Back at work

[viktor_haag]

After a lengthy holiday, I'm once again back at work starting this morning. Probably won't get to getting anything meaningful done for at least a day or so, as I now have a month of admin to catch up on (email, cleaning up after all the chron tasks that have been churning away in my absence), but that's a good thing as I always have to ease back into work after such a long time away.

This year's holiday was a pleasant one in one respect: our family suffered through a minimum amount of sickness, which means we only had to deal with the exhaustion of the endless social events without heaping illness on top of it. I know that a lot of you all were not so fortunate, and you have my sympathies.

However, this year's book catchup was a bit of a flop compared to last year. I did manage to clear a few books off the pile, but I still have one or two sitting there staring at me ("Lies of Locke Lamora", I'm look at you). However as mentioned in a previous post, I'm pretty committed to the notion that this year my project will be to chew through as much of my collection of Gene Wolfe's books as I can, spelling that task only with reading for my Dickens book group ("Our Mutual Friend") and the odd breather between Wolfe books or the "carry around" book I have for line-ups and the like (currently "The Prisoner of Zenda").

This holiday season I managed to try out a few new boardgames, the most memorable being "Cuba", which seems like a lot of fun despite the fact that I got absolutely pantsed in my first playing of it. I still haven't tried "Race For The Galaxy" yet, but it also seems like it will be a great deal of fun (from reading the rules) -- sort of a crunchier version of "San Juan". However, I rather expected to get more boardgames played over the holidays than I did, just as I rather expected to get more books read. Oh well.

I spent a fair amount of time watching some rather mindless films, and some not so mindless (the most not so mindless was "Oldboy", a very thought provoking work about which I still haven't completely made up my mind). I also managed to get through the entire third season of "The Wire" and was glad I did: very, very solid. Depressing, but solid.

Comments

[mneme]

Happy New Year!

Haven't tried Cuba yet; what's it like?

I very much enjoy Race For the Galaxy, and have spent quite a number of evenings playing it multiple times at this point (and expect to continue doing so), kinda like when Puerto Rico first came out.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Cuba is fun, but it's one of those puzzling state machine games with lots of moving parts. It's in the same vein as Pillars Of The Earth, Puerto Rico, Goa, and Leonardo da Vinci. You get resources, you use the resources to get funds, tech improvements (buildings), and victory points. Our first try was fun and compelling, not as addictive as Pillars Of The Earth, but obviously a more challenging game as well. I'd say that if you liked any of the "sort of like" games in the list above, then you should try Cuba. It's perhaps least like Puerto Rico (it has similarities in that you select different roles to do different things, and in that you build "buildings" with powerz that help ratchet up your efficiency at gathering cash and points).

[mneme]

Hmm. I like PR and Goa; haven't tried PotE nor, I think, LdV, though probably should.

I note with wry amusement reviews of RftG echoing the same bogus idea in early reviews for PR -- that the game, because it takes the form of competitive solitaire, somehow has a "lack of interaction". (and that this is somehow a feature of Eurogames -- haven't these people ever played crayon rail games or the like? How is this feature unique to new games?). My point, of course, being that direct interaction isn't necessary for a good game; just competition; in Merchants of Venus, which is less fun if including the warfare rules, players affect others by manipulating the pace of the game as well as racing for different goals and taking resources others want; a similar mechanism exists in a crayon rail game. Similarly, in RftG, watching what other players are doing is a key element to predicting what they will do, and by the same token, to deciding what you have to do. It's on some levels, a very complicated game of RPS -- but it's an -interesting- variant on rps. (for example, I've found myself often taking the Explore +2 option as insurance -- I could get more cards with a Produce, but I have a card in my hand I'd really like to build, so if a build phase happens, getting two extra cards will let me build it, whereas taking the build action or production won't).

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Plus there are some players that actually prefer quite subtle and defined points of interaction rather than "run up and smash him in the face" kinds of interaction. My sister really dislikes direct conflict in games, and she vastly prefers games that are of the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps faster than your neighbour" variety.

[sixteenbynine.livejournal.com]

My take on Oldboy: http://www.thegline.com/dvd-of-the-week/2004/05-24-2004.htm

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Oh, rest assured that I've read this review (and many of your other reviews), and also that it informed my own choice to watch this film despite my feeling that it's subject matter might put me off. 8)

Still, thanks for the links so that others can be directed there... 8)

[sixteenbynine.livejournal.com]

Thanks :D I hope it helps people get an idea of what I feel the movie is really about, because it's incredibly easy to be misled by the surface.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree there. Completely. My father and I spent a good afternoon or two ruminating over it.