My folks came to visit this 3-day weekend, and I'm happy to say we managed to play a few games. In some of the early Geek Speak episodes I remember the hosts commenting how common it was for today's gamers to have grown up in a home with parents who played games. That wasn't the case when I grew up. My dad knew & enjoyed both Hearts and Monopoly (I remember being impressed that he had the price & rents of all properties memorized from his own youth), but I could probably count the times we played together on one hand. No dominoes, no Clue, no Risk, and definitely no Acquire for us. I got into boardgaming by way of wargaming-to-roleplaying-to-CCGing, more than anything else. And though my younger brother pretty much came along with me on this hobby, my folks didn't. (And my brother never got heavily into the hobby like myself.)
That said, my parents aren't against playing games. They just don't gravitate to them. Or get too enthusiastic at their suggestion, especially my father. More than anything else, I think they just know how much I enjoy them, and during family weekends it is a way to spend time together.
This weekend my mom watched my daughter and I play a couple Pretty Wooden Abstracts, Gigamic's Pylos and Zenix. She agreed to play a game with my son and I . . . and to my pleasant surprise this turned out to be St. Petersburg! Sam had never played this, either, but they both caught on well enough. I warned them about the danger of running out of money, and didn't crank up all of the tactical plays possible with your reserve, card slots, and turn order. It was probably at the upper limit for them in terms of rules complexity and game length, but still fun. And definitely unique for them. Sam had been curious about this game since he watched me win it as a door prize at SoCal Games Day last month. I already knew I liked it (but only for 2-3 players). Sam and I also played Da Vinci Code beforehand.
Then this evening we even got my dad to play. It was Smarty Party that did it, combined with the Jr. Expansion set that made the game more playable with kids. After one successful game with him, he sat out a second when my wife came home and tried it. Success!
More good news: our latest order from Playme.de arrived. Total time from when we placed the order was just over a month. Again the games arrived in good condition, again we got copies of both Oltremare and Reef Encounter for good prices ($20 and $60, respectively--including shipping). I know some folks on spielfrieks and BGG have reported trouble with Playme.de, but we've not had any. This latest order had one missing game, but I expect to clear that up quickly. (And honestly, Adam Spielt used to do this once in a while.)
The latest Geek Speak (lackluster, but I know they're busy prepping for the con) got me interested again in recording my own thoughts. I suspect Mikko couldn't host the large files easily (even ~15 minute shows like I'm considering add up), but it appears an affordable option exists with Audioblog.com. I'm not a technophile, so need to figure out a simple way to do this. I'm reading some instructive web pages now.
What else? I haven't mentioned anything about our regular Santa Clarita Boardgamer sessions lately. I've actually been writing some session reports, just haven't pasted them in here. Goa is our Game of the Month, but after three weeks in a row we're mostly done with it. Those that like it still like it--those that find it just ok haven't changed their mind. I'm somewhere e in between, leaning toward the latter. I do enjoy it, but the game doesn't justify its own length. Sure, I've got a bias against almost anything approaching 2 hours, but can enjoy myself when the game is good. Or at least when it's good fun. That was true of Viking Fury, not true of Princes of the Renaissance, and pretty marginal for Goa.
Lastly, I've been playing some more play-by-web games again. It's one of my favorite formats. Good ol' Vinci is about to be taken down (though it's still working at Ludagora), so I've got one last game in there. Still really enjoying Droles des Zebres (Funny Zebras) at Boite a Jeux, including three games against its designer, Bruno Cathala! Then there's Rosenkoenig, which is now available through Yucata.de. (Also Chinagold, but I think Rosenkeonig is much better.)
OK, I went for it. Just posted my constructive criticisms to BGG on my Geek Journal. We'll see how it's received.
Some time ago I said I was a Geek Speak junkie, burning the podcast shows onto CDs so that I can listen to them on my commute. That hasn't changed--I still eagerly await the latest episode and it helps make some of those commutes breeze by.
However, now that the show is proving to be more than a flash-in-the-pan (16 episodes and counting, over 30 hours of audio material), I'm wanting it to make some improvements. No one on Boardgamegeek appear to have anything but glowing praise and mock criticism of the shows. I'd like to offer some constructive criticism. Some tough love. Maybe even some real criticism.
Rather than do so here on my blog, I might as well do it on BGG itself. The reaction should be interesting. I'm only trying to make the show better, sparking some discussion in the process. The absence of any real criticism concerns me a bit. That made sense with Geek Speak was brand new, a labor of love, and free. It's still free to listen, of course, but as Aldie & Derk begin to make BGG as much of a professional operation as the print game mags they should be able to handle the criticism.
On Friday I posted two lists on Boardgamegeek, the first I've ever done. They both relate to my local game group, the Santa Clarita Boardgames. Our group has been meeting regularly for three years already (wow!), but we've never had much of a "presence" online, either through our own website or session reports. I've wanted to change that for a long time, and these days adding content on the Geek is a good way. (Maybe not the best way, but the easiest.) It's a funny thing, though . . . why do I want more of a presence for SCB? We're not recruiting more players. In fact, we've got just about as many as we can fit in our homes, around our kitchen tables as it is. What's the purpose of talking about your group publicly if it's not a public group?
Just an ego trip, I suppose. We're playing lots of games, we've got collective (and individual) opinions, and I guess I feel like they'd count for more if we shared them more readily. Kind of silly, perhaps, but I can't deny the attraction.
Anyway, these two initial Geeklists showcase our favorite "newish" and "older" games played together in 2004.
Oh, I also changed my avatar. My friends tell me that the original--my smiling face pasted onto a scan of an Entdecker tile--was too . . . uh . . . friendly. Then they regretted saying anything, and didn't want me to change it. Too late! The embarrassment has already occurred! Now replaced with a cool little Mars rover icon, relevant to my job.