My good friend and colleague Tom Vasel and his wife Laura Beth Vasel lost their 2 month old prematurely born baby boy yesterday. There are no words, really. But I wish Tom and Laura my deepest condolences on their terrible loss.
Tom has chronicled every step of Jack's birth and sickness on Facebook, as well as other sites, throughout the process. He wrote about the great anticipation that the entire family felt for finally having a boy baby, the joy that each day that Jack's life gave to them, and the terrible decision that they needed to make when faced with the knowledge that there was no longer any hope for brain function.
Tom's friends and relatives regularly sent prayers and wishes, but no less - in fact, greatly more - were the prayers and wishes of thousands of BoardGameGeek gamers who have read Tom's reviews and The Dice Tower listeners who have listened to his excellent game podcast. Tom surely has received strength and some small measure of comfort from the gamer community. I'm proud to be a part of the community, proud of my fellow gamers.
Tom and Laura: May God continue to shine his light on you and your family. May Jack's memory be a blessing.
Yehuda
Showing posts with label gamers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gamers. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Friday, June 04, 2010
Building a Community Out of Gamers
Last night I went to a birthday celebration of someone who used to belong to my game group, but who had moved to another town. Several other gamers who have played in my group, or in his new one, were also at the party. This was not a coincidence.
I started my game group over ten years ago, and I'm now friends with a good percentage of those who have passed through its doors. To look at a typical game night, you might think this a bit odd. At group sessions, we don't often talk about personal lives outside the group. Most of our conversations revolve around what we're playing, what we want to play next, and whether anyone wants to get in on an order of takeout.
Yet, in the last several years, I have eaten at the houses of people whom I met at the group, and they have eaten at mine. I've gone to their childrens' weddings - or their weddings - and other celebrations. And it's not only me; fellow members have done the same for each other. I know that former attendees of my group have started a half-dozen groups in other towns; in all of these, the same dynamic occurs.
I don't claim that there is necessarily anything special about gaming in this regard. I'm sure the same happens to people who attend knitting circles, book clubs, and, of course, religious community centers.
I don't personally connect with my Facebook friends who are neighbors more often than I do with those who live across the world from me. When I meet fellow bloggers or online gamers at a conference, some of whom I've had email correspondence with for years, I say hi, but I don't sit down and talk with them more frequently than I do with strangers at the conference. There's something about face-to-face interaction that breaks down layers of distance. I know the people with whom I sit at my table; people on the screen are one-dimensional.
They're my community.
I started my game group over ten years ago, and I'm now friends with a good percentage of those who have passed through its doors. To look at a typical game night, you might think this a bit odd. At group sessions, we don't often talk about personal lives outside the group. Most of our conversations revolve around what we're playing, what we want to play next, and whether anyone wants to get in on an order of takeout.
Yet, in the last several years, I have eaten at the houses of people whom I met at the group, and they have eaten at mine. I've gone to their childrens' weddings - or their weddings - and other celebrations. And it's not only me; fellow members have done the same for each other. I know that former attendees of my group have started a half-dozen groups in other towns; in all of these, the same dynamic occurs.
I don't claim that there is necessarily anything special about gaming in this regard. I'm sure the same happens to people who attend knitting circles, book clubs, and, of course, religious community centers.
I don't personally connect with my Facebook friends who are neighbors more often than I do with those who live across the world from me. When I meet fellow bloggers or online gamers at a conference, some of whom I've had email correspondence with for years, I say hi, but I don't sit down and talk with them more frequently than I do with strangers at the conference. There's something about face-to-face interaction that breaks down layers of distance. I know the people with whom I sit at my table; people on the screen are one-dimensional.
They're my community.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
The Cheating That Is Not Cheating
Froggie Boogie There's a fantastic children's game called Froggie Boogie. The game comes with a lily-pad track, a small frog for each player, eight larger frogs in two colors each, and two eyes for each frog. A fly is pictured on the bottom of one of the eyes on each frog; the other eye has a blank bottom face.
On your turn, you roll the dice. The two colors rolled on the dice indicate a specific large frog. You choose to look at the bottom of one of the frog's eyes. If it shows a fly, replace the eye in its place, move forward on the lily-pad track, and go again. If it shows a blank face, replace the eye in its place and pass the dice to the player on your left. The first player to reach the end of the track wins.
At the start of the game, picking the eye with the fly is a matter of luck. However, you should, in theory, always be able to pick the correct eye once you've "done" a particular frog. In practice, you tend to forget, again and again, which eye has the fly, much to the amusement of your children who win at least as often as the parents do. It's a fun game for kids, or for kids to play with adults.
Solving Froggie Boogie ...
About halfway through my first game of Froggie Boogie, I realized that the game is solvable. I could assign an order number to each frog, and a binary bit to each eye (for example, right eye is 0, left eye is 1), and thus, after every play, adjust the value of the bits in order, convert the binary number to a decimal number, and remember the decimal number. On my turn, reverse the process to determine the correct location of the fly.
... is Cheating
I could have ... but I didn't. Instead, I continued to play the game the way I believed it was "meant to be played": I tried to remember the locations visually. I got better as the game went on, but continued to make the occasional mistake. In turn, my memory got some exercise.
Why did I do it this way? Because using my solution would have been cheating. On the one hand, it wasn't against the rules. On the other hand, it was against the spirit of the game; solving the game wasn't what the game was "about" [1]. It wouldn't have exercised my memory. And it would have made the game phenomenally boring for me, and for all of the other players. In other words, it would have taken a fun game and turned it into a waste of time. That's wrong.
Winning Should Be a Challenge
In a competition for $1,000 or a trophy, one is expected to try to win at all costs, so long as one plays by the rules and exhibits sportsmanship; in this case, my solution would not be cheating. In a family situation, there is a limit to how many personal resources you are expected to bring to bear in playing a game. You don't go all out against your four year old while playing tennis. You give a weaker player a handicap while playing Go or Chess. That makes it fun for all players, and that's the point; winning is besides the point.
Trackable Information
In some games, information is hidden but trackable. For example, in Puerto Rico, you are aware of how many victory points a player gets when he or she gets them, but you are not "supposed to" keep track of exactly how many each player has [2]. In It's Alive, you can track how much money and which tiles each player has, if you really want to. But you shouldn't. You should guess; it's part of the game. If I had wanted players to keep exact track exactly how many coins and which tiles each player had, I wouldn't have given each player a personal screen to hide them. Exactly keeping track of this information slows down the game, and also makes the game a little boring.
Analysis Paralysis
Over-analysis of a game situation may lead to better results, but it leeches away the fun and the game time from others. When you over-analyze, you get more play time than the other players do, and you may even prevent an additional game from being played later in the evening.
Over-analysis is spending 1/6 more time taking your turn than the average time spent by each other player taking his or her turn. If everyone else spends, on average, a minute to think through a move, you should spend no more than, on average, a minute and ten seconds. You may do better for thinking longer, but that's not the point of this particular game. You are expected, in this particular game, to think only so far, and estimate the rest by instinct.
Thinking for up to a minute or two should be able to get you to take the path with 33% chance of success over the path with 1% chance of success. If several more minutes of thinking gets you to a path with 55% chance of success, then you're over-analyzing, or you're specifically using the game to think through a particular type of strategy [1, 3], or you're playing Chess, where each player's turn is long and deep thinking is encouraged.
Countermeasures
Froggie Boogie's game play is simple, light, and fairly quick. Its child-friendly theme acts to discourage playing the game in any way other than the canonical way.
Same games have open information; this makes tracking information simple, but additional concrete information can lead some players to additional over-analysis.
Some computer games and some board games prevent over-analysis by not providing you a lot of options, or by providing you many options, or by not providing complete information. Providing few options results in a narrower, but possible deeper, search tree. Providing many options results in a search tree that is so broad that anyone with sense should quickly realize that a complete analysis will take too long. Incomplete information is not much of a help on its own, if players can still work hard to analyze the odds.
Many computer game, and some board games, prevent over-analysis by requiring you to make your moves under a time constraint. You can institute your own time constraints (an hourglass or a kitchen clock works well) for any game, if you so desire.
Yehuda
[1] These sentiments do not apply for all occasions. For example, solving the game might serve as an instructive exercise for a class in math, logic, or algorithms.
[2] In a two-player Puerto Rico game, you can't help it, since you know how many you and the bank have, and you know how many there were to start with. To solve this, the bank's current total should be kept secret. Use twenty five 1 VP chips, and the remainder 5 VP chips. Place the 5 VP chips beside the board, and the 1 VP chips in an opaque bag. When you gain 1 VP chips, take them from the bag, tossing 5 of them back into the bag in exchange for a 5 VP chip when appropriate. Players may not count the chips in the bag.
[3] And for some people, that's the fun in a game, regardless of what the game play is "meant" to be.
Monday, October 13, 2008
When is Playing Games a Waste of Time?
The number one problem I have when trying to convince people to play game, or when simply explaining that I play games, is the response that games are a waste of time. Worse, I sometimes hear this from people just after they've played a game that I suggested. "Boy, that was a waste of time."
Undoubtedly, some game experiences are a waste of time. How do you know which ones will be so, before you suffer through them?
Busy People
There are people who don't enjoy games, and not simply out of ignorance about better games. Intelligent people who already have social, cerebral, or interesting hobbies may simply not be interested in investing additional time to pick up another hobby. And that's fine.
Of course, many people who say that they're not disposed to games hold a mental picture of an activity which has little to do with current gaming. They may picture children's games, play activity, lifelong devotions such as Chess, or strange hobbyists such as miniaturists. It's often difficult to replace these people's prejudices against the gaming hobby, because they wave their hand at you as soon as you try to explain.
Sometimes a really powerful analogy (such as comparing specialized gaming to the wine industry) can help. I like to describe how analog games have evolved over the last thirty years, just as digital games have. Or that fairy tales were once understood to be for adults until the last 100 years or so.
The best solution would be if intelligent games had another name that didn't evoke the associations with those games that these people already have dismissed. For instance: Ludography, Mind Sports, Intelligent Games, Analog Play, or some other name for this hobby might do wonders.
Bad timing
Even people who may be disposed to playing games given the right circumstances, may not be disposed "right now". Timing is important.
While the right game at the right time may give satisfaction of having experienced quality time, when a person is in a foul mood, or has more important things to do, or has issues that need resolving, and so on, they shouldn't be gaming, and especially they shouldn't be forced into gaming. They may also have just played the game three times in a row and need a break from it.
One bad experience due to timing can wreck a game, or the idea of gaming, for a long time. Save gaming for a time when you are open-minded and relaxed, with friends.
Bad group
A good group of people with which to play games is critical to enjoying the game experience. If you wouldn't have a conversation or a meal with a group of people, you won't want to be playing games with them.
And some otherwise lovely people are just disastrous as game players. While there's a good deal of flexibility as to gaming styles, the essential difficulty is when styles are mismatched. Players who are too serious when everyone else is lighthearted, or vice versa. Players who take a long time to think through moves when everyone else wants to play quickly, and vice versa. And then there are just those who have no game sense, and whose company should be restricted to lesser activities such as talking about politics or Goethe.
Inappropriate games
Just as there must be a match between players in a group, there must be a match between the game and the group. There are few games that will outright lead to bad experiences; mostly, there are the wrong games for the group.
Some people will feel they are wasting their time when playing games of chance. Others will feel this way when playing complex strategy games, especially against merciless and experienced players. Some balk at a theme, or at an activity, or at an association.
Choose games wisely. As a rule of thumb, if you played the game as a child, you may experience a sense of nostalgia when playing the game, but you'll also likely feel like you're wasting your time; you already learned everything you needed to about the game as a kid. Unless it's a screaming blast to play again and again, why not expand your horizons?
Other constraints
Even the right game with the right people in the right mood can flop, if other external circumstances interfere.
You may not really have enough time to play the game through, or you may be using the table someone's spouse needs to prepare dinner, or you may be playing on a small ledge on a windy mountaintop near a flock of famed cardboard eating goats.
Respect the needs of all players, and remember that games are games. The right games at the right time with the right people can be a meaningful, positive, fun experience. If the wrong elements are at hand, save the games for another time.
Undoubtedly, some game experiences are a waste of time. How do you know which ones will be so, before you suffer through them?
Busy People
There are people who don't enjoy games, and not simply out of ignorance about better games. Intelligent people who already have social, cerebral, or interesting hobbies may simply not be interested in investing additional time to pick up another hobby. And that's fine.
Of course, many people who say that they're not disposed to games hold a mental picture of an activity which has little to do with current gaming. They may picture children's games, play activity, lifelong devotions such as Chess, or strange hobbyists such as miniaturists. It's often difficult to replace these people's prejudices against the gaming hobby, because they wave their hand at you as soon as you try to explain.
Sometimes a really powerful analogy (such as comparing specialized gaming to the wine industry) can help. I like to describe how analog games have evolved over the last thirty years, just as digital games have. Or that fairy tales were once understood to be for adults until the last 100 years or so.
The best solution would be if intelligent games had another name that didn't evoke the associations with those games that these people already have dismissed. For instance: Ludography, Mind Sports, Intelligent Games, Analog Play, or some other name for this hobby might do wonders.
Bad timing
Even people who may be disposed to playing games given the right circumstances, may not be disposed "right now". Timing is important.
While the right game at the right time may give satisfaction of having experienced quality time, when a person is in a foul mood, or has more important things to do, or has issues that need resolving, and so on, they shouldn't be gaming, and especially they shouldn't be forced into gaming. They may also have just played the game three times in a row and need a break from it.
One bad experience due to timing can wreck a game, or the idea of gaming, for a long time. Save gaming for a time when you are open-minded and relaxed, with friends.
Bad group
A good group of people with which to play games is critical to enjoying the game experience. If you wouldn't have a conversation or a meal with a group of people, you won't want to be playing games with them.
And some otherwise lovely people are just disastrous as game players. While there's a good deal of flexibility as to gaming styles, the essential difficulty is when styles are mismatched. Players who are too serious when everyone else is lighthearted, or vice versa. Players who take a long time to think through moves when everyone else wants to play quickly, and vice versa. And then there are just those who have no game sense, and whose company should be restricted to lesser activities such as talking about politics or Goethe.
Inappropriate games
Just as there must be a match between players in a group, there must be a match between the game and the group. There are few games that will outright lead to bad experiences; mostly, there are the wrong games for the group.
Some people will feel they are wasting their time when playing games of chance. Others will feel this way when playing complex strategy games, especially against merciless and experienced players. Some balk at a theme, or at an activity, or at an association.
Choose games wisely. As a rule of thumb, if you played the game as a child, you may experience a sense of nostalgia when playing the game, but you'll also likely feel like you're wasting your time; you already learned everything you needed to about the game as a kid. Unless it's a screaming blast to play again and again, why not expand your horizons?
Other constraints
Even the right game with the right people in the right mood can flop, if other external circumstances interfere.
You may not really have enough time to play the game through, or you may be using the table someone's spouse needs to prepare dinner, or you may be playing on a small ledge on a windy mountaintop near a flock of famed cardboard eating goats.
Respect the needs of all players, and remember that games are games. The right games at the right time with the right people can be a meaningful, positive, fun experience. If the wrong elements are at hand, save the games for another time.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Do Women or Men Play More Board Games?
I don't know of any statistics on the number of women playing board games.Search Google and you'll find dozens of research articles on the prevalence of women video and computer game players and purchasers. Supposedly they make up more than half of all players and nearly three-quarters of all purchasers.
I would be thrilled to see similar research done on board and card game purchases.
Colloquial wisdom is that most board games - packaged toy store board games, that is - are bought my mothers, aunts, and grandmothers as gifts for their children, nephews and nieces, and grandchildren. I don't know if that would equally cover purchases of chess and go sets, playing cards and poker chips, and so on.
Girls and women appear to play as many or more board games than men, counting party games, girl's sleepover and party nights, and so on.
Board Game Geek has a forum section devoted to the female gamer geek, which strengthens the idea that they are in the minority. Some BGG women held a female-only game con once or twice. Women attend general game conferences in higher numbers than they did in the seventies when I was growing up. And I imagine that a board game conference such as BGG.con will record a higher percentage of female attendees than a CCG or RPG con, or even a video game con.
But the last paragraph is more about the game geek rather than the casual game player.
On the subject, here's an interesting study about whether boys or girls are more or less likely to play games created by other boys or girls.
Count Your Sheep obviously plays too many video games today.
I played two games of Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation with Saarya tonight as a goodbye. We switched sides, and white won both times. I won as white fairly easily. Saarya won by the skin of his teeth.
And now I'm going to bed, because tomorrow morning at the ungodly hour of 6:45 AM I'm getting driven to the airport to catch an 11:30 AM flight to Toronto. It's only a 45 minute drive to the airport. You may wonder why I'm being picked up so early. Don't ask such questions.
And so the next chapter in my travelogue starts early.
Good night,
Yehuda
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Whither art thou, tracksy?
I'm astonished not to have read anything about tracksy.com's outage on any other blogs. It's not just me, is it?
tracksy.com, one of the top blog stat services, has been out since at least Friday. On Friday, all you could see was the entire Perl code reprinted on your screen. Since about Saturday, this has been replaced with an apology for a temporary outage over the weekend. It's now Tuesday, and no signs of life.
I sent them an email simply asking how long the outage will be and have received no response. Considering how many other people use tracksy, I would have expected to hear more noise about it in the Blogosphere.
I also have Google Analytics running, and I've always considered moving to another stat system, since tracksy is only free until 25,000 recorded page views a month. I have come close to passing that on occasion. But then, tracky somehow manages to lose some of my stats anyway, and the number drops again. Not exactly the most reliable of services, although it is free and I like the formatting.
Hopefully, this is just a blip.
Update Jan 11: Finally, they're back up, although they have lost several days worth of information and apparently a lot of user accounts, as well. As I'm a free customer, I have no cause to complain. If I were a paying customer, however, I would be rather upset. Not professional, guys.
Game Links:
Board Game Speed Dating - a little racy, but there you have it.
An article about Virtual Research Ethics at gamesblog, analyzing the parallel ethical issues of research on people within virtual worlds to real world issues.
d21 talks about why we game as opposed to other activities, and flatteringly coins the word "Yehudesque". And I thought my wife was going to be turned into an adjective before I was.
Bil Toland of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette laments how even games like Trivial Pursuit are becoming dumber with each new edition.
Games Workshop, of Warhammer and some board games fame, is not meeting its profits expectations.
The Claremont Courier carries an article about a local game store, Gameology, and a nice article about new games. And several papers carry a similar article about the Changing Hands Book Shoppe, in Joplin, Mo.
Yehuda
Tag: tracksy
tracksy.com, one of the top blog stat services, has been out since at least Friday. On Friday, all you could see was the entire Perl code reprinted on your screen. Since about Saturday, this has been replaced with an apology for a temporary outage over the weekend. It's now Tuesday, and no signs of life.
I sent them an email simply asking how long the outage will be and have received no response. Considering how many other people use tracksy, I would have expected to hear more noise about it in the Blogosphere.
I also have Google Analytics running, and I've always considered moving to another stat system, since tracksy is only free until 25,000 recorded page views a month. I have come close to passing that on occasion. But then, tracky somehow manages to lose some of my stats anyway, and the number drops again. Not exactly the most reliable of services, although it is free and I like the formatting.
Hopefully, this is just a blip.
Update Jan 11: Finally, they're back up, although they have lost several days worth of information and apparently a lot of user accounts, as well. As I'm a free customer, I have no cause to complain. If I were a paying customer, however, I would be rather upset. Not professional, guys.
Game Links:
Board Game Speed Dating - a little racy, but there you have it.
An article about Virtual Research Ethics at gamesblog, analyzing the parallel ethical issues of research on people within virtual worlds to real world issues.
d21 talks about why we game as opposed to other activities, and flatteringly coins the word "Yehudesque". And I thought my wife was going to be turned into an adjective before I was.
Bil Toland of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette laments how even games like Trivial Pursuit are becoming dumber with each new edition.
Games Workshop, of Warhammer and some board games fame, is not meeting its profits expectations.
The Claremont Courier carries an article about a local game store, Gameology, and a nice article about new games. And several papers carry a similar article about the Changing Hands Book Shoppe, in Joplin, Mo.
Yehuda
Tag: tracksy
Friday, November 24, 2006
Christian Pilgrims Coming
For dinner this evening we are having over two new shul members, as well as two more visiting Christian pilgrims.
Some of our Christian pilgrim guests have come from a myriad of sources. We basically volunteer whenever someone asks if anyone can host. It's easy when your kids are already in their teen years or older.
Also, my downstairs neighbor is a tour guide, and he gets a lot of Christian touring groups.They are friends of Israel and good tourists. He sends some of his group to local families on Friday evenings to experience an authentic Jewish traditional meal and maybe learn a little more about Jews. Of course, we also learn a little about them, too.
My neighbor gives some pre-shabbat training to our guests: how it is inappropriate to try to convert us, make us see the light, or even mention the word Jesus too often, lest we feel uncomfortable or get offended. He also describes a few of our rituals, and some things that we do or can't do on shabbat. With one exception, our guests have been lovely and pleasant. The exception praised Jesus just a few times too many for me during dinner; this combined with him being a rather dominant conversationalist.
I don't expect to play much; maybe tomorrow afternoon. But on Saturday evening I invited the Elkins to join us for a game of Balderdash. This will hopefully be my first play.
The 64 year-old woman who blew herself up in Gaza yesterday has essentially made life more difficult for the last remaining segment of the Palestinian population that was, until now, not subject to extensive security checks. Way to go.
But I noticed in the news article that her 52 year-old daughter tried to justify her actions. 52 year-old daughter. 64 year-old mother. 9 months of pregnancy. You do the math. Update: the source was here, but they have since removed the alleged age of the daughter.
I link here to Wil Wheaton's report from Gen-Con. For those not in the blogging know, Wil played the hated Wesley Crusher in the first few seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He loathed many of the lines and directions that he was forced to perform and has been trying to escape from the shadow of that role for the last eighteen years. He is actually a cool guy, a great blogger, and a major geek sympathizer.
The Deseret News out of Utah does a complete job on Eurogames.
Joystiq also goes non-digital with a post for the holiday season on great analog games.
Another killing, this time in New Zeland, over a board game, this time Scrabble.
The Union Tribune in San Diego notes an 11 year-old Chess player, whose mother claims that Chess has helped her son's focus, concentration, logic, math, and memory skills. I note the article only because one of the reporter's gushing praises of the young player is, "He has memorized each of the 64 squares on a chess board." Wow! I ... I ... I'm not sure what that means.
Yehuda
Some of our Christian pilgrim guests have come from a myriad of sources. We basically volunteer whenever someone asks if anyone can host. It's easy when your kids are already in their teen years or older.
Also, my downstairs neighbor is a tour guide, and he gets a lot of Christian touring groups.They are friends of Israel and good tourists. He sends some of his group to local families on Friday evenings to experience an authentic Jewish traditional meal and maybe learn a little more about Jews. Of course, we also learn a little about them, too.
My neighbor gives some pre-shabbat training to our guests: how it is inappropriate to try to convert us, make us see the light, or even mention the word Jesus too often, lest we feel uncomfortable or get offended. He also describes a few of our rituals, and some things that we do or can't do on shabbat. With one exception, our guests have been lovely and pleasant. The exception praised Jesus just a few times too many for me during dinner; this combined with him being a rather dominant conversationalist.
I don't expect to play much; maybe tomorrow afternoon. But on Saturday evening I invited the Elkins to join us for a game of Balderdash. This will hopefully be my first play.
The 64 year-old woman who blew herself up in Gaza yesterday has essentially made life more difficult for the last remaining segment of the Palestinian population that was, until now, not subject to extensive security checks. Way to go.
But I noticed in the news article that her 52 year-old daughter tried to justify her actions. 52 year-old daughter. 64 year-old mother. 9 months of pregnancy. You do the math. Update: the source was here, but they have since removed the alleged age of the daughter.
I link here to Wil Wheaton's report from Gen-Con. For those not in the blogging know, Wil played the hated Wesley Crusher in the first few seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He loathed many of the lines and directions that he was forced to perform and has been trying to escape from the shadow of that role for the last eighteen years. He is actually a cool guy, a great blogger, and a major geek sympathizer.
The Deseret News out of Utah does a complete job on Eurogames.
Joystiq also goes non-digital with a post for the holiday season on great analog games.
Another killing, this time in New Zeland, over a board game, this time Scrabble.
The Union Tribune in San Diego notes an 11 year-old Chess player, whose mother claims that Chess has helped her son's focus, concentration, logic, math, and memory skills. I note the article only because one of the reporter's gushing praises of the young player is, "He has memorized each of the 64 squares on a chess board." Wow! I ... I ... I'm not sure what that means.
Yehuda
Monday, November 20, 2006
Ciao, Rick Thornquist
Rick writes that he is dropping out of game reporting and management of Board Game News. Sad news.
I haven't gotten to meet him, yet. But since he also won't be visiting conventions as often, my chances are now slimmer than ever. I'm hoping he will one day visit the holy land. :-)
Aside from Board Game Geek, Board Game News is probably the best repository of game information, and it is less than a year old. That is a tribute to his work and dedication. Luckily for us, Eric Martin has promised to take over the reins; hopefully it will continue to earn its respected place among game sites on the web.
Dave Tianen, a frequent reviewer of games and movies, lists a few good game recommendations in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Yehuda
I haven't gotten to meet him, yet. But since he also won't be visiting conventions as often, my chances are now slimmer than ever. I'm hoping he will one day visit the holy land. :-)
Aside from Board Game Geek, Board Game News is probably the best repository of game information, and it is less than a year old. That is a tribute to his work and dedication. Luckily for us, Eric Martin has promised to take over the reins; hopefully it will continue to earn its respected place among game sites on the web.
Dave Tianen, a frequent reviewer of games and movies, lists a few good game recommendations in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Yehuda
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Game Fingers: A Bat-Mitzvah Series of Events
Game Fingers
What are game fingers? Game fingers are the ingrained habits your fingers come to learn due to having played a particular game, or a multitude of similar games, that require the same repetitive digit manipulation.
Go players have game fingers, for instance. There is a certain way of holding and placing a stone. I doubt they could just casually pick up a small stone on a beach without holding it "correctly".
I didn't realize that I had it until tonight.
Yet Another Bat-Mitzvah Story
My cousins Avi and Robin have six children, and this is their third bar/bat-mitzvah. They have an interesting tradition now for their children: projects.
Gather round, and I'll tell you.
For Rami's Bar-mitzvah, before we got to eat, Rami gave a speech about how it was important not only to "be" bar-mitzvahed, but to take the obligation seriously. And therefore, since his celebration was a few weeks before Passover, he decided to distribute several hundred containers of cleaning supplies to needy families.
All he needed was our help in putting them all together and packaging them. So saying, he revealed a side room where a dozen tables were laid out with cleaning supplies and buckets. The guests had to (they didn't have to, but most did anyway) take one item from each table and lug it out back to the waiting truck from Yad Eliezer. I made about forty odd trips.
For Sarit's bat mitzvah, the celebration was in a restaurant out in a remote location. It was before the school year started, so we all walked around this nature trail, collecting school supplies and returning with them to be loaded off to needy children, again through Yad Eliezer.
This time at least, no one had to leave their seats. For Eliora's bat-mitzvah, she had been collecting 10 agorot pieces from people for the past year or so. She traded them all for shekels, and gave a basket to each table. We had to assemble them all, 25 to each bag, 20 bags per table, and include a little note and a candy, to be sent as Hanukkah gelt to homeless children.
Here's where the game fingers come in.
In what game do you take hundreds of little circles (shekel pieces, in tonight's case) and count out batches of twenty-five at a time?
Anyone?
Yes, Puerto Rico, my game of games. I am so used to counting out the little colonists in Puerto Rico, it was disconcerting to feel my fingers fly so instinctively in counting out little coins the same way. And amusing, I suppose. Is there no end to what games can help you with?
For the record, the idea is to allow all of us to help participate in the mitzvah; they don't really need our help assembling all of this stuff. It took them longer to set it up to begin with. But the idea is that God is going to provide for his poor anyway, and we are given the privilege of being the ones to help out.
For their bar/bat-mitzvah, they also learn the Sefer Hinuch, do a nice speech, and so on.
Rummy
It has been a long standing tradition of the Berlingers to bring a deck of cards to a celebration. I think it's because we were raised without proper manners. Something like that.
If you look at all of our wedding albums, each one has the obligatory picture of the three brothers and someone else playing Bridge right before the huppah. We always used to sneak off during some boring part of any event to play a few hands.
For some reason I never taught either of my children Bridge, except cursorily. I don't know why. It's a great oversight on my part.
So when I found myself bored this evening, along with Tal and my mother, we had to settle for a game of 500 rummy. Pretty silly game, really.
Emergency Call for the Game Doctor
I had to interrupt the game to take my first ever emergency game related call.
I received a call from someone who didn't even remember my name, but had written down my number to call in Jerusalem about game related information.
He was in a spot. He had been set up on a shidduch and needed to find a copy of Othello to play with his shidduch. Because, that's one thing that religious couples can do with each other when they are still forbidden to touch each other.
Luckily, I was able to point him to the Hebrew names of Othello-like games in Israel, as well as a recommendation to try Blokus and/or Ingenious, as well.
Now, do I bill for an entire hour, or pro-rate?
The difference between Hebrew and English
Since some of the attendees spoke only Hebrew, and some only English, and most both, the speeches were repeated in both Hebrew and English in entirety.
Robin announced this and then apologized for this. Her apology in English was "Sorry". Her apology in Hebrew was "×›×›×”", which literally means "that's how it goes" and colloquially means "tough s**t".
"Sorry"? What does that word mean? What are you trying to say? Get out of my way!
Cousins
Why do I see my cousins so infrequently? Why? Why? Tonight, I was introduced for the first time to my cousin's new one and a half year old girl, and I saw my other cousins for the first time since a month before they were thrown out of Gaza (they are still in a caravan, by the way).
So anyway, a nice party, a nice but brief reunion, and my parents came back to my house to sleep because they needed to go for a checkup at the hospital tomorrow, anyway.
Yehuda
What are game fingers? Game fingers are the ingrained habits your fingers come to learn due to having played a particular game, or a multitude of similar games, that require the same repetitive digit manipulation.
Go players have game fingers, for instance. There is a certain way of holding and placing a stone. I doubt they could just casually pick up a small stone on a beach without holding it "correctly".
I didn't realize that I had it until tonight.
Yet Another Bat-Mitzvah Story
My cousins Avi and Robin have six children, and this is their third bar/bat-mitzvah. They have an interesting tradition now for their children: projects.
Gather round, and I'll tell you.
For Rami's Bar-mitzvah, before we got to eat, Rami gave a speech about how it was important not only to "be" bar-mitzvahed, but to take the obligation seriously. And therefore, since his celebration was a few weeks before Passover, he decided to distribute several hundred containers of cleaning supplies to needy families.
All he needed was our help in putting them all together and packaging them. So saying, he revealed a side room where a dozen tables were laid out with cleaning supplies and buckets. The guests had to (they didn't have to, but most did anyway) take one item from each table and lug it out back to the waiting truck from Yad Eliezer. I made about forty odd trips.
For Sarit's bat mitzvah, the celebration was in a restaurant out in a remote location. It was before the school year started, so we all walked around this nature trail, collecting school supplies and returning with them to be loaded off to needy children, again through Yad Eliezer.
This time at least, no one had to leave their seats. For Eliora's bat-mitzvah, she had been collecting 10 agorot pieces from people for the past year or so. She traded them all for shekels, and gave a basket to each table. We had to assemble them all, 25 to each bag, 20 bags per table, and include a little note and a candy, to be sent as Hanukkah gelt to homeless children.
Here's where the game fingers come in.
In what game do you take hundreds of little circles (shekel pieces, in tonight's case) and count out batches of twenty-five at a time?
Anyone?
Yes, Puerto Rico, my game of games. I am so used to counting out the little colonists in Puerto Rico, it was disconcerting to feel my fingers fly so instinctively in counting out little coins the same way. And amusing, I suppose. Is there no end to what games can help you with?
For the record, the idea is to allow all of us to help participate in the mitzvah; they don't really need our help assembling all of this stuff. It took them longer to set it up to begin with. But the idea is that God is going to provide for his poor anyway, and we are given the privilege of being the ones to help out.
For their bar/bat-mitzvah, they also learn the Sefer Hinuch, do a nice speech, and so on.
Rummy
It has been a long standing tradition of the Berlingers to bring a deck of cards to a celebration. I think it's because we were raised without proper manners. Something like that.
If you look at all of our wedding albums, each one has the obligatory picture of the three brothers and someone else playing Bridge right before the huppah. We always used to sneak off during some boring part of any event to play a few hands.
For some reason I never taught either of my children Bridge, except cursorily. I don't know why. It's a great oversight on my part.
So when I found myself bored this evening, along with Tal and my mother, we had to settle for a game of 500 rummy. Pretty silly game, really.
Emergency Call for the Game Doctor
I had to interrupt the game to take my first ever emergency game related call.
I received a call from someone who didn't even remember my name, but had written down my number to call in Jerusalem about game related information.
He was in a spot. He had been set up on a shidduch and needed to find a copy of Othello to play with his shidduch. Because, that's one thing that religious couples can do with each other when they are still forbidden to touch each other.
Luckily, I was able to point him to the Hebrew names of Othello-like games in Israel, as well as a recommendation to try Blokus and/or Ingenious, as well.
Now, do I bill for an entire hour, or pro-rate?
The difference between Hebrew and English
Since some of the attendees spoke only Hebrew, and some only English, and most both, the speeches were repeated in both Hebrew and English in entirety.
Robin announced this and then apologized for this. Her apology in English was "Sorry". Her apology in Hebrew was "×›×›×”", which literally means "that's how it goes" and colloquially means "tough s**t".
"Sorry"? What does that word mean? What are you trying to say? Get out of my way!
Cousins
Why do I see my cousins so infrequently? Why? Why? Tonight, I was introduced for the first time to my cousin's new one and a half year old girl, and I saw my other cousins for the first time since a month before they were thrown out of Gaza (they are still in a caravan, by the way).
So anyway, a nice party, a nice but brief reunion, and my parents came back to my house to sleep because they needed to go for a checkup at the hospital tomorrow, anyway.
Yehuda
Friday, November 17, 2006
A Job Experience
I have low expectations for this weekend. Rachel and I are alone for dinner, however, so it shouldn't be too hard to get in two games of Puerto Rico tonight.
Since Chris told me he would be able to bring me some games, I shipped some to him:
WildLife
Children of Fire (the board game, which sounds like a less chaotic version of Ys)
San Juan (for one of our game groupies)
Lost Cities
Tichu
Saboteur
I have several other games waiting for me at various friends around America: Netrunner, Middle Earth CCG, and lord knows what else. I'm starting to lose track of what's where.
...
As I was writing this, the apartment's gardener stopped in and needed a check from the apt committee, currently run by my wife. She was going to be back in fifteen minutes, and he agreed to wait. I offered him coffee. And waited about thirty seconds.
One thing I know about Arabs in the Middle East is that most of them play Backgammon and/or Checkers. Now, I don't speak any Arabic, and he didn't speak much English or Hebrew. But I managed to convey to him the options by taking out the pieces and offering him a choice.
Apparently he doesn't play much but of course he knew how to play. We progressed through the game. I wasn't sure if he didn't know how to play well, or liked to occasionally see if he could get away with some things. His dice rolling practically consisted of putting the dice down on the table. He moved to the wrong spaces, sometimes. But he seemed to enjoy himself, anyway.
Near the end, when it was clear that I was winning, he tried to explain that there were two other games he preferred to play on the same board, something called "Muchbasa" and something else called "Thirty-one". Just as he was beginning to explain Muchbasa, Rachel returned.
...
As I was writing this, I received an email from a friend, passing on a job opportunity he found for ... wait for it ... a game blogger. The position is located in central Israel, and topics will include: skill games, sports, gaming, pc games, card games, board games, online games, network gaming, game rules and strategies, how-to manuals, instructional materials, etc.
Said friend also invited us over to play games sometime this week. Funny, because I have still never played Balderdash and was looking to play it with another couple or two next week and had preliminarily invited a different couple over to do just that. We don't play Balderdash on games night because it is not strategic, and we can't play it on shabbat because it requires writing.
God works in mysterious ways.
Yehuda
Since Chris told me he would be able to bring me some games, I shipped some to him:
WildLife
Children of Fire (the board game, which sounds like a less chaotic version of Ys)
San Juan (for one of our game groupies)
Lost Cities
Tichu
Saboteur
I have several other games waiting for me at various friends around America: Netrunner, Middle Earth CCG, and lord knows what else. I'm starting to lose track of what's where.
...
As I was writing this, the apartment's gardener stopped in and needed a check from the apt committee, currently run by my wife. She was going to be back in fifteen minutes, and he agreed to wait. I offered him coffee. And waited about thirty seconds.
One thing I know about Arabs in the Middle East is that most of them play Backgammon and/or Checkers. Now, I don't speak any Arabic, and he didn't speak much English or Hebrew. But I managed to convey to him the options by taking out the pieces and offering him a choice.
Apparently he doesn't play much but of course he knew how to play. We progressed through the game. I wasn't sure if he didn't know how to play well, or liked to occasionally see if he could get away with some things. His dice rolling practically consisted of putting the dice down on the table. He moved to the wrong spaces, sometimes. But he seemed to enjoy himself, anyway.
Near the end, when it was clear that I was winning, he tried to explain that there were two other games he preferred to play on the same board, something called "Muchbasa" and something else called "Thirty-one". Just as he was beginning to explain Muchbasa, Rachel returned.
...
As I was writing this, I received an email from a friend, passing on a job opportunity he found for ... wait for it ... a game blogger. The position is located in central Israel, and topics will include: skill games, sports, gaming, pc games, card games, board games, online games, network gaming, game rules and strategies, how-to manuals, instructional materials, etc.
Said friend also invited us over to play games sometime this week. Funny, because I have still never played Balderdash and was looking to play it with another couple or two next week and had preliminarily invited a different couple over to do just that. We don't play Balderdash on games night because it is not strategic, and we can't play it on shabbat because it requires writing.
God works in mysterious ways.
Yehuda
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Less Distance Than There Seems
There is less distance than there seems between here and there.
I played my first online game of Santiago against Alfred, Jonathan Takagi, Scott Firestone, and Scott Slomiany. I concentrated on an early large territory, expecting others to come back as the game progressed. Only, in the last half of the game, no one was able to connect more than three tiles of the same type. Furthermore, the entire center of the board was completely barren. My early territory, which was the only thing that I acquired during the game, secured a win for me.
It's a joy to be able to play with friends around the world, so easily.
In other news, Chris Brooks, extraordinary game blogger and co-founder of Sunriver Games, will be in Israel again at the end of November, and we are going to try to hook up again. Our record is 1 for 2 on his Israeli visits, so far.
Another blogger, Maksim Smelchak, has also hinted at a visit to Israel sometime soon.
It's so nice to have contact with the outside world. I wish I could have gone to Essen or go to BGG.con, but we can't have everything, I guess.
Serious Games is now listing open job positions.
I also want to mention today's Something Positive, where Fred MacIntire gets "jewed". By "jewed", I don't mean the traditional offensive meaning of the word, which is to get cheated. I mean to get treated as Jews get treated: blamed for anything wrong that any other Jew does, and often something that hasn't been done at all.
Today, Fred, who is a sensible believing Christian, gets grouped in the same bucket as obnoxious fundamentalists, whom he despises as much as his accuser does. I feel for him.
Yehuda
I played my first online game of Santiago against Alfred, Jonathan Takagi, Scott Firestone, and Scott Slomiany. I concentrated on an early large territory, expecting others to come back as the game progressed. Only, in the last half of the game, no one was able to connect more than three tiles of the same type. Furthermore, the entire center of the board was completely barren. My early territory, which was the only thing that I acquired during the game, secured a win for me.
It's a joy to be able to play with friends around the world, so easily.
In other news, Chris Brooks, extraordinary game blogger and co-founder of Sunriver Games, will be in Israel again at the end of November, and we are going to try to hook up again. Our record is 1 for 2 on his Israeli visits, so far.
Another blogger, Maksim Smelchak, has also hinted at a visit to Israel sometime soon.
It's so nice to have contact with the outside world. I wish I could have gone to Essen or go to BGG.con, but we can't have everything, I guess.
Serious Games is now listing open job positions.
I also want to mention today's Something Positive, where Fred MacIntire gets "jewed". By "jewed", I don't mean the traditional offensive meaning of the word, which is to get cheated. I mean to get treated as Jews get treated: blamed for anything wrong that any other Jew does, and often something that hasn't been done at all.
Today, Fred, who is a sensible believing Christian, gets grouped in the same bucket as obnoxious fundamentalists, whom he despises as much as his accuser does. I feel for him.
Yehuda
Thursday, October 26, 2006
When to Not Give Up
One of the major lessons of Go is when to give up. Playing in an area in which you have no hope of acquiring is not merely futile, it is counterproductive, because a) you lose more points in lost stones and b) each play represents a lost opportunity to play elsewhere.In other words, the lessons Go teaches us about giving up come with several caveats:
1) That we are absolutely sure that what we've given up on is totally lost
2) That trying anyway is counterproductive, or even more harmful
3) That the energy spent on a lost cause is robbing us of resources better spent elsewhere that will actually do us good
Item number one is the hardest one to wrap your head around. All of the inspirational thinking in our world teaches us exactly the opposite. The game isn't over until it's over. You never know what you can do until you try. Great geniuses can accomplish what others consider impossible.
The funny part is that they're right. The game isn't over until it's over - that's because you have nothing better to do with your time anyway, so playing it out and hoping for a million to one chance doesn't represent any lost opportunity. You never know what you can accomplish until you try - because the evaluation about what is absolutely lost is often premature. Accomplishing the impossible - because some people don't seem to follow the rules.
I find these latter people to be the most annoying, actually. I have a friend who took various illicit drugs in high school and college while maintaining a straight A average and doing all sorts of extra curricular activities. He slept around without causing any major social problems or contracting any diseases. He smokes one cigarette a year and has never gotten addicted to anything.
So sue me. I still don't condone cigarettes, drugs, and promiscuous sex just because some few weirdos can beat the odds. Naturally, this person thinks it was a great experience and doesn't think fooling around with these things is as bad as others make it out to be.
Another seemingly blessed person is Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, who claims to be the first person to ever recover from a debilitating speech problem, from which no one else has ever recovered, by sheer force of will. In previous posts he talks about all of the other odds he has overcome, despite everyone around him telling him that he can't do it. He always does.
Is he an inspirational story for the rest of us? Or a freak, whose inspiration will lead others into attempting, and then failing, the impossible?
Although I would like to condemn him to being a freak because I don't like his bloated ego, all of his persistence stories never actually violated any of the three above rules: either what he tried to accomplish wasn't really impossible, or his attempts didn't make things worse, anyway, or his efforts didn't represent a waste that could have been better used elsewhere. He tried various techniques to regain his voice, because why not? And he succeeded.
One other point needs to be made regarding giving up: often people fail at things simply due to lack of persistence. 99% of people won't accomplish X because they get discouraged by the fact that 99% of people won't accomplish it. The 1% who succeed are sometimes the 1% who are willing to continue after the attempt becomes less popular and then find themselves with more space on the playing field. The 99% self-selected themselves to failure.
As to when to really recognize that something is not worth the effort because it is an absolutely lost cause: either you really know it to be true from experience, or you are happy to direct your efforts elsewhere, regardless of whether it's true or not.
Games
I tried Lexicon again with my daughter and reconfirmed my belief that word based card games are simply too easy, as it is very easy to meld words from a handful of letters.
I also taught Go to a non-gamer friend. She bemoaned her lack of understanding what she was doing throughout the game. I told her that that was normal. We will see if she asks to play again.
I am working my way through the Go based anime series Hikaru No Go via the magic of YouTube.
Links
Baby Blues is becoming a favorite of mine for board game related linking. In the latest, Hammie explores the nature of cooperative games.
The Huffington Post posts a nice article about a parent finally cluing in to the positive aspects of video gaming. (via Raph)
Sinister Dexter asks about museums of gaming and gets a batch of wonderful replies. Check out the link to see a dozen links to museums or museum displays on gaming around the world.
Yehuda
Thursday, October 05, 2006
How (and Why) to Play with Your Child in Six Steps
Sometimes, the best things in life really are free.The difference between a happy parent and an overwhelmed one is the difference between a parent that sees the big picture and one who is caught up in the drudgery of the moment. You don't need to spend money to make children happy; you need to spend time.
I'm not going to rail against expensive computer games, videos, summer camps, activity groups, and so on ... except to say that, while these may have their place, two things these items have in common are that they separate a) you from your child, and b) you from your money.
The best alternative to these items is to look at the big picture. If you have a child, I want you to take ten seconds to look at him or her.
You have, at best, eighteen years to play with that child. Once the child is past eighteen, you may have still have a relationship, but it will no longer be with that child. It will be with the adult who took his or her place.
Big picture.
You've got a good many years to live after that child turns eighteen. And you've lived a good many years before he or she was born. Now is your only chance to be with that child.
Every smile, every cough, every bruise, every tantrum, every defiant stare, every catch and tumble; these only happen for so long. Make each one count. Sure, you make mistakes, but even mistakes are good lessons if you recover from them and build on them. It's better late than never to really start playing with the child that you have.
Look at the big picture.
Accept that playing with your kids is time well spent
Play is natural, both for children and for adults. We never stop having a need to play, we just have other things to think about. And life tells us that, since these other things are serious, that therefore they are not games. What hogwash.
You can turn just about any task short of a funeral preparation into a game. Putting joy into your living doesn't mean taking life less seriously. It just means enjoying life more. Stop wasting your life and start playing games.
Share time together with your child; recognize what is most important; see the big picture. All of those other things you do, you do to spend time with your children; maybe you forgot that. If you only spend time with your child, you may not have any money; ok. But if you spend no time with your child, aren't you missing the point?
Play helps a young mind grow. Every minute of play is a minute of rapt attention at learning something; if it's not a new task or new information, it is learning that closeness and laughter are possible in this world.
Play helps an old mind rejuvenate. Studies show that play staves off dementia and Alzheimer's.
Playing means learning about the real world. Any play, however you formulate it, means social connection, distinguishing between what's in the game and what's out, pattern building, fairness, cooperation, attention, and challenge.
Playing means learning about other people and their feelings.
Play teaches every conceivable subject: math, verbal, history, economics, politics, environment, safety, law, and so on. Not only do game themes cover all of these subjects, these subjects are the natural lessons learned from playing many games.
Play builds abstraction and possibility. The real world is one thing. Play is the first step to imagining something possible that doesn't yet exist. All play exists within an abstract fantasy world imposed over our own. The older the child gets, the larger this space can become.
Play helps us learn about each other. What makes us suspicious, what it means to hurt, what it means to play fair. How to build trust.
Play helps toughen us against obstacles and failure. It builds resolve and fortitude. We must deal with losing and winning; we must deal with our own emotions in a way that doesn't inflict them unfairly upon other people.
Play teaches us to deal with the consequences of our own actions.
Here's more on why we play games.
Know your childEvery child is different. I don't have to tell you that, right? This means that not every play style or type of game will work with each child.
Some children will find certain types of games more challenging than others. Some will find some games more boring than others. You may be tempted, and the child may be tempted, to only play games where your child already knows how to win. That is not the right path. Play games that are fun and don't turn them into bad experiences, but don't shirk away from building up skills in all types of areas.
Avoid the boring, but don't avoid the challenging. If your child gets upset because a game is hard, it may be that you need to explore the nature of what games are, and explain that failure in a game does not equate to failure as a person. Or, it may be that there are equivalent types of challenges that your child could take on somewhere else.
Knowing when to switch to something else is a tough call. You don't want your child to do nothing but crow about winning - that is not what games are about. You also don't want your child to face challenges that he or she doesn't really need to or are just too hard, when there are other more rewarding paths to pursue.
Broaden the definition of play
There are all types of play, appropriate for different age children, different cultures, and different personalities. Don't narrow your definitions to only one type of game. Chess is not the only valuable game, even if you, yourself, are a Chess grandmaster.
Think kinesthetics: running, tumbling, jumping, dancing, sports.
Think thinking. Think storytelling or creative writing. Consider games where you name things and your child repeats them, or games where you ask your child to name things that he or she sees.
Some games just follow simple questions: What should we do, now? What's next? How do I get from here to there? How are we/you going to solve this?
There are games of cooperation and games of competition. Remember that even competitive games are essentially cooperative activities. All players have to come together, agree to the rules, and participate to make the game work. The end result is a played game.
Narrow the definition of play
Still, there are things to look out for when playing with children.
Avoid total luck. It's not that a child doesn't learn anything by throwing a die and moving a piece. It's that it's empty calories. At the same time, the child could be throwing a die and making a decision about where to move a piece. Same activity, much better experience.
Both require you to count, both require you to recognize, both require you to adhere to rules and react as events occur. But one imposes the results on you as if you are a spectator at a horse race, while the other develops your brain. Avoid "games" that requires no decisions; I call these "gambling".
Avoid rule breaking. Winning isn't everything - that lesson applies whether you are two or twenty. If you don't learn this lesson at two, when are you going to learn it? A huge lesson of games is that the stated object of the game may be "winning", but real winning means trying your best and creating a good experience. Losing forty-nine chess games is winning if you get better each time.
If you cheat on behalf of your child, you teach that actual winning in the game is more important than the real lessons of the game. This leads to children who cheat later on, children who think that losing is bad (so it's safer not to play). Or children who feel good about themselves without having made any effort. That's not what we want to teach.
Avoid nasty competitions. Children must learn that you do not win at all costs. The game is a story that has to play out within the bounds of its rules. Hurting or cheating breaks the game; if the game is broken, you may have "won", but you didn't win the original game; that got tossed out along the way.
Avoid complete structurelessness. Even little children need to start building patterns. If they can never guess what is going to happen, then they can't learn anything.
Avoid stereotyping by gender or apparent intelligence. Don't assume that boys or girls are better or worse at certain types of games, or will want to play or avoid certain types of games. Let them experience the games, and gently get them to try all types of games before letting them decide. And don't let them back away from all challenges. That's what they're playing for.
Also, children who are not smart in some ways may surprise you by being good players at almost any type of game, if given the opportunity.
Avoid brainless games that isolate your young child from other people, such as repetitive video games or computer games that simply display pretty pictures. When kids are older, limited amounts of online games can be both social and valuable.
Avoid games that you can't stand; if it's not fun for you, it won't be fun for your child for very long.
Find good gamesMany great games are free and need no components: peek-a-boo, stack the cups, find a blue rock, build a raft.
Many need no more than pencil and paper, such as Connect Four, Dots and Boxes, Hangman, Maven, and countless other games. Others need only a deck of cards, a group of dice, a ball, some nets, jacks, marbles, or other cheap equipment.
If you are going to buy games, look for games that are suitable for age level or a little higher. Avoid choking hazards, of course. Avoid games that are worthless and are wanted only for their pictures or association with a licensed brand. The point is to learn and play, not hang the board and pieces on your wall.
Good sites: KidGameRatings, Games Kids Play, and Kids Games. There are many other sites, but don't decide to play a game just because some kid site recommends it or it looks easy: many sites don't think carefully about what they recommend. Candyland is not your optimal children's game!
Adapt games
If you're stuck inside and your child insists on playing something brain-dead like Candyland or Chutes and Ladders, you can instantly make almost any bad game better by giving each player a second pawn. When the spinner spins or the die rolls, you then have to make a decision about which pawn to move.
Remember that all games are springboards for new games. You can spruce up almost any game by adding some more interesting decision making rules at the beginning of the game. For instance, you can take a typical roll-and-move game and let each player play the game with a set of cards, rather than rolling dice. Each player hold a hand of three cards. On their turn, they play a card, move that amount, and then pick another card.
Or, each player can have a special ability, such as re-rolling two rolls during the whole game, or always moving one more or less space than the die says, or roll twice, pick one of the dice. Each player than picks or is randomly given an ability before the game starts (switch off, to keep things balanced). The abilities should add decision making, when possible.
There is also a great book called New Rules for Classic Games
that is worth checking out.Remember the big picture: you've only got one life to live. Fill it with games.
Yehuda
Thursday, September 21, 2006
ICON Israel and Games Day at the JSGC
ICON
This year's ICON, the annual celebration for science fiction, fantasy and role-playing fans, will be held in the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, October 9-14, Hol Hamoed Sukkot. Hours are 10:00 am to 3:00 am. The guest of honor will be Neil Gaiman (awesome). This year's subject topic is dreams.
I think the entrance fee is 60 NIS, and maybe 35 NIS for additional movies or RPG games. Discounts available under certain conditions, such as having membership at the Third Ear video store (which I have). Call +972-3-606-0800 for tickets, or Ticketnet Israel.
GAMES DAY
Games Day at the Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club will be onSunday, October 8, first day of Hol Hamoed Monday, October 9, second day of Hol Hamoed. Games Day will be from 10:00 am to around 10:00 pm. Bring your own food. Odds are that we will order out for dinner. I will provide some snacks and drinks, please bring more and/or bring some money to cover mine.
Games Day will be in my sukkah on the roof of 7 Hayarden St in Arnona, Jerusalem.
This is also a good time to contribute to the games club. A 100 NIS or so donation will allow me to order some new games along with my other Hannukah shopping. Aside from providing for a place to play games, the games club also lends games out to its members.
For more information, call me at +972-545-987-034 .
Yehuda
Bonus link: A while ago GAMA published a survey of tabletop gamers, and the results are in for the 3550 respondents.
This year's ICON, the annual celebration for science fiction, fantasy and role-playing fans, will be held in the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, October 9-14, Hol Hamoed Sukkot. Hours are 10:00 am to 3:00 am. The guest of honor will be Neil Gaiman (awesome). This year's subject topic is dreams.
I think the entrance fee is 60 NIS, and maybe 35 NIS for additional movies or RPG games. Discounts available under certain conditions, such as having membership at the Third Ear video store (which I have). Call +972-3-606-0800 for tickets, or Ticketnet Israel.
GAMES DAY
Games Day at the Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club will be on
Games Day will be in my sukkah on the roof of 7 Hayarden St in Arnona, Jerusalem.
This is also a good time to contribute to the games club. A 100 NIS or so donation will allow me to order some new games along with my other Hannukah shopping. Aside from providing for a place to play games, the games club also lends games out to its members.
For more information, call me at +972-545-987-034 .
Yehuda
Bonus link: A while ago GAMA published a survey of tabletop gamers, and the results are in for the 3550 respondents.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Gaming Culture
I taught Tal how to play Cribbage. Included in teaching the game of Cribbage is teaching the culture of Cribbage.Games coexist within a game culture. This is obvious for single games, such as Bridge, Chess, and Go.
The number of special terms used within the game of Go could fill a dictionary. And along with that comes the game styles, board and piece construction, polite methods of play, and even polite and impolite moves.
Bridge has its directors, under and over the line scoring, methods of how to deal with mistakes and infractions.
And so on.
Cribbage is a simple card game, but it has its own cultural style. There's the way you deal, who cuts or taps the card, how you "call" certain points ("two points for his heels", "fifteen-two", "fifteen-four", ...) The culture evokes a certain degree of class and style from the game's origins. Or, you could say, the game's origins have infused the game with culture and style.
It's not enough to say that a game has "theme" and "mechanics" (or "rules"). The game culture plays its part, too. You discard a game's culture at the peril of turning a treasured game into a boring exercise in card shuffling or dice rolling. A game without culture is like a dry analysis of a joke.
Anyway, it was hard enough to teach a thirteen year old Avril-wannabee the convoluted rules of Cribbage, let alone try to get her to count cumulative total played, count in the correct style, and so on. By the end of the game we were making some headway.
I won to her 108 points, which was fairly close; only, this being her first game, she thought it was a large loss on her part. We will have to play again. I'll make a Brit out of her, yet.
This month's Vision magazine has a short quote from me from a follow up interview to my Web 3.0 article. It's all in Italian, however (I spoke in English, it was translated to Italian ... hopefully not using Google translate).
Wiggity Bang Games has created a MySpace page to stay in touch with their Quelf board game customers. Neat. (via eMediaWire)
Yehuda
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Weekend Gaming
You mean like ...
How many times have you had the following conversation?
"So what do you do?" asks they.
"Oh, I play board games, I run a game group, I write a board game blog, and I also do something with computers for ten hours a day, but I forget what" says I.
"Oh board games. You mean like Carcassonne, Alhambra, Settlers of Catan?" asks they.
"!!!" says I.
For my very welcome infrequent visitors (hi, Lifehacker), that is not the typical way that the conversation goes. Their line is supposed to be:
"Oh, you mean like Monopoly, Chess?"
Instead, my new acquaintance mentioned three well respected new Eurogames, exactly the type of games that I play (never mind that I've traded away Carcassonne and Alhambra). Who was this, you may ask?
Tonight I went to "sheva brachot" for a nice couple. Sheva Brachot is a festive meal that follows on each day of the week following the marriage. We sort of know the woman from a mutual friend. We didn't know her well enough to go to the marriage, but we did know her, and our mutual friend, well enough to go to the meal.
That conversation was my first meeting with the groom. She comes from Oslo, Norway. Her whole family was attending and they all play these games. He comes from somewhere near Detroit, I think, and he plays these games. They are moving to a new apartment a few blocks away from us.
And they have no plans for Wednesday evenings, yet. Yummy.
Puerto Rico
I didn't get to play Santiago this weekend, but I did get to play another great game of Puerto Rico with Rachel and Nadine. I was first player, Rachel was second. I was convinced that Rachel was already winning by turn four or so. By turn six, she had four goods, including tobacco, and a Factory. And she also had the most shipping VP's already. I had a Large Market, since no other trade goods had yet shown up.
I slowly began a comeback, getting a coffee monopoly for trading and shipping, and then a Large Business (+1 VP for shipping (like Captain, not for every shipment) and -1 building cost). I was beginning to match Rachel in shipping, but she had one large building as did I, and she then got a second and looked like she would get a third before I could. Nadine also had one by then.
However, I got myself into a position where I could just get the last big building before Rachel could, at which point Governor passed to Nadine. Neither Nadine nor Rachel could afford a big building.
Nadine took Settler with three gold on it, and she could also now afford a big building, but the phase sequence was going to be me, Rachel [end of round] and then me again. So when it came to my turn, I took Captain, which locked a boat for me. I don't know why it never occurred to me that Rachel would take Builder. She did, and Nadine got the big building in front of me. I had it and I threw it away. Better Nadine than Rachel, anyway.
I got a Wharf, which payed off pretty well for me anyway, as I shipped six barrels on it by the time the game ended. Final scores: me 62, Rachel 60, Nadine 50.
Coffee, tea, or games?
I received some interesting emails from Martin Samuel of Games Above Board. Martin is a games designer and a flight attendant. His game designs include the notable Hijara.
Apparently, he manages to get attendants and passengers to playtest his games in the air.
P.S. Happy 10th anniversary, RPG.net.
How many times have you had the following conversation?
"So what do you do?" asks they.
"Oh, I play board games, I run a game group, I write a board game blog, and I also do something with computers for ten hours a day, but I forget what" says I.
"Oh board games. You mean like Carcassonne, Alhambra, Settlers of Catan?" asks they.
"!!!" says I.
For my very welcome infrequent visitors (hi, Lifehacker), that is not the typical way that the conversation goes. Their line is supposed to be:
"Oh, you mean like Monopoly, Chess?"
Instead, my new acquaintance mentioned three well respected new Eurogames, exactly the type of games that I play (never mind that I've traded away Carcassonne and Alhambra). Who was this, you may ask?
Tonight I went to "sheva brachot" for a nice couple. Sheva Brachot is a festive meal that follows on each day of the week following the marriage. We sort of know the woman from a mutual friend. We didn't know her well enough to go to the marriage, but we did know her, and our mutual friend, well enough to go to the meal.
That conversation was my first meeting with the groom. She comes from Oslo, Norway. Her whole family was attending and they all play these games. He comes from somewhere near Detroit, I think, and he plays these games. They are moving to a new apartment a few blocks away from us.
And they have no plans for Wednesday evenings, yet. Yummy.
Puerto Rico
I didn't get to play Santiago this weekend, but I did get to play another great game of Puerto Rico with Rachel and Nadine. I was first player, Rachel was second. I was convinced that Rachel was already winning by turn four or so. By turn six, she had four goods, including tobacco, and a Factory. And she also had the most shipping VP's already. I had a Large Market, since no other trade goods had yet shown up.
I slowly began a comeback, getting a coffee monopoly for trading and shipping, and then a Large Business (+1 VP for shipping (like Captain, not for every shipment) and -1 building cost). I was beginning to match Rachel in shipping, but she had one large building as did I, and she then got a second and looked like she would get a third before I could. Nadine also had one by then.
However, I got myself into a position where I could just get the last big building before Rachel could, at which point Governor passed to Nadine. Neither Nadine nor Rachel could afford a big building.
Nadine took Settler with three gold on it, and she could also now afford a big building, but the phase sequence was going to be me, Rachel [end of round] and then me again. So when it came to my turn, I took Captain, which locked a boat for me. I don't know why it never occurred to me that Rachel would take Builder. She did, and Nadine got the big building in front of me. I had it and I threw it away. Better Nadine than Rachel, anyway.
I got a Wharf, which payed off pretty well for me anyway, as I shipped six barrels on it by the time the game ended. Final scores: me 62, Rachel 60, Nadine 50.
Coffee, tea, or games?
I received some interesting emails from Martin Samuel of Games Above Board. Martin is a games designer and a flight attendant. His game designs include the notable Hijara.
Apparently, he manages to get attendants and passengers to playtest his games in the air.
My best yet was a Rabbi and his wife playing chess, which she was not enjoying as he was unbeatable. I offered them my Mozaic prototype which is luck + strategy. She beat him 3 games in a row and was ecstatic. He asked for the game (if only to practice) but as it was my only proto.Yehuda
I have actually had "repeat customers" - passengers who remember me from previous flights and ask if I have any new games for them to test-play.
One genuine rocket scientist, I kid you not, explained to me that my card game proto. was a matrix ... news to me but he was correct.
The very young Godson of Jim Koplow (whom I meet regularly at trade shows - Koplow Games) was on a flight and his parents brought up the subject of dice ... it's a small world.
Returning from Essen Spiel, Michael Gray of Hasbro was on my flight and I was able to translate German rules for him.
The absolute classic is, many years ago, we flew to Munich where I was befriended by an airline employee at the airport. She would invite me to stay in her home with her family - a nice change from the hotel. Lo and behold, her husband is none other than Tom Werneck ... he of Spiel des Jahres fame!
Turbulence has upset the games on occasion which provides a novel use for the flight attendant call-bell.
P.S. Happy 10th anniversary, RPG.net.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Gamer surveys
Social behavior studies among game players is all the rage, not to mention the subject of various governmental bills, free speech arguments, and so on. There must be some tipping point of usage that produces this type of social behavior studying behavior. I wonder if anyone has ever studied the behavior of behaviorists.
"When do you decide that a group is worth studying?"
"How often do you conduct surveys?"
Heh.
Here is a survey of video game behavior. Board gamers write a lot about different types of players, but I don't recall any actual studies being done.
My blog doesn't attract enough attention to get a big enough sample size, but I would like to see the results of a similar study for board game players, like (adapting the questions of the above survey):
Rank 1 - 5. 1 is not at all, 5 is absolutely, 0 is not relevant.
Computer gamer surveys find it fascinating that people who want to kill each other take the time to socialize; of course, the socializing is on the order of Lord of the Flies. But I found it fascinating that there really are MMORPG games that don't have combat in them; that's where I want to go, if I ever go online to play.
Yehuda
"When do you decide that a group is worth studying?"
"How often do you conduct surveys?"
Heh.
Here is a survey of video game behavior. Board gamers write a lot about different types of players, but I don't recall any actual studies being done.
My blog doesn't attract enough attention to get a big enough sample size, but I would like to see the results of a similar study for board game players, like (adapting the questions of the above survey):
Rank 1 - 5. 1 is not at all, 5 is absolutely, 0 is not relevant.
- When I first start playing a game, I absolutely want and expect to win.
- If I can't figure out the right strategy right away, I don't take some time to think about it, rather than go with instinct.
- I just like playing games - it doesn't really matter if I'm winning.
- The game I'm playing isn't as important as the people I'm playing with.
- I enjoy playing games repeatedly until I get better at them.
- I want to feel challenged, and I don't mind playing games that are difficult for me.
- If I play a game that feels too hard for me, I quickly lose interest.
- Once I start playing a game, it is important for me to finish the game.
- The challenge of the game is what makes everything worthwhile.
- I like playing games with many different elements, so I can make diverse plans and strategies. I sometimes enjoy a game I lose if I feel I put up a good fight.
- Sometimes I get swept up in the experience of the game and completely forget about the goals of the game.
- I'd much rather play with other people than play games alone.
- I like to keep playing until I've won at least one game.
- Feeling like I am progressing in the game is more important than winning the game.
- I like to play multiple games rather than concentrate on one game. I don't need to finish one game to start another - a new experience is more rewarding than mastering something familiar.
- I prefer a light thematic game, rather than a heavy deep game with complex mechanics.
Computer gamer surveys find it fascinating that people who want to kill each other take the time to socialize; of course, the socializing is on the order of Lord of the Flies. But I found it fascinating that there really are MMORPG games that don't have combat in them; that's where I want to go, if I ever go online to play.
Yehuda
Monday, June 19, 2006
Strategic Games: Computers vs Humans
This post is a merging of two previous discussions. One is the familiar tactics versus strategy discussion, and the other is the computer versus human opponent's discussion. The point of the article is to compare the challenge of strategy versus a computer with that of strategy versus a human.
In a previous article about strategy versus tactics, I wrote that strategy is essentially the human aspect of game theory. That doesn't make any sense out of context, so I will recreate the context here.
Strategy and Tactics: Definitions
The first definitions of strategy and tactics are that strategy is the "grand view" of how you will be achieving your goal, and tactics are the specific steps taken to implement a strategy. For instance, if the goal is to annihilate an army, one strategy is to attack their left flank, and the tactics to implement this strategy are to move under cover, take the high ground, and use burst fire on the artillery on the left flank, followed by infantry.
A contrary view defines tactics and strategy as functionally identical. In this view, a strategy is only a grander type of a tactic. In other words, let's say that the strategy is "attack the left flank", and the tactics are to "move here", "achieve cover", and "fire your weapons".
These tactics can also be broken down into further components. "Move here" also requires tactical decisions about how to move, what to move, and so on. And the strategy is only part of a larger strategy "annihilate the army", which breaks down into "aerial bombardment, "feint forward attack", "attack the left flank".
So, the argument goes, there is no real division between strategy and tactics.
Another view is that strategy is what you do when you don't know what the correct tactics are. For instance, as long as Chess is unsolved, your strategy is to control the center or pin pieces. If chess becomes solved, then every act is either better or worse for achieving your goal of winning, so all acts devolve into better or worse tactical moves.
The next view is that strategy gives positional advantage without changing other metrics, while tactics achieves a measurable movement towards your goal. For instance, if your goal is to kill 100 units, a strategic move is one that does not kill or weaken any units, but that puts your guns into a positions that makes killing easier. A tactical move is one that kills or weakens at least 1 unit.
While these views have their differences, they overlap in some senses.
Strategy as a Human Element
Let's assume that a better strategy offers opportunities for more effective tactics, either through reduced resource expenditure, more available tactical options, or more effective progression towards your goal.
My interest is in describing what to do when you are faced with two relatively equal strategic options. Even if you know exactly what tactical superiority can be achieved, your decision as to which strategy to implement depends on non-measurable quantities.
One strategy might be the correct move to exploit a weakness of your specific opponent, which may induce him to make a mistake that only he would make. Actually, this may be measurable through previous experience with your opponent, or by having studied him.
Or, one strategy may simply have less variables associated with it. Familiarity with a strategy can make you more comfortable in implementing it. Actually, this too is a measurable advantage, as your mental energy is freed up, preserving resources.
These decisions require experience, both with your own style of play and with your opponent's. As computer games evolve, we see games becoming better and better as they implement strategies input by their creators. But, what they still don't do well, is change strategies during play, from one skirmish to the next, or from one game to the next, based on assessments of wins and losses against particular opponents.
I won't say that these types of strategic decisions cannot be programmed into a computer. But they are, still, uniquely human experiences.
What Should an AI Do?
Computers can be programmed to learn about an opponent, from tactic to tactic, from game to game, to weigh previous battles and decide when they should learn from a victory or defeat to try something new. Computers can be programmed to examine an opponent's weaknesses to decide whether to play against them, or maybe even judge that that is what they are expecting and try something totally surprising.
An AI with no ability to learn and adapt, or with glaring repetition or weaknesses is a boring AI.
However, an AI with no weaknesses is also a boring AI. AI's should not be perfect reactors to every situation. If they are, then an entire facet of human strategy goes out the window. What is the fun if you can't exploit a weakness? If you have to choose between two strategies, and either of them are equal on the books, then there is little reward or punishment for choosing either when your opponent will competently handle either with aplomb. You expect your opponent to learn from exploitation, but not to not have any.
Perfect AI doesn't mean that it can't be fooled, however. Even a perfect AI can't (shouldn't) know whether an advancing column is a feint or a main attack. It has to juggle risk versus what it knows about you, while you have the same opportunity to do so about it.
One of the main arguments by Gary Kasparov against the famous Chess match of 1997 was that the computer was fed incredible amounts of information about him while he was not privy to information about the computer's previous matches. That gave a decided strategic advantage to the computer.
Even if the game is solved, so long as both players aren't give enough time to exhaustively search the solution space, each needs to make strategic decisions against their particular opponent.
Yehuda
In a previous article about strategy versus tactics, I wrote that strategy is essentially the human aspect of game theory. That doesn't make any sense out of context, so I will recreate the context here.
Strategy and Tactics: Definitions
The first definitions of strategy and tactics are that strategy is the "grand view" of how you will be achieving your goal, and tactics are the specific steps taken to implement a strategy. For instance, if the goal is to annihilate an army, one strategy is to attack their left flank, and the tactics to implement this strategy are to move under cover, take the high ground, and use burst fire on the artillery on the left flank, followed by infantry.
A contrary view defines tactics and strategy as functionally identical. In this view, a strategy is only a grander type of a tactic. In other words, let's say that the strategy is "attack the left flank", and the tactics are to "move here", "achieve cover", and "fire your weapons".
These tactics can also be broken down into further components. "Move here" also requires tactical decisions about how to move, what to move, and so on. And the strategy is only part of a larger strategy "annihilate the army", which breaks down into "aerial bombardment, "feint forward attack", "attack the left flank".
So, the argument goes, there is no real division between strategy and tactics.
Another view is that strategy is what you do when you don't know what the correct tactics are. For instance, as long as Chess is unsolved, your strategy is to control the center or pin pieces. If chess becomes solved, then every act is either better or worse for achieving your goal of winning, so all acts devolve into better or worse tactical moves.
The next view is that strategy gives positional advantage without changing other metrics, while tactics achieves a measurable movement towards your goal. For instance, if your goal is to kill 100 units, a strategic move is one that does not kill or weaken any units, but that puts your guns into a positions that makes killing easier. A tactical move is one that kills or weakens at least 1 unit.
While these views have their differences, they overlap in some senses.
Strategy as a Human Element
Let's assume that a better strategy offers opportunities for more effective tactics, either through reduced resource expenditure, more available tactical options, or more effective progression towards your goal.
My interest is in describing what to do when you are faced with two relatively equal strategic options. Even if you know exactly what tactical superiority can be achieved, your decision as to which strategy to implement depends on non-measurable quantities.
One strategy might be the correct move to exploit a weakness of your specific opponent, which may induce him to make a mistake that only he would make. Actually, this may be measurable through previous experience with your opponent, or by having studied him.
Or, one strategy may simply have less variables associated with it. Familiarity with a strategy can make you more comfortable in implementing it. Actually, this too is a measurable advantage, as your mental energy is freed up, preserving resources.
These decisions require experience, both with your own style of play and with your opponent's. As computer games evolve, we see games becoming better and better as they implement strategies input by their creators. But, what they still don't do well, is change strategies during play, from one skirmish to the next, or from one game to the next, based on assessments of wins and losses against particular opponents.
I won't say that these types of strategic decisions cannot be programmed into a computer. But they are, still, uniquely human experiences.
What Should an AI Do?
Computers can be programmed to learn about an opponent, from tactic to tactic, from game to game, to weigh previous battles and decide when they should learn from a victory or defeat to try something new. Computers can be programmed to examine an opponent's weaknesses to decide whether to play against them, or maybe even judge that that is what they are expecting and try something totally surprising.
An AI with no ability to learn and adapt, or with glaring repetition or weaknesses is a boring AI.
However, an AI with no weaknesses is also a boring AI. AI's should not be perfect reactors to every situation. If they are, then an entire facet of human strategy goes out the window. What is the fun if you can't exploit a weakness? If you have to choose between two strategies, and either of them are equal on the books, then there is little reward or punishment for choosing either when your opponent will competently handle either with aplomb. You expect your opponent to learn from exploitation, but not to not have any.
Perfect AI doesn't mean that it can't be fooled, however. Even a perfect AI can't (shouldn't) know whether an advancing column is a feint or a main attack. It has to juggle risk versus what it knows about you, while you have the same opportunity to do so about it.
One of the main arguments by Gary Kasparov against the famous Chess match of 1997 was that the computer was fed incredible amounts of information about him while he was not privy to information about the computer's previous matches. That gave a decided strategic advantage to the computer.
Even if the game is solved, so long as both players aren't give enough time to exhaustively search the solution space, each needs to make strategic decisions against their particular opponent.
Yehuda
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Monday, May 22, 2006
The path to gaming
The path to board gaming seems to go as follows:
Play a lot of dumb board games in childhood, and maybe learn some good board or card games, too. In college become addicted to D&D or war games. Play a lot of all nighters until you give it up to become a family. Become interested again when CCGs came out / a new war game hits the scene in the early nineties. Lots of interest over the past few years from playing many different games due to BGG and the online community.
There are probably some exceptions to this:
- Younger people probably started at CCGs.
- Some people in certain countries like the Far East or Russia probably play a national game seriously, like Chess or Go.
These paths are unique features of our mentality and time period. For people who haven't ended up at board games, many of them would trace a path from board games to video games and console gaming. Modern kids are starting at console gaming; where will they end up?
Fifty years ago, the path was: play some games as a kid, or not, and then play no games later.
A hundred years ago, depending on where you lived, it might have been play some cards or checkers as a kid, and then chess or bridge as an adult.
A hundred and fifty years ago years ago it would have been ring-around-the-rosy and then whist.
My kids are now growing up with these games, because there is a board gamer in the family: me. Their game path remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: they have far greater choices than I ever did.
Even if the vast majority of children aren't growing up with better board games, I think it is safe to say that many of these games, or ones like them, are getting out there. Settlers of Catan and Apples to Apples are now fairly well known, and will stick around. If not them, then others like them.
Surely some small percentage of people will keep these new games alive. And all you need is one person here and there to at least give people the opportunity to know the games.
What will their paths be? Straight onto computer games for their entire life? Some hybrid of computers and electronic board gaming? A "back to the basics" resurgence in Chinese Checkers popularity that sweeps the country in 2015?
Or will games take off in a new direction that we don't anticipate. What if games became like IM messages, sent back and forth from bluetooths, and played all day long? What will happen with the massively multiplayer online games? Will they ever be recreated in the real world? Will people ever look at these as a "stage" in their gaming evolution?
"I started out playing massive multiplayer park games, then I played the usual hits from the bottle music gaming genre. I dropped out of games during college, but started a series of twenty-year games with each of my children. My daughter is eight and she just made a great move. I'm thinking of what to play for my response next month."
Yehuda
Technorati tags: board games, board game
Play a lot of dumb board games in childhood, and maybe learn some good board or card games, too. In college become addicted to D&D or war games. Play a lot of all nighters until you give it up to become a family. Become interested again when CCGs came out / a new war game hits the scene in the early nineties. Lots of interest over the past few years from playing many different games due to BGG and the online community.
There are probably some exceptions to this:
- Younger people probably started at CCGs.
- Some people in certain countries like the Far East or Russia probably play a national game seriously, like Chess or Go.
These paths are unique features of our mentality and time period. For people who haven't ended up at board games, many of them would trace a path from board games to video games and console gaming. Modern kids are starting at console gaming; where will they end up?
Fifty years ago, the path was: play some games as a kid, or not, and then play no games later.
A hundred years ago, depending on where you lived, it might have been play some cards or checkers as a kid, and then chess or bridge as an adult.
A hundred and fifty years ago years ago it would have been ring-around-the-rosy and then whist.
My kids are now growing up with these games, because there is a board gamer in the family: me. Their game path remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: they have far greater choices than I ever did.
Even if the vast majority of children aren't growing up with better board games, I think it is safe to say that many of these games, or ones like them, are getting out there. Settlers of Catan and Apples to Apples are now fairly well known, and will stick around. If not them, then others like them.
Surely some small percentage of people will keep these new games alive. And all you need is one person here and there to at least give people the opportunity to know the games.
What will their paths be? Straight onto computer games for their entire life? Some hybrid of computers and electronic board gaming? A "back to the basics" resurgence in Chinese Checkers popularity that sweeps the country in 2015?
Or will games take off in a new direction that we don't anticipate. What if games became like IM messages, sent back and forth from bluetooths, and played all day long? What will happen with the massively multiplayer online games? Will they ever be recreated in the real world? Will people ever look at these as a "stage" in their gaming evolution?
"I started out playing massive multiplayer park games, then I played the usual hits from the bottle music gaming genre. I dropped out of games during college, but started a series of twenty-year games with each of my children. My daughter is eight and she just made a great move. I'm thinking of what to play for my response next month."
Yehuda
Technorati tags: board games, board game
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