Toronto is old hat to me, I guess. Other than a brief trip for Chinese at Golden Chopsticks (ok, but nothing amazing), Cafe Bistro with Rachel (very nice dairy), and to pick up some games, I've been inside, working.
Rachel is scholar-in-residence one more time, this time at Beth Tzedec, a big Conservative synagogue. She also did two gigs on Wednesday and was interviewed for the TV show Israel Today this morning. I'm "her husband" again.
Haven't played anything.
Maybe the only thing amusing that I saw was on a bus: the bus driver was driving, and behind him was a Plexiglas barrier, and, behind the barrier, a bus supervisor was standing. On the barrier was a sign that read: "We stand behind our bus drivers."
Ha ha. Ok, not much happens in Canada, you know.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Session Report, in which they play Galaxy Trucker while I'm away
The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played Galaxy Trucker, It's Alive.
First play of Galaxy Trucker for everyone, I think.
Next week back at my house.
First play of Galaxy Trucker for everyone, I think.
Next week back at my house.
Games Shed and Acquired On This Trip
Shed
It's Alive x 4
Carpe Astra
Hacienda
Kingdoms
Path
Merchants of Amsterdam
Beyond Balderdash
Greedy Greedy
Chapati
Bridge Troll
Verrater / Meuterer
El Grande expansions
Winner's Circle
Industria
Griddly Headz Baseball
Die Macher
Acquired
Steam
Dominion Intrigue
Dominion Seaside
Pillars of the Earth expansion
Endeavor
Amyitis
Aton
Hare and Tortoise
In the Shadow of the Emperor
Le Havre
Mu and More
Perikles
Phoenicia
Play4D playing cards x 2
Robber Knights
Sumeria
Tribune
30 Magic cards
Reef Encounter
Homesteaders
It's Alive x 4
Carpe Astra
Hacienda
Kingdoms
Path
Merchants of Amsterdam
Beyond Balderdash
Greedy Greedy
Chapati
Bridge Troll
Verrater / Meuterer
El Grande expansions
Winner's Circle
Industria
Griddly Headz Baseball
Die Macher
Acquired
Steam
Dominion Intrigue
Dominion Seaside
Pillars of the Earth expansion
Endeavor
Amyitis
Aton
Hare and Tortoise
In the Shadow of the Emperor
Le Havre
Mu and More
Perikles
Phoenicia
Play4D playing cards x 2
Robber Knights
Sumeria
Tribune
30 Magic cards
Reef Encounter
Homesteaders
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Zauberenhändler aka Wizard Trader
I ran a game at BGG.con which I called Zauberenhändler, which I hope means Wizard Trader in German (that's what it was supposed to mean).
Cards
There were 1000 cards, 10 identical copies of 100 different cards. The 100 cards contained a) a name, such as "David", which is the person represented by the card, b) an age relationship between two other people on two other cards, such as "Claire is 26 years older than Gwen", and c) a bonus that may be absolutely applied ("add George's age to your final total") or conditionally applied ("add +20 points for each person whose name begins with the letter "G").
The rules to the game were printed on the back of each card. Each of the 100 people had a unique age between 1 and 100.
The complete list of cards, and age key
Rules
Each player received one card. Players were told to trade and collect cards. By Saturday evening, they may hand in to me up to five cards, with no duplicates. Their score is the total of the ages of the people they hand in, plus any applicable bonus scores.
Top three scores win prizes.
The Good
I received several thank yous from happy players and non-players alike. Some began playing and then passed their cards on to others, but still enjoyed the idea. Some enjoyed watching others play.
One couple took the game very seriously and traded candy and chocolates for cards, amassing some 350 cards by Saturday night. They spent several hours trying to create perfect sets. He and she came in second and third place. A friend of theirs came in first.
The game, as usual, enhanced social interactivity, which was really its entire point.
Jon Theys helped clarify the bonus values and text, added a graphic, did all the production, and even wrote an Excel program that let me simply select the card names to find the total. Awesome.
Analysis
I enjoyed creating the game. I was expecting that this game would be much simpler than the previous game, because there was only one type of puzzle, and only a hundred cards and ten copies of each card. I also figured that, by the time any one person had amassed 40 or 50 cards, the ages of all of them would be pretty much known, and that this list would propagate to any other interested players. All that would be left was physically obtaining the cards and calculating the maximum bonuses.
So I was slightly worried.
Turns out I should have run some computer generated runs. The couple who had amassed 350 cards only had 70 or so unique cards, but even from that could not figure out the exact ages of nearly anyone. This drove her entirely crazy. I realize that I made a mistake of not putting any base ages in; however, I did put in a few "X is times as old as Z", which should have acted as bases to help you find sane age values.
When I learned of her frustration, I realized that she was going to keep calculating until she had "solved" the game. I also immediately realized that this was simply not necessary. All that was required to do was take five cards and make your best educated guess. The more information you have, the better your chances of guessing well. If you can't figure out the entire table, at least you have a good idea as to whose ages are relatively higher and whose are relative lower.
And you know: this is even better. I thought it would be too easy, and it turned out that finding all the information was difficult. Difficult, but not necessary. The three people who won were the three people who had spent the most time making the best guesses that they could. And that's exactly how it should be.
The Bad
Unfortunately, fewer people that I hoped actually turned in any cards. This bothered me, of course. Then the complaints rolled in.
- Couldn't understand/find the rules
This from gamers who spent four days pouring over 40 page instruction manuals and went seeking any of the dozens of available game teachers to teach them how to play. For some reason, they couldn't understand a single sentence on the back of a card, or be bothered to ask an administrator what it meant.
I have no sympathy for you. What exactly do you expect in your game bag at a game convention from a game designer? A lottery ticket? You already got three of those. I can't stand lotteries, which is why I don't play games with dice. If I make a game, it's going to have something more than a random drawing. Don't like it, don't play it.
- Couldn't understand the strategy/Didn't know what to do
I'm nearly as unsympathetic to this one as to the previous one. Haven't you played Settlers of Catan? And you don't understand what trading is?
Maybe the rules were too short: "Trade and collect these cards." It seems I should have added more: "You may trade the cards, give the cards away, use them as ante for another game, give them or get them in exchange for candy, beg, borrow, or steal them. Just try to amass five good cards. To know if cards are good, you are going to have to trade information with other players or collect a crapload of cards. Good luck."
Honestly, I thought this was implicit in the rules. I guess others didn't think so. Next time, I will make this explicit.
- Only got one card
Continuing with the previous criticism, a number of people were in despair of playing because they only got one card; how were they supposed to get five? See my answer to the previous complaint.
I sympathize with this one a little more. Mischa explained it to me. It would have been better to give a bunch of cards and ask for a bunch of cards, like I did the first time. For several reasons. First, having multiple cards gives players a better idea of how the cards vary, and so what they can expect to find if they trade with others. Second, it is not so hard to get a few cards when everyone had several, while it is hard to get four more cards when everyone has only one. It didn't help (though it's slightly amusing) that Alex Dupres was discouraging other people from playing by scorning them if they only had one card and then happily taking it from them when they decided not to play. Heh. You did play; you just lost.
But lesson learned: next time, each player will get multiple cards.
- Couldn't solve the game
As I mentioned above, that's not a bug, it's a feature. You didn't have to solve the game to win. Getting clues and a general idea was enough to win. I sympathize with your OCD, but I'm laughing at you, too.
- Couldn't find Yehuda
Yeah, sorry about that, but all the admins knew that I would be away Friday afternoon until Saturday evening. Some of them didn't know that they could collect cards on my behalf; I'll ensure that that doesn't happen again next time.
For those of you who didn't know who I was, you just had to ask. The admins knew me, as did around 100 other people walking around. And I was the only one with a kippah on my head. Maybe I'll put my profile on the cards next time.
- Didn't know the prizes
I wish I had known them before, too. Putting them on the cards would have been a good incentive to play.
Future Plans
All the complaints are being taken into account, and my third version will hopefully build on the positive aspects of the first two. It will be back to a situation where you don't have to solve anything to make a best guess, and you will receive multiple cards. I'll add more explicit rules, a little about the prizes (if possible), and how to find me. I'll make sure the admins stand in for me when I'm not around on shabbat (or if I don't come to the con, I'll ensure that they know how to handle this). I may put up a box for submissions again, like Aldie did the first year.
And I will try to ensure that the game makes its way into the official con schedule listing, so as to give its presence, and the rules, wider exposure.
Cards
There were 1000 cards, 10 identical copies of 100 different cards. The 100 cards contained a) a name, such as "David", which is the person represented by the card, b) an age relationship between two other people on two other cards, such as "Claire is 26 years older than Gwen", and c) a bonus that may be absolutely applied ("add George's age to your final total") or conditionally applied ("add +20 points for each person whose name begins with the letter "G").
The rules to the game were printed on the back of each card. Each of the 100 people had a unique age between 1 and 100.
The complete list of cards, and age key
Rules
Each player received one card. Players were told to trade and collect cards. By Saturday evening, they may hand in to me up to five cards, with no duplicates. Their score is the total of the ages of the people they hand in, plus any applicable bonus scores.
Top three scores win prizes.
The Good
I received several thank yous from happy players and non-players alike. Some began playing and then passed their cards on to others, but still enjoyed the idea. Some enjoyed watching others play.
One couple took the game very seriously and traded candy and chocolates for cards, amassing some 350 cards by Saturday night. They spent several hours trying to create perfect sets. He and she came in second and third place. A friend of theirs came in first.
The game, as usual, enhanced social interactivity, which was really its entire point.
Jon Theys helped clarify the bonus values and text, added a graphic, did all the production, and even wrote an Excel program that let me simply select the card names to find the total. Awesome.
Analysis
I enjoyed creating the game. I was expecting that this game would be much simpler than the previous game, because there was only one type of puzzle, and only a hundred cards and ten copies of each card. I also figured that, by the time any one person had amassed 40 or 50 cards, the ages of all of them would be pretty much known, and that this list would propagate to any other interested players. All that would be left was physically obtaining the cards and calculating the maximum bonuses.
So I was slightly worried.
Turns out I should have run some computer generated runs. The couple who had amassed 350 cards only had 70 or so unique cards, but even from that could not figure out the exact ages of nearly anyone. This drove her entirely crazy. I realize that I made a mistake of not putting any base ages in; however, I did put in a few "X is times as old as Z", which should have acted as bases to help you find sane age values.
When I learned of her frustration, I realized that she was going to keep calculating until she had "solved" the game. I also immediately realized that this was simply not necessary. All that was required to do was take five cards and make your best educated guess. The more information you have, the better your chances of guessing well. If you can't figure out the entire table, at least you have a good idea as to whose ages are relatively higher and whose are relative lower.
And you know: this is even better. I thought it would be too easy, and it turned out that finding all the information was difficult. Difficult, but not necessary. The three people who won were the three people who had spent the most time making the best guesses that they could. And that's exactly how it should be.
The Bad
Unfortunately, fewer people that I hoped actually turned in any cards. This bothered me, of course. Then the complaints rolled in.
- Couldn't understand/find the rules
This from gamers who spent four days pouring over 40 page instruction manuals and went seeking any of the dozens of available game teachers to teach them how to play. For some reason, they couldn't understand a single sentence on the back of a card, or be bothered to ask an administrator what it meant.
I have no sympathy for you. What exactly do you expect in your game bag at a game convention from a game designer? A lottery ticket? You already got three of those. I can't stand lotteries, which is why I don't play games with dice. If I make a game, it's going to have something more than a random drawing. Don't like it, don't play it.
- Couldn't understand the strategy/Didn't know what to do
I'm nearly as unsympathetic to this one as to the previous one. Haven't you played Settlers of Catan? And you don't understand what trading is?
Maybe the rules were too short: "Trade and collect these cards." It seems I should have added more: "You may trade the cards, give the cards away, use them as ante for another game, give them or get them in exchange for candy, beg, borrow, or steal them. Just try to amass five good cards. To know if cards are good, you are going to have to trade information with other players or collect a crapload of cards. Good luck."
Honestly, I thought this was implicit in the rules. I guess others didn't think so. Next time, I will make this explicit.
- Only got one card
Continuing with the previous criticism, a number of people were in despair of playing because they only got one card; how were they supposed to get five? See my answer to the previous complaint.
I sympathize with this one a little more. Mischa explained it to me. It would have been better to give a bunch of cards and ask for a bunch of cards, like I did the first time. For several reasons. First, having multiple cards gives players a better idea of how the cards vary, and so what they can expect to find if they trade with others. Second, it is not so hard to get a few cards when everyone had several, while it is hard to get four more cards when everyone has only one. It didn't help (though it's slightly amusing) that Alex Dupres was discouraging other people from playing by scorning them if they only had one card and then happily taking it from them when they decided not to play. Heh. You did play; you just lost.
But lesson learned: next time, each player will get multiple cards.
- Couldn't solve the game
As I mentioned above, that's not a bug, it's a feature. You didn't have to solve the game to win. Getting clues and a general idea was enough to win. I sympathize with your OCD, but I'm laughing at you, too.
- Couldn't find Yehuda
Yeah, sorry about that, but all the admins knew that I would be away Friday afternoon until Saturday evening. Some of them didn't know that they could collect cards on my behalf; I'll ensure that that doesn't happen again next time.
For those of you who didn't know who I was, you just had to ask. The admins knew me, as did around 100 other people walking around. And I was the only one with a kippah on my head. Maybe I'll put my profile on the cards next time.
- Didn't know the prizes
I wish I had known them before, too. Putting them on the cards would have been a good incentive to play.
Future Plans
All the complaints are being taken into account, and my third version will hopefully build on the positive aspects of the first two. It will be back to a situation where you don't have to solve anything to make a best guess, and you will receive multiple cards. I'll add more explicit rules, a little about the prizes (if possible), and how to find me. I'll make sure the admins stand in for me when I'm not around on shabbat (or if I don't come to the con, I'll ensure that they know how to handle this). I may put up a box for submissions again, like Aldie did the first year.
And I will try to ensure that the game makes its way into the official con schedule listing, so as to give its presence, and the rules, wider exposure.
Session report, in which many people I don't know show up at game night while I'm away
The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up, quite belatedly (last Wed's). Games played: Fluxx, Year of the Dragon, Shadows Over Camelot, Notre Dame, Vegas Showdown, Tichu, Puerto Rico.
Many people appear in the session report whose names I don't know. Go Nadine.
Many people appear in the session report whose names I don't know. Go Nadine.
Airline Found My Ticket
I have verbal assurance from American that they will be refunding me my $1200. And it only took three hours on the telephone to four different airline reps at two different airlines. Here's what happened:
Background
Tickets have a ticket number (14 digits) and a record number (6 letters). You generally use the record number to do automatic check in, though you can use the ticket number as well.
My flights were/are El Al Tel Aviv to Newark to Cincinnati, American Cincinnati to Dallas to Toronto, and El Al Toronto to Tel Aviv.
It is also worth noting that my ticket is under the name "YehudaJonathan", since my Israeli passport is Yehuda and my American is Jonathan. Generally this causes no problem.
Bought and Reissued
I bought my ticket in June, and my travel agent reissued the ticket in July, with a different ticket number and the same record number, though the old record number was not printed on the new ticket: instead there was a "reference number", also six characters long but containing both numbers and digits.
I only discovered this the night before I left; I tried to check in online with El Al using my old ticket number but the old ticket number was not recognized. I quickly got the new one from my agent and successfully checked in for my flight. I had both the old and the new tickets printed out in my bag.
No problems getting through to Cincinnati on El Al/Delta. And no problems getting from Cincinnati to Dallas using the original record number.
The Problem Starts
When I tried to check in in Dallas, the record number didn't work. Rather, it worked but it was associated only with the old ticket number, not the new one. Therefore, the counter agents at AA could only tell that the old ticket had been changed to something but they had no idea what, or even with what airline. The Cincinnati to Dallas one did not suffer this problem because it was a separate leg of the trip, not associated with the El Al portions to and from Israel, and so remained under the original ticket number. Though why they let me check through two bags for free when traveling from Cincinnati to Dallas remains a mystery.
I gave them my new ticket as well, hoping this would resolve the problem. However, the AA ticket agents looked at the "reference number" on the new ticket, said that this isn't a valid "record number" for AA, and so this printout only applies to my El Al portion of the trip, not the AA portion. They never bothered to actually enter the new ticket number to check that. I didn't catch this; I thought they also checked both old and new ticket numbers, but I didn't insist on it. They also were not able, for a reason that remains mystery number two, to find my new ticket using my name and flight number.
The Resolution Starts
When I called AA today, they told me the ticket number they had associated with the record number and told me to find out what happened at El Al, since there was nothing they could do for me. Contacting El Al, they said that there was nothing wrong with the ticket, and was I sure that AA had used the correct ticket number. That's when it began to dawn on me that maybe they hadn't.
I called back AA, explained the story again from scratch to a sympathetic service rep, and we found the new ticket. Turns out that AA had assigned a completely different record number to the new ticket number, a record number that is entirely different from the original record number that El Al and my agent continue to associate with the new ticket. Mystery three.
Naturally, that ticket showed me as a "no-show", since I booked it but didn't use it. Of course, since I had bought a third ticket and used that, instead. She told me to go ahead and ask for a refund using their online refund system, explaining the story in the appropriate text field. It sounded like they were ready to refund the ticket and just had to fill out the form.
Unfortunately I hung up to do this, only to discover that the online form refuses to even let you ask for a refund if the ticket was issued as non-refundable and already used. Instead, the online form told me to call AA customer service if I needed further assistance.
Call rep four, who's overly sensitive and less sympathetic, and also, over the course of the next half hour ask me multiple times for the same information as her computer keeps crashing and she neglects to write the information down on any note paper, which is what she should have done the second time she asked me.
But after many minutes of holding and questions, she verbally assures me that they have gone ahead with the refund. She offers me no written, faxed, or emailed confirmation of this, but says I should be able to see this online once the refund enters the system. So I thank her and hang up.
It's now 9 hours later and I still don't see the refund in process online, but I'm hopeful.
Background
Tickets have a ticket number (14 digits) and a record number (6 letters). You generally use the record number to do automatic check in, though you can use the ticket number as well.
My flights were/are El Al Tel Aviv to Newark to Cincinnati, American Cincinnati to Dallas to Toronto, and El Al Toronto to Tel Aviv.
It is also worth noting that my ticket is under the name "YehudaJonathan", since my Israeli passport is Yehuda and my American is Jonathan. Generally this causes no problem.
Bought and Reissued
I bought my ticket in June, and my travel agent reissued the ticket in July, with a different ticket number and the same record number, though the old record number was not printed on the new ticket: instead there was a "reference number", also six characters long but containing both numbers and digits.
I only discovered this the night before I left; I tried to check in online with El Al using my old ticket number but the old ticket number was not recognized. I quickly got the new one from my agent and successfully checked in for my flight. I had both the old and the new tickets printed out in my bag.
No problems getting through to Cincinnati on El Al/Delta. And no problems getting from Cincinnati to Dallas using the original record number.
The Problem Starts
When I tried to check in in Dallas, the record number didn't work. Rather, it worked but it was associated only with the old ticket number, not the new one. Therefore, the counter agents at AA could only tell that the old ticket had been changed to something but they had no idea what, or even with what airline. The Cincinnati to Dallas one did not suffer this problem because it was a separate leg of the trip, not associated with the El Al portions to and from Israel, and so remained under the original ticket number. Though why they let me check through two bags for free when traveling from Cincinnati to Dallas remains a mystery.
I gave them my new ticket as well, hoping this would resolve the problem. However, the AA ticket agents looked at the "reference number" on the new ticket, said that this isn't a valid "record number" for AA, and so this printout only applies to my El Al portion of the trip, not the AA portion. They never bothered to actually enter the new ticket number to check that. I didn't catch this; I thought they also checked both old and new ticket numbers, but I didn't insist on it. They also were not able, for a reason that remains mystery number two, to find my new ticket using my name and flight number.
The Resolution Starts
When I called AA today, they told me the ticket number they had associated with the record number and told me to find out what happened at El Al, since there was nothing they could do for me. Contacting El Al, they said that there was nothing wrong with the ticket, and was I sure that AA had used the correct ticket number. That's when it began to dawn on me that maybe they hadn't.
I called back AA, explained the story again from scratch to a sympathetic service rep, and we found the new ticket. Turns out that AA had assigned a completely different record number to the new ticket number, a record number that is entirely different from the original record number that El Al and my agent continue to associate with the new ticket. Mystery three.
Naturally, that ticket showed me as a "no-show", since I booked it but didn't use it. Of course, since I had bought a third ticket and used that, instead. She told me to go ahead and ask for a refund using their online refund system, explaining the story in the appropriate text field. It sounded like they were ready to refund the ticket and just had to fill out the form.
Unfortunately I hung up to do this, only to discover that the online form refuses to even let you ask for a refund if the ticket was issued as non-refundable and already used. Instead, the online form told me to call AA customer service if I needed further assistance.
Call rep four, who's overly sensitive and less sympathetic, and also, over the course of the next half hour ask me multiple times for the same information as her computer keeps crashing and she neglects to write the information down on any note paper, which is what she should have done the second time she asked me.
But after many minutes of holding and questions, she verbally assures me that they have gone ahead with the refund. She offers me no written, faxed, or emailed confirmation of this, but says I should be able to see this online once the refund enters the system. So I thank her and hang up.
It's now 9 hours later and I still don't see the refund in process online, but I'm hopeful.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Airline Lost my Ticket
I just spent a half an hour arguing and pleading with American Airlines to give me a discount after they lost my ticket Dallas to Toronto. They said it was my agent's fault for changing something; they could see my name there, but there was no longer an associated ticket. I had to spend $1200 for a new one way Dallas to Toronto, which is as much as my entire ticket from Israel to and around the US and back.
The AA reps at the gate refused to help me, except to blame my agency (closed in Israel, as it is after hours, and I couldn't find an emergency contact number). They said that if they did something to help me that was against the rules, they could get fired.
One of them went on break while she was supposed to be helping me, and the other one looked at me like I was nuts when I asked if she could call the first one back from her break.
The AA reps at the gate refused to help me, except to blame my agency (closed in Israel, as it is after hours, and I couldn't find an emergency contact number). They said that if they did something to help me that was against the rules, they could get fired.
One of them went on break while she was supposed to be helping me, and the other one looked at me like I was nuts when I asked if she could call the first one back from her break.
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