Recently in Outside world Category
W. Eric Martin's Forty Thoughts on Gamers and Gaming is something worth reading.
Remember the online Chess timer I mentioned before? It was discussed on the Finnish Board Game Society forums and the lack of multi-player option was noted. Well, it didn't take many days before Zumba Gametimer was online. Check it out, if you need a multi-player timer.
The Generic GeekList - The only GeekList you'll ever need.
Images for Desktop Wallpaper - Need desktop wallpapers? Sorry, the Generic GeekList won't help, but this one will!
Jonathan Rose has done a pretty neat JavaScript Chess Timer. It's easy to use, looks neat and seems to work pretty well (haven't tried it in action, though).
I did a GeekList: So, who else is a builder? It's about how building stuff is what makes me happy in games. Take a look, comment and add!
Boardgaming Finland podcast interviewed me and reviewed my book in their latest episode. Unfortunately the interview and review are in Finnish, but if you understand Finnish and want to hear someone else's opinion of the book, Cane's review is definitely worth listening (it helps he gives the book an excellent review).
I updated my GeekList Gamer's games published in Finnish - it's been a while since the last update, I had quite a few games to add. It's now 139 titles long, and features such games as Modern Art, Chinatown, Bausack, Gulo Gulo, Wits & Wagers, Qwirkle... Pretty cool.
My homemade minimalist Black Vienna set is available at BoardGameGeek, thanks to prodding from Iain. I like it myself, a lot, it's very black letters on white background, no-nonsense no-theme approach to the game.
Agricola gets an update. The family board gets a new action and the day labourer action is altered. The new action (which goes in the empty spot on the family game board) is "Build stables and/or bake bread" and the day labourer now produces one food and one wood, clay, stone or reed. Also, the three-player game action card that produces one stone now produces one wood, stone, clay or reed. You can print the new stuff yourself, PDFs are provided at the Lookout Games website linked above.
The three-player game doesn't need more wood or clay, but the reed is in short supply. In the family game, baking is a major bottle-neck with five players. Day labourer is also more interesting this way. So, I'd say these are good changes. I'm definitely going to try them, at least.
Journal of Boardgame Design hasn't been updated in months. Well, a new entry was just posted: What is this board game about? is an interesting article about game concepts, linking of themes and mechanics. Go read it!
I just moved my blog subscriptions from Bloglines to Google Reader, because Bloglines blanked out yesterday - no updates on any blogs at all. It seems to work now, but perhaps I'll try something else for a while. Changing readers is fortunately very simple, as all good feed readers use standard export/import tools. The compatibility is amazing!
Anyhow, I was weeding my board game blog list and noticed that it's really thin: it seems most of the blogs I'm subscribed to have been abandoned. I haven't followed the new stuff, either. So, how about some recommendations? I checked the BGIA nominees and subscribed to most of those. Any other recommendations?
