Doing up the buttons

Why does Saturday night television have to be so awful ? Is it a covert attempt to push more of us down the pub or into the DVD shops to rent the latest chick flick ?

The Lady Fuchsia is sitting in front of the X Factor (or Strictly Regurgitated, or Ant and Dec mock the weak, or something, I don't know) so I have sloped off to alternative digital entertainment.

I've been reviewing the ever increasing number of board/card/dice game implementations, on my iPhone, and pondering what translates well to this media and what doesn't.

I saw recently that the Settlers of Catan App has been released but I haven't been tempted to get it so far. I'm not a huge fan of the game although I quite like it with the right crowd. (It can be hugely painful if you're playing with people who never trade or just don't get it).

But overall I think it would probably be just a bit too fiddly on an iPhone - plus I'm worried that the AIs would just poodle to each other like they tend to do in Zooloretto (I swear I could have written more intelligent AIs than the ones in that App).

For me, simplicity is the key to playing games on a small hand held and my current favourite - by a long way - is Button Men.

Funnily enough I've never played this Cheap Ass game in 'real life' - mainly because it requires the players to provide their own dice and I don't tend to have a shed load of d20s down to d4s lying around the castle. (I know this may surprise some people - but I tend to just have the ones that come with games and CheapAss never actually provide components - it provides the rules)

However, it fits the iPhone perfectly. A clever dice rolling game with some tough decisions and a wry flavour. It plays fast, has great sound effects (the clatter of the dice is really cool) and is just a lot of fun without insulting the intelligence.

So good, in fact, that I'm tempted to go purchase some of the 'buttons' and a truck load of dice.

Euro for the Guy

I was listening to a Professor of Cultural History (or some similar discipline) on Radio 4, this afternoon, bemoaning the national disregard for Bonfire Night and the increasing move towards Halloween as the autumnal festival of choice.

Of course, he has a point - and it's amazing just how few fireworks have been let off, this evening, in the Gormenghast locale - but I can't help feeling he's a bit late with his comments.

I pointed this out two years ago - in a couple of posts here and obliquely here.

It's not often that Steerpike is ahead of the curve, so excuse my smugness.

How come I never get invited onto Radio 4 for my cultural observations?

Floundering Fathers

I'm really interested in reading up on history but what is it with these academics and their ponderous prose ?

Awhile ago I bemoaned the standard of writing in "the Keys of Egypt" - take a subject matter area that should be bristling with interest and squeeze all the life out of it, until it is bone dry.

So now I am giving "The American Future", by Simon Schama, a go.
According to the blurb, Schama is a genius of story telling.

Really ? Is that why he writes page after page of scarcely punctuated text without a single paragraph break ?

He almost manages to make the whole thing unreadable by assuming the reader wants a single stream of words laid down, as one, onto the page. The only attempt at structure appears to be breaking the book up into four sections to mirror the related TV series (which I missed).

Still, there's a lot of fascinating information embedded in this text stream and I've been particularly interested in the stuff around the Founding Fathers - but perhaps that's because I am eagerly awaiting the boardgame.

I just wish it was a bit more of a roller coaster of a novel (in 400 sizzling chapters, a searing indictment of domestic servitude in the 18th century, with some hot gypsies thrown in)

MetaGnome

Some gamers get very upset with what they see as meta gaming.

In it's simplest form this is seen as the carrying over of grudges from one game to the next. I was accused of this wicked crime by Sam Healey (formerly of the Dice Tower) in an online game of Wallenstein. He'd won our first clash and he felt that everyone (particularly me) was ganging up on him in the rematch.

This, it seems, is seen as bad form -at least it is if you are the one on the wrong end of the secret revenge pact.

Personally, I think it is very healthy. Learn the lessons of previous plays - it's what humans do, isn't it ?

I think meta gaming is a much wider concept, though. It's the great game that strides all games. It's the having fun with games.

Playing with the same group, over again, leads to interesting player interactions as each and every person gets to know the others' styles, weaknesses and idiosyncrasies.

For many moons, now, new players have noted the antagonism between Poodle and myself (across the game board) and have sought to exploit it to its full. Both of us can be stubborn and hotheaded and easily swayed to attack the other for the smallest of slights. Between us we can make a war game out of the most pacifistic Euro.

Recently, the Clotted Hustler has scored many victories by pointing the exocet that is Poodle directly at the kitchen. But times they are a changing. An interesting new dynamic has surfaced within the group - the meek and mild HalfaBee, over a succession of games, has started to get irritated by the weaselly words and misdirections of our pasty-eating friend.

As result he has started using the name Wormtongue, or the more familiar Grima, whenever the Hustler is trying to convince him to do his dirty work for him. It's fascinating to watch.

And Grima really does not like his new name. He tries to laugh it off, but beneath his breath you can here him muttering about how he's going to get Saruman to take his revenge on this Halfling.

Suddenly, Poodle and I are free to wage our wars in peace without worrying about the other two getting in our way (or picking up the pieces).

In many ways, this blog is my own version of meta-gaming. Continuing the play outside the formalised rule sets. Trouble is, I appear to be the only one participating.

Solo meta gaming. Is that sadder than playing a boardgame on your own ? Meta-sad ?

Expansion Deck

Regular visitors to the Castle will probably note that I have the habit of posting on a topic and then, on the very next day,writing a follow up ramble with further thoughts which I'd neglected to include in the initial 'first edition'.

 

Of course, this could be a clever marketing tactic on my part.

The blogging equivalent of the "game expansion".

Why put everything in the box, from the start, when there are punters out there ready to pay more for further bits ?

Except, of course, no one is paying to read my blog (I need to build up a core readership before I start introducing subscriptions and even then I may offer a discount to my loyal early adopters and 'play testers') and that is where the over stretched analogy finally snaps.

 

So, anyway, I am still thinking about the proliferation of games.

Specifically I am pondering the fact that there are so many new games coming out that seem to be the same old mechanic repackaged either with a different theme or different bits or just, in many cases, a couple of minor rules changes.

 

In multiple other industries there is the concept of the 'Me Too' product. Basically someone comes up with an innovative new idea or product, there is a period where the original company makes some money out of the deal (depending on the patent protection in force for the business area), and then there is a rush of similar products, onto the market, as other 'entrepreneurs' seek to carve out a market share or make a quick buck.

 

Generally these Me Too products will make money by differentiating themselves in one of two ways - either they will be cheaper or they will offer additional benefits over and above the original (they might be positioned as 'cooler' or just work better).

 

In the boardgame world new game mechanics seem to be sporadic and, as far as I can see, there is little or no patent protection going on around the 'innovations'. A game comes out with 'worker placement', as a core design feature, and the idea become immediately open to all.

In many ways this is a good thing and reflects the laid back culture of the industry but, as a result, the speed with which 'me too' games flood the market is astonishing. Suddenly there are worker placement games a plenty.

(as I remarked in my last post "how many train games do we need?" - similarly "how many worker placement games do I need?") 

 

The interesting thing is that nobody really competes on price in the Boardgaming world. There's no real "stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap mentality".

 

So you'd think that the differentiator needs to be on improving the original mechanic - but, more often than not, this does not seem to be the case. The first time I played Agricola - one of the most feted games on the Geek - I just felt 'meh, I've played this before', even though I hadn't. To me it was just more of the same. Collect stuff, build stuff with limited options. It's not a bad game it's just so lacking in originality that I can't understand why everyone raves about it - and goes out and buys it.

Furthermore, Gamers are a loyal bunch. Having bought, say, Agricola, they're happy to go out and buy Le Havre, which is intrinsically the same game, and keep hold of both. So not only are they purchasing "Me Too" products but they are keeping the old ones.

 

Of course, it is not as simple as that but I do wonder if any other industry works on a similar model. I guess most gamers have some 'Squirrel DNA' in their double helix which results in an irrepressible urge to collect - despite the mathematical reality that they have more games than they could possibly play, more than twice, in their entire lifetime. (Or, to say the least, a games collection that grows faster than their ability to tick them off their list) 

 

Increasingly I am tending towards the 'Jones Theory' - Cody Jones is a presenter of the 'Game On!' podcast and has a rule of thumb that states that he will only keep one game of each sub-type in his collection, these categories being loosely defined around mechanics or notable differentiators.

So for example, only on Co-op game, one worker placement, one resource building, one tile laying, one auction, one deck building, one dice fest, etc  

 

Of course, the sub-types may vary from person to person and for some people there will be more granularity based on their interests (as a non grognard I might have one card driven wargame and one block wargame, for example, whereas others may wish to have wargames based on different periods / military tactics) but still it works as an interesting concept.

 

If everyone was to purchase on this principle then game designers would be forced to come up with newer concepts and more creative thinking instead of regurgitating more wooden cubes. The flow of new games would slow down but what did come out would be truly bright and shiny rather than a repacking of what has come before - and we'd all have more time to play some of the great "resource/building" or "area control" games that are already out there and working very nicely thank you very much.

 

Yeah, I know, I know, sometimes I can be a right grumpy old killjoy.

and this expansion adds nothing to the original.

again.

 

Help the Aged

I'm feeling a little bit depressed with my games collection.

Clocking in at around 140 games it's not the size as such - although clearly storage becomes something of a problem with four different rooms in the Castle having to act as a virtual library - it's more about the usage statistics.

 

It's somewhat frustrating to look down the list and realise that some of my games have only really seen the light of day once or twice. It's not that they're bad games, it's just that there are not enough leisure hours in the day and there's always going to be a jostling for position.

 

The biggest enemy to their survival, however, is the Cult of the New.

 

New games are being produced at an alarming rate and most of my gaming buddies, from the Hustler to the Hidden gamers, are constantly throwing the latest 'Hotness' on the table and declaring it to be the next big thing. I dutifully play the latest release, think "yeah that was quite good" but then never get to play it again as a new shiny bright box appears faster than I can say "but I've only just learnt that other one".

 

It's not that I don't like new games, because I do - but I'd much rather spend some time getting to understand the nuances and the mechanics of a new game (whether that be nouveau or neuf) before moving on to another. Where is the pleasure in playing something once - realising towards the end of the game where you might have played better or taken a different approach - and then never having a second (or third, or fourth) go ?

 

It's like meeting a stranger at a party, getting on really well with them but then wandering off in search of someone more interesting or just different. Perhaps someone who is kind of the same but perhaps a bit better looking or with a slightly different T-shirt on.

 

On Monday night I played Steam for the first time - the Hustler had brought it back from Essen (I think he brought a truck back from Essen, actually, crammed full of new treasures). It's a revamp of Age of Steam - a bit lighter - which was also tweaked into Railroad Tycoons, as well, as I recall. Now, I'm not much of a Puffing Billy, but I am happy to play train games, it's just that I can't help thinking there's something of an over worked genre here.

Steam was good, I enjoyed it, but at the end of the day it's still just building track and shipping stuff.

Really, how many train games does the world need ?

[How many cubes does the world need ? Why do I keep shipping red, blue and green cubes to places? Is the cube market an economic bubble waiting to burst?]

 

If I'm at a party chatting to Age of Steam, and we're getting on fine, do I really need to slope off and buy the slightly younger Steam a drink in the hope of finding lasting true love ? Or at least someone whose laugh is slightly less annoying ?

 

It's the FaceBookanisation (FaceBaulkanisation?) of the world.

Find a friend, be friends for ten minutes, then find more friends. and more. and more..... but know no one.

 

Ok - it's easy to blame digital media (you only have to look at the mainstream media to realise that Facebook is responsible for the murder of every teenager in the world) but the parallels are interesting.

I see a similar thread in music.

 

In the olden days (lest we forget that those of us who continue to walk the corridors of Gormenghast are still firmly rooted in the years of nostalgia) if you liked a band you went and bought their album  - or copied it onto tape from someone else's album. Yes, Apple, this was before DRM.

Some of the tracks would be great and some would be duff.

Over a period of time, however, you'd often discover that the tracks you thought were great turned out to be ok - a bit formulaic but ultimately disposable - and the ones which initially appeared to be a bit crap started to grow on you.

 

Classic tracks, more often than not, turn out to be slow burners. Appreciation grows with every play. Suddenly an unnoticed bass line will emerge or you sense a subtle chord change which affects the mood. The best songs get under your skin. They develop like a friendship, and are not interested in the shallowness of instant attraction.  

 

A lot of this subtlety gets sadly lost in our accelerated society. Don't like a song ? Skip it with the touch of a key.

Better still - just don't download it. Pick the songs off the album that you like and just buy those.

 

Of course, the ones you like on first hearing are the catchy tunes that age faster than a baddy whose just looked at the Ark of the Covenant, instead of closing his eyes a la Dr Jones.

 

In this set up, the real treasures get missed. If no one is willing to put in the time to appreciate that which is not instantly accessible then we become poorer as a culture.

[Of course I would say that given the fact that my blog is not, ahem, instantly accessible and requires time to be appreciated.]

 

So, anyway, the point is laboured. I need to give some love to my back catalogue and to some of the less 'immediate' titles.

Sure there's some new releases that I'd like to get my sweaty paws on (the new Small World expansions spring to mind) but that should not be at the expense of deepening my understanding, and my love, of those games that already form part of the Steerpike extended family. 

Rhinegeld

I'm back from Basel but only briefly as I now need to repack for a family weekend. I am burning the candle at both ends and still have beer and fondue indigestion.

Sadly, as stated before, Basel is not Essen but - walking along the Rhine the other evening - I did stumble across a small games store and ended up purchasing Ubongo Das Duell for Steerpike Jr's birthday and the Catan Dice Game (Die Siedler Von Catan: Das Wurfelspiel) for those ever increasing dicey moments. Besides, both will help my little stone chipping with his German.

Oh, and some perfume for the Sheilas.