NAME: Apples to Apples
GESTALT: Players play Red Cards whose words relate to the word on the Green card, in the effort to earn as many Green Cards as possible (the number of green cards needed to win varies depending on the number of players).
GAMEPLAY: Players hold 7 cards in their hands at all times. Going clockwise, one player will draw a Green card and announce the word on it to the other players, while displaying the card face up. The other players will find Red Cards in their hands that may relate to the Green Card on various levels. Upon finding such a card, the player sets it face-down on top of the Green Card. When all other players have done the same (excepting the one who drew/is judging the Green Card), the player who drew the Green Card reads the Red Cards, and picks from them the one which is most accurately described by the Green Card. The player who set down the chosen Red Card wins the Green Card. (Aside: In some circles it's suggested that the adjectives on the won Green Cards describe the player who won them.)
RESULTS: I entered the game mid-play and replaced an existing player, and only played two rounds before the entire group agreed to end play and write session reports.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
SESSION REPORT: Fluxx (Card Game)
NAME: Fluxx
GESTALT: Players have "Keepers" (cards needed to win), "Creepers" (cards that disable victory), and cards designed to change the rules. At the start of the game, players draw one card and play one card from their hand. However, the game is constantly changing rules with Rule Change cards, which changes which Keeper cards are needed to win, how many cards one draws, and how many cards one must play, in addition to other rules that dynamically change the way it is played mid-game.
SESSION: Much of the game consisted of drawing 5 cards and playing 4, and most of the game goals involved Chocolate. Gameplay was thus extremely dynamic right up until one of the players played a new Goal card (in which the holder of the "Peace" Keeper card wins the game if the "War" Keeper card is not on the table), and just as swiftly as the game had picked up steam, it had ended.
GESTALT: Players have "Keepers" (cards needed to win), "Creepers" (cards that disable victory), and cards designed to change the rules. At the start of the game, players draw one card and play one card from their hand. However, the game is constantly changing rules with Rule Change cards, which changes which Keeper cards are needed to win, how many cards one draws, and how many cards one must play, in addition to other rules that dynamically change the way it is played mid-game.
SESSION: Much of the game consisted of drawing 5 cards and playing 4, and most of the game goals involved Chocolate. Gameplay was thus extremely dynamic right up until one of the players played a new Goal card (in which the holder of the "Peace" Keeper card wins the game if the "War" Keeper card is not on the table), and just as swiftly as the game had picked up steam, it had ended.
Friday, August 26, 2011
(Video) Games as Potent Interactive Fiction
(Before I begin, please understand that this post addresses video gaming first and foremost. The level of innovation found in non-video gaming, such as board games, ARGs and LARPs is not in question or discussion in the following.)
Before I was something of a video game nerd, I was an avid reader. Fictions intended for readers far beyond my demographic were as swiftly accepted and devoured as fairy tales and comic books and cartoon strips. The creation of worlds and universes through the use of a few splotches of carefully organized ink held for me such enormous appeal that even when my family did finally allow our television to have channels, I found I still favored the written word and the permission it granted the mind to craft personalized universes of varying accuracy to the one depicted on the page.
Additionally, as a musician, I've gained an immense respect for the creative process and the efforts through which creative minds must so frequently go. The ability to grasp into nothingness and create a form, a sensation or even an emotion, be it existent within or exclusive from our own reality, is not one I take lightly in the evaluation of any person.
Within the new influx of games as a form of art, media and expression, I find a wealth of potential to create new and unique sensations and expressions yet unexplored, in multitudes and levels yet unexperienced. Man now has within his power the ability to make almost entirely real the tales of grandeur and inspiration that have since man's genesis captivated us. The tales themselves may change, the characters may change in name and in personality, but for all intents and purposes mankind still finds value in fiction of all sorts, and in gaming it has potential unlike any existing medium prior.
While I am, for my ideals, still an advocate of putting food on one's own table, it is because of the immense potential inherent to this field that I regard the increased spattering of bland first-person cover-based violent shooters with a significant amount of disgust. Were I not aware of otherwise, I would surmise that the only story creative minds are interested in conjuring are those of death and murder— not inherently invalid, but, as with any variety of tale, oversaturation of any tale will dull its impact considerably, and the tales of those who look down sniper rifles towards enemies of now wildly diverse descriptions have dulled to a blunt face indeed.
It is with this in mind that I address my intentions for entering the game industry. I intend to explore and utilize this potential to stretch gaming's role beyond mere entertainment. Games are capable, just as movies, records and books before it, of changing how society thinks, behaves and contributes to itself as a whole, and in its current state is only just beginning to become aware of this.
The video gaming world is just now waking up. Instead of passively letting it fall back asleep under the weight of formulaic repetition and lack of innovation, let us guide it up on the legs of the successes of media forms past and let it reach new heights as it awakens further.
Before I was something of a video game nerd, I was an avid reader. Fictions intended for readers far beyond my demographic were as swiftly accepted and devoured as fairy tales and comic books and cartoon strips. The creation of worlds and universes through the use of a few splotches of carefully organized ink held for me such enormous appeal that even when my family did finally allow our television to have channels, I found I still favored the written word and the permission it granted the mind to craft personalized universes of varying accuracy to the one depicted on the page.
Additionally, as a musician, I've gained an immense respect for the creative process and the efforts through which creative minds must so frequently go. The ability to grasp into nothingness and create a form, a sensation or even an emotion, be it existent within or exclusive from our own reality, is not one I take lightly in the evaluation of any person.
Within the new influx of games as a form of art, media and expression, I find a wealth of potential to create new and unique sensations and expressions yet unexplored, in multitudes and levels yet unexperienced. Man now has within his power the ability to make almost entirely real the tales of grandeur and inspiration that have since man's genesis captivated us. The tales themselves may change, the characters may change in name and in personality, but for all intents and purposes mankind still finds value in fiction of all sorts, and in gaming it has potential unlike any existing medium prior.
While I am, for my ideals, still an advocate of putting food on one's own table, it is because of the immense potential inherent to this field that I regard the increased spattering of bland first-person cover-based violent shooters with a significant amount of disgust. Were I not aware of otherwise, I would surmise that the only story creative minds are interested in conjuring are those of death and murder— not inherently invalid, but, as with any variety of tale, oversaturation of any tale will dull its impact considerably, and the tales of those who look down sniper rifles towards enemies of now wildly diverse descriptions have dulled to a blunt face indeed.
It is with this in mind that I address my intentions for entering the game industry. I intend to explore and utilize this potential to stretch gaming's role beyond mere entertainment. Games are capable, just as movies, records and books before it, of changing how society thinks, behaves and contributes to itself as a whole, and in its current state is only just beginning to become aware of this.
The video gaming world is just now waking up. Instead of passively letting it fall back asleep under the weight of formulaic repetition and lack of innovation, let us guide it up on the legs of the successes of media forms past and let it reach new heights as it awakens further.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Introductory Post
Hello World.
While universally recognized as an introduction to screen output/printing in coding languages, it's also a fitting phrase for this very blog. I'll update this post later.
While universally recognized as an introduction to screen output/printing in coding languages, it's also a fitting phrase for this very blog. I'll update this post later.
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