Game Carnival #4

Welcome to Game Carnival #4 . This is a wrap-up of user-contributed blog posts and articles about tabletop and electronic games of all sorts: board, card, computer, and video games, from around the web.

There used to be another well-regarded blog carnival on games, but it appears to have stopped as of last April. Go figure.

And there are a whole bunch of other blog carnivals about games trying to make it big, including ones about game designers, game production, and video game blogging. Other carnivals start every month or so and peter out.

The best carnivals provide lots of links and receive lots of links. They expose people to new writers and new ideas, and they drive traffic between sites. This game carnival has the potential to be a Big Thing, but it needs your help.

Read the articles and link to the ones you like. Link to this carnival so that readers of your blog will find it. Let's make it a big carnival.

If you would like to host a future version of this carnival, send an email to the carnival organizer, gameguy.

On with the carnival:

General Gaming

Man Bytes Blog presents Ludology, Narratology, Poketology, describing how some people play the game play, while others play the theme.

Brettspieler discusses Spielerterminologie: Comeback-Spiel (in German), which I gather is his term for games he didn't originally like but warmed to.

SharpBrains gives a checklist for evaluating how to decide between Brain Training Games and "Games".

In Hidden Trackable, Dave Chalker writes about designing hidden but trackable elements into your game.

Board and Card Games

Present Tense introduces 1KBWC: Hours of DIY Fun for Less Than 6 Bucks. Otherwise known as 1000 White Cards, everyone makes up the cards before the game starts, and these are then dealt out to all players. The game can get rather silly, and, depending on the crowd you're with, perverse.

Average Girl Plays reviews the game Pounce. Pounce is a card game which is a lot like Spit crossed with Klondike.

Splitting Eights discusses A Most Impersonal Game Experience, which is playing a board game (Settlers of Catan) over the Internet. He also compares games to food, which is something I often do.

He then enumerates the 9 Favorite Games to Play with My Daughter. His daughter, that is, not mine.

gameguy reviews the old and tired Milton Bradley’s Operation Game. Now in different flavors.

And I posted my monthly post on game patents in July Board and Card Game Patents.

Other Non-electronic Games

Gnome gives us A CRPGer friendly introduction to the world of pen & paper Role Playing Games. Just as he says.

Speaking of Dungeons and Dragons, they've just announced 4e. Dave Chalker gives us The Case for Fourth Edition by listing some of the problems in 3e that will be fixed.

Bernie DeKoven of DeepFun gives us a poem, a video, and thoughts about bubble-making in Bubble Wars.

The Men's Gift Guide selects A Horseshoes Alternative, a game you can play that involves tossing washers in the backyard without having to dig a sand pit.

Electronic Gaming - Software

Gnome disputes the notion that the adventure game is old-hat with A Guide to the world of the Indy Adventure Game. It includes a lits of some his favorite games in the genre.

Andy Merrill gives us pros and cons in an All-Pro Football 2K8 Review. He also gives us a Hexic 2 Review. He, and his wife, seem less than thrilled with Hexic 2.

Football Manager Mania then tells us how he makes 200 million dollar a year Selling Players. Someone please tell me that that's virtual money. To start you out, he gives us some Very Useful Tips for Beginners 1.

Fugdale's Funhouse gives us the Ultimate Memory Game, which reminds me of those old tests where you have to spot the differences between two pictures.

Jessica DeCola reviews the first-person shooter game Prey, even though FPS are not her usual genre of choice. However, some of the graphics curiously disturbed her.

Then, in Technology > (Relationships|Food|Hygeine), she reviews her first game for the Wii, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, which seems to be a purposeful exercise in trying to reproduce a seizure.

Review Hookup reviews X-Men Legends 2: Rise of the Apocalypse.

CAE Gaming posts a list of games he's looking forward to, in Anticipated Upcoming Titles. Includes videos of trailers and game play.

The So-Called Me has been playing Harvest Moon, as she relates in Harvest Time.

Vat19 gives us 10 Great No Download, No Install, Minimal Learning Curve Online Games.

Electronic Gaming - Hardware

The Video Gaming Report passes on rumors of version 2 of the PS3 in PS3 Update v2.00 info (rumour).

Pocket Change tells us about the New Wii System Update, which happened automatically one night.

And Microsoft Getting Sued Over Scratching Xbox 360 Games, i.e. that the XBox game console is scratching the game disks. Apparently, Microsoft charges you $20 to replace a game disk that their console has scratched.

And more Microsoft XBox problems: Pajama Mommy had loads of problems with her XBox and had to go buy another, as she tells in XBox Updates.

Electronic Gaming - Other

Everyone Needs Therapy isn't kidding in his long article on how some people really lose touch with their real life while fooling around online, in THIS is love?

Super Punch gives us his Custom Smash Bros. Brawl Desktop Wallpapers.


That's it for the carnival. Of course, lots of other great posts and articles about games were published in the last two weeks. They're not in this carnival because no one submitted them. Don't you just hate when that happens?

Toodles,
Yehuda