The Candamir / Tower of Babel Conundrum

Or Why We Buy the Games We Buy

Saw Candamir: The First Settlers in my local game store the other day, it was setting next to Tower of Babel. I hadn't bought a game in some time and was intent on buying one. I was torn.

On one hand, I've played Candamir and was underwhelmed with it. However, Candamir is a game that will get played simply because it has "Settlers" in the title and was designed by Herr Teuber. My wife will like it, so will another female friend of ours. My wargaming buddies will play it, simply because they love all things Catan. My friend with 5 kids will like it, but he likes everything, more importantly his kids will like it.

On the other hand, I would be taking my chances with "Tower of Babel". I doubt I would be able to play it for at least three months if I were to buy it today. I doubt I would get to play it more than 3 or 4 times, ever. I doubt my wife would like it. I doubt my wargaming buddies would like it. But I am sure I would like it.

My Geekbuddies rate Tower of Babel a respectable 7.71. Candamir is a 6.86. That is a significant difference.

Candamir costs $20 more, and let me reiterate that I have played it and really didn't care for it.

So what did I buy?

Candamir, of course, and Tichu.

Tichu? How did that get into the mix? Tichu is another card game in a long line of card games that I own and hope to play one day. Mu and More, For Sale, Medieval, Battle Line and Mystery Rummy are some of the more notable titles I own and have never played. There are others.

Not a bad day. One expensive game that will get played, even though I find it to be subpar, and one inexpensive cardgame that will probably never get played.

Coming soon: The Tower of Babel/Ticket to Ride: Europe Conundrum (with a Guillotine kicker).

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How did this happen?

I used to write two or three times each week in my blog, and I always had something to say. If I didn't write it was because of time constraints. There were even times that I held an entry back because two in one day, or three in three days was a bit excessive. Now that I am responsible for Fridays on "Gone Gaming" I'm having problems thinking of stuff to write. When I do think of something to write I don't know if I should wait and post it on "Gone Gaming", or post it on my blog and hope I can come up with something else for this blog.

I read an interview with "Bloom County" creator Berkeley Breathed years ago. He thrived on deadlines. He attributed Bloom County's cutting edge nature to deadlines. He would do much of his "cartooning" (my word) on the day the strip was due, even while sitting in the waiting room of his syndicator's office minutes before the deadline.

Nothing dries up my creative juices quite like a deadline, even if it is 7 days away.

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Behind the scenes at Gone Gaming.

I made an error on my introduction, apart from the whole "Manly Man" thing. I said that 5 of the 7 people who said they could contribute also said they could contribute every week. That wasn't quite right.

Shannon said he was very busy and could probably only contribute once each week. I replied with something to the effect that if he was so busy he could just contribute every other week, opposite of Joe. He agreed to that.

Twelve days into the project Shannon has his next six entries stacked up and ready to go, and they look pretty good.

I wonder if a twice-a-day blog would have an audience?

Good Gaming,
Coldfoot