I never explained the unofficial motto of this blog.
When I started this blog 20 years ago, I wanted to have a north star guiding me as to why I was doing this at all. I searched the internet for quotes on writing and came across this gem from Edwin Schlossberg:
The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.
Things I never thought I’d say when I became a parent:
Apparently, my son really likes Wet-Ass Pussy:
Anyone else do the beginning Rocky training montage before changing an especially poopy diaper, or is it just me?
I do it right after I pop open the wet wipes and ready a fresh diaper, but before I start changing. M— always laughs when she sees the air punches.
If I haven’t been peed on and he isn’t crying by the end of it, I totally do the top top-of-the-Philadelphia-Museum-of-Art-steps thing.
Otherwise, I’m cuddling and comforting him. I totally relate to the unfunness of having cold water touch your pee pee area.
Yeah, it’s my birthday, but the important thing is in this kickstarter…
(I read this on the Internet so it must be true.)
Vote 4 Hippos, so my Hippo can beat on you! If not, do it as a birthday present to me. 😀
What is going on right now in Australia is horrible. It will, no doubt, make far future history books (if there is a civilization left) as an example of how we were staring obvious Collapse in the face, and said, “Whatever! I’d like more of that.”
This inspired Jay to mix his love of boardgaming and his bleeding heart to make this video on the game Hotshots and raise money for the bush fire release.
Continue reading about a socio-political irony after the jump
My aunt, Gia sent this photo to the group on January 25, 2020.
On the back of the photo is written:
#1
Around table: Mrs. Ree, Dr Francis (bro., dr,. physics), Joan, Dr. Alexis T. (dr. chem), Bernadetter (languages, psychology), Taresa (chemistry).
SEP 60 Miss 38A 0%
Given the misspelling of my mom’s name, I have a feeling this was an outtake from this article which was published later. This photo, unlike the others, has Francis in it, which makes sense as that was just before he went looking for a job with his newly-minted Ph.D. (beating my mom by a single semester).
As expected, even in a posed photo, Francis is enjoying eating.
I decided to get back into board gaming, and ended up getting or playing the following games recently:
Last time I tried a board game was 2012. My girlfriend set up a surprise birthday for me over where we played a new game I had bought on a whim, Lords of Waterdeep (BGG Rank #51).
I am mentioning these games because all of those games happen to use a game mechanic I hadn’t seen when I was a serious board gamer in the 1980’s: card drafting. However, card drafting is a very popular mechanic today. In fact, over one third of the top 100 games on Board Game Geek use it!
The first time I had even seen this mechanic was when I ran across an early euro game known as Web of Power from 2000. Someone corrected me and said that, “there’s quite a number of earlier examples of drawing from a pool of face-up cards than WoP.” Well it was new to me in 2000!
Indeed almost 7600 games have been categorized as using the mechanic, and there are some examples in the early 1900’s using it, but nobody has heard of those games. This got me curious as to what are the earliest examples that might have influenced game designers?
Using the top 1000 as the cutoff, it looks like the first game to have this mechanic was El Grande in 1994. The next year, it won the Spiel des Jahres which must be what got people adding it to eurogames. That same year it looks like Wizards of the Coast modified Magic: The Gathering to create their smash hit Pokémon. Soon we find Elfenland, the Spiel des Jahres winner in 1998, Kahuna, a Spiel des Jahres recommended title in 1999. and Union Pacific, a Spiel des Jahres nominee also in 1999. This is followed by the aforementioned Web of Power which shares its birth year with Taj Mahal, Citadels, and La Città, all four became Spiel des Jahres recommendations. Wow! Thanks, El Grande, and I guess, Pokémon!
My guess is if Illuminati (1982), a game I played as a kid, were made today, it would have that mechanic in it. But instead it has card drawing and then playing from the hand. In fact, Fog of Love has that same mechanic, and this is not actually card-drafting. And I think this explains is why the card-drafting mechanic is so popular: it adds an element of strategy through public information (you can choose to draft a card instead of drawing by luck). Games have moved into euro mechanics that want more public-facing strategy and less private hand-holding random draws, so we see more and more card-drafting.
Web of Power actually allows a choice/tradeoff: public drafting of a known card or private drawing of a random card. That’s something to keep in mind because I happen to think that balance between random ameritrash and dry eurogame mechanics are needed to make a good game today.
From Uncle Francis:
After thinking the movie over this afternoon, it is a good movie after all. Writer & director Alfonso Cuarón is telling us about a woman’s story – mostly sad without explicitly saying so.
Namely,
1. mistreatment & abandonment by her boyfriend;
2. pain of losing her baby before birth; and
3. camaraderie of humanity irrespective of the race & age as depicted by saving two children from the sea.
I especially liked the last scene after rescuing two young children abd getting holding shoulder to shoulder with children around the bonfire.
I think it may win the best picture academy award – a beautiful cinematography anyway.
Marie has loved Marie Kondo since her book first hit the US four years ago, so of course last night we watched the first episode of her new show on Netflix.
This morning she’s been sharing with me these tweets.
“This baby does not spark joy for me, so it will have to go” pic.twitter.com/OsCI6dPa0f
— Adam Moussa (@adamjmoussa) January 3, 2019
Marie Kondo is a fictional character created by Goodwill Industries to get me to donate half of everything I own
— Matt Haughey (@mathowie) January 2, 2019
Fall, 2018. Marie Kondo sits with Netflix executives. “These Marvel shows. Do they bring you joy?”
— Tim Carvell (@timcarvell) January 2, 2019
one of the messy women asked marie kondo if HER house is ever a mess. her mouth said “of course!” but her eyes said “bitch have u met me??”
— Johanna Barr (@johannabarr) January 2, 2019
Marie Kondo's home pic.twitter.com/PCX7efA42C
— Claude Zeins (@czeins) January 3, 2019
“There is definitely something unique and fresh about Marie Kondo. That’s why she’s become so popular.” she said.
“I just hope that I continue to spark joy in your life,” I replied.
My former CTO started to develop a board game with his kids back when I started working there. He just posted it on Kickstarter and you need to back it right now!
It’s pretty amazing seeing it evolve from just a bunch of handwritten cards and a board to what it is today.
But if you don’t believe my review, you can always check out independent reviews on BoardGameGeek.
It was a struggle balancing this game with his wonderful family and a startup to boot. I remember discussing with him the struggles of whether to go to GenCon and still making his kids’ events.
Personally, I wish the title of the game was someone else than Merlin , but other than that, I’d have given the game more thumbs up if I could.
And, Dave, if you are reading this. Yes, I was backer 139. I would have been a lower number but… well you know what’s happening on my end 😉