Pottermore: Will It Be a Game?

The news has been trickling through the internet today about a new project from J.K. Rowling dubbed "Pottermore." All that exists thus far is the web site teaser and some wild rumors. We know what it's not, however, and that's an announcement of a new book. Rowling has made that clear.

Since everyone else is speculating, I might as well join the club and ask, "Could it be a massively multiplayer Harry Potter game?" I'm thinking the answer to that is a very firm no. Electronic Arts owns the interactive rights, and they don't appear to be involved in any of the filings for the domains or trademarking of Pottermore.

I'll just take a wild shot in the dark and guess we're looking at a broad-based online Harry Potter experience which may include light gaming, but also fan content, forums, news, and retail. More to the point, Rowling has already stated that she wrote a lot extra material while building the world and writing the books, and she'd like to make that available to fans. This may well be a conduit for that kind of content. I'm guessing it's a Disney.go kinda thing, with a more fan-friendly approach. We'll know for sure next week.

The site was teased with a viral game. Ten map coordinates were sent out to fan sites. These coordinates could be entered at secretstreetview.com. If you zoomed in on the location, you got a letter. If you found all ten, it spelled out "Pottermore". Here's an example:

Click to enlarge

Duke Nukem Forever: A Brief Public Service Announcement

This is not a review. I'm only able to tolerate playing Duke Nukem Forever for about an hour at a time, and then I have to take a shower to wash away the stench of the thing and maybe go to my Quiet Place and turn out the lights and listen to soothing music. Or perhaps play a little Portal 2 to remind me that games don't have to be this grotesquely awful, and that there is goodness and decency left in the world of PC gaming.

It's not that the game is vulgar, gross, sexist, crass, and stupid. It's certainly all those things, and deliberately so. It would be pointless to rail against the misogyny, omnipresent scatological references, juvenile sexuality, outrageous gore, or profanity. Those were always going to be signature elements in any Duke Nukem sequel. Complaining about them would be like going to Hooters "for the food" and complaining about the way the waitresses dress.

The only real point to be made about these elements is this: while the original Duke Nukem managed to be somewhat tasteless while still being a decent game, Duke Nukem Forever is grindingly, insultingly, nihilistically tasteless while simultaneously being one of the worst shooters I've played since Corridor 7. What was a send-up of 1980s action stereotypes in the original is now just self-referential, tired, and joyless.

The gameplay is ghastly. The level design is horrible and the game itself is boring, repetitive, and pointless. At one point Duke is shrunk down and tools around in a tiny car, and you wonder: did anybody even play this game after they made it? Did they enjoy the tiny-Duke level? Did they finish it and say, "Yes, by golly, this is something people will want to pay to experience!" Because if they did, then they really should be looking for work in some business more in line with their skill set; perhaps slop boy at a hog processing plant.

If this game was a person, he would be a paunchy middle-aged man with a bad combover and a silk shirt open to the waist to reveal the cornicello tangled in his matted, graying chest hair. It is so desperate to be Super-Alpha-Male-Plus-With-Extra-Testosterone-On-Top that it winds up merely sad and sickening.

And did I mention how bad it plays? Really, really bad. I have not finished it, but I've invested about 3 hours so far, and hated every single moment. I felt like someone was grinding my face into the gunk you find under a fridge. I didn't crack a smile once: not at the pee jokes, the cliched movie quotes, the quips, or the parade of bimbos. Everything about it was dreary and hateful. The graphics are just bad. The action is the worst possible blend of trite early-FPS shoot-n-scoot and modern pop-up shooter styles. Duke has to hide like a little girl when he's wounded, in order to have time to heal. Yet--bizarrely--the monster behavior and level design favors old-skool run-n-gun action. It's all a hot mess.

I will put more time into the game because I have to. It's my job. However, even with only a few hours under my belt, I can tell you without hesitation that you do not want to buy this game, download the demo, or look at the box. This isn't "bad in a good sort of way." It's bad in a soul-killing, suck-all-the-sunlight-from-your life sorta way.

UPDATE: I've been asked why I didn't write in detail about some of the game's most notorious elements in this post. I just didn't think I could even describe them on a site that tries to stay family friendly. I know there are kids who read this site, and I couldn't think of any language that could describe the content and still remain kid-safe. For that, I'll refer you to the review at Ars Technica, which explains just how bad it gets. 

New Arrivals: Godzilla, Catan & Pixies

Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars (ToyBiz, $70) unexpectedly arrived last week, landing with a mighty thud on the porch as the UPS guy ran for his life shouting "Aaaaiiiii! Gojira! Run!" I unboxed it, marveled at the lovely figures, marveled further at the hideous gameboard, and then sat down with the manual.

And there I was still sitting, an hour later, trying to search my mind for a game with worse documentation. I haven't tackled the gameplay yet, although I finally figured out that it's a pretty straightforward combat/destruction game, with Godzilla and three other monsters taking turns stomping the city and each other. The mechanics appear to have some potential, but I'll obviously need to dig more deeply before I can deliver a verdict.

The manual, however, is a disgrace. It's not merely that the gameplay, the pieces, and even the purpose of the game are poorly explained; it's that all of this is printed in teeny tiny print and without any color. The black-and-white illustrations are so dark that you can't actually tell what they're depicting. Thus, I'm not really sure what all the little chits are supposed to represent. I've heard that this was a cost-cutting measure, but if so it was the worst possible decision.

I'm a big kaiju (rubber monster suit) fan, so I was really looking forward to this one. I intend to give it every chance to overcome the poor initial impression it made.

The Rivals For Catan (Mayfair, $20) is a rebooting of Catan: The Card Game, which I haven't played in ages. I've been able to play the basic game twice, and enjoyed it both times. I want to get about 6 more plays done before I review it, but thus far it's proving to be a quick, enjoyable slice of Catan. It seems to be better balanced than the original, and it was certainly easier to pick up and play with a novice gamer. Stay tuned for a full review

Pixy Cubes (BlueOrange, $16) is another clever offering from BlueOrange games. Think of it as a cube-based tangram. The game comes with 16 dice-sized cubes, with each face depicting a different pattern. These cubes must be assembled to match certain patterns depicted on a set of cards. It has a couple of options for competitive play, but it works just fine as a solo game.

On the videogame front, everyone in the house has been spending a lot of time with this guy:

Are You Elite?

E3 didn't deliver a great deal of new information on Activision's plans for their new Call of Duty Elite service, but the company that makes billions from the pay-to-play online game World of Warcraft is super-double-pinky-swearing that Call of Duty multiplayer will not go pay-to-play. If you listen very closely when Activision says this, you can almost hear the pause where they mutter under their breath: yet.

Activision is making so much money from their Call of Duty games that they needed to take over Scrooge McDuck’s money bin to store it all. (Rumor has it that certain Activision execs get to swim around in the three cubic acres of cash contained therein.) Naturally, when faced with such a staggering success, the question any good publishers must ask is: how can we make even more money from Call of Duty.

The answer came upon them like a Blizzard: a monthly premium service!

And that’s just what Call of Duty Elite will offer. For a monthly feed (rumored to be $9), you get a lot of social networking features and some ill-defined benefits. There are four channels: Compete, Connect, Compete, and Improve. Career is just a summary of your gaming activity on all games supported by Elite. Connect is CoD social networking, so you can create a profile and find other players with similar interests and perhaps post photos from Cute Overload and links to laughing baby videos. Compete is the channel for online events, tournaments, and prize opportunities. And Improve is kind of a tips and tutorial section. There’s also connectivity for Facebook, Twitter, and mobile devices.

Activision has created a studio, dubbed “Beachhead,” to create the new system. CEO Bobby Kotick has this to say about the project:

"Beachhead will create the best-in-class online community, exclusive content, and a suite of services to supercharge the online gaming experience like never before. The platform will support in-game integration and bring online experiences and console play together for the first time. The platform has been in development for over a year and we're very excited about the increased value we can bring to the community."

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick

If this all looks like a fancy leaderboard mashed together with Facebook, that's because it is. However, Activision will probably sweeten the pot by including new map packs, early and exclusive access to betas and demos, and other bonus content as part of the subscription. Map packs cost about $10 to $15 dollars, so although that’s some incentive, it’s not much. What, then, is the long-term plan for Elite?

Activision, of course, also owns Blizzard, which rakes in about $2 billion (no, that’s not a typo) each year from World of Warcraft fees. The trick lies in transplanting the pay-to-play service of a massively multiplayer online game to the multiplayer action arena. World of Warcraft gets people to pay a monthly fee by offering something unique, and it’s never been free. Call of Duty multiplayer is not unique, and it’s always been as free as dirt.

And therein lays the problem. Activision makes money on the initial game sale, and some more money selling additional map packs, but they have yet to discover a way to monetize online action gaming.

Rest assured, that state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely. Each new Call of Duty game averages 18-20 million sales. About 7 million people play Call of Duty online, and they average about an hour a day. That’s more time than people spend on Facebook or Twitter. And after the initial $60 sale, there is no money to be made from those users unless they choose to buy bonus content. In-game advertising has proven hugely unpopular with gamers, so the only way to make multiplayer gaming profitable is to charge for it.

The Elite service may be Activision’s way of testing the waters for pay-to-play online action gaming. All game publishers are looking to cut out the retail sector (or at least diminish their role) and move to digital delivery direct to the consumer. I haven’t installed a PC game from a disc in a couple of years, opting for 100% digital delivery. The future of console gaming will be similar, and services like Call of Duty Elite may lie at the heart of it. You’ll no longer buy a Call of Duty game: you’ll subscribe to a Call of Duty service.

Frankly, if they keep the quality and updates at the standards set by World of Warcraft, then I don’t see people having a lot of trouble with that model. It will, however, take a tectonic shift in the way gamers perceive the medium, and that will take time. It will also be incredibly risky. Publishers will need to ease gamers away from the idea of owning a game bought in a box at a retail establishment, and move towards a model akin to streaming video.

The best comparison is with the “Watch Now” features of Netflix, which allow people to stream movies straight to their televisions for a monthly fee. Netflix (and now Hulu) is tightly integrated into all the gaming systems, so gamers are already get used to the idea of streaming content.

I simply can’t imagine free multiplayer action gaming continuing indefinitely. Someone, at some point, is going to find a way to monetize it, and the candidate best equipped for the task is Activision. The Elite service goes into beta this summer, and should roll out with Modern Warfare 3 this fall. It will include support for MW3 and Black Ops. Once we see it in action, we’ll start to get a better sense of the future of the Call of Duty series, the Elite service, and the shape of multiplayer action gaming.

The First Look at the New Wii U

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is an annual trade show where game companies roll out new hardware and software. The biggest news so far is that a new Wii is on the way in 2012. It's finally hi-def, and has a crazy new wireless controller with a screen. Check out the official launch trailer:



And here's a closer look at that touchscreen controller:

And here it is functioning as a supplemental control screen for the new Zelda game:

I'm not at E3, but the word is that game journalists are scoffing at the new system. Maybe it's good or maybe not, but try to remember that these are the many of the same people who scoffed at the Wii. I read some article complaining that Nintendo was trying to jam an iPad into the Wii experience, as though the stupidity of that idea was self-evident.

Look, dedicated gamers hate the Wii. Except for a few titles, I'm not a huge fan of it myself. But it's not made for me or for people who go to E3.  It's made for everyone else.  It's a perfect family machine. It will not appeal to the teens or to the adult hipsters who cover games for a living, and it's not meant to. So, if you read a lot of negative comment on the Wii U in the upcoming months, take it with a grain of salt.

Frankly, I'm intrigued. Nintendo has been trying to work some handheld-to-console support into some games for years. As far back as 2004, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures connected a GameBoy Advance to a GameCube via cable, with the GBA functioning as a supplemental controller and screen.

Nintendo is going to sell this as a chance to buy a new Wii and get a portable iPad-style experience in the bargain. The controller can function independently of the Wii U, which means people get two game platforms for the price of one.

I showed this video to my resident ten-year-old and got four exclamation of That is sooo cool! and a concluding That looks awesome! All of the opinions you'll read about the Wii U are irrelevant in the face of that kind of reaction. Nintendo knows how to sell their product to kids and families. Guys who write about games are not their intended market.

REVIEW: Mythbusters: Hit The Target

 Designer: n/a
Publisher: Zimzala Games
Players: 2-4
Ages: 10+
Time: 10-20 minutes
Price: $25


Mythbusters is mandatory viewing at Casa McD, so when I saw Zimzala showing a Mythbusters board game, I knew I'd have to give it a try. Hopes were not high: media tie-in games are notoriously craptacular, and media tie-in trivia games usually occupy some spot below craptacular which we'll just call Bratz Twister. 


So it's a pleasant surprise that Mythbusters: Hit the Target works just fine as a light, fun family game. There's a bit of trivia, a dexterity element, and a touch of science, and it all comes together just fine.


Goal
The object is to answer trivia questions and hit a series of targets with a miniature rubber crash test dummy ("Buster" from the show) flung from a tiny catapult.


Components
There's no game board, but the targets and answer dials are made of thick, sturdy cardboard. The answer dials are circular pieces with a plastic arrow that can be pointed to one of five different answers: Confirmed, Busted, A, B, or C. Targets are round pieces with a target on one side and a picture of Buster on the other. 


The Buster-pult is made of fairly sturdy plastic with a rubber band to provide tension. It's placed on a cardboard base which allows the catapult to be shifted left or right in order to alter the angle.


I can imagine the rubber bands losing their flexibility and breaking, so it's good that some spares are included. Unfortunately, it's not a standard rubber band size, so after the replacements are gone you may be out of luck. Buster himself is made of soft, flexible rubber. The game also includes a box of cards with questions and answers.


Gameplay
Two to four players or teams take turns pulling a trivia card. Questions are a mixture of show-specific and general science questions with two different formats. There are multiple choice questions with three possible answers (A, B, or C) and direct statements with a "Confirmed" (true) or "Busted" (false) answer. 


For instance, "You can use sharkskin as sandpaper" would require a reply of "Confirmed" or "Busted". (Yes, sharkskin can be used as sandpaper.) One example of a multiple choice question is "If you get sprayed by a skunk, you can get rid of the smell by using: A. Beer. B. A mixture of soap, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda. or C. Tomato Juice. (The answer is B.) There are some simple, general science questions, but most require some familiarity with the show.


Each player or team secretly chooses an answer using their dial, then places the dial face down. When everyone has chosen, they reveal their dials.


If you got the answer wrong, nothing happens. If you got it right, you roll a die and perform the action indicated by the roll. These actions break down into three categories: target placement, catapult adjustment, and launching. 


If your die shows the target icon, you can place one of your targets anywhere on the playing surface, or move a target which you have already placed. Targets are placed with the picture of Buster facing down. 


If your die has an "aim" result, you may change the aim of the catapult by 10, 20, or 30 degrees. The catapult begins in a central position, but as the targets begin to fill the table and spread out, players may want to shift the angle in order to reach a specific target.


The final option is LAUNCH. If you decide to launch, you place the little rubber Buster on the catapult, draw it back, and let him fly. Any target he hits gets turned over and counts as a point for that target's team. For example, if you're trying to reach your blue target and hit a green target instead, then tough luck: the green team flips the target and scores the point. Three points wins the game. 


Conclusion
I'm not a fan of dexterity games, but Mythbusters: Hit the Target provides a good mix of knowledge and dexterity. Finding the right amount of force is a matter of trial and error, so players should each have an opportunity to try a few trial flings before the game begins. (Maybe agree upon a fixed number of test-flights, perhaps 5, so everyone can warm up.) 


There's a mild tactical element involved in placing your targets. Do you spread them out or run them in a fixed line? Group them together or place them near the targets of someone who's a lousy shot? Since Buster can fly pretty far, the game demands either a long table or even some floor space in order to play.


Some questions may seem absurdly easy for adults. One example is "Which scientist came up the basic laws of motion: A. Pasteur, B. Newton, C. Galileo." Obviously, any adult will know that it's Newton, but this is a family game meant for both young and old. The mixture of easy and hard answers, and the inclusion of simple binary choices like "confirmed" or "busted," increases the odds that younger gamers will get a chance at the Buster-pult, which is really what they want to do anyway. 


Along the way, a bit of knowledge is conveyed, so there's certainly an educational element to the game. The blend of trivia and dexterity is just right for mixed groups of young and old. This is an easy recommendation for fans of the show.

UPDATE: The publishers let me know that they will send replacement rubber bands upon request.

Small World Underground

Designer Phillipe Keyaerts and Days of Wonder are taking Small World subterranean. Small World Underground features new races, new powers, and a whole new underground map. Keyaerts has this to say about the new Small World:

Thoughts of changing the landscape of Small World have been in my head for quite some time. A land filled with Mountains seems to require running water, and so now we have Underground rivers. There is a double impact of the river: being difficult to cross, it can protect your regions... but you can also navigate the river to cross the board quickly. Mountains also begat Volcano regions that can't be conquered, which of course leads us to a race (Flames) that can exploit them!

Another important idea I had in mind were legendary artifacts which can be transferred from generation to generation. While previously powers were specific to a race, now we have new strong powers but that can be claimed by different races. Some of those artifacts didn't need to move on the board so they became magical places which opened up my mind to even more ideas on how they could be used.

Even when a game is finished and published, it's not easy to stop working on the design. I'm really happy to have the opportunity to look back at some ideas and explore the Small World universe even more deeply with Small World Underground.

SWU is now available for preorder. You can check out the official website for photos and rules.

It's Disney's Universe...

...we just live in it.

Lego has its own Universe, and now Disney wants theirs. Disney isn't going the full massively multiplayer route (they already own Club Penguin), but is instead creating a minorly multiplayer game for Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Disney Universe will be the first time characters from all of Disney's different realms (classic and contemporary animation, television, Pixar, and live action) will appear in a single property (other than a theme park). Gamers will be able to "suit up" as 40 different characters from movies like Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Tron, Lilo and Stich, and others. There has been remarkably little information on the project, which is odd given its Fall release date. Thus far, there's no complete list of characters, only two screen shots, and the teaser (below) to show what it might be like.

We do know that players get specific tools and abilities based on the character costume they're wearing. They'll be able to explore 6 different world to solve puzzles and defeat enemies, in either co-operative or competitive play. The Disney Blog is reporting that Alice in Wonderland and Monstropolis will be two of the game worlds.

Disney Interactive just published Traveler's Tales Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, which is the same classic gameplay (and some of the same classic annoyances) as other Lego games. Disney/Lego also struck a deal for Toy Story and Pirates of the Caribbean Lego sets. Could we see a Lego Toy Story game in the near future?

Warren Spector Does DuckTales

WARNING: Comic book geekery ahead.

While game designer Warren Spector (Deus Ex, System Shock) was still working on Epic Mickey, he was already expressing a desire to do a DuckTales game: "A day does not go by where I don't tell somebody at Disney: 'Uncle Scrooge, come on! Donald! Huey, Dewey, and Louie! Come on, let me do a duck game!' So yeah, I would love to do a duck game."

Spector didn't get his Uncle Scrooge game, but he got the next best thing: the chance to write BOOM! Comics' new DuckTales comic book. The series relaunched this week with the first issue of Spector's new storyline, and the results are ... unfortunate.

Let's back up a little. Uncle Scrooge McDuck is one of the great comic book characters of all time. His greatest adventures--best chronicled by Don Rosa and Carl Barks--are epic quests for treasure. First Barks, and later Rosa, evolved an elaborate mythology and cast of characters, with Rosa in particular taking pains to turn the Barks "Duck" mythos (it's like the Cthulhu mythos, only more feathery and less tentacally) into a coherent storyline. Rosa's Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is one of the finest achievements in comic history.

Scrooge isn't a villain. He's hardworking, brave, austere, adventurous, clever, and, yes, very stingy: a perfect Scottish stereotype. His money and treasure were earned through sweat, courage, and negotiation. This is the core of the entire 60 year history of the character.

And that's what makes Spector's first issue of DuckTales such a misbegotten mess. He gets off to a promising start with some fan service as Scrooge tours through a museum filled with treasure from past adventures. And then Webbigail (the annoying mini-Daisy Duck from the DuckTales TV series) takes center stage and turns herself into the Voice of Moral Authority. And she does it while running a game of D&D (Ducks and Danger) for Huey, Dewey, and Louie, no less! She begins by complaining that D&D is just about "taking things that don't belong to you," and then proceeds to lecture everyone about how wicked Scrooge is for collecting (not stealing, mind you: earning) all his treasure and how he needs to give it all back.

I so wish I was making that up, but the whole premise of Spector's storyline is a rebuke of the entire series. I was going to title this post "Warren Spector Wrecks DuckTales," but I'm still hoping this is all a setup for some clever turnaround. Perhaps by issue 2 Webbigail will wind up as a tiny serving of Peking Duck in a Chinese restaurant and the whole notion of returning treasure will turn out to be a bad idea. The issue ends on a promising note as Huey, Dewey, and Louie--hectored and sidelined for most of the issue--make a surprise appearance, so perhaps they finally found that page in the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook that says "Ignore self-righteous little girl ducks."

The comic reviewer at PopMatters is applauding the new storyline for reversing "a pernicious and recursive problem in Uncle Scrooge, the slide into an oligarchical, messianic view of Western paternalistic attitudes to native cultures." That's the kind of anti-Western, jargon-laden, leftist nonsense you can only write after earning a "doctorate in literary and cultural theory." McDuck was a pennyless immigrant who earned his money by his wits and hard labor. He's an example of The American Dream, and some of us still believe in that.

I get the appeal of reversing the standard treasure-quest storyline, but the premise is the worst kind of politically correct revisionism. Spector has a fine storytelling sensibility, and he certainly has a lot of good geek-love for all things Disney and Duck. That's why I'm hoping the rest of the series turns out a lot better than issue number 1.

Report From Joplin

Photo: Josh Edwards

Josh Edwards (of Board Game Reviews by Josh) posts a lengthy report about losing his house in the tornadoes that hit Joplin, Mo. Here's how he begins:

Hi. My name is Josh. For a while, I have been using this blog to exclusively write reviews of board games. I've debated back and forth in my mind for a while whether I wanted to include "site news" posts or not, but thus far have refrained. However, something has happened that has caused me to go ahead and start that section. Bluntly, my house was blown down in a tornado.

Read the whole thing.

Spiel des Jahres: Nominees for 2011

"Spiel des Jahres" is German for "Game of the Year," and it's the most prestigious award in board gaming. A select group of German game critics puts forth various nominees in several different categories, and the winners (and even the nominees) can always expect a considerable spike in sales.

The Game of Year nominees are:

• Qwirkle (an old MindWare title that was just released in Germany this year: it's on sale for 57% off at Amazon)
• Forbidden Island (Matt Leacock's family friendly version of Pandemic)
• Asara (Rio Grande Games)

A new category called "Kennerspiel des Jahres" was introduced this year for more complex games. Those nominees are:

• 7 Wonders (Asmodee)
• Strasbourg (Pegasus Spiele)
• Lancaster (Queen Games)

A third category, "Kinderspiel des Jahres," nominates children's games. This year, the nominees are

• Das ist der Wyrm drin (Zoch)
• Magician's Kitchen (Playroom)
• Monster-Falle (Kosmos)

I believe only four of these games are easily available in the US right now. Those are:

Who Are The Associated Gamers?

Some of you may have noticed the little "Associated Gamers" brand in the corner. AG is the brainchild of the Kevin Schlabach, of Seize Your Turn and Play in Public fame. It's essentially a broadcast channel where a  group of Eurogame bloggers can share their links in one handy place. Although I'm not strictly a Eurogame blogger, Kevin was kind enough to ask me to participate, and I think it's a great place to get links to all your news and reviews in one place.

This is probably a good moment to reiterate what State of Play is and isn't. This is a personal blog focused on games of all types in order to bring interesting items (news, games, puzzles, reviews) to a mainstream readership. There are a number of people covering Eurogames far better than I. Writers and podcasters like W. Eric Martin, Tom Vasel, Dice Hate Me, Board Games Reviews by Josh, the members of Associated Gamers, and many others do a terrific job. And, of course, there are always the BoardGameGeek forums for the brave or foolhardy. I do cover Eurogames, but I don't single them out as the only "good" kind of game. I'm just as likely to write about chess or playing cards or videogames. (In fact, my playing card posts--particularly playing card art--get far, far more hits than anything else here.)

Associated Gamers is also helping to create a sense of community among various game bloggers, which brings me to the most important part of this post. Through the AG messages on Posterous, I've been able to exchange comments with a number of different writers, including Josh Edwards of Board Game Reviews by Josh. Josh lives in Joplin, Missouri. He writes on Twitter: "I and my family are all safe. Unfortunately, my house (and boardgames) were completely lost. So... Yeah... Don't really know what to say."

Someone on BGG has already started a thread to help Josh and his family as they try to rebuild their lives. As I learn more, I'll report it in a future post. Our prayers are with them all.

Free RPG Day

In the tradition of Free Comic Book Day, game stores and publishers are coming together to make June 18th "Free RPG Day." Participating retailers will have free quickstart adventures, dice, and similar items from White Wolf, Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, and other companies. Check out the official site to find a store near you.

Uncle Chestnut's Table Gype on Kickstarter

Paul Nowak of Eternal Revolution has begun a Kickstarter Campaign to continue the production of Uncle Chestnut's Table Gype, which just won a MENSA select award and was also on our Games 100 list for 2011. Paul just sent me a copy of this wonderful game, and I hope to have a review of it here in the near future. In the meantime, enjoy these video that explain a bit about the game, G.K. Chesterton, and Distributism.

Chesterton On Chess and Madness

The previous post about Bobby Fischer calls to mind a famous passage from Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton. Long before Bobby Fischer, G.K. Chesterton wrote of the madness of chess players, the sanity of the imagination, and the challenges of reason. (I've paragraphed the passage to make it easier to read on the blog.)

Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination. Artistic paternity is as wholesome as physical paternity. Moreover, it is worthy of remark that when a poet really was morbid it was commonly because he had some weak spot of rationality on his brain. 

Poe, for instance, really was morbid; not because he was poetical, but because he was specially analytical. Even chess was too poetical for him; he disliked chess because it was full of knights and castles, like a poem. He avowedly preferred the black discs of draughts, because they were more like the mere black dots on a diagram.[...] 

The general fact is simple. Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion, like the physical exhaustion of Mr. Holbein*. To accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything a strain. The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.

*Note: This is a reference to Montague Holbein, who tried to swim the English Channel.

Bobby Fischer Against the World

Susan Polgar posted a link to a trailer for Bobby Fischer Against the World, the first feature documentary about Bobby Fischer. (Polgar is featured at the 22-second mark.)



It's an interesting minute that explains the sheer mathematical complexity of chess, which may or may not be what drove Fischer batty. You can find out more at bobbyfischermovie.co.uk.

Ticket to Ride and Bohnanza Are Now Apps

The headline pretty well says it all.  Ticket to Ride is iPad only. Here's a 5 minute video walk through from Days of Wonder.


Bohnanza, a port of the classic bean-planting card game, is available in regular and HD flavors. I've spent some time with the Bohnanza app and it plays fairly well, albeit a bit slowly.

Both of these are classic Eurogames, now available in handy portal formats for a fraction of their original price. With Tikal released last month and Puerto Rico on the way, the Spring is shaping up to be a very good season for mobile Eurogames.

Review: Stacking (XBLA/PS3)

A game set at the turn of the century dealing with child abduction, labor strife, and poverty, all done in a whimsical silent-movie style and featuring a cast of matryoshka (nesting) dolls with diverse powers? Yeah, Tim Shafer and Double Fine Productions are back.

Stacking is a small, Xbox/PSN Arcade game developed simultaneously with Double Fine’s more high-profile Brutal Legend, and is altogether more entertaining and imaginative than its big-budget cousin.

Stacking concerns the adventures of Charlie Blackmore, the smallest member of a family of nesting dolls. When his siblings are kidnapped and forced into indentured servitude, Charlie is left behind due to his small size. This, however, becomes one of his greatest assets, because Charlie is able to “nest” in any doll that is one size larger than him.

Each kind of doll has a unique power. Some of these are useless, such as playing tag or going to the bathroom. But some are essential for solving puzzles, and therein lay the key to the gameplay. If you need to lure a doorman away from his door, you can use the female doll that screams (he’ll rush to her aid) or the female doll that “seduces” (he’ll fall in love and abandon his post for a few seconds). Many locations include multiple solutions, so you might find yourself clearing a room by (ahem) passing gas into a ventilator, or by infiltrating the room as a mechanic, or by sneaking past the guard.

The variety of dolls and powers along with the detailed environments mean the game is rich in content. You can simply go about collecting new dolls and trying out their powers. You can search out sets of matching dolls in order to learn their stories. Or you can just follow the adventure where it leads by talking to characters and using various doll abilities to solve puzzles.

This is an immensely clever and appealing game. There is a bit of potty humor (belching, flatulence, bathroom visits, etc), but nothing too offensive. The odd and disappointing part is the length. For a game that is jammed with detail and loaded with potential, the adventure itself plays out rather quickly. A sequel—The Lost Hobo King—is already out, but it’s even shorter. I guess there are worse things to say about a game than “I wish it went on longer.”

Site Update

Sorry for the light blogging lately, but a combination of work, vacation, volunteer obligations, the beginning of grad school, minimal gaming time, and the complete meltdown of Blogger conspired to keep me away from the game table and the blog.

Also: I'm lazy.

While I find some balance among work, school, home, and sanity, blogging may be light, but there will still be new content each week. I have a lot of items I've been wanting to review, and I hope to start getting some of those posted next week.

And just so reading this post wasn't a total waste, here's a sculpture made of Scrabble tiles.

The sculpture and the photo are by David Mach (the link is NSFW).

The Rivals For Catan: The Card Editor

I haven't had a chance to play The Rivals for Catan, but I just noticed that Mayfair has a custom card creator for the game. Here's how they describe it:

Here you have the possibility to create your very own playing card within minutes. The “Harald” card serves as a template. Just insert a picture, choose a name, and create a short text for your very own hero card. After that, all you have to do is save your work as a JPG or PDF file, print it, and glue it to the original “Harald” card.