Codenames Online

We have been playing Codenames remotely with family and friends at https://www.horsepaste.com/ .

 

The spymasters view the board with the relevant words highlighted, which is actually easier than looking back and forth at a mapping card. The other players click on a box when they want to guess a word.

You need some other means of communicating open at the same time, as you play.

There are some other sites that also have working versions of the game, none of them official. The site of the game publishers https://codenamesgame.com/ indicates that they are working on providing an official version of the game.

Board Games in the Time of Corona

If you are lucky (?) enough to be stuck at home with other people, and they are willing, then board games are a good way to connect, if the rest of the time everyone is on their own electronic devices (as it is in my house).

Game nights and game day is out of the question, but nearly every game we might want to play, including Tichu, has a free online version, some with better interfaces, and some with worse. Check them out before inviting others to play, and then use your usual game group communication platform to organize session times.

I tried playing Codenames via Zoom (I didn't know about the online version at the time). This did not work well for me, since there was an issue with focusing our camera on the board and with lag times between the various video participants. If you have less lag time in your area, you may experience better results.

Yehuda

5 Awesome Online Games You Must Try

The following is a guest post.

   

There are many games online, ranging from good to bad and therefore fun and not fun. But there are games that stand above the rest. Games that have people coming back for years or even decades. Games that are so fun that they’re considered classics.

Not that you shouldn’t explore yourself on what games to play, but, if that task seems too daunting or you need a place to start, this is it. Chances are you’ve heard of most if not all of the following games, and there’s a good reason for that. They’re fun. Many people believe such and therefore it is likely that you will also think so.

Many games are considered classics and if you’re ever bored or unsure of what to play, then classics should be a goto. If you don’t know what classics to refer to then look no further for the classics that you seek include solitaire, jigsaw puzzles, sudoku, mahjong, and crosswords; while these apply in real life as well, this refers to online for infinite play.

Solitaire

As the above may suggest, the first game you must try is online solitaire. Solitaire is a game of multiple names, two of which being, Patience, or card solitaire. In general, solitaire is a term used for single-player games of concentration and skill involving a set layout of a certain item, which could be tiles, cards, stones, etc. Which is why it can be called card solitaire.

Each game of solitaire acts as a puzzle, every card is laid out in a specific position so as to randomize each solution, which could be in your favor, or not. As said, each card is laid out specifically in a layout, to solve the puzzle you have to sort the cards and conform to the specific rules of the game, whichever it may be. It’s a fun puzzle game that is certainly satisfying to beat.

Jigsaw Puzzles

There’s a very high chance that if you know any game on this list, it’s actual jigsaw puzzles. And if you do know about them then you probably also know that to play jigsaw puzzles you had to buy the different sets and couldn’t do other images unless you bought that specific set, well, no more. The era of online fixes that issue.

Thanks to it being online you can do puzzles with any website given image, some even let you choose your own image as well as your difficulty. If achieving a certain goal and also being able to see it right before your eyes is something you desire, then jigsaw is your best bet. Truly a game that will never disappear, and therefore, you should play it.

Sudoku

The game that used to be known as Number Place is as the original name would entail. You are given a grid of 3x3 squares and within those squares, there are 3x3 other squares (boxes). In each square, there is a given amount of numbers within those boxes and the empty boxes are the ones you insert puzzles to complete the square.

You complete the puzzle by having every box within the puzzles filled in with a number. This seems easy at first since you might just be thinking you can repeat numbers, but that’s where the rules come in. In each square there can only be a singular number of 1-9, this also applies to rows and columns, no number can repeat vertically, horizontally, or… boxically.

For a game that contains many numbers, you don’t actually need to know any math so don’t let that frighten you. Sudoku is a game loved by many for many years ever since it was popularized in the late 1980s.

 

Mahjong

A game that was developed in China during the Qing dynasty, Mahjong, is a popular game to this day worldwide. Mahjong is a game of tiles that involves skill, strategy, and just a bit of luck. Commonly the game is played with four people but there are variants for three. The game is set with 144 tiles with Chinese characters and symbols being written on them.

Each player is given 12 tiles, with each turn the players can draw or discard tiles until they have completed a legal hand using the 14th drawn tile to form melds also known as sets as well as a pair, which is known as an eye. The game can also be won with special sets. Which this being online, there should be no shortage of opponents which can include A.I.

Crosswords

A need to play by any sense of the word, crosswords are word puzzles and word search games that take place within a square. The goal of the game is to form words or phrases using the white boxes based on sentences, references, or clues given which pertain to a certain square number. The clues and such are also labeled as being either vertical or horizontal.

The square also contains black or shaded areas that are meant to separate boxes which essentially separate words to make it easier to distinguish the correct answer. The way to complete the puzzle if by filling in each set of boxes with the correct word or phrases. The bonus with this being online is there there will be no shortage of crosswords or topics to choose from.

Must-Play Games

As previously said, there are many games out there both in the real world and online. With online, however, there’s no shortage of anything for any of these games which means that you can endlessly play without worrying about paywalls; paywalls being the requirement to buy more sets of puzzles to enjoy said puzzle.

To recap, what you must play include solitaire, the card game, jigsaw puzzles, the puzzle piece game, sudoku, the number placement game, mahjong, the tile game, and finally crosswords which is essentially the word placement game. Each of these games is beloved by many and definitely should be a place to start or go if you’re ever wondering what to play.

Shabbat Gaming

Eitan, Emily, and Nadine came to Raanana for shabbat. We played at Abraham and Sarah's on Friday night. For Sat lunch and games, Elli and Susan joined us at my house.

Friday night Abraham, Eitan, Emily, Nadine, and I ran though a few rounds of Caylus Magna Carta, the card game version of the board game Caylus. First play for everyone. Nadine and I teamed up, and we only played through three rounds so as to get the idea.

Caylus the board game is a worker placement game with complicated moving parts. Five different colors of cubes, five different colors of buildings, dozens of building types, tons of little interactions. There is a series of favor tracks, castle tracks, turn order and passing order tracks, and so on. You have to get these cubes to get that building to play on this building to get these cubes (and money) to get that building to get one of these buildings. Each building needs more cash and or cubes.

I find Caylus to be too long and finicky for what it is, which is a decent worker placement game. And I'm not thrilled about the provost mechanic, over which you sometimes have little control. But it's ok as a two or three player game. More than that and I'll bring a book to the table and read while waiting for everyone else to think through their turns: I'll probably lose, but there's a limit to how much time I'm willing to invest in figuring out the right move. Too often a designer mistakes "complicated" for "strategic".

Caylus Magna Carta appears to clear up some of the problems with the original board game. It dispenses with the bailiff (the other white guy), the favors, the having to play in the castle, the other half a dozen irrelevant buildings like turn order, and so on. Instead it introduces a random card draw - annoying, but it's not clear that some cards are necessarily better than other cards, so no complaint.

CMC appears to be shorter and play quicker, while preserving the basic worker placement, cube collection, and building upgrade mechanisms. We had finished the first phase of the castle by turn three.

I had a green building in play, but was well away from getting a blue one. I'm wondering how likely I would have been able to get out one or two blue buildings by the time the players concentrating on building the castle would have been able to end the game. I suspect not very likely, which makes me question the viability of pursuing blue buildings altogether. On the other hand, I have to trust that the game isn't THAT badly imbalanced. So we'll see.

First player has a huge advantage, being the only one with easy access to stone on the first round. In Caylus, the first player advantage is taken care of by giving successively more money to the other players in turn order. It seems patently obvious that this should be the rule in this game, as well. Abraham went first and, as a result of turn order, he was killing us by the end of the first, second, and third rounds. Maybe I misread something in the rules.

Still, I'm willing to give it a full try, especially as the turn order problem is easily solvable. The game still has the provost, a mechanic that kind of works but I don't really like.

After lunch, Ellis, Susan, Eitan, and Emily played Taj Mahal. I quickly taught them the game, although some of them had played once before. I didn't catch the final scores. Everyone seemed to get the hang of it.

Abraham went out for a short time, so Nadine, Sarah, and I played Through the Desert while waiting for him to return. TtD is a camel placement game where you extend your five camel trains (only two placements each turn) to touch oases and cordon off areas of the board before other people can block you. It has several different avenues for scoring points.

Nadine had played only once before, a long while ago. Sarah gave her a series of rules reminders in no particular order. I could have reminded Nadine about certain scoring opportunities to remember during play, but I didn't, so I squeaked out a victory over the two of them (71, 69, 66).

Abraham returned and the four of us played Tobago. First play for Abraham and Sarah. It's been a while since either Nadine or I played. We removed the curses before starting. This decrease one of the unfair luck elements, though it also allows for very long treasure maps to grow.

Tobago has a nifty card play mechanic: you are hunting for four treasures on an island . Each card indicates a condition about a treasure, and you can play the card onto any of the four treasure hint piles. Each card placed om a treasure hint pile has to narrow the possible locations on the board at which that treasure might be located. So one card might say "Not on in the biggest mountain range" and the next might say "within two spaces of a hut"; both of these cards played to the same treasure hint pile mean that that treasure must be located somewhere on the board at a location that satisfies both of these conditions. Players continue playing cards until only a single possible locations remains, at which point whomever wants to can (instead of playing a card) pick up the treasure. The loot is then divided among the person who picked it up and all players who have played cards to that treasure, one share per card played. After treasures are located, amulets that give free turns or other benefits appear on the island at known but changing locations.

Nadine was sure that concentrating on getting amulets was the key to victory, so she went straight to a point on the board where an amulet was going to appear. After the first treasure scoring, she was no longer sure about this, since it took time to get the amulets in return for which she scored less points. I don't know. I think giving up a turn now for utility later can be worthwhile, but it depends on the circumstances.

Nadine's was the only amulet collected after the first treasure, so there were five amulets on the board after the second one. I picked up one, then used it to pick up the second, and so on all the way across the board, taking five amulets and using four of them. I wouldn't call the amulet mechanic broken, but I don't really like things that can be collected without limit, used without limit, and give you entire turns for free. It disrupts too much of the game.

I'm also not happy with the "last player who collects a treasure starts the next one" rule, since the last person to collect a treasure is often the one who scored most, rather than least, and so doesn't deserve this arbitrary advantage. I think this rule was meant to benefit the loser; I could be wrong. It doesn't, in any case.

What I love about the game is the card play mechanic; even though the game is fairly dull otherwise, the card play is great. It would make a great solo puzzle game of some kind.

Update: I forgot that Emily and Eitan played a few games of Saikoro. Too bad the company that made the game went out of business. Still a cute game.

Review: Online Casinos Planet

The following is a paid review.

Site

Online Casinos Planet

Summary

A neat, clean, and useful directory of real casinos worldwide, and not much else.

Overview

Online Casinos Planet is a website with directory information for over 1,600 casinos around the world. The pages are neat and clear, with no advertising or extraneous flashing images. If you're looking for a casino near you, this might be a convenient location to start.

The casino guide contains (as of this review) the addresses and telephone numbers of 1,682 casinos. Of these, nearly half (803) are in the United States, with the other 879 in 24 other countries around the planet (France is second, with 201).

That's the good news. The rest of the site is not bothersome, but not really of much use.

Online Casinos

The site "reviews" a scant five online casinos, and the reviews read more like ad copy than reviews. Though they might well be genuine, they don't contain much information. The links to the reviewed casinos are affiliate links, and thus not impartial. All five reviews are positive.

Casino Articles

Several articles on the site introduce the basic rules about the types of games, from Blackjack to Slots, that you will find in casinos.These articles include short strategy sections (strategy for slots?) which mostly amount to advice not to spend more than you can afford to lose.

Free online games

The site includes six free online Flash games, including Texas Hold'em, which is the only one I actually played all the way through. The game is against 1 to 4 computer opponents, and played smoothly. It was fun enough. I'm sure you could find similar games elsewhere.

Videos

Lastly and most strangely, the site includes a few links to video clips (from YouTube) of people winning slots at a casino or music videos about Vegas (such as a dance remix of Katy Perry's Waking Up In Vegas).

Administrative

The site collects no information and sets no cookies. There is a standard contact form. The site claims to be the brainchild of a passionate casino player, with support from other such persons who work in casinos.

Summary

This site contains useful contact information for many casinos around the world, and not much else. It contains no annoying ads or pop-ups, and collects no private information. Which is not bad, for a small site. Only, what's with the fox?

6 Fantastic Board Games You Can Play For Free

Summer is here and you find yourself with nothing to do and no budget to spend. Don't despair! After you get bored of sports, hiking, and gardening, you can still have great summer fun without spending any money.

1. Manacla

The wonderful thing about Mancala is not so much that it is the world's oldest game, and still a good one at that, but that the color of the pieces are irrelevant.

I've spent many a bored hour with a friend waiting in some remote location for another group to join us while playing Mancala. It's just so easy to make.

Pick up 36 stones around the same size, draw 12 circles on the ground, 2 rows of 6 circles each, and you're good to go.

Each move consists of picking up all the stones from one of the circles on your side and placing them one by one around the board or into your store as you go. At the end of the game, the player with the most stones wins.

2. Checkers / Lines of Action

Some people feel that they've outgrown Checkers by the time they've reached adulthood, but it remains a challenging and intense game for adults. And the best way to play is on a larger board, such as 10x10 or 12x12, which you can draw with a pen and paper. For checkers, you can use just about anything: coins, beans, cereal, chips, what have you.

It may take you a few games to remember most of the tricks, but it's only after you get those tricks out the way that you begin to start looking deeper into the game.

You can also play a number of other good games using a checkers board and pieces. Lines of Action is one of the most highly regarded of these games.

3. Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the world's most popular negotiation game. Played by millions of people, including governments and militaries, for the last fifty years, it's a tense game of skill, bluff, and deceit. Don't play it if you're thin-skinned.

You need to move your pieces each round to control territory. Whoever controls the most territory by the end of the game wins. Simple enough; but no one can make any real progress without forming, and breaking, multiple alliances.

You can download the rules and maps for playing Diplomacy from the above link or from the official web site. All you need to supply is a pencil, a few hours, and preferably six very good friends.

4. Glik/Glak

These two print and play abstract games played on the same board are both highly rated on the Geek. They were invented by Adam Kałuża from Poland.

5. Go

The contender for the world's oldest game is still the world's best game, and it can be played for free. You only need a large sheet of paper, a pen, and pencils of two different colors.

It's an abstract game, but it's so much more. As you place your marks trying to control territory, the areas of the game become alive.

The game has a different feel the first time you play from after you've played fifty or a hundred times. And its built-in handi-cap system let's any two players play against each other and enjoy a challenging game, regardless of relative skill levels.

6. Battle for Moscow

War games are a rich field of gaming. Unless hampered by a really bad rule system, every war game encompasses deep strategy and tactics, while simultaneously teaching significant historical lessons.

There are hundreds of free print and play war games online. Battle for Moscow is widely regarded as an excellent example of the genre.

Bonus

Here are some other ways to while away the hours and play free board games:

Play Online

Almost every single game you can think of has been implemented for online play, and the vast majority of these are free to play. You can Google for your favorite game, or consult various lists of online games, such as this one.

Acquire Geek Gold

Board Game Geek's user contribution system gives you Geek Gold whenever you submit worthwhile content to their site. While this "gold" can be used for BGG perks, such as uploading an avatar, you can also trade it to other users for real-life games by checking BGG's auction pages.

Find a Game Club

Of course, the best way to play games for free, and to find people to play with, is to find a local gaming group! Not all gaming groups are free. Some are, and some charge token entrance fees. Many will be happy to let you come and try out the games.

To find local gaming groups, check out BGG's Game Groups forums.

Happy Gaming,
Yehuda

REVIEW: www.learn-texas-holdem.com

The following is a paid review.

Site reviewed: www.learn-texas-holdem.com

Summary

One might expect a site that has the words "Learn Texas Hold em" in the title to be primarily aimed at beginners, but this one isn't. While it does have a reasonable collection of articles for the beginning player, the majority of its content is aimed at more advanced players already familiar with the jargon and basic skills of the game.

The site contains, in essence, three main features: articles about the game, aimed at those playing, or intending to play, for money; rankings and short reviews of online texas holdem sites; and a few downloadable professional player assistance tools.

Design and Navigation

The site is very well laid out and easy to navigate, although it appears to contain more types of information than it really does. There are numerous categories and so on in the navigation bar and side bar, but everything on the site is either an article, rating/review, or a tool, at least as far as I could tell.

The pages employ some solid JS and HTML, and were pleasant to use, easy to read, and had no annoying problems.

Oddly enough, one vast hole in the website is that it contains nothing whatsoever about who runs the site or how to contact him or her. The only clue is the occasional use of the word "I" or "my", which indicates that the site is probably done by one person. He or she even asks the reader to let him or her know about requested improvements, but provides no means of identifying or contacting him or her.

Update: Contact information here.

Articles

The articles really shine. Not only are they full of useful information about the game, the odds, the industry, and so on, they are well laid out and easy to read. And interesting to read, too.

They are organized by topic, supposedly, but the organization was rather loose; instead, simply use the titles to guide you. The exception to this is a group of articles entitled "Bad Beat", which are generally amusing stories of opponents pulling inside straight flushes and so on.

They really are educational, not only about the game itself, but also about the long-term view of playing thousands and thousands of hands a year, where even a lunk like me can tell that the skill of playing your opponents is going to edge out any short term run of luck.

(I know the site owner is going to think I'm an idiot here, but every article simply assumes that you're playing TH for money. As a gamer but not a gambler, this irks me just a tad. It might be possible to enjoy the game of TH just for fun. But, come to think of it, playing for money and playing for poker chips is not too much different.

It's just that when you read article after article about finding the "losers" and how to take their money, it gets a little dehumanizing. After all, the entire idea here is to make a living out of other people losing their money to you because they are too stupid to play poker. General strategy articles I read about winning other types of games don't talk like this; mainly because they're more concerned about the fun of the game, than the ultimate winnings.

I have no objection to someone spending $100 on poker and losing it if they at least get $100 worth of entertainment out of it. But when you read about skill after skill, and tip after tip, on how to separate fools from their money, it feels a bit nasty. But, that's the reality of poker.)

The site also offers a Newsletter of "free poker tips".

Ranking and Reviews

Even more prominent on the site are the rankings and reviews of online poker sites. Like the previous site I reviewed, it is quite clear that this site makes money from referrals to the sites reviewed, and even has special agreements with some of them. As a result, the reviews must be understood as having some susceptibility to bias; unfortunately, no such disclaimer is provided.

The rankings are done on several areas, such as best overall site, best room, best sign-up bonus, best tournaments, and so on. There is no full list of ranked sites. Instead, only the top ten or so in each area are displayed. I can't tell how many sites are reviewed over all, there is no way of finding a specific site, and there is no way of seeing the poorly ranked sites, if any exist.

The reviews are very short, and generally positive, with most of the negative comments concerning the interface or software. Along with each review comes information on whether they accept U.S. players, sign-up bonus, and instructions on how to get started on the site.

Although this is the site's main feature, it didn't impress me overall; there should be more sites, easier access to the entire list of sites, and more thorough reviews.

Tools

The site provides four tools:

1. texas holdem calculator

This is a free online Flash program that allows you to place cards around and then calculate the odds of winning or losing from the specified position. It can be used to analyze several types of game and from 2 to 5 players in a game.

2. texas calculatem

This is a small client that sits above actual rooms on certain sites and allows you to see the odds as you play on the site. I'd say that for a beginner, this is probably an essential tool; most advanced players probably know the odds of any particular hand off the top of their head.

This tool is free if you sign-up at a site while downloading it. It doesn't appear to be available for purchase otherwise.

3. sit and go shark

The same thing as texas calculatem for the game Sit and Go.

4. Poker Usher

My comment about this site showing a certain amount of "nasty" may just as well of been inspired by this little doodad, which records and analyzes hands from your online playing experience and then finds the tables with the worst players when you log into a site, allowing you to quickly and easily strip them of their money, like a shark smelling blood.

Ugh.

I have to admit it's probably a unique tool and a good idea if you're serious about making money through online poker. However, it appears to take some time to build up enough of a database of information before it starts becoming useful.

Conclusion

If one wants to seriously learn to play for money, the articles on this site and the tools appear to be excellent resources for just that. The ratings and rankings are ok, but nothing special. You may get some benefit out of clicking through to an online site from this site owing to some of the special offers.

Yehuda

REVIEW: online-casinos.com

The following is a paid review via ReviewMe.com:

Site reviewed: Online-Casinos.com

Preamble on Gambling

I have no more moral objection to gambling than I have to drinking alcohol or firearms. These things are addictive and dangerous and can kill you. But so can driving, surgery, and a host of other things.

The problem is not the activity, per se, but its casual use, its use by the addicted, or by those with impaired judgment. It should be restricted to adults, and the people responsible for serving these things should also take responsibility for ensuring, as much as reasonably possible, that their customers come to no harm.

In my mind, that means a capped limit on how much people can spend on gambling, as well as license to do so, and counseling for addicts.

Content

That said, online-casinos.com is NOT an online gambling site. It contains hundreds of strategy articles about gambling games, such as poker, backgammon, reviews of online casinos, rules, news, interviews, odds calculators, and so on, and also hosts free-to-play online games.

While marketed toward money gamblers, the site is actually just as useful to people who enjoy playing for free or for poker chips, or with friends.

The standard for poker and gambling sites appears to be the "green felt" background look, and this one doesn't disappoint. Aside from a hiccup or two where the navigation menus suddenly change, the site is cleanly organized and easily navigable.

Rules

The site contains rules for several dozen games and numerous variations thereof, including backgammon, baccarat, several types of poker, and so on. Many of these rules are accompanied by animated or video examples and illustrations.

If you want to learn these games, this is an excellent resource to do so.

Reviews

OC reviews online gambling sites, for those who want to actually play for money. Their reviews are thorough, beginning at how the software works, through to what the experience of getting paid is like. They spend time at several different games on each site, and really give the sites a workout.

While they claim that their reviews are independent, and they do list both positive and negative experiences in their reviews, they neglect to note if they made any money from the given reviews, or if they make money from people clicking through them to the sites.

Also, they claim to have dropped listings of sites that were suspect - in order to protect their visitors - but I would rather have read the poor reviews so as to know which sites to be wary of.

Articles

OC offers a complete beginner's guide to online gambling, as well as many, many articles for both beginner and advanced player.

The best part of the site for non-gambling gamers like me (and for gamblers, too) are the strategy articles and features. Not only do they do a thorough job of analyzing the math of the games, as well as standard variations thereof, but they also provide charts, calculating tools, and so on, which give you the odds and best play from any particular position.

Very nice.

They also have articles comparing casino types, about gambling games in general, about the World Series of Poker, and so on.

Similarly, they update once a day with an article about something related to poker or gambling news. This is probably not an exhaustive news survey, but one top story of the day.

Games

OC offers over 80 free Shockwave games to play online. These didn't work for me in Firefox, but I got them going in IE (with the occasional crash).

You can while away time playing these games for fun, use the time to hone your game strategies, or, of course, click through to a casino to play for real.

Other

OC doesn't require you to register or provide any private information, which is nice. Every part of the site appears to be free. There are no ads on the site of any sort, so one can only assume that they make their money from affiliate rewards.

One nice little addition is a small note about charity, in which they list how much of their profits they have give to which charities; so far, $5000 to the Red Cross.

Conclusion

If you're simply a gamer, and you like playing gambling and poker games, the strategy articles and features are worth a looksee.

If you're curious about online gambling, the site provides a nice introduction thereto.

If you like flashy and simple online games, they have a nice selection, although I would guess that you could find equivalents elsewhere.

And if you want to compare online casinos, their extensive list of reviews appears to be a good start, although with the caveat that they also appear to make money from the clickthroughs, so may not be entirely disinterested.

Yehuda

Session Report Up, in which wild things happen, as usual, in Cosmic Encounter

The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up here. Games played: San Juan, Cosmic Encounter, Power Grid, Tichu, Bridge, Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation.

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Culdcept is a rather strange mixture of video gaming, board gaming, and collectible card gaming. Looks intriguing. Coming to XBox this summer. Maybe I'll have to get an XBox, after all.

Yehuda

Linkety Link

Nag Nag

Now that my first game is coming out in real live cardboard, let's see if we can get all 300 copies pre-ordered before they are even printed. See the link for details.

But that's not the only way to show your love to me. Consider a voluntary subscription to my blog in one of the following ways:

Buy an ad from Text Link Ads (top left) or Ad-Brite (top). Or, pay me NOT to display an ad or any ads. Your choice.

Someone asked me to put up the Paypal button (right) so that he could make a donation, which I did and he did. You can do it, too!

You can also click through my affiliate links to Amazon or FunAgain when buying games.

Oh yes: does anyone want to buy T-shirts or other swag from cafepress with stuff from my blog on it? I was thinking maybe the poem d6 or not d6, some game koans, or maybe the versified Fair Use clause from the U.S. copyright code. Naturally, I'd pretty it up.

For non-monetary ways to support me, subscribe to the blog using RSS or Feedblitz, comment on and link to posts, and keep reading and sharing the love.

Game News

I'll start by reporting on the growing certainty that Puerto Rico is coming to the X-Box, which would be pretty cool. Why? Because currently, the fouth best selling game for the X-Box is Uno. Critical Gamers is annoyed that this resulted in Puerto Rico being taken down from BSW.

Eurovision now has its own board game, too.

For things a little more far afield, Pervartistry is a Charades game for adults.

And a 7 year old girl called the police to report that her grandfather was cheating at cards.

Session Report Up, in which I get better at Netrunner

The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Group session report is up here. Games played: Netrunner, Zertz, Boggle, Louis XIV, Power Grid, Puerto Rico, Zendo, The Menorah Game, San Juan, Bridge, Go, Cosmic Encounter.

Josh and Idit inform us that they are engaged. Mazal Tov!

Game News

Le Petit Ney is a literary café in Paris, France, which organizes an evening of board game fun on the 1st Saturday of each month.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, even a play about the game Monopoly suffers from bad mechanics, overly long game-play, and weak decisions.

Reuters troubles to tell us that an obese 26-year old man died of a heart attack "after a 'marathon' online gaming session".

Xu Yan, a local teacher, said the "dull life" during the holiday prompted many people to turn to computer games for entertainment.

"There are only two options. TV or computer. What else can I do in the holiday as all markets, KTV and cafeterias are shut down?" the paper quoted Xu as saying.

Gosh, only two options. Of course, all the other obese people dying of heart attacks don't make the news because they weren't playing computer games at the time. (also mentioned in Abbagav)

This kind of dumbing down is well-reflected in a new television quiz game show, Is America Smarter Than a 5th Grader.

During last night's game session, I observed all the players with wrinkled brows, thumping their heads, or doing all sorts of adding or planning, and I mentioned to David that a group of people who liked party games would have no idea why we were enjoying this game club. He laughed and said that that was probably why these games would never make it really big.

On the other hand, with Microsoft embracing Euro-games, such as Settlers, Carcassonne, and Alhambra, and now possibly Puerto Rico, there is still reason to hope.

Lastly, a bill introduced in Minnesota to create a poet-laureate was submitted in verse format:

Section 1. [138.99] POET LAUREATE

Subdivision 1. Appointment.

The Gov' shall appoint a state poet laureate,
Who shall serve for a four-year term.
Because this appointment will always be great,
There's no need for the Senate to confirm.
In appointing a poet for the public good,
And to ensure there's no unjust omission,
The governor shall consider, if he would
Thoughts of the Humanities Commission.

Subd. 2. Removal.

The poet will be free to write rhyming lines,
With removal only for cause,
But we trust that the bard will promptly resign,
If the verse reads as badly as laws.

Subd. 3. Compensation.

'Twould be fair to provide some just recompense
As reward for the poet's tribulations,
But because at this time we haven't the cents
We're afraid there is no compensation.
But we ask as the poet travels the state,
And the people their ears they lend,
That our learned Commission take the position
To provide the poor poet a stipend.

Subd. 4. Gifts and grants.

To provide the support that needs to come
To support our new laureate,
Gifts and grants received of a generous sum,
We hereby appropriate.

(source)

Yehuda

P.S. Oh yes, another subject line from the local Jerusalem email group:

FORSALE: Babies and childrens clothing for Pesach from the u.s.

I ordered a boy and a girl.

Yehuda

JoyStiq: Interview With Brian Reynolds About Settlers of Catan on XBox

Scott Jon Siegel writes the bi-weekly column Off The Grid on Joystiq, a top video gaming blog. His column is the only one dealing with board games on a regular basis, so I really enjoy it.

This week he interviews Brian Reynolds, CEO and creative director of Big Huge Games, whose team is bringing Settlers of Catan to the XBox.

I wrote something about this several months ago when the announcement was first made, and have mostly ignored it since, although it's been all over the video game news press wires.

However, while I don't plan on getting an XBox any time soon, the fact that Microsoft is paying attention to Settlers of Catan is pretty huge. In fact, they approached Brian to bring Euro games to the XBox, not the other way around.

All of you still stuck in the Monopoly age, pay attention.

The interview includes a lot of great info and some nice pics.

Meanwhile, Critical Gamers bemoans the fact that the release appears to be delayed.

Yehuda

Chess as a Euro-game

Hive

Friday evening we went to Nadine's house. Nadine had made a homemade version of the game Hive, because she doesn't like the bugs on the game's pieces.

So instead of beetles and crickets, etc, she had dogs, cats, horses, sheep, and a barn (the queen bee).

We played two games, switching sides, and I won both times. Nadine isn't actually a big fan of abstract games, so I'm not sure why she made it.

Chess

I haven't played chess in a number of years. Our non-playing guest after lunch said that he was willing to play a game.

Now, when you come back to chess after playing hundreds of Euro-games, you approach the game quite differently. Instead of seeing the game of chess as "chess", which has its own rules, patterns, and history, you approach the game like you approach any other tactical, area-control game.

Actually, not area-control. I approached the game as a resource game. Each turn I had one action resource, and I had sixteen meeples to play with, each with its own movement actions. The game ends when someone is about to lose their king meeple.

So my approach to the game was from an action point point-of-view. I figured that whenever I had more meeples, and more available actions from which to choose, then I was probably winning. And that meant that I could exchange pieces so long as I kept the upper-hand. Furthermore, when my opponent had less actions available, they were more likely to make bad ones.

That's how I played, and given that my opponent wasn't very strong, it worked quite well. After gaining a few pawns advantage, I swapped at every opportunity. When I couldn't swap, I worked to limit the number of possible moves that my opponent could make, regardless of whether the position was more or less helpful to me.

In the end, I could see his moves to a reasonable depth because he had few available options, so I was easily able to set up more piece swaps.

Once we got to the end game, I was ahead about five pawns and a rook, and then it was simply a matter of forcing his king into a corner while ensuring he couldn't snatch any of my pieces by mistake. A simple checkmate ensued.

(Speaking of chess as a Euro-game, Trabsact continues to put out interesting abstract game variations, by the way, including this one on Alternating Weapon Chess.)

Puerto Rico

At the end of the day, Nadine stuck around after Rachel's shiur on Job and we played a game of Puerto Rico. This time I was first, Rachel second, and Nadine third. Nadine and I discussed alternative starting plantations for three player, such as indigo-sugar-indigo, corn-sugar-indigo, and so on, without coming to any definitive conclusions. The truth is, taking out the Small Market is already a big step toward a solution, but third player still wins often.

Not this time, as between Rachel and I both taking Harbor, the VP supply drained very quickly. Nadine had the only big building, but she wasn't even able to man it.

Nadine was pumping out huge amounts of corn and tobacco, but we kept denying her boat space. I had a coffee monopoly, but the trading house emptied only once during the entire game. So I locked a boat, instead. Rachel still managed to trump me, once again with good Hospice play, taking a few corns and quarries when necessary, and then ending the game tied for me in shipping points (31 each), and 1 point ahead in building points. She won 44 to 43, while Nadine had 32 or so.


Monopoly Madness is an event to benefit the British Columbia Paraplegic Association and Boys & Girls Club Services of Greater Victoria. Saturday, February 24, 2007 at the Victoria Conference Centre, Canada.

Hasbro finally announced that it would be releasing various board games to play online on RealNetworks, including Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Game of Life, and Yahtzee.

Board Game News points us to the world record for Carcassonne playing - 42 hours and 48 minutes - with pictures.

And Slashdot informs us that eBay is delisting all virtual goods from Second Life, due to ownership clarification issues. Which may have an economic impact. On Second Life. Or eBay. Not sure which.

Yehuda

Oh Hell, Down to the Wire

Tal and I played a quick game of Oh Hell last night, which I won. On the last round, Tal and I were exactly ten points apart.

The last round, a single card is dealt, so Tal could still have won if she had bid 1, which would have forced me to bid 1, and if she had then won the lead. The net result would have been +6 for her and -5 for me.

Unfortunately for her, the King of Diamonds was the trump-determining card, and I held the Ace of Diamonds in my hand.

Via Raph, a site that implores you to join First Life (Not Second Life).

Zenspace adds to the fray on whether videogames are art. Zenspace appears to be writing various papers about videogames and posting them on completion.

The Stanford Daily hits the right note about board games.

The latest issue of Toronto's Broken Pencil is all about games.

A beautiful new Indian board game in the Risk family is being developed at The Uttarakhand Board Game. The board, pieces, and rules are available for download and beta-testing.

NearbyGamers is another site providing meetup services for tabletop gaming.

My sister-in-law sent me this cute video about a grandmaster playing simultaneous games (not all the same game).

Yehuda

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

When X replaces Y

Whenever you hear "X will never replace Y", consider it with skepticism.

For instance: calling on the telephone will never replace visiting in person. Sending an email will never replace sending a handwritten letter. Sex via the internet will never replace face-to-face sex. Electronic gaming will never replace face-to-face gaming.

The first two of these most of us no longer agree with, while the latter two some of us may.

But when we say that "X will replace Y", we really need to break this down:

- What is it about Y that we feel can not be duplicated with X?
- Is this a technological limitation, or a psychological one?
- Is there anything overwhelmingly seductive about Y that will overcome our loss from losing X?

For calling on the telephone rather than visiting, the objections were: Walking is not only convenient, but simple and cheap. People don't need excuses not to get out of the house; going out is an ingrained habit, anyway. Walking time allows one to collect one's thoughts. What do you have to say to someone so often and so immediately that can't take the time of walking over? You can't replace the socio-psychological connection of human to human interaction, not to mention all of the non-verbal communication from a face-to-face encounter.

But we all know that, reasonable as these arguments were, they didn't prevail. Telephones became cheap and ubiquitous. Telephones opened up communication possibilities that didn't exist previously and therefore could not compare to visiting, such as cross-country or international communication. Telephones changed the very nature of our communication from prepared and significant to spontaneous and casual. We learned to live without the non-verbal cues. The initial anonymity of the telephone (you don't know who it is until you pick it up) became a reward/gratification system, akin to not knowing who a visitor is until they are close enough to recognize.

The same is true with email vs letters. Email overrode writing letters not because it duplicated exactly what letters did. Instead, we lost the measured, formal aspects of letters in favor of the spontaneous, global, instant, and casual aspects of email.

When we project into the future, we have to be careful to compare things that fulfill similar yet not identical needs. For instance, asking whether motorized chairs will replace face-to-face sex is not a sensible question, because they have no overlapping aspects at all. But asking whether sex via the internet will replace face-to-face sex is sensible, assuming that at least some of what we need from face-to-face sex can be replaced with sex via the internet (tele-dildonics). I think this is true.

Sex via the internet vs face-to-face sex sort of follows the same patterns as email vs letters. We lose the formal, considered, and face-to-face aspects of sex in favor of convenience, distance, surprise, and anonymity. However, sex is more than just stimulating one part of the body; it also involves sounds, smells, tactile sensations all over the body, partial surrender of the body to the other's control, the feel of fluids and other discharges, and face-to-face pattern recognition and the psychological aspects that this entails. Is this simply a matter of overcoming technologically (probably not using whole-body suits, but through directly stimulating areas of the brain and nerves)? Or are we willing to lose some of these in favor of the benefits?

Face-to-face gaming vs electronic gaming follows a similar pattern; I'm not talking about the formal computer games currently produced (World of Warcraft, etc...), but simply using long-distance communication to play games with as much control over them as we would have in person (e.g. boards and pieces we can control as we like using our input devices). Electronic gaming focuses one's attention away from physical humans to a flat screen. While we interact with people, either outside our vision or via our limited communication through the net, we lose that same psychological sense, freedom, formality, psychology, etc. We gain spontaneity, the ability to bridge distances, anonymity, and other aspects. It seems to me that we will eventually give up the face-to-face aspect of games just as we did for conversations, letters, and other similar activities.

Which, as in all previous cases, involves a loss.

While we send very few letters, we do still visit each other when it's convenient. We still enjoy face-to-face sex, and probably will so long as it's convenient. We probably will always enjoy face-to-face games, so long as it's convenient. But we seem to be more and more a technologically assisted species.

This morning I woke up with an alarm clock. I took a shower with boiler heated water. I took my car and called via cellphone to coordinate with my daughter to drop off her backpack that she forgot. She met me at a certain moment by the clock. Then I picked up my son to take him for an electronic blood-pressure test, which also required cellphone contact with both him and the nurse. My car brought me to each place and then to work.

Whatever would my life have been life without these items: clock, car, phones, boiler, blood pressure gauge? I would have had to build up a body capable of measuring time. I would have had to endure cold water, no showers, or wait for a fire to heat the water. I would have to take hours to get to all these places, and not be able to contact anyone during transit. In fact, my children would have had to be responsible for all these things on their own.

As a result, I could accomplish much fewer things during the day, and would only expect to either have a shower, or see my daughter, or see my son, or go to work, but not more than one of these.

Of course, my work involves computers and technical writing about complex software systems that run complex computers that control television scheduling that beam programming to people watching on their televisions. Wipe all this away and what's left?

Writing, walking, medicine, face-to-face family, eating, living in a house, talking, playing games. All the things that I use this technology for in the first place.

I can't really escape from all of it. I wouldn't have advanced medicine without all the technology to model it, extract it, and test it. I wouldn't have enough work without so many artificially created needs to fulfill. I wouldn't have as nice a house without light building materials. My family would be out of contact with me for days, weeks or months, rather than with me in bits and pieces all the time.

So X has replaced Y, and will continue to do so. And some of X gets lost on the way, in favor of the greater benefits of Y.

But sometimes I wonder: how much of X can be replaced by Y before any semblance of X no longer exists?

Yehuda

Analysis of The Menorah Game

I wrote an Analysis of The Menorah Game for Gone Gaming. Check it out if you are one of the lucky few who has a copy of my game.

As we come to the end of the year, I am considering new directions for my blogging. The laser-like focus I intend for this blog hits the beam-splitter of my head before I post. Where I was once mostly board games and a little tech and Israel, I am now half board games and half philosophy, ethics, Israel, and other stuff.

I know that this is annoying to some people. The obvious solution was just to wait to move to the new Blogger, when I will be able to tag my posts. However, I think I will be going a bit more radical.

As of February, I plan to split the game stuff off to a new blog; I also plan to stop writing for Gone Gaming and move all of my game related posts to the new blog. This blog will continue to be about everything else.

Questions: Do I repost or move some of my game posts to the new blog? Or just let them stay here? What about links on other sites to my past posts?


Some lazy links ...

A whole lot of free downloadable board and card games on Super Duper Games.

In January, the Westview Iowa church will be holding a silent auction of games to raise funds for the Waukee Area Christian Food Pantry. Consider checking out the organization and donating all those games you got for Christmas but didn't really want. Game donations are tax deductible.

Regarding my quip about crazy Chess players, David sent me links corroborating or contesting this craziness, such as this article in Time magazine from April, 2005 about Bobby Fischer, Did Chess Make Him Crazy?

In the middle of this article by the Corvallis Gazette-Times about Christmas shopping in general, comes the following quote from Errol Noel at The Toy Factory:

In some cases, it’s been tough to keep up with demand. Lego construction kits and a board game called Settlers of Catan, for instance, have been difficult to keep in stock.

The Detroit Free Press managed to sneak Apples to Apples and Blokus into an article on recommended games for young and old.

And here's a "board game" called Spintastik. It's just a spinner that assigns chores around the house, as well as the rewards for doing them.

Yehuda

Top Ten Board Game News 2006

Top events in the world of mainstream board and card games, as I see it:

1. Monopoly's new standard and Here and Now editions

Hasbro continues to beat this game into the world's collective brains through a combination of savvy marketing, licensing, PR, and national pride.

They released a new "standard" edition, preceded by months of voting for landmarks to be included, and followed by months of complaints from citizens of the least expensive properties to the municipality of Atlantic City.

They also put out their no-cash credit card edition, so that another generation can learn to trust the infallible computer.

(See my list of 1000+ Monopoly versions.)


2. Dominoes on ESPN?

After the success of Texas Hold'em, the next big discussion this year was how sedentary can we make the activity and still broadcast it on a sports network? The discussion centered around Dominoes which requires even less from a player than Poker, astoundingly enough.


3. Games That Made the News

War on Terror: The right game at the right time to cause controversy. The genral public was aghast at the idea of actually playing suicide bombers (but Nazis are ok?), while opponents of the governments handling the so-called war on terror were thrilled. For my part, I objected not to the theme, but to the attitude of moral equivalency on behalf of the designers on their web site.

Apparently, the game is not half bad.

Da Vinci Code (several games): Following the publicity of the book and the movie, several board games attempted to cash in on their success.

Sudoku (several games): This is a carryover from last year, but 2006 saw several new games for this popular craze.

Deal or No Deal: Yet another series of games based on a popular culture phenomenon, none of which are any good.

Your Best Life Now: A self-actualization game based on a popular book. Apparently, the game does not reflect the values of the book too closely.

GiftTRAP: A meta party game about giving and getting the right gifts.

Wits and Wagers: A trivia game where the object is not to know the most, but to bet on the answers given by all the players.

4. Headz Games in Nova Scotia

Headz Games, creator of numerous sports related board games, announced a new manufacturing plant in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, which was to provide 1500 new jobs. The plans sent the tiny town into a tizzy, but by the end of the year, the CEO had quit and the plans went on hold.

5. Chess shenanigans

In the wild and wacky world of Chess, grand master players fell to their death, committed suicide over their abusive fathers, punched opponents on the dance floor over a woman (who left with a third party), and leveled accusations of consulting chess computers in the facilities while on bathroom break.

Way to keep the sport noble, guys and gals.

6. Crowdsourcing board gaming

Around the world, and especially the U.S., thousands of people took to the streets to take the part of live pawns, playing board games using GPS systems and mobile devices.

7. World's largest Uno game

Mattel organized 330 players in West Virginia to simultaneously play UNO, in the world's largest gathering of UNO players. I'm not sure why that's important, but it got news coverage.

8. World's highest Scrabble score

As did two guys in a basement who played the world's highest single score (830) in a game of Scrabble, as well as the world's highest combined scoring game (1320), and most points for a single play (365, for QUIXOTRY).

9. Trivial Pursuit lawsuit

The old "some guy ripped off my game" controvery reared it's ugly head when the makers of Trivial Pursuit were served a lawsuit by some guy who said that they stole the idea from him after sharing a cab ride in the late 70's. This conveniently comes after the developers took all the risk, time, playtesting, and marketing required to actually produce and sell the game, as well as another 25 years.


10. Pink Scrabble Tiles

I don't know about you, but this makes my heart go boom. A completely pink game of Scrabble was developed, the proceeds of which are aimed at fighting breast cancer.

Surely that's more newsworthy than the various accounts of people killed as a result of Scrabble games over the last year.

11. Microsoft porting Eurogames to XBox

This may not mean much to mainstream gamers right now, but Microsoft announced plans to port three groundbreaking Eurogames to the XBox, including Settlers of Catan. The day will come when mainstream gamers are assimilated onto the true path. Resistance is futile.

WHAT DID NOT HAPPEN

Despite some great press reviews and lots of eager anticipation, Phillip's Entertaible, which is supposed to marry a touch sensitive electronic gaming table to physical components such as glass cubes, got some press, but hasn't made it to the public yet. We're still waiting and hoping.

Yehuda

P.S. Check out my 2006 Holiday Gift Guide!

Top Ten Eurogame Events 2006

1. Blogs, Podcasts, and Videocasts, oh my.

Where 2005 was the year of the board game blog, 2006 was the year of the board game podcast. Podcasts and videocasts sprang up like roses and/or weeds in a garden; which was which depended on your taste. Board Games With Scott's videocast started at the end of 2005, but really came into its own during 2006.

Joe Steadman left The Dice Tower, but that didn't stop TDT from continuing an amazing assortment of giveaway contests.

Geekspeak changed to BoardGameSpeak, but then it ceased to speak at all.

2. Board Game Geek goes commercial

Board Game Geek turned commercial on day one of 2006 with a new look and walls of advertisements. Aldie quit his job to run BGG full-time. Even so, BGG was down for one dark week in August, and we had to rely on Google News Groups to take up the slack.

BGG ran a number of different giveaway contests during the year, and Tom Vasel once again organized a super Secret Santa. BGG co-launched Tanga.com, selling cheap electronics and board games, a site which appears to be better than anyone could have hoped for.

On the dark side, the comments and community of BGG got wilder, leading to a number of infamous battles, such as "Eurosnoots" vs "Ameritrash".

3. Games that made a splash

C&C:A/Battlelore - apparently the system to beat for light wargaming.

TtR:Marklin - another in the TtR series, and they get better and better.

Thurn and Taxis - the English version of a good game that no one is really enthusiastic about.

Simply Catan - a simplified version of the classic board game.

Canal Mania - Apparently good, but expensive and difficult to find.

Tempus - A civ-light game that suffered from some early overhype.

Rocketville - From the genius of Richard Garfield, but the rocket crashed and burned on the launching pad.

4. Rereleases

Many, among which were Ra, Traumfabrik, El Grande, Die Macher, Through the Desert, and a deluxe version of Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation.

5. Publishers

A number of publishers updated their websites, such as Days of Wonder and Fantasy Flight Games. Their sites became richer with information, easier to navigate, and often had complete online versions of their games.

On the other hand, a number of publishers had some big problems: Palladium was destroyed by an insider betrayal. Eagle crashed, taking with it other companies, such as North Star.

6. Conventions

Game conventions, such as Nuremberg, Gathering of Friends, Origins, GenCon, Essen, and BGG.con 2 continued, successfully. Board Game News and numerous blogs and podcasters carried extensive reports.

7. Rick Thornquist quits Board Game News

Speaking of which, Roving Reporter Rick finally bowed out, at least for the moment. Our main consolation on BGN is the new and oft-updated Board2Pieces comic.

8. Mike Doyle blows us away

Mike Doyle's board game art rightly earns him high accolades, as he turned out new box covers, boards, and cards for every major Eurogame and then some. His Modern Art redesigns are simply out of this world.

9. FunAgain Games

FunAgain, while around for some time, appeared to gain a lot of strength this year, gobbling up several exclusive game distribution deals, all of Eagle's assets, and several game features such as The Dice Tower and Board Games With Scott (well, hosting in the latter cases, not gobbling).

With their extensive games collection, community supplied game ratings, referral bonuses, and new games point system, they are emerging as a force to be reckoned with, despite having rather higher prices than some other online stores.

10. More online boardgaming

As I mentioned, it seems that just about every publisher has finally gotten comfortable with the idea of providing full versions of their games online, and nearly always for free. That's good news for people living in remote locations and people who want to try out a game before buying. I guess the number who buy the game because they could playtest it balances or outweighs the number who don't buy the game because they can play it for free online.

11. Gone Gaming and the BGIA

I'm biased, seeing as I'm one of the contributors, but Gone Gaming continued to put out an incredible year worth of high quality articles, as well as wrapping up it's first Board Game Internet Awards and starting nominations for the second (Nominate now!).

THINGS THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN

Whatever happened to the planned Puerto Rico league, with a $5000 reward after a paid trip to Vegas?

Despite rumors to the contrary, and a few spurts, The Games Journal remained dead, or at least unconscious.

A Puerto Rico expansion promised by Andreas Sayfarth with new rules and a sixth player never materialized.

And whither the reprint of Princes of Florence? Is it available, yet?

Session Report, in which two Geeks of the Week meet and compete

The latest session report for the Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club is up here. Games played: 24/7, Carcassonne, Keythedral, Elfenland, For Sale, Tichu x 2, Quo Vadis, Magic: the Gathering.

Gilad, the current Geek of the Week on BGG stopped by for a visit, but I didn't actually get to play with him.

And we pushed our roleplaying off for another week.

Links:

When I was in Cornell they never had a Game Design Initiative degree program. Damn. Via The Ithaca Journal.

And Boing Boing reports on the virtual homeless in online gaming worlds, as a reminder of homelessness in the real world.

Eat It!, a trivia game that tests and impresses children about candy advertisements. Because the hole's not deep enough yet.

"Yes, finally a board game based on snack food. And why not? There are board games based on strategy, knowledge of other specific topics like sports or music or all trivia ... it's about time someone leveraged snacks into a game for grownups (let's face it, you can't play CandyLand all your life). " - www.candyblog.net

And somewhere in Chicago, someone is running the first Hungry, Hungry Hippos Spelling Championship.

Yehuda