&games

I just committed myself to work 7 days a week for the foreseeable future. I'm looking at 70-hour work-weeks for a while. With soccer games and other obligations I will be lucky to post once each week on the Gone Gaming blog.

I will still try to post one audio game review each week, but that will be iffy.

Hope you enjoy your summer.

Brian

Just played a couple rounds of 2-player Antiquity with a friend of mine. Didn't play nearly enough to offer much of a review of the game, but I like it. I like it a lot. The game is fairly complex, I needed to play a couple rounds just to get my head around several of the concepts in the game. I would have liked to play more, but Dame Coldfoot arrived and we switched to a 3 player game of Puerto Rico. Antiquity holds no appeal to her.

Lots of chits. Decisions are demanding. Lots of chits. Little luck.

Can't wait to play again. These Splotter-Spellen guys (Jeroen Doumen and Joris Wiersinga) nailed another one. Gotta name them as my favorite game designers.

... After Being Solicited 3-4 Times Each Week to Link to On Line Casino Sites for the Last Year, I Found This to be Refreshingly Humorous, Both Because of the Theme of the Game and Because it Starts Out Like the Nigerian Money Scam, Yet Turns Out to be Sincere.

Hello and greetings from Japan!

Hi. First off, let me apologize for emailing you out of the blue. You
don't know me, and we have never met, but I found your website on the
Internet and am very interested that you are game enthusiast and reviewer.

My name is ____________ and I am writing to you today from Kanazawa,
Japan. I am actually writing on behalf of myself and two friends, active
gamer guys, and we just cooked up a game that we think will be great fun.
Let me just put the caveat out there that this is the very first game that
we have produced, that we are not professional game company guys, and that
what we have put together was a labor of love, as well as bitter-sweet
experience. This is very much a "home grown" game and this is our first
attempt at any of this.

Our game is a card game called "WHIPPED!". The premise of the game is that
no matter what, no matter how much you love hanging out with your buddies,
playing games, enjoying "guy life", sooner or later girlfriends, and then
maybe spouses, will disrupt what was once, a very happy arrangement of
hanging out with your friends.

In our game, you start out with three friends and are allowed to play
"bond" cards on them to solidify your friendships. The "bonds" may be
"Wednesday night football", "Paintball", "On-line gaming" or some such
thing. These bonds protect your friendships. Other players may play
"Whips" on your friendships like "She calls" or "Do those Dishes" or
"Attend Poetry Reading". Your bonds disappear, friends who are "bond-less"
can get whipped out of your life. The last man with a friend left on the
table is the "winner". The other guys are completely whipped.

In short, our game is about the gamer experience. The tag-line for our
game is "Male friendship under siege".

We have just received our first printing of the game from China and are
very keen to get some reviewers to try out our game. Would you be
interested in playing our game and giving us your thoughts on it? A review
from you would be wonderful, and we would be happy to use comments that
you have on the game on our website, and of course link back to your site.

Thank you very much for your time and for reading this!

Best regards,

_________________
Kanazawa, Japan
Whipped!: The Card Game

I told him he would save a ton on shipping if he would just send my copy to Tom Vasel.

Inspector Clouseau



I've been meaning to put out the call for audio bloggers for some time now. I just couldn't find a good quote. Searched: raise your hand, step forward, volunteer, review, reviewer, and know it all. Looked through quotes from my favorite movies: Blazing Saddles, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, The Usual Suspects, Debbie Does Dallas, The Great Train Robbery, and This Is Spinal Tap. Found nothing. Even searched for quotes from The Family Guy, All in the Family and Chappelle's Show. Time was running out and I had to settle for a Peter Seller's quote, which isn't too bad.

At any rate, is anyone else interested in contributing five minute audio reviews? The ones I have done are compiled at http://5minuteboardgamereviews.blogspot.com/

Let me know. Drop me a line at koldfoot@hotmail.com. Put audio reviews in the title and I will send you a key to 5 Minute Board Game Reviews, might even post your reviews here, if you wish. Don't respond in the comments section here, I will need your e-mail to send an invitation to join as a contributor.

I'm really not looking for reviews longer than 5 minutes. In fact I will reject anything over 5 minutes in length. There are plenty of resources to obtain detailed game reviews on the web. I would like to help create a resource of relatively short, easily accessible reviews.

Submitting reviews is easy. All you need is a telephone. The number you need to call if you utilize the Blogger service is a San Francisco telephone number. I suppose there are other services that would function equally as well.

Brian

It's summer. I haven't been gaming. I've been working nights and shuttling kids to dance class and soccer practice during the day.

Haven't had much time to write.

The last time I had free time I drove down to Denali Park to check on our accommodations for DenaliCon. I won't go into it, but last year we kind of got hosed. It wasn't a deal-breaking hose, but we were kind of pissed off. Everything is up to snuff this time.

I don't expect to get in much blogging until after July 4. This Fourth of July weekend (June 30 through July 4) will be the second annual DenaliCon, a weekend of boardgaming and camping in Denali Park, Alaska (Mount McKinley to you cheechakos). I don't expect as many people this year as last due to the fact that the fourth falls mid-week this year. Several people will have to work on Monday and aren't able to get a long holiday weekend this year. On the plus side there will be some new faces.

If you are an Alaskan or can sneak out of Canada S.S.R for the weekend you are welcome to stop by. You don't even have to know what a modern-German-boardgame is, just drive down and say hello. Contact me, koldfoot@hotmail.com for details.

I am really, really looking forward to DenaliCon.

Brian

Just after I posted this I ran across this Dork Tower cartoon. It's the best laugh I've had since I heard Algore made a global warming movie. If it changes in the next couple days click back to the June 12 cartoon.

June 1, is the traditional start of fire season in Alaska. No major forest fires yet, and there won't be until it warms up. Didn't have my camera handy, but it was snowing on and off all day Sunday. Snapped this picture at 3 a.m. at Coldfoot Manor, without the benefit of a flash I might add.










Drove a taxi yesterday. Found it quite profitable ferrying tourists and newly-arrived, army-wives to WalMart to buy parkas. Of course the locals were mostly wearing shorts and windbreakers.

Which brings me to another taxi story:

Picked up two guys at a bar at closing time last night. One guy was a local who I kind of know whom I shall call "Moe", the other guy was either new to town or just visiting, I shall call him "Larry".

Moe is gay, dresses the part, and makes no bones about it. Larry, who I had never seen before, was quite funny and was not gay to my untrained eye.

Anyway, as we were driving down the road the conversation went something like this.

"What was your name again?"

"Moe, and what was your name?"

"I'm Larry. Cab driver, what's your name?"

"I'm Brian."

"Nice to meet you, Brian. I'm Larry, this is Moe. We're going to his place."

Of course I already knew that. We were half way there.

Larry continued, "Nice town. I like it. Everyone seems to know everyone here."

"You got that right."

"You got any beer at your place?"

Moe said, "No. I don't have any beer," then, without missing a beat, "Brian, do we have any vodka left over from that party last night?"

To which I responded, "I don't think there's any booze left in the cupboard. There might be a bottle of Cuervo in the freezer."

Larry bought it hook, line and sinker.

Moe couldn't carry the charade, he broke out laughing, but it was still priceless.

I wanted to say Caylus is like the Jim Lehrer News Hour. It is well done. If you can force yourself to sit through it you are a better person, but it just isn't fun.