Jason Geeks Out, The Final Installment

I may be jumping the gun, but given that we only have 24 entries left, including this one, I suspect it will be the last of the series. So it's fitting then that the end brings us back around to the beginning. Board games.

I've been researching board game mechanics and jotting down notes for a few concepts I have percolating. The list of game mechanics types is pretty long, which I guess isn't that surprising given the number of games available today. In case you're interested, here's the exhaustive list, courtesy of boardgamegeek.com.

Acting
Action Point Allowance System
Area Control / Area Influence
Area Enclosure
Area Movement
Area-Impulse
Auction/Bidding
Betting/Wagering
Campaign/Battle Card Driven
Card Drafting
Chit-Pull System
Co-operative Play
Commodity Speculation
Crayon Rail System
Dice Rolling
Hand Management
Hex-and-Counter
Line Drawing
Memory
Modular Board
Paper-and-Pencil
Partnerships
Pattern Building
Pattern Recognition
Pick-up and Deliver
Point to Point Movement
Rock-Paper-Scissors
Role Playing
Roll and Move
Route/Network Building
Secret Unit Deployment
Set Collection
Simulation
Simultaneous Action Selection
Singing
Stock Holding
Storytelling
Tile Placement
Trading
Trick-taking
Variable Phase Order
Variable Player Powers
Voting
Worker Placement

Now if you're a regular reader of this blog I suspect you read at most the top ten entries in this list and then jumped to the bottom. I don't blame you. It was a boring list, and it was really only tenuously connected to the topic of this entry.

In my research I came across what could be the Holy Grail of board game sites. BrettspielWelt (http://www.brettspielwelt.de), a German site (which exists in a number of languages) that allows people from around the world to play each other online in major commercial board games (major board games for board game geeks, like Carcassone, Power Grid, and The Settlers of Catan...you won't find Monopoly, Clue, or Battleship here.*) And it's free. I downloaded the client and started looking around, though I doubt I'll have the time to play anytime soon.

For me, it's great. We have friends and family that like board games, but we've never actually pulled together a game night. So I have all these games sitting on a shelf and never play them. Kate and I occasionally play the few that work with two players, but there are so many (not that many, really) that I've never played once. I may now finally get the chance.

The excitement builds, and the geek in me threatens to explode out of my chest.


*Not that there's anything wrong with those games. I like them a lot as well.

Designing a Board Game

It's an odd hobby, I know, but it's one I can't seem to shake. I really, REALLY want to gestate and finish a fun, playable, salable game. I've got a few ideas, one of which I wrote about in a previous entry (it involved Zombies.) But I've yet to finish one completely. Most of them are still in concept stage, in various states of not anywhere near finished. A few days ago I had loose idea for a strategy game and a much more concrete concept for the board it would be played on. I designed the board in Photoshop, broke it into four pieces, printed those as large as possible on four sheets of paper and the taped them together into a near full size game board.

At which point I realized that the intended game was crap.

But that's the challenge. Broad concepting is easy. Narrowing that down to compelling, playable mechanics is entirely different.

I don't know what the attraction is. I guess, for me, the game of designing a game, and the mental gymnastics that go with it is nearly as much fun as the games themselves. Plus I think I just want to prove to myself that I can do it.

No luck so far, but I'm unfazed.

Mille Bornes

Mille Bornes, the French auto race card game, created in 1954 is a classic, originally sold by Parker Brothers, now under license from Hasbro. The rules are very simple. Your goal is to be the first player to finish a 1,000 mile auto race. All the while other players are attempting to stop you with hazards like accidents, flat tires, speed limits, and more. There's very little strategy involved, which makes it a perfect game to play while watching TV, drinking, or just chatting with friends. The game takes very little concentration and is a lot of fun!

It's been a favorite of mine for years, though I hadn't played it in quite a while, until two night ago when I taught Kate. She took an instant shine to it, and now we've played at least one round every night since. It's the kind of game that works just as well for two people as it does for a group of people. The dynamic is different, but fun in both cases.

If you've never played, pick up a copy. It's inexpensive, easy to learn and a good way to keep yourself occupied. It's great for kids, too. It would make an excellent family game.

I'm a big fan of strategy games, but sometimes simpler is better. An easy game with simple rules involving a lot of luck and very little thought is sometimes just what you need to unwind. That and a Southside, or an Old Fashioned. Perfection.

Using Your Pets for Your Own Amusement

Owning pets has its rewards. They are instant family members, loyal to the end. They love you unconditionally, largely because their brains aren't hefty enough to process the concept of "conditions." Nor can they distinguish a laser pointer point from an actual, capture-able thing, and that's the sort of thing I'm writing about today.

Pets are great diversions. It's a riot watching little feline junkies pine for a fix of catnip, and then roll around in ecstasy with little regard for the fact that their fur is getting coated in their drug of choice. My cats (Banjo especially, back when he was around) are also absolutely transfixed by plastic bags. They perch themselves halfway into the bag, licking its inner surface incessantly. I can't imagine it's the flavor they're after. It must be the crinkly sound and the feel of the plastic on their tongues. Or maybe it's a natural offshoot of licking lead paint earlier in life. I'm not sure, but it's bizarre and hilarious.

Banjo also used to flip out for laser pointers. He'd run himself ragged; in circles, up walls, up and down from furniture trying to catch and kill that little red dot. It didn't matter that he'd never even managed to touch it before, let alone capture it. He wasn't about to let seeming invulnerability stop him from hunting his prey. And he reacted that way at fourteen years old. I only wish I'd had laser pointers when he was younger. I think his head would have literally exploded.

Fetch is a favorite game with our canine friends, a game that would never work with another human. It would be like dropping your pencil repeatedly and expecting your friend to pick it up for you every time and enjoy the privilege. But dogs freaking love it. Any opportunity to run anywhere is a good one. And that's why using your pets for your own amusement is so great. Not only are you enjoying yourself, but they are, too. When your dog rolls over, plays dead, or shakes hands, he's getting the satisfaction of a job well done. With Banjo and his laser pointer, the hunt is more important than the capture. So, unless you like to painfully torture small mammals for your own amusement, generally it's a two-way street of fun.


The fun doesn't really start until about halfway through the video.

Jason Geeks Out, Part 3

I've always had a thing for simulation games. Any game that takes a real world process, replicates it, and hands the controls over to you. And while there are some great simulation board games, like my favorite Republic of Rome, I'm mainly drawn to the computer variety. With sim games, it's all about the authenticity. The more closely you can model whatever system you're replicating, the more fun the game is, and with board games there's always a level of abstraction that pulls you out of the experience.

Wow, Jason. Your cold, technical analysis of sim games makes them sound like such a hoot, tell me more!

Oh, you have no idea. Actually, I don't either. Sometimes I wonder what's so enticing about this genre of games. They often, but not always, model relatively obscure experiences. SimTower was a favorite of mine years ago. It put you in charge of constructing a 100 floor skyscraper. As you built each new floor you had to decide how to distribute the space between office, retail, infrastructure and other categories. You had to design the elevator and escalator layouts to efficiently move people around the building, as well as take care of mundane details like trash collection. The goal was to finish all 100 floors, be profitable, and keep your tower dwellers happy. I don't think I ever got past the 35th floor.

Another game I played a decade or so ago was SimAnt. An ant colony simulation. No, not a digital version of the narrow, glass enclosed toy you might have had as a kid (though equally as pointless probably.) This was a faithful recreation of the day-to-day life of a colony as it attempts to spread itself across some hapless human's yard. Through resource management, queen movement, and ant specialization you slowly establish new hives. Once you've amassed a large enough colony and manage to infest hapless human's house, you win. I know. It sounds more like an episode of "Nature" than a game. But it was a lot of fun. I guess if sim games are your thing.

There are sims for almost everything you can think of. Some of my other favorites included Caesar II, a Roman city building sim, SimEarth, an planetary evolution sim, SimCity, the mother of all sim games, which takes city building and management as far as it can go, and of course, The Sims.

The Sims is the strangest of all the sim games, in my mind, for two reasons. One, because you play sim games to temporarily escape real life and The Sims simulates...real life! And two, because it was wildly popular, even among people that generally don't fall into the sim game contingent. If you haven't seen it, imagine this. A game that let's you create families, build them houses, buy them stuff, find them jobs and friends, and generally help them live their lives. They pay bills, have to call repairmen for plumbing leaks, and get fired if they consistently miss work. All the joys and troubles of life, manageably modeled in miniature.

It gets old after a while, but while the gloss is fresh, it is so addictive. The urge to play must be related to the urge that parents have, trying to make sure their kid's lives are better than their own. You get to live vicariously through any number of simulated people, letting them do all the things you can't, or won't. Or you can just set things up for them, and watch as at all falls apart.

The next logical step from The Sims is SimGamer. A sim game that models the life of a geeky sim gamer as he or she attempts to beat the latest sim experience, wasting hours of their lives in the process. Can't wait.

Brilliant Little Flash Games

Yet another reason to love the internet. Quick but interesting little one-off flash games. Really more diversions than games, these addictive little gems fill a void left open by giant uber platform games which require months of otherwise productive time to complete. Flash games give you a short but stimulating fix, without the withdrawal.

Albino Black Sheep (www.albinoblacksheep.com) is a great place to find flash games. Like anywhere, a lot are wastes of time, but some are truly inspired. Here are a couple all-time favorites.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/hapland

Hapland is a brain boggler. By clicking around the environment and doing things in the right order at the right times you aim to light two torches and open a portal. Why a portal? Don't know. It's never really explained. But the fun is in getting there.

And these I love. All of them. Their creator calls them "Grow" games, and there's a bunch of them.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/grow
http://shingakunet.com/school/0000002190/special/19024701/0285/index.html
http://www.eyezmaze.com/eyezblog_en/blog/2005/09/grow_cube.html#monster
http://www.eyezmaze.com/eyezblog_en/blog/2006/06/grow_ver2.html#monster

This is just a sampling. There are many others, but you have to be resourceful to find them all. It's hard to describe them if you haven't tried one. But in essence, each game starts with a selection of items. You select the order in which you add each item into the game, one at a time. As you add new items, earlier items begin to level up, or "grow". As they advance they begin interacting with each other. So the order you add items is very important. In fact, there is only one correct order. After you've added all the elements, the game will show you how far each item advanced. The goal is to get every item to max out its advancement. You can use this end screen, along with the way elements interact with each other as clues to the proper add order. All the "Grow" game use this same premise, but each twists in very inventive ways. Really the best way to learn about them is to try one.

You'll likely be up till three in the morning like I was when I first discovered them a couple years ago. It's worth it.

NOTE: Some of the grow games end up further down the page than you can see initially. You have to scroll down to find them.

Jason Geeks Out, Part 1

This is the first entry in what I suspect will become an ongoing theme.  To christen this new boat, let me say, emphatically, that I love board games!

It's an itch I don't scratch often enough, only because Kate and I can't find other people with the same level of enthusiasm, and playing with just the two of us gets a little boring sometimes.  At one point I almost joined a board gaming group in this area, but couldn't quite bring myself to pull the trigger.  Enjoying board games is one thing...seeking out a group of people who get together on a regular basis for the express purpose of playing board games, and likely carry their favorite, limited-edition releases of old, out-of-print German language games in a hand-stitched leather satchel emblazoned with the family crest of one of the many warring Klingon factions...that's another.  This is "Jason Geeks Out", not "Jason's Geek Explodes Violently in All Directions, Wounding Several Bystanders", after all.

Who knows.  Maybe one day I'll check out the group.  After all, I also almost joined a barbershop quartet choir, so I don't think my leather satchel is that far off.