Super Bomberman

Recently I've been reminded of my love for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System due to my daughter's somewhat disturbing obsession with video games. While most of my favorite games for the system are mostly solo experiences, what is probably my #1 game of all time, Super Bomberman, is delirious fun with four players. All the bomberman games are fun, but out of those I've played the first Super Bomberman for SNES is the best. The best part of this game is its intensity. Power ups are littered throughout the levels, quarters are tight, and explosions are everywhere.

What makes this game GREAT:

• Power-ups are cool and powerful. Kick is great, but the flexibility of punch to both get you out of scrapes and wreck havoc upon everyone else is a beautiful thing. Detonating bombs are some of the most fun you can have on a console.



• Completely accessable to new players. The controls are a cinch to learn, and getting comfortable with the game takes a couple of minutes for most. Nothing is hidden, players can see everything going on, it takes almost no experience with the game to understand what's happening on screen. Each game is extemely short at two minutes, so even if you make a stupid mistake or even have an entire terrible match, it is a short wait until everyone starts from scratch and players have a fresh start. There is basically nothing here to prevent anyone from playing right away and having fun.

• The intensity is unparalleled. Very close quarters, crazy music, sometimes 6+ bombs per player, bombs being kicked and punched to all corners of the screen, full screen explosions, 'explosive diarrhea' poison, four bombermen launching into a blood frenzy simultaneously: if most levels didn't start off slow and only accelerate after a few seconds, it would almost be too much! Later chapters lacked the same intensity: Bomberman 2 replaced punch with throw and it tones the game down immensely. Bomberman 64 opens up the play area and allows easy 3d movement--meaning it is far easier to avoid explosions and the high pressure environment is gone.



• Four player simultaneous action is awesome. Sure, the five players of Bomberman '93 is cool, and I've yet to play that version so I suppose it could be superior. Let's face it, though, blowing your friends to smithereens is pretty much as fun as it gets, especially when you can multitask and obliterate three at once.



• The battle mode levels are a lot of fun. Lots of cool levels exhibiting special characteristics to spice up the basic game. One small weakness the game does have is that the adventure mode is very easy and dull. To me this does not reduce the game's stature in any way because battle mode is a completely different game and does not rely on the other in any way for its greatness.
  

At this point, being for such an old system, Super Bomberman probably is loved by many but may never be played by many others. This is a game that is very different from the majority of video games out there, especially since it is heavy on player interaction. It is very competitive and will cause lots of trash talking, but this is all in good fun! I have the suspicion that many people who don't generally enjoy video games would love this one. I personally have always had great success when introducing Super Bomberman to those not well versed in the world of video games. The first level played is usually enough to hook about anyone--it is simply a ton of fun. If you own a SNES and don't have this one you should definitely track it down--just remember you'll need a super multitap in order to play those 3rd and 4th players, and Super Bomberman with two players isn't half the game it is with four. Happy bombing!

My Goals For Fall 2007

I believe it is vitally important to have defined personal and professional goals in our lives, yet I have not spent the time to formulate any in a terribly long time. Even having had the summer off, far too many important aspects of my life have gone unexamined, and frankly been allowed to slip altogether too much. Especially since autumn should prove to be quite busy for my family and I, it is essential that I focus on these important issues. Here is a quick rundown of what I'd like to accomplish in my life from now until the end of 2007, in no particular order:


Family

• Find one on one time to spend with each of my kids here at the house. This could be playing a board game, reading a book, finding a quiet corner and chatting about the events of our day, making plans for future fun, or most anything that allows us to connect. Certainly I'd like to make this happen every day or at least 5 or 6 days each week.


• Work on becoming more patient with my kids. I need to learn to step away from them when they frustrate me and take a personal time out to breath and relax. Explore the concept of meditation.
  
• Spend time alone with the Mrs. to ensure we stay connected throughout our busiest times, at the very least spending a few minutes each day to give each other our full attention and to chat. Go on a full-fledged date at least twice a month with NO KIDS!


• Plan at least one fun activity each week where we all get out of the house and enjoy ourselves as a family.


• Stay better connected with my Mom & Dad, try to call each of them once a week.


• Do a better job maintaining relationships with my brothers and with my two closest cousins--all of whom are dear to me but I interact with far too rarely.

Social

• Look for new friendships and gradually develop the few that I have begun in this area.


• Be social in our neighborhood once we move into our new house. Host parties, invite people over for dinner, and generally get to know everyone around us. Find ways to get active in the community.


• Reestablish and maintain relationships with friends from my past through facebook, email, telephone, and face to face whenever possible.
  
  

Gaming

• Share my love of board games with a couple of new people every month. Explore possible gaming relationships with people I know now. Sometime early next year have enough interest to start a weekly board game group in the Canton/Potsdam area.


• Continue to explore the gaming blog community, give lots of feedback to those bloggers I enjoy reading, keep up with all the gaming blogs I enjoy. Listen to at least two gaming podcasts weekly, including The Dice Tower.


• Buy one or two new games and share them with friends, building my collection, the breadth of my gaming experience, and my gaming friendships.
  
  

Professional

• Propose new recipes to test for the St. Lawrence University catering department.


• Research flavor combinations and dishes that I would like to explore in the future. Read one book about food and find and read food blogs that I enjoy.


• Start a food journal with my thoughts on ingredients, dishes, combinations, recipes, what works and what doesn't.


• Learn as much as I can about wine. Drink wine with dinner at least once or twice each week. Read the wine bible from cover to cover.


• Volunteer for more responsibility at work if the opportunity presents itself, look for occasional experience baking and working the line in a restaurant setting.

Financial

• Hit the $10,000 level in my retirement fund through work.


• Rebuild our personal savings level to $10,000.


• Start a taxable investment plan with a small monthly contribution.

Intellectual

• Read one book on an interesting and important topic.


• Read the New York Times and Wall Street Journal (or other good daily newspaper) online on a daily basis.


• Listen to NPR three to four times each week.


• Thoroughly research the 2008 political candidates. Get well versed on the issues important to me and each candidate's stand on them. Get a good feel for the character of each of them. Generally learn as much as I can about the political landscape and become much more firm in my political opinions.


• Publish my blog at least three times weekly no matter how busy I am at work!

Physical

• Engage in one aerobic activity for at least half an hour three to four times per week. This could be a jog or a walk, playing tennis, going to the gym, etc.


• Find time to play tennis in particular at the St. Lawrence fitness center once a week if possible.


• Begin a strength training program even if it is very light at first.

Spiritual

• Try to figure out exactly what it means to be spiritual without necessarily being religious. Stay open to learning about the religious experience. Although I went to church as a child, I've never actively believed in God or had a personal religious life. (I also don't actively believe there is no God, I've just never had an experience that moves me in such a way to find meaning in any particular faith.) This is an area I understand very poorly and would like to explore.

Well, there you have it. The chances of me achieving all this are probably slim to none, but so long as I remain dedicated to giving it my best shot I'll be in great shape at the end of the year in a lot of ways. If anyone out there is interested in setting up some personal goals for themselves as well and would like to keep each other accountable I would be very open to that! Also, I would love to hear your comments on any of these topics.

Meatloaf & Sheep

Last night the Mrs. and I had friends over for dinner and a game. Karin works in the same building as the Mrs. and James is her husband. The dinner: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, beef gravy, tossed salad, whole wheat dinner rolls, berries with Creme Anglaise, a bottle of red, and a bottle of white. The game: Settlers of Catan, basic game.

Act I: Dinner

Sometimes when I get a little too excited about a meal I tend to overdo it just a little bit. This was one of those times. Of course, the meals never seem that time consuming or complicated when I'm brainstorming what to serve; that part only becomes glaringly apparent when I actually begin the cooking. The bad side: the meal was obscenely labor intensive and took much more time than planned. The good side: everything turned out precisely how I intended and I was completely satisfied with my results. I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to food and it is extremely rare that I make such an unqualified statement such as this.

Of course since the preparation and execution of dinner was so much more than I had realized, my other big job of the afternoon, cleaning the house, was only half completed when the Mrs. arrived home from work. So I scrambled to finish the meal while she finished the housework. A little more hectic than I like, but everything turned out okay. The meatloaf and rolls were especially popular.

We drank two bottles of wine with dinner. The white was under the Black Tower label, a 2005 vintage of a grape called Rivaner, a variety I have never tried before. Its flavor was quite pleasant, very fruity, a touch sweet, and tasted strongly of grapefruit (although no one else agreed with me on this point). This is not a wine I would choose to drink on a regular basis; I prefer whites that are much more dry and typically that are much less fruity. To me it would best serve as a wine to enjoy on its own on a lazy weekend afternoon rather than drunk alongside a meal. The red was a Yellowtail Shiraz/Cabernet blend which I have had several times before and has proven to be very enjoyable. This is a very inexpensive wine, yet to my (admittedly fairly untrained) pallet, quite delicious. Also, being an assertive blend, it was strong enough to stand up to the bold flavors of the meal. The wine and the company were so good we relaxed for some time after the dinner drinking and chatting, a most pleasurable time indeed.







Act II: The Game


Our guests had a generally positive attitude toward board games, yet had never tried any of the modern strategy ones I typically play. The gateway game I usually reach for in such situations is Settlers of Catan. You can say all you want about weaknesses in the game after hundreds of plays, but there's just something about Settlers that sparks an interest in those new to the hobby. As James put it in response to a comment about liking board games: "I like that kind of game." Whatever you want to say about Settlers, either positive or negative, it is that kind of game. It's the kind of game that a lot of people would love except for the fact that they've never played one. There is this realization midway through that first game that they are glimpsing something grand, discovering something fun that they didn't know existed. Settlers really has that power to redefine someone's opinion of what board games are all about.

What makes the game a slam dunk besides exhibiting many great qualities of modern board games is that it is so accessible to new players. Not only is Settlers easy to learn and grasp strategically, the die rolling mechanism combined with the static starting board layout for beginners does a great deal for leveling the playing field and giving any newcomers an excellent shot at winning. This fact certainly adds to positive impressions after a player's first game.

This particular session was interesting (atypical?) in a couple of ways. Many games I've played end with one person being left relatively behind in the scoring, this time I believe all players had at least eight vps at the conclusion of the game: everyone was really in it to the end. At one point or another in the last few turns each player had nine points, due to the longest road card being passed between the Mrs. and Karin several times right near game's end. James was the victor, I believe with just settlements, cities, and one development vp contributing to the win. The Mrs. had both longest road and largest army, but failed to close out the win because she kept drawing development card soldiers instead of the one vp she needed to close the deal. Karin stumbled at the very end when the Mrs. finally secured the longest road for good, and I ended the game one wheat shy of building the city that would have been my tenth vp.

Another interesting point was that the number distribution of resource rolls seemed to be almost dead-on long term expected ratios. Funny that this would seem atypical, but certainly a very large percentage of Settlers games have a noticeable tendency towards a few numbers in particular. I noticed no such variation this game. There were lots of sevens, sixes, and eights, somewhat less fours, fives, nines, and tens, and very few of the least common rolls. Overall a very entertaining game, although it did drag at times because we had all been drinking and two of us were brand new players. We all look forward to our next game.

Tilt In Poker, Blackjack, & Settlers

The term 'tilt' in the world of poker involves being thrown off one's game usually after stumbling upon some bad luck. According to wiki: "Tilt is a poker term for a state of mental confusion or frustration in which a player knowingly adopts a sub-optimal, over-aggressive strategy." When lots of bad things start happening to you, especially after losing big hands where you had a large advantage, it is only natural that you start pressing a little. Every time a long shot hand beats you there is this little voice in the back of your mind saying 'if that hand can beat my monster one, maybe I can win by playing more hands like that too!' Although you may rationally acknowledge that those weaker hands will lose you more money in the long run, it is very difficult to ignore the sensory evidence that says the opposite. Before you know it you're playing far too loosely and losing more and more money. Overcoming tilt is one of the most difficult roadblocks to becoming a serious poker player. Recognizing the beginning of tilt in your game and having the emotional strength to correct it keeps you true to your strategy and gives you the greatest chance to leave the table a big winner.


Sometimes you just need to walk away

Although it is a poker term, tilt could be a useful concept when applied to other types of gambling and gaming. It might not hold the precise meaning of the original word, but certainly recognizing this type of behavior in any game will result in increased player effectiveness. I can relate this phenomenon to situations in my experience with blackjack. Blackjack requires a great deal of willpower--first to stick with your basic strategy and betting system, and then to follow through with your predetermined quit points. When high percentage plays start turning against you (dealer upcard of 6 vs. your 20 draws to a 21, for instance), and your session bankroll starts to shrink it is difficult to stay on track with a rational betting system. Often your gut reaction to these situations is to start making large 'inspirational' bets, desperately hoping to win a huge hand and recover a chunk of your bankroll in one big play. More often than not this type of behavior will bankrupt a blackjack player. Even if you win such a bet it sends the wrong message to your subconscious: that inspirational betting is a good strategy! Another key to blackjack success, quit points, can be very difficult to follow if you become frustrated and start to tilt. Once you have lost a predetermined portion of your bankroll the proper move is to step away from the table, swallow your pride, and accept your losses. As any blackjack player knows, however, when you are down big to the house it is very difficult to walk away! With a well timed winning streak, that small pile of chips left on the table could transform this into a winning session! While this is certainly a possibility, the most probable outcome of this line of thought is complete bankruptcy. The lower your bankroll gets, the less likely you'll be able to even make the proper bets to take advantage of weak dealer hands, and the more likely that the minimum bet at your table is much higher than a reasonable bet for your current bankroll.


The Dice...they hate me!

I even found myself exhibiting somewhat tilt-like behavior when playing Xplorers on Asobrain Games several days ago. Earlier in the week I went through a streak of about eight games where i won six times and placed second twice. All of a sudden all the good breaks that had been going my way started turning on me. Numbers stopped falling my way. Other players scraped up the resources for settlements blocking my way just before I could. Every development card I bought seemed useless to me. Nothing was going right. Of course, it's impossible to win at Settlers of Catan when everything is going against you, but the real problem starts when you start making bad decisions because of those uncontrollable disasters. I found myself basically going on tilt. Instead of spending resources this turn on a small advance I would wait another turn hoping to hit a big number and get back in the game. Invariably a seven would be rolled and I would be left with nothing at all. Once you get to that point where frustration starts to take over, many little mistakes follow. Maybe you make a poor trade, build a road in the wrong location, forget to play a soldier at a key time, etc. Maintaining control over your emotions is one of the most important aspects of game play.


Conclusions

It seems to me that this tendency towards tilt doesn't often appear in board games, probably because there is less at stake in a typical board game than in a poker tournament or at a blackjack table. My frustration level during this rough streak in Xplorers was higher than in most board games since I was playing ranked games. Every game I lost, especially by a large margin, cause my Xplorers rating to plummet. I went from about a 130 rating (excellent) to about 48 (pretty mediocre) in this one rough stretch. Even though this rating is a pretty foolish reason to become frustrated, it was enough for me at the time. Also, the fact that Xplorers games typically clock in at about 30 minutes rather than the hour+ of a live Settlers game, it takes a lot less time to lose a lot more games! I guess the lesson here is to always be aware of this tendency to tilt in games. When you begin to get frustrated during rough stretches, it is imperative to either regain control of your emotions or stop playing the game! By the time your next session rolls around you'll be back in control and ready to play at your best. Of course, for some of us, our best isn't exactly that good, but that's a story for another day.

9 Favorite Games To Play With My Daughter

My four year old daughter loves playing board games. Actually, she'll play pretty much any kind of game you put in front of her: video games, bowling, badminton, board games, card games, and any kind of made up game she can conjure up. In fact, she often insists on playing Caylus, Settlers, Carcassonne, or whatever adult game she happens to see on the shelf. I don't blame her, all those games that we never play together must be awfully good, right? I do break out Carcassonne with her on occasion since she gets the matching terrain aspect, although not so much the meeple placement/scoring aspect.

Personally I like board and card games the best, so that's what I try to steer her towards when she wants to play a game. There are numerous games we own that the Girl (this sounds odd, but somehow having one boy and one girl leads the Mrs. & I to refer to them by their sex on occasion rather than by name) likes playing that I don't care for. These tend to be the basic draw a card and move (Candyland), or spin and move (Chutes & Ladders), or even flip over one card after another (War). None of these games have decision making aspects and thus I will not place them on the list despite the fact that the Girl does enjoy them. Since this is a list of games we enjoy together, I suppose I'm allowed to nix those games that I don't enjoy. Not that playing a dull game with her is altogether bad: I still enjoy playing those games on occasion since it is a shared activity with my daughter. I have fun not because the game is good but rather despite the fact that it is bad. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that the list is games that we both enjoy playing frequently. We have fun with everything on this list, and it's in no particular order:

• I Spy Bingo (2-6 players, age 4+) Each bingo card consists of a 4x4 grid, each box in the grid containing about ten pictures, each beginning with the same letter of the alphabet. The player whose turn it is flips over the top card of a deck to reveal four random pictures. She then calls out one of the pictures on the card and places a bingo token over the box on her card that contains that picture (if there is one). Sometimes its easy to find a given picture on your card since it is grouped by first letter. However, much more often the 'I Spy' aspect of the game comes into play because it is not immediately obvious which letter the picture starts with. For instance, what appears to be a snake may actually be under 'V' for viper. Also the green apple isn't under 'A,' it's under 'G' (either for Green or for Granny Smith...I guess both work!) A simple little game but it always seems to be a fun time for us.


• Memory (essentially any number of players, age 3+) The old standby. We actually have three separate copies of this game: original, Finding Nemo, and one with pictures painted on wooden blocks rather than cardboard cutouts. The Girl loves this game, which makes it fun. The remarkable thing is that young children seem to be on a fairly level playing field with adults at this one. I think I win slightly more often than she does, but I never throw games with her and she certainly wins her fair share.


• Flea Circus (2-6 players, age 6+) This is the most recent addition to our kids' board game collection. Designed by Reiner Knizia, this is a card game that the Girl fully grasps and enjoys despite the higher age suggestion. The game consists of a deck of cards, a pile of blue dog pieces, and a pile of white cat pieces. The basis of the game is that the players each run their own flea circus and they are vying for the attention of a common pool of spectators. Spectators come in two denominations: cats are worth one spectator, dogs are worth two, and they are fully interchangeable. If you play a card that nets you four spectators you may claim any combination of animals that adds up to four. This was the Girl's first experience counting by twos and she loved the challenge of counting to three or four using both ones and twos instead of just ones. It may be difficult for some young children to grasp that 'one' dog is actually 'two' spectators. Each player maintains a hand of five cards, drawing back up to that number at the end of each turn. Each player has a pile of their previously played cards in front of them called the 'show stack.' Each flea card has a different effect when played (some take spectators from the common pool, others steal them from opponents, some can be played in multiples, some have varying values depending on what is on top of other players' show stacks. Flea Circus gives young children lots to consider since individual card values greatly vary depending on what other cards are in their hand and which cards are showing on the table. You should listen to the Girl trying to explain this game to people when we sit down to show it to new players. Her excitement about the game is amazing, but she probably comes off a lot like I would if I were to try to explain Puerto Rico to my grandmother. One last note about Flea Circus: although the game is way over my two year old's head, it is quite easy to keep him entertained by the very fun rubber cats & dogs. This is a good thing! Highly recommended.
  

• Junior Labyrinth (2-4 players, age 5+) This is essentially identical to the adult version of the game except instead of the board being a 7x7 maze it is 5x5 and there are fewer treasures to find within its twists and turns. Players are dealt treasure pieces face down that they are to seek during the game by moving their ghost character through the maze. Most of the maze tiles on the board can be moved, which is accomplished by pushing the one extra maze tile against one row of tiles on the board and pushing a tile out the other side. This changes the layout of the board slightly, opening up some corridors that were closed off and closing off others that were open. Each turn a player moves one row of the labyrinth, then moves his ghost along the tunnel either to the current treasure she is seeking or as close to it as possible in order to set up a future move to actually acquire it. The Girl and I enjoy this game but she does have difficulty visualizing how any given maze shift will effect the layout of the board. Usually I let her push a maze piece and see how that changes the labyrinth, then push it back and try another spot if it doesn't help her towards her goal. The winner is the first to find all of their treasures then return to their starting space. Not as much fun as some other games on this list, but not bad.

• Mancala This is a classic game that I've owned for years but just never thought to play with the Girl until recently. I learned the game from my aunt when I was a child and used to enjoy it then as I do now. Players move stones on their side of the board and try to get as many as possible in their 'bank' at their end of the board. By choosing the best pile of stones to move and landing the final stone of the sequence in your bank you earn another consecutive move and thus can rack up a high score through thoughtful and precise decisions. After a few plays the Girl really started to grasp the strategy and she now loves this game. You can't go wrong with Mancala.

• Zingo (2-8 players, age 4+) We've had this game for quite a while and had a lot of fun with it. Zingo is really quite straightforward, it's simply bingo with a little red tower that shoots out two bingo tiles at a time. The tiles each depict one picture and the picture's name written beneath it. Each bingo board has nine different pictures on it arranged 3x3. As two new tiles are revealed a player will call out 'I need a house!' if they see a house tile that matches their board. Depending on how you play, either the first person to call a tile or the first person to grab it gets to place the new tile on his board. The first player to fill their entire board is declared the winner! Usually we have the first winner, then we keep playing to determine the second winner, then the third, etc. The Girl likes this game a lot but for the most part has moved on to other games we've been playing more recently. The Boy actually understands Zingo very well and usually plays with us too, and he is only two years old. Definitely a good game for a family with young children.

• Guess Who? (2 players, age 6+) This is a game I remember from my childhood, although I don't think I was crazy about it: Guess Who? was more of a novelty to me, but the Girl really enjoys it. It is a very simple game but is short, entertaining, and functions very differently than other games in our collection so it is a good change of pace. Yet another game listed at 6+ that the Girl has no problems with whatsoever. Some of the conceptual subtleties took her a few plays to figure out (such as asking about characters' having 'facial hair' rather than just 'a beard'), but she enjoys the game and is great at it as well. A word of caution, however: the plastic framework of the boards are very breakable and you should probably not allow your two year old to play with them. Yes, I'm speaking from experience here. Overall a fun little game to play with your child, or for two kids to easily play together.

• Dominoes Another game that I've had for a long time but just never thought to give it a try with the Girl. Not too much to be said here besides the fact she enjoys it. We really haven't tried playing any complicated games yet, just the basic matching your piece to those already on the table and trying to run out your dominoes.



• Blink (2 players, age 7+) It is quite surprising to me that the listed age on this game is so high, since the Girl has no problem with it and has considered it her favorite game for a while. Blink is comprised of a deck of cards with symbols on the face that vary along three different characteristics: color, shape, and number. Each player is given a draw pile of half the cards, then draws three cards for her hand and flips over one additional card onto the playing surface. Players then try to play the cards in their hand by matching them by any of the three characteristics to the two cards already face up on the table. New cards are drawn for each one played and the first player to play all of their cards is declared the winner. Blink bills itself as the world's fastest game, usually played within two minutes. Conceptually there is nothing here that a four or five year can't grasp, you simply have to adjust how many cards each player is given in their draw pile to compensate for ability. For instance, I might give the Girl 1/3 of the deck while I take the remainder. Thus even though I'm much quicker at the game we should still finish at close to the same time and have an enjoyable and competitive game. Blink is great fun for all ages and I'd think would make a good learning tool for preschoolers or kindergartners.

Just a few ideas that have worked for me and my daughter. It really is never too early to get kids started on board games!

I'm Ottawa Bound!

I am deliriously excited about an upcoming trip I'm taking with the Mrs. to Ottawa, Ontario. I've been living in the Canton/Potsdam, NY area now for almost four years and have yet to make the measly two hour trip to the major city right in my backyard. I've always wanted to go, but the trip has been another of those things that gets put on the back burner of a busy life. Like many of those things that get set aside (keeping in touch with old friends, finding enough quality time with the family, etc.), this is an unfortunate oversight that will soon be remedied. We decided fairly quickly to go with the cheaper one night at the hotel instead of the full weekend, so we have a very limited amount of time to work with, certainly not nearly enough time to do everything we'd like.


Wait, what does this have to do with Settlers of Catan?

So now I've leaped into board game 'maximization mode.' I need to figure out exactly how to spend my limited resources (time & money) on activities in Ottawa to maximize our total benefit over the weekend (turn)! Of course the Mrs. would say that this is best put in economic terms, being an economist and all, but not for me! In my mind I've got a massive handful of resource cards and I'm trying to figure out exactly what I need to exchange and then build to get those last two victory points and win this one for the good guys! Is this guy for real? You bet I am! Now where was I?



The Task at Hand

Right, Ottawa! Now first things first: I need to define the basic parameters of our trip. My mom has graciously offered to watch the kids for the weekend. (Thanks mom!) She should be arriving on the Friday of our excursion at about noon. Half an hour to get the kids settled, two hours on the road, half an hour to get checked into the hotel and we're off to see the city by 3:00ish. We're staying one night so the task at hand is to plan activities from 3:00 Friday until Saturday about 10:00ish (late enough to have as much fun as possible, early enough to still feel very comfortable driving home). Am I putting way too much thought into this? Yes, almost certainly I am! Will my best laid plans be scattered like so many leaves in an autumn storm? Why are you asking so many negative questions? Admit it, you're one of those glass half empty people aren't you! Here's the plan thus far:

• Friday 2:30pm Check into Inn on Somerset, the B&B where we decided to spend our night. It seemed to be the best combination of location and price.
  
• Friday 3:00-6:00pm Begin some initial exploration of the tourist attractions in Ottawa, hopefully by foot. Interesting spots can be more thoroughly visited on Saturday.


• Friday 6:30pm Dinner. Now I am a cook and love good food. This makes me a bit of a restaurant snob--I am very picky about where I eat, which makes choosing a restaurant a fairly difficult task. Here's my list so far with pros & cons:
  

1. Anna's Thai Restaurant. Pros: Excellent customer reviews on RestaurantThing.com Cons: Location isn't all that close to Absolute Comedy Club (next on our agenda). Do we want to eat Thai?


2. Bento Sushi. Pros: Good reviews on RT.com, closer to where we are staying than other recommended sushi places, I haven't had sushi for years. Cons: Not nearly as close to Absolute Comedy as the next two on my list.


3. Leonardo's Ristorante. Pros: In Little Italy right next to Absolute Comedy, least expensive of the lot. Cons: Menu doesn't look as extensive or as appealing as Trattoria Caffe Italia.


4. Trattoria Caffe Italia. Pros: Excellent reviews on RT.com, great menu, very close to comedy club. Cons: Much more expensive than Leonardo's. So many decisions to make, no clear answer!
   

• Friday 8:30pm Absolute Comedy in Little Italy. I've always wanted to go to a comedy club, and this one seems good and moderately priced. I'm not familiar with the comedians performing, but I'm excited about this nonetheless. Plus they serve drinks, so I'm sure we'll have fun!
  
• Friday 11:00pm ByWard Market nightlife. There are lots of bars and clubs in Ottawa's ByWard Market from Irish pubs to blues bars to trendy clubs with a DJ. I think we'll just have a bunch of places in mind and wander the Market looking for what feels right.
  
• Saturday 1:00am Pass out back at the Inn. On the map our hotel seems like it is very reasonable walking distance from the Market, which is a big feature.
  
• Saturday 9:00am Eat a big breakfast at the Inn or wander a little and find a nice spot to spend a leisurely weekend morning.


• Saturday 10:30am See the sights! Walk the city, check out a museum or two, see what fun things we can find. The better we get to know where things are in the city, the more fun we'll have next time we scrape up the money for a trip!


• Saturday 7:00pm Grab a bite to eat, something cheap like a slice of pizza, a sandwich, or a burger. Find another fun spot to have a couple drinks and have some fun, either at the Market or somewhere else we've found in our travels.


• Saturday 9:00 or 10:00pm Wrap things up and head for home--hopefully very satisfied!
  

What didn't make the cut:

• Ottawa Lynx baseball. The triple A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles will be out of town for the weekend. Also, there is little use getting attached to this team since they've been sold and will be relocating to Pennsylvania next year. I love baseball, but I'll have to wait for another time.
• Casino du Lac-Leamy. This nearby casino would be a real blast, but several considerations will prevent us from going: 1. The Mrs. would be bored. 2. It would eat up lots of time. 3. I live an hour from a casino anyway. 4. It would put a real damper on our trip if I lost lots of money on top of spending lots of money on the weekend already. "Come on, honey, what's another $100?"
• Ottawa's vibrant strip club scene. For some reason the Mrs. doesn't really want to go. Women! Maybe next time I'm in town for a business trip... Apparently the city has lots of escort services as well. This really is the big time, huh?

Are we there yet?

If anyone out there has any recommendations for our trip, please don't hesitate to let me know. I'd like our weekend to be the most fun possible. On a side note, are you sufficiently bored yet? No? Well, I suppose you could go read a dictionary until I manage another post.

A Most Personal Impersonal Game

In reality I seldom play board games at this point in my life. I've been in this location for four years now, but have only very gradually begun to develop friendships locally, and no one that I would consider a friend or close acquaintance has much of a propensity for board games. This represents a radical departure for me since the vast majority of my friends from the past have been game aficionados. All my best friends from high school, dorm mates from college, two younger brothers, uncles on both sides of my family, cousins, dad, mom & aunt (on very limited occasions), and my lovely wife, have all indulged my predilection for board games.


Real game, imaginary friends

Just recently I've realized that this state of affairs desperately needs to end. I have the suspicion that the quantity and quality of my gaming experiences have a direct impact on my happiness in life. My primary objective to remedy this sorry situation is to begin a gaming group in the Potsdam/Canton area. As I begin to plan my opening moves towards this lofty goal, I will keep you posted. Although I do feel severely board game deprived, I do have three outlets for my passion: I play two player games with my wife on occasion, kid's games with my four year old daughter every day, and online board games on the site AsoBrain games. The first two points on this list I would love to elaborate upon, but those are topics for another day. Playing on AsoBrain games (mostly their version of Settlers of Catan, called Xplorers) has been a revelation, albeit a bit of a puzzling one. True, being able to play board games on a daily basis if I so choose is a fabulous opportunity indeed, and one of which I've taken particular advantage the last couple of weeks. I love that I play this very personal, familiar game with opponents I've never met from all over the world. Indeed this is a typical representation of our modern situation: I am at once experiencing much more connectivity with people I would have never had known in the past yet simultaneously experiencing much less immediate relationships with those I meet in this way.


Is it really possible to play board games on a computer?

Though I love playing at this site I am quite aware that the experience is missing much of what I love about board games, namely the immediacy of an experience shared with friends and the aesthetic appeal of handling game components and performing the basic rituals of play. Internet play with strangers is almost completely a matter of strategy in that although there may be a little chat amongst players, such games are devoid of that natural comfortable chat between friends and the (usually) playful banter that arises from games played in person. The interface for the online game is cold. Even when players chat, there is only so much of their feelings, reactions, frustrations, moments of elation, and the like that can be gleaned from watching the game unfold. Essentially all you get from the experience is the moves on the board. From a narrow strategy sense this could be a good thing, since there are few distractions from one's concentration on the game and the moves to be made. If the point of playing is to develop or hone one's game strategies then this is an ideal environment. However I would assert that the distractions, reactions and the like are at least as important to a gaming session as the strategy involved in the actual game mechanics.


For me, games are like food...really

As I've written previously, the presence of physical components that are held, slid, shuffled, stolen, flipped, rolled, slapped, and generally manhandled throughout game play, for me, results in a great deal of enjoyment. I would liken this in a way to most any simple pleasure in life. Anything that one is passionate about, even broken down into its simplest components or steps can bring great enjoyment and satisfaction to an experience. For instance, I am passionate about cooking & working with food. Sometimes this can be a job or a chore, or just another action that I perform. When I stop to think about it and allow myself a little immediacy as I prepare a meal I derive much satisfaction from the simplest actions, from the motion of peeling a potato, to the explosive pop & sizzle of a steak hitting a hot pan, to the slide of a knife separating whole vegetables into the small accessible pieces that become the components to be transformed into finished dishes. Just as there are thousands of tiny pleasures found in the preparation of a meal from start to finish, tiny actions, motions, and rituals throughout a favorite game each provide startling pleasure in and of themselves far beyond even the bigger context of the game. In my mind this is one primary reason why I have a stronger attachment to board games than to video games: the only tactile experience in video games is the controller since they are almost entirely visual experiences. Although I love many video games, especially those on the NES and SNES systems from years past, they fall short of board games precisely because of those weaknesses I highlighted in the case of video board games on the Internet: shared experience and ritual pleasures. Playing Settlers of Catan on AsoBrain games ends up having much more in common with video games than it does board games despite the fact that the game rules are essentially identical to the tabletop version of the game.


Looking for a few good opponents

All this being said, my new found Internet board game fascination was thrown for a loop several days ago when I played online for the first time with people I know in real life. My brother Christopher, one of his friends, my cousin Jennie, and I got together for a game of Xplorers on AsoBrain games. This promised to be a lot of fun because both Jennie and Christopher have been real life gaming opponents for essentially all my days of board gaming. We played countless board games as kids along with my brother Ben and my cousin Katie, and almost always play games when we get together although this usually only ever happens when we are all able to gather at my uncles' farm during the annual family gathering at Thanksgiving. This has become fairly difficult since each of us has become far separated from one another. The farm is in Vermont, while I reside in New York, Jennie in South Carolina, and Christopher in Kansas. My fingers are crossed that we will have the opportunity for a session this November. Yes, I truly miss mopping the floor with the old gang and would love to do so this holiday season! Now, if any of them ever actually read my blog, this should get them all riled up, which is a good thing...they'll almost certainly play angry and be way off their game.


Great time playing a painful game

Back to our session on Thursday. The experience was incredible. I had a great time chatting with Toph & Jennie and actually getting to play a game with them was a rare treat. That being said, the game certainly was brutal in a couple of ways. First, although I have played quite a few games on this site the other three players were Xplorers virgins: they all knew how to play the board game, but since they had never used this particular interface, the entire game was spent familiarizing themselves with how to actually get things done. Trading especially takes a little practice since players need to know how to ask for cards from other players, counter-offer, trade with the bank, and reject an opponent's offer. Familiarizing oneself with this system makes for excruciatingly long turns. A few more plays down the road a game of Xplorers will probably take between 30-45 minutes for us to complete. Unfortunately this one lasted twice that long. The other problem for me in this particular session is that I made poor choices for opening settlement positions (as did Jennie, although she does have the excuse that she's only played Settlers twice...I can't make such a claim). The result is that Jennie and I were almost mathematically eliminated from contention after two or three turns. Neither of us had access to the proper resources or the room to expand our territory sufficiently to win the game. What this means is that I spent the final 1:15 minutes of the game waiting for the misery to end.


Final Score: Ugly

Results: Toph obliterated all of us because of good opening placement, a bit of experience, and a little luck; I will admit it here and now that I was thoroughly outwitted. He may have one the battle, but mark my words: I will win...the next battle! It really was a lot of fun, and future games will certainly be even better since everyone will be more familiar with the interface, turns will progress much more quickly, and hopefully I'll preform more like the most experienced player of the group rather than the least. Was this experience even close to as much fun as playing with the same group in person? No, I don't think so, but it is the only way I can frequently play games with these people I love, and there is certainly much to be said for that. My life is richer because we've started to play these games, perhaps not so much as it would be if I were playing regular board games with friends face to face in this area, but a great development nonetheless. I await our next game with much anticipation.


Additional reading

One additional note: There are several sites on the internet that allow you to play board games online. Settlers of Catan seems to be the most available for online play, although I know Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride are also available (Carc on AsoBrain, even), and legions of Euro style board games can be played on BrettSpielWelt, a german boardgaming site. I urge anyone looking for a little more boardgaming time than their immediate surroundings allow to check out some of these resources. http://www.games.asobrain.com/ in particular is very accessible and I highly recommend giving it a shot if you enjoy Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne. BSW is definitely worth a look too, but I have yet to play there since it is a bit more intimidating and complicated. Get online and give it a shot!