Sunday, October 02, 2005

Stating the case for ''state of the art''

With some very vivid & descriptive 'ideas' regarding just WHAT would become the ''latest & greatest'' regarding boardgame 'designs', then from the sounds of it, you can easily see technology rearing its head on this. I'm sure that many would envision some sort of 'gaming table' in which you could push some buttons or enter a ''game ID'' and have that become visually & virtually displayed then. Sure, that'd be nice, as long as you don't have power outages, or your data gets 'corrupted', while for some others then they happen to LIKE the 'feel' of their 'bits' as well. I'm in the latter 'group' myself since I've actually been creating my own kinds for various games for close to a couple of decades now and from scratch in most instances. I've got a good gaming 'buddy' that I LOST to computer gaming a good while ago, and he's not coming back! He's always trying to get ME to join him on this, and I did for a while, but I didn't get the same satisfaction as I would with 'boardgames'. Yet, when I press him about turning over his 'collection' to me, of which I would compensate him handsomely for this, then he insists that he just wants to 'keep 'em' for the nostalgia factor- ain't that about a BLIP!?! Hell, at least with my OWN amassing of these, then I did have a 'dream' for creating numerous ''Gaming Libraries'' across the entire WORLD with these, hence my acquiring numerous copies of certain titles that I felt would be most 'popular'. If others would be inspired to do likewise, then maybe we can resurrect the sense of 'community' from our efforts on this?

Then we have the folks that think that there's enough game designs being formulated and released as it is, and they could be correct on this. Still, others lament the next 'Expansion' for the likes of certain games, when they'd just as soon SEE some other 'fresh' creation instead. What can you say? Those people are just milking that for what it's worth and maybe they ARE in some sort of 'rut', in regards to this. So just seek out some other games from another that would interest YOU, and maybe get out of your OWN 'rut' too. My GAWD! They're even remaking ''the Fog'' movie! Maybe to have that take on an even greater 'relevance', then they could have at LEAST gone with reworking of the main title to: ''the SMOG'', as many folks could definitely relate with THAT! What's next: ''Insolvent Soylent Greeners''? To paraphrase the late, great 'one': ''these kids these days have NO 'respect' I tell ya!'' Plenty of people wish to have an original design reprinted with practically the same old 'style' as that, while others look forward to the 'updated' version of such. In most cases, then the subsequent COST factor also increases significantly due mostly to inflation or production of such. I think that with some companies adopting the ''Pre-Order'' doctrines for some of their products, then this may just become the case for the smaller facilities, as then they can count upon those to gear up and get something completed without going broke in the process. The other larger ones can afford to go with what they're currently doing, since they may have many other things that could 'buck up' any flagging sales for the time being.

As another matter to keep in mind, then I recall some criticisms from certain people-they KNOW who they are-about myself and any others 'critiquing' games. Their response was to inform us to design our OWN and have these undergo scrutiny, while I have no problem with such. Yet the whole notion that ''you can't criticize something UNLESS you've done likewise'' is fairly moot, since I don't have to 'be' a Movie producer, Book writer, or Musician to truly appreciate another's efforts, and then decide for myself whether or NOT I'd like something of theirs. Considering that not too many so-called 'reviewers' have the SAME 'credentials' in regards to one another, then just HOW would anyone expect to gain experiences in this? Sure, I readily admit that my 'style' tends to offend plenty of people, who factiously tend to overlook their OWN gaming preferences, I'll mention. I guess they should just 'restrict' themselves to the likes of CHESS or Checkers with their ''Black & White'' connotations for this?
''my EYES! zee 'goggles' zhey do NUTHINK!''

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