Nearly every multi-player game has some aspect of negotiation, whether overt or implied. Many games boil down to “attack the leader” which is a form of negotiation. You give up something- your turn- to gain something in return. This is the essence of negotiating. However, some people object to these kinds of negotiations, and in […]
Fantasy! Adventure! Boardgames!
It’s one of the most frequent requests, debates, and lists on Boardgamegeek, behind “what can I get my girlfriend/wife to play?” It’s fantasy adventure boardgaming, and it’s coming to a shelf near you. Why is this so popular? Many, many people play or played D&D. Unfortunately, as we grow up and get out of college, […]
A Field Guide to Gamers
A surprisingly respectful look at gamers and GenCon- mostly they let us speak for ourselves. The only thing I didn’t like is that three of the people they show in “crazy costumes” are actually from the reality show ‘Who Wants to be a Superhero?’ and not gamers at all. Added note: there may be an […]
From Screen to Board: Translating Properties into Boardgames
Here’s a pretty solid rule of game design: any game you design in your dreams is likely to be crap. (That’s not to say you can’t get inspiration from dreams, but you’re unlikely to get a good game out of one you made up in a dream.) A friend of mine brought this up recently […]
Who Games the Gamesmen?
I don’t find myself particularly drawn to being active in online message boards. There are plenty I read, especially when a big story happens, but overall, I don’t post much. I find myself getting my “feathers easily ruffled” when there are vocal internet dickwads, which seem to thrive in the message board environment. I find […]
Game Carnival (If Only It Had Funnel Cake)
Yehuda has posted the newest Game Carnival, which includes two of my Critical Threat articles. It also contains a number of other articles about games, from a few theory articles to some video game reviews. I haven’t gone through all of them yet, but already I’m digging an article by Corvus that I missed when […]
The Chris Ferguson Challenge
More and more of the poker players I hang out with are taking on the Chris Ferguson Challenge. Chris “Jesus” Ferguson is a world champion poker player, having won five World Series of Poker bracelets and one WSOP Main Event title. He’s known for having a very mathematical style of play, that probably comes from […]
A Compedium of Critical Threat Worthy Posts 8/10/7
Here’s a few articles that I’ve been reading over the past few weeks that I highly recommend for any of you in the field of thinking about games or even just those with an interest in games.
Who You Calling Heavy?
Over on Boardgamegeek, you’ll see plenty of references to weight. And I’m not talking about the size of the players. Games tend to be divided in a spectrum from Light to Heavy among the BGG ratings. Something like Coloretto, or the great Loopin’ Louie is in the light category. Light-Medium includes such favorites as Ticket […]
Hidden Trackable
As often happens, I found myself involved in a minor argument online. This is one of those arguments that can’t entirely chalked up to different tastes. “Hidden Trackable” refers to any element of the game that could be tracked by a player with a perfect memory (or pencil and paper) but is supposed to be […]
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