books again.. and the 4th book which was much easier to tolerate and appreciate this time around. (Still slightly dissatisfying that most of the book was such a tangent to the "current action", but at least I hadn't waited 5 years between books this time, and didn't have to wait another 7 for the conclusion).
And then I heard all-new-to-me parts of the story .. from book 5 onward it definitely gets... weird .... in lots of ways, some which would require a spoiler just to use a single word on how weird it gets. But it's amazing.
And the way the story ends.. I am satisfied with it.
There's apparently a new book that takes place between books 4 and 5, a couple of short stories, and a series of comics, and I might even check these all out.
Also, due to the.. multiversal .. nature of the story, there are lots of other works by King that tie into The Dark Tower, subtlely or not. I don't know if I'd count those in a completionist sense, but it's cool to know those references are there.
I definitely recommend this series, and I kind of regret not keeping up with it as it was being released.
On a general arbitrary review scale, I rate this series a GRRRRR!
Blogger's "spoiler tag CSS" didn't work properly -- sorry if you saw it already. But I've just moved my spoilery comments to a Google Doc. If you're interested in some minor spoiler-ridden commentary, go take a look here: Spoily thoughts!
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