One Is The Loneliest Number

So you’re sitting around the house all alone or at least you feel alone since no one wants to play a game with you. What can you do to pass the time? You could read a book or watch the boob tube but you really need a gaming fix.

Do you dig into that pile of downloaded rules? I know this is a favorite pastime for may board game addicts. There’s nothing like a good set of rules to make you yearn to get your hands on the game, one way or the other.

Do you visit the Geek? This can be a dangerous choice as it may tempt you with an appetizing new game which then leads you to an online store to see if anyone has it in stock. Choose this option at your own risk. The reverse is also true: dropping by an online store to see what’s new, then checking the Geek only to find this is an Excellent game for you which you simply MUST have.

Do you game online? There are many gamers who rely on BrettSpielWelt for their game fix. There’s a large selection of games from which to choose, from the old, familiar and comfortable to the new and exciting unknown.

Do you pull out a game to play by yourself? This is a very good choice if you have a brand new game that you haven’t played yet. New games need that initial imprinting just like a newborn; touch the pieces, understand the rules and talk yourself through any questionable areas. There are a few games that actually play pretty well solo. For me, Memoir ’44 works since my memory skills are so poor that I forget which cards my “opponent” is holding. If you want some more suggestions, here’s one of my favorite GeekLists that I wrote almost a year ago.

Do you turn on the game console of choice? Oh, come on, I know some of you have Xboxes, Game Cubes and PS2s. You can admit it, I won’t tell anyone. I have a PS2 and wouldn’t part with it any more than I’d part with my favorite board games. My all-time favorites are Ratchet and Clank, Katamari Damacy and Half-life. They may not be as stimulating to the brain but they’re excellent for improving your hand-eye coordination.

Do you stand in front of your collection reliving past glories and envisioning future ones? Or deciding the ONE game you absolutely MUST play the next time you get a chance? Or do you only see that gaping whole in your Alea big box collection and dream of filling it in? Which leads you to the next choice.

Do you search eBay with wild hope in your heart yearning to grasp and hold an elusive Holy Grail? Oh, look! Chinatown in “excellent” condition! All you need to do is sell your year-old car and replace it with a beat up Rambler, and you can win this bid.

Do you tell yourself now is a good time to start that print-and-play project you’ve been putting off? I know how you hate to do all that cutting but keep your eye on the prize: a brand new game to play and it didn’t cost you a thing. Well… all that ink and the other various supplies… Maybe later.

Do you blog? Head to the net and check out what’s new on the gaming blogs. With a wide variety of opinions and ideas, there should be something new to read which will satisfy the gaming centers of your brain. Maybe you have your own blog so you decide to add your thoughts about the game you finally got to try, or you just feel like bitching because nobody wants to play a game.

So tell me what you do to assuage your gaming demon when he raises his head and screams to be fed.
~~~~~~~~
Bolide

I recently got Bolide, a racing game from Italy, and after a couple of 2-player, a 3-player and a 4-player game, I’m very happy with it. You can read my initial thoughts and a quick summary of the play on the game at my blog, Meeple Monologues, since I’m too lazy to reproduce it here.

Mark Johnson, on his Boardgames To Go podcast (Episode 51), had a totally different view of it after his initial playing and I can understand that. To him, it was something-old-made-new-again; it’s a physics lesson that someone made into a game. To me, my husband and 2 gaming friends, it was something new and unique that was both fun and thought-provoking. Maybe when we've played it enough that the mechanics become formulaic, it'll cease to be fun.

Mark did admit that he may have been in the wrong frame of mind when he played it and I think he’s probably right. You can’t picture this as a physics homework project that has a solvable, absolute move. One of the 4 players I played with took way too long on some of his moves, staring at the board and picturing his next moves 3 or 4 turns into the future. This slowed the game down to teeth-grinding speed and left the fun part back on the starting line. At some point, you just have to say, “This does what I want it to do, puts me where I want to be for the next move and after that, we’ll just have to see.” A game should be fun to play which may mean leaving something to chance or, in this case, intuition.
~~~~~~~~
Until next time, may your Alhambra have many Towers and Gardens.

Mary

Skype Me

I tend to think of myself as a bit of a techno-luddite. I simultaneously try to understand my tech while also trying to use as little of it as possible. Unfortunately, life doesn't let me do the latter enough.

It took me a long time to move into the mobile phone world. I kept resisting it. I knew that when you have instant access to people, and they have instant access to you, that you lose your strategic planning skills. After all, you no longer have to coordinate your day, arrange pick-up and plan contingencies. You can just wing it, assuming that you will be able to contact whomever it is when you get close to them.

But with a wife, an ex-wife, and four children all going to different schools, I knew that I had to give in after my umpteenth missed connection.

Of course, once I decided to do it, I had to do it whole hog. That meant reading through the phone manuals to understand all of the phone's features, checking on Google for any unlisted features, and ensuring that everyone in my family knew how to use the phones for calling, messages, voicemail, received calls, and so on (all except my wife, who can't be bothered).

I had been keeping the same distance from IM for almost as long. I couldn't figure out why IM was necessary when you have email. However, once voice over IM joined in, and it was free and easy, I knew I had to give in. VOIM, available with Skype, as well as other IM clients, is just peachy. Yeah, you need to be sitting in front of your computer and have it turned on all the time. But if your computer is turned on anyway, it's totally worth it to learn how to use it.

As far as regular IM goes, I remember using the VM/CMS talk program back in the late 80's when calling people was still expensive. I used to talk from the computers in Cornell to my friends in Boston. I still have no desire to send SMS using my mobile phone, since the interface is too difficult. But it is pretty fast and nifty to send a quick message to someone without having to use a full email. Google's Gmail/Google Talk, which doesn't require you to even download a client, kind of did it for me.

What I like about Google Talk is that is has nothing but chat. What I hate about all the other chat programs (except Trillian) is that they want to control your world, just like other obnoxious software programs, such as music and word processors. That means that after I had installed one of the IM clients, I had to slam down on the firewall several times, quickly go through everything that was installed and uninstall all but the chat part, check my registry and remove the program from starting up with Windows (sorry, wish I was using Linux or Mac; what can you do?), disable all unnecessary programs by changing their extensions, turn off almost every feature in the client, and so on. And I still get occasional popups and animated advertisements. With Google Talk, I have a box, a list of people, and a button. Dat's it. And dat's all I want.

So, now that I'm seriously able to be online with IM and Skype, I feel closer to people around the world. And that means that we can play games.

What should we play?

Now, I'm not talking about playing games online interactively with other people, like you can do on various sites. I'm not even talking about the excellent Vassal server which can be used to help people track game positions. I'm more interested in real games to play with people who are not physically present, but can be heard. And in some cases, poorly seen. Since Skype allows you to include up to five people on a party line, I'm looking for games that can be played by five people over Skype in real-time.

Back in the mid-nineties I used to play Magic over the phone with my friend. We would put down proxy cards representing whatever the other person said they played. Sometimes it was the only way we could get time to play. It was fun, but labor intensive.

But generally speaking, games with decks are a problem for 3-5 players not physically present in the same room. Games with secret negotiations are a problem. Games where you have to see the other people are a problem.

Basic abstracts with no hidden information would work well, so long as each player has a copy. Chess, Dvonn, and so on. When one of you makes a move, you just tell the other person. People have been doing this by phone for a while. Heck, they've been doing this by e-mail and even snail mail for a while.

Do we assume that for any game to work, each player must have their own copy? For instance, for Settlers of Catan to work, one person must set up the board and then all players have to keep carbon copies of the game going in front of them. That's also kind of labor intensive, but maybe not too bad. Oops. But then you've got the development cards. A problem.

Suggestions welcome.

Once we have a list ... let's play some games.

Yehuda

"Tactics & Strategy" of 'development': the Watching

WELL, I certainly DO have some "grognardian" developments of which I'll be most happy to share here! From the fine folks over at 'Worthington Games', then they have "For Honor and Glory" featuring '10'-LAND 'Battles' of the "War of 1812" (and based upon their previous 'design' for "Clash for a Continent"), along with their "Forged in Fire: the 1862 'Peninsula' Campaign" covering "McClellan's" ambitious 'plan' to capture the "Secessionist's" Capitol during the "American Civil War"-BOTH of which are available even now. While for their "in the works", then they have "The Cowboys: Way of the Gun"-projected 'release' for "Summer `06"; "Blood of Noble Men: the Alamo"-projected 'release' for "Fall/Winter `06"; "Wars for America Series Part III: the Mexican American War"-(also based upon "Clash for a Continent")-projected 'release' slated for LATE `06-EARLY `07; and "For Queen and Country: the ZULU Wars"-(somewhat 'based' upon "Clash for a Continent" albeit on a much smaller scope for the actual 'Units' involved) and slated for LATE `06-EARLY `07. Here's a LINK to their "website":
"Worthington Games"
The last '4'-mentioned "Games" are upon their "Pledge LIST" and you can 'pre-order' those at quite the considerable "savings" for them, while you won't even be REQUIRED to submit your "Credit Card" information for this! Around '4' to '6' weeks PRIOR to actual "shipping" for them, THEN you are kindly 'asked' for "payment" upon those that you have expressed an interest upon. You can also partake of their "Forums" while following along those "in development" with the LINKS for those upon their 'site' too. Oh yeah, and be certain to 'wear' your "Pledge PIN" upon your 'uniform' for some "extracurricular" stable activities!

The next fine folks are from "Khyber Pass Games" with their "Battle of the Little Bighorn" concerning the "7th Cavalry & Custer"!-(along with the rest of the 'cast'). That has always been a great 'topic' of interest for myself and many others, no matter what their dispositions may consist of about the underlying "Tactics & Strategy" of the belligerents. They also have some "games in development" that take a different 'tack' for their 'subjects'. One of these is called as "The Battle of Tonga 1914" and is set within "Imperial German East Africa" with some tactical aspects for this. Then there is the "Battle of the Rosebud"-and NO it is not a 'fight' over WHO 'gets' to 'use' that damm "sled" of movie fame! This actual 'Battle' took place on June 17th, 1876, just over a week prior to the demise of "Custer" and around half of his 'Command' during the very same 'Campaign'. It was a portent of what the U.S. Army would be encountering that particular year, unlike what they were previously 'used to' when taking on their erstwhile "Native American" opponents. I am particularly 'interested' in THIS 'Battle', as not too many have even deigned to tackle the subject matter since the "7th Cavalry" GAME had done so, way back almost 30-years ago! Then they also have "Prairie Aflame!" and it is NOT for "World in Flames" you one-track-minded "numbwits", as this covers the 1885 'Rebellion' in "Northwest Canada" instead. These are also upon their "Pledge LIST" for those who are interested in them, and check them out when you can. I'm not certain just exactly WHAT their 'policy' is for "pledging" so you will need to contact them upon such matters. You can also join in on their "Forums" with LINKS for those from their "website" and here's the LINK for that as well:
"Kyber Pass Games"
One important 'aspect' I shall make mention upon is that they ARE a "desktop publisher", but don't let this dissuade YOU from delving further into these, as they seem to be of the utmost higher 'quality' companies out there, while these have been increasing their "street cred" in recent years.

Watching the development of Strategy and Tactics

Sorry to disappoint the Grognards amongst you, but this is a piece about the development of Strategy and Tactics in a gamer child, not an SPI retrospective.

Daughter the Elder is currently seven and half which means that we have been playing games with her for around five years. Of course the first couple of years most of - who am I kidding all of - the games we played involved a strategic aim no more complicated than "I want to win" and the tactics were no deeper than having your turn.

Games that young children will like are ones where they can compete on an even footing with adults and as such are heavily or entirely luck based. Hopefully they can be entertaining and educational too.

Being entirely luck based does not necessarily rule out tactical thinking however. Snakes & Ladders was one of the first games where Daughter the Elder displayed tactical thinking. She would look at the board and say "I need a five" (to land on a ladder) or "I hope I don't get a three" (to avoid a snake). To me it was evidence that she was looking at her position in the game and analysing her options. Admittedly unless she could guarantee the outcome of her die roll she had no concrete choice about these options. The important thing is that she had recognised the different outcomes that were possible on her turn and could distinguish between the good, the bad and the indifferent ones which is quite a step up from just rolling the die, moving the counter and exclaiming "Yay I landed on a ladder!". This tactical thinking also required her to use her mathematical skills in working out what was a good or bad number to roll, which is an added educational benefit.

The progression in Junior Labyrinth has been interesting to observe. In the early games her moves were very direct, her ghost usually only moved a short distance to or towards the objective. In later games her moves were much more considered her ghost would often end up travelling a much more convoluted path to the objective but would almost always reach it.

In other games that came later the strategic, long term, thinking came more into play. It is no longer really enough just to want to win, you have to consider how you are going to win. In Settlers of Catan Daughter the Elder devised a strategy that favours ports and development cards and she much plays it most of the time. My critical review would be that there are times or situations that this strategy is not necessarily the best one and possibly a different approach should be tried. That said, she has certainly had her fair shares of wins employing this strategy - which could say a lot about my critical reviews of strategic thinking!

Interestingly enough the game that really brought home to me the growth in Daughter the Elder's strategic thinking was Connect 4. I knew she had been playing it at school last year but over the recent (Southern hemisphere) summer holidays I realised that she must have been playing it a lot. We chalked up over a hundred games and it was pretty much dead on 50-50 win ratio.

As I played game after game with her I realised she quite obviously had a number of different strategies or set plays depending on what her opponent did. She also would often be planning two different connect fours at once, prepared to sacrifice one to me whilst snatching victory with the other.

I would not have been at all surprised to hear her say "Ah so you are using the Nabovski opening, I shall stop that with the Yanescu method" or "You think you can trick me with the Arbuckle gambit? Everyone knows that that is easily countered by employing the Du Bois defence".

Now she didn't actually say these things, but based on her attitude and results I am pretty sure she was thinking them!

I am also seeing emerging thinking in the way she plays games like Pick Picknic and Frank's Zoo.

I am looking forward to many, many, more years gaming with her and also going through the same developmental period with Daughter the Younger over the next few years.

Mmm, meeples taste like...

The Search for Kids Games

I've been playing with a group of children fairly regularly for the last year and a half. Last year it was primarily a group of rowdy boys from 5th to 9th grade. HeroScape, Doom: The Boardgame and Star Wars: Epic Duels were the perpetual favorites. Throw in some Knizia's Lord of the Rings, Formula De, Pirate's Cove, Pitch Car, maybe Bang and the crowd would be happy.

Times were fun. Enthusiasm was high. I thought I had this gig figured out.

This year things are different. Most of the boys from last year are gone. A couple of the boys are still there, but they are now too cool to play boardgames. This year's group consists mainly of young girls and the smart boys, most of whom are elementary school age.

What a difference a year makes.

Pirate's Cove still gets requested, but I think it has more to do with box art than anything. Attention to Pirate's Cove is usually waning by the middle stages of the game. Half the kids want to fight and the other half want to win. Half way through the game the fighters realize they aren't winning and lose interest in the game. Last year no one was concerned with winning. Sinking the other guy was the unofficial goal of the game.

I must shamefacedly admit that I've even sat through a game of Uno this year.

What can I say? Every kid wanted to play Uno.

Twice.

The game that has received the best response this year is Villa Paletti. Niagara went over pretty well, as did Carcassonne. Gulo Gulo keeps them interested and Star Wars: Epic Duels is still pretty popular, but as much as they like it, few of the kids can handle the text on the cards.

I just picked up Sac Noir (Bausack) for a very good price. I think it will probably get played. Star Wars Miniatures also holds promise. I think small 30-40 point squads of commons will be work well with these kids, I just need to remember to borrow the game.

Another problem is that I never know if there will be 2 kids or more than a half dozen. Last year I had a fairly stable group. Talisman is a game that scales well and appeals to kids, but I tend to get agitated when I have to tell a kid to get the cards out of his mouth for the umpteenth time.

It's Talisman man!!! Second Edition!! Put the cards on the table, these things don't grow on trees. And don't put the chits up your nose!!!

If I were a kid I wouldn't enjoy playing Talisman with me.

Anyone have any suggestions? I need to find a couple more games that are currently in print, that scale well from 2-8 and appeal to kids from first to sixth grade.

________________________________________________

Initial Impressions

Indonesia: Oooooooooooooh, big fiddley game. I'm sold. Turns out to be pretty good to boot. Might be as good as Roads and Boats and less fiddley.

Reef Encounter: Huh? How is this an upper tier game again? I'm with DW on this one, you read the rules multiple times and still need a tutor to learn the game. I can see how it can get much better with familiarity.

Siena: Still need to play this one. The rules are right up there with Reef Encounter. You need to read them several times to begin to get a feel for the game. Whereas Reef Encounter rules are actually pretty well written for a game with lots of depth, Siena seems to have poorly written rules to go with a game with less depth. And oh, did I mention "counter-intuitive"? The game seems to be about competition to produce goods and climb the social ladder. Hidden somewhere in the rules is a blurb that the point of the game is to earn "consent points". (Actually consent points are mentioned in the opening paragraph and not mentioned again until page 9.)

Elasund: Its predecessor Candamir was a dog. A big dog that left big doggy-doo piles on the carpet. The next game in the series has a lot to overcome. Elasund does not leave me wanting to poke my eyes out to make a polite escape to the emergency room instead of finishing a game. It might even grow on me. It seems kind of fun and might be more challenging than most games in the Settlers series.

Euphrates and Tigris Card Game: Pretty good job of transferring an upper tier boardgame to a cardgame format. What's the point, again? Any game based upon Tigris and Euphrates will be a lesser game. I would just as soon play Tigris and Euphrates, which remains my favorite game. The E&T Card Game is much more like the original than the San Juan cardgame was to Puerto Rico. If anything it is too much like the original.

Commands and Colors: Ancients: Hmmm. Better than and more tactics involved than Memoir '44. I think if you like Memoir '44 or Battle Cry you will like C&C more, unless you are strictly a Civil War or WWII buff.

Descent: I like it. It's better than Doom: The Boardgame which I liked quite a bit. Just wish I had friends that liked this kind of game. Played once. Made lots of mistakes, and spent too much time searching the rules. Really, really want to play again.

Computerized Board Games: Six Mini-Reviews

For me this has been a great Winter, with the release of two computerized board games, Ticket to Ride from Days of Wonder and Puerto Rico from Eagle Games. Don't get me wrong: I love tabletop games. That's clearly the proper way to play These Games of Ours, because you get the joy of the physical components and real interactions with real people.

Sometimes, however, I prefer a solitaire experience, and for this I look hopefully toward PC conversions. And, I'm not talking about games that allow good online play. That might be a nice add-on, but if I want to kick a game out in 5-30 minutes I don't want to have to deal with someone else's slowness, and if I'm feeling tired or grumpy, I don't want there to be any expectation that I'm going to actually talk to someone else. So I look hopefully not just toward PC conversions, but toward PC conversions with good AIs that can really give me a challenge.

Over the last couple of years I've played slews of these games in web-based forms, but the best are inevitably those that I can download from a professional site or purchase on a CD, and I've decided to offer an overview of those today. You'll find them listed below, from my favorite to my least favorite, with some comments about what makes them good ... and what doesn't.

As I've written this article, I've been somewhat frustrated to learn that a couple of the games are no longer commercially available, but I've still included them herein to document what I think makes a great computer game.

Carcassonne (A/B+)
Full Review: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11234.phtml
Purchase Link: Softunity.com (German, original game no longer available)

Carcassonne is, flat-out, the best adaptation of a tabletop boardgame that I've played. To start off with, it adapts the game faithfully. But, beyond that, it hits all the right notes for a computer conversion.



Viewing size is always a bit of an issue with board games, but Carcassonne manages that well: it allows a variety of zoom sizes, and you'll probably slowly zoom out during the game. At the largest size everything is huge and easy to see. At the smallest size you can usually see the whole board (though not always when you have the additional tiles from the supplements). Some effort was apparently made to slightly simplify the tiles, which helped a lot in viewing them at greater zooms.

Beyond that, Carcassonne also goes the extra mile. There are a bunch of different skins for the board and for your playing pieces, so that you can modify the game view to your precise preferences. You can also choose from a set of different rules, such as all the different farmer rules, whether to use the river or not, etc.

Carcassonne truly shines in two areas: its AI and its ranking. First, there are ten different levels of AI, which indeed get progressively tougher. It took me a few months of improving gameplay before I finally felt comfortable playing against the "7"s and the "8"s. Now I can play against the "10"s with a fairly decent chance of success, but I'm well aware that if I show the slightest weakness, they'll crush me. I don't do nearly as well against the AIs in Hunters & Gatherers, which seem a little slower & a lot brighter.

Combined with this, Carcassonne has a ranking system that I suspect is ELO based. You win or lose points as you play opponents, based upon comparative rankings and thus expectation of victory. Trying to struggle up the ladder against the AIs adds a whole extra dimension to this gameplay.

Softunity originally offered the original Carcassonne, plus an expansion which included Inns & Cathedrals and Traders & Builders. They also offered, in a very similar package, Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers. It looks like the original game may no longer be available through them, but they still have H&G, and I highly suggest it. You'll have to struggle through German pages to purchase the game, but once you get it downloaded you can just change the language to "1" in your configuration file, and it'll turn into English. I'll also comment that my rating for Hunters & Gatherers alone (B+) isn't quite as good as my rating for Carcassonne with the expansions (A). I really think the expansions add a lot to the replayability of the game.

Ticket to Ride (A-)
Full Review: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11899.phtml
Purchase Link: ticket2ridegame.com

Ticket to Ride is overall a strong computer game, but its strength comes through a criteria that I've partially disavowed here: multiplayer play. Of all the games that I'm reviewing here, Ticket to Ride is the only one that's reached critical mass for an online community of players, and it's done a superb job there. Games start every few seconds any time of the day or the night.



Graphically, Ticket to Ride doesn't come across quite as well as the games developed by actual software houses. The graphic design is quite nice, but it's fairly flat, as opposed to the more 3D feels of Carcassonne and Samurai. The user interface also feels somewhat basic, and I suspect this has something to do with the game's ancestry. It's a Java-based implementation (but a solid one, without the rocky feel of some Java clients that I've played ... and developed).

Ticket to Ride actually includes three different games, the original U.S. map, Ticket to Ride Europe and finally a Switzerland map that's only available as part of this package. That last feature highlights how the best computer games can really expand a game for a fairly low cost.

As with many computerized board games, Ticket to Ride's failing is its AI. The AI is poor. I usually play three-person games, and one of the AI's manages to win 5-10% of the time. There's not much tension in the games as a result, and if it weren't for the fact that Ticket to Ride is creative and constructive, like Iron Dragon, but at a smaller scale, I wouldn't get a lot out of solitaire Ticket to Ride play.

Again, note that this is all in reference to Ticket to Ride as a solo activity. For multiplayer play the CD version of the game is a great step-up from the online versions of the games, and it also allows you to play the unique Switzerland map with other people online.

Puerto Rico (B+)
Full Review: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11988.phtml
Purchase Link: eaglegames.net

In many ways, Puerto Rico is an ideal candidate for computer game conversion. It's got sufficient depth of play and sufficient variability that you'll want to continue playing it again and again. Unfortunately the current version of Puerto Rico has some UI problems that leave the game lacking. It's still worth getting, mind you, if you enjoy Puerto Rico, but I do have concerns with it.



Graphically, Puerto Rico is a pleasure. Like Ticket to Ride, it's fairly basic, but looks nice. Excellent design work has been done to create an interface full of wood, rope, and texture. You can easily see all of your plantations, your buildings, the current state of the ships, the current state of the trading house, and how many VPs, settlers, and goods remain. There's a bit of an information overload, but you get used to it. You only get to see complete info on one opponent at a time, but you can see everyone's goods, and you can click in between different opponents if you want.

The game also made the excellent decision of including the expansion, which adds a huge amount of variability to the game.

The AI is just adequate. As a casual player, I don't overwhelmingly defeat the computer players, but I suspect if I paid more attention I'd win more often than not. Still it's clearly better than the bad AIs I discuss herein (Ticket to Ride, Iron Dragon, and El Grande).

Where the game starts to fall apart for me, however, is the turn sequencing. The game just whizzes through all the players' turns, and there's no particular attention given to what they did. You can read a textual display at the bottom, but I find that pretty inadequate. The game will even skip parts of your turn if the choices are "obvious" (such as when the trader phase was called and you can't trade for whatever reason). Overall I have a huge sense of isolation when I play the Puerto Rico game. I can't follow everything that's going on without a fair amount of concentration, and there's no meaningful contextual sounds of other prompts that would help me keep track of things.

I suspect some of this would improve if playing with players rather than AI, because their turns wouldn't go as fast, but as I said I'm evaluating these programs as standalone games that I can play on my own, and although Puerto Rico is technically sucessful in that regard, I wish a lot more attention were paid to player experience rather than to pretty graphics.

Reiner Knizia's Samurai (B)
Full Review: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10879.phtml
Purchase Link: Klear.com (demo only)

Samurai was a game that I played for the first time in computer game form. It was many months before I picked it up as a tabletop game. Like Carcassonne, it's a very faithful rendition, and like Carcassonne it also offers a few additional methods of play.



Among your choices: a more random method of setup; seeing current scores before the start of each of your turns; and a different endgame condition where everything is removed from the board. However the best extension was offered with version 1.5 of the game: a couple of new maps so that you can play Samurai on some dramatically different gameboards. They were even certified for use by Reiner Knizia himself. Like the new map in Ticket to Ride, this really helps the game to shine.

Samurai's AI is fair to good. It comes in three different levels. None of them is good enough to stand up to a good human player in head-to-head play on a regular basis, but none of them embarass themselves, and the best AI will at least keep a good player on his toes. However Samurai is one of those games that gets more chaotic (and less strategic) as you increase the number of players. This gives the AI the edge that they need. In a 3-player game I feel pretty well matched against the two higher level AIs.

There are some small nuisances with this game. In the 4-player version I can't quite see the whole map without scrolling even at the highest zoom, and I prefer not to zoom to that level because the board gets a little blurry. There's no high score list and no ranking, so nothing to really shoot for in a solo game, other than an individual win. But still, it's a very well done implementation, with its variant rules and variant maps showing a lot of the power of a computer adaptation of a board game.

(Ultimately Samurai is rated a little lower than some of the other offerings here because its replayability is lower. I've largely played out the game in computer form after 60 or 70 games, while Carcassonne is still going strong hundreds of games in, and Ticket to Ride maintains its interest if you have human opponents, though not necessarily if you're playing against the AI.)

Rail Empires: Iron Dragon (B)
Full Review: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10393.phtml
Purchase Link: Irondragon.org

I enjoy Iron Dragon at a level that's much higher than its programming deserves, and that's mainly because it's an ideal game for translation. I really enjoy the Empire Builder games because they're creative, constantly different, and fairly deep. Unfortunately the game length keeps me from playing more than a couple games a year. Having a computer game that I can play whenever I feel like it, and that plays twice as fast as the tabletop version is a godsend. It's a way to play a game that I couldn't otherwise.



Unfortunately, Iron Dragon is starting to look like old technology. The previous games I described all have slick interface and/or high-quality graphic design. Iron Dragon meanwhile has a very flat, hand-drawn looking board. (Mind you, that's a huge jump up from the plain white Iron Dragon board game map.) Something about the interface just looks old to my eye.

As with many of the other games, Iron Dragon gives you some nice options for different play. There's some variant rules for different locomotives, cross-grades, and loans (and a bunch of other options that I don't use). They don't create variability like those new maps and such that I described above, because I just set my defaults and leave them, but at least I get to play exactly the game I want.

Moreso than any of the earlier games, Iron Dragon tries to use its existence as a computer game to make things that were hard on the tabletop easy on the computer. Most notably you can click tickets to quickly jump to sources or destinations, which probably shaves 30-45 minutes off any game on its own. Unlike some of the other games, there's no way that Iron Dragon could ever show you its whole map at once, but the game easily corrects for this, by jumping around the board as your opponents take their turns, so you can always see what they're doing.

Unfortunately, Iron Dragon has a notable problem too: the AI is very bad. Bad to the point where in a 3-4 player game against 2-3 AI, one of them usually gets stuck and can't continue on. (I've on occasion run over a stuck AI's track out of mercy, just to give them a little money and get them going again.) Also, I feel like the AI has close to zero chance of actually winning. It's often $100k behind me in total revenues raised over the course of the game by the time I win. If Iron Dragon weren't such an experiential, creative game, these would be fatal flaws, but because I enjoy laying the tracks and the experience of earning money as fast as I can, it works. I'm pretty sure that Iron Dragon is my third-most played board game conversion (in solitaire hours spent, if not total plays), right after the aforementioned Carcassonne and Samurai, and it may end up passing Samurai up, now that I play the latter much less.

El Grande (B/B-)
Full Review: None
Purchase Link: Softunity.com (German)

As I wrote in my gaming thanksgiving, El Grande was my stairway game, the one that introduced me to the depth possible in German games. I was thus very excited when I downloaded a copy of the El Grande computer game and bitterly disappointed (at least initially) when I actually tried to play it.



It's not what really turned me off, but I find turns on El Grande slightly hard to follow. Mind you, the game does most of the right things: showing other players' moves with animated displays that catch the eye, and pausing in between some turns. There's just so much information in El Grande that it's sometimes hard for me to keep track of what happened without the visceral feeling of a board in front of me (and there's also some slight room for improvement, such as the need for a better contrasted and longer-lasting highlight for recent moves).

Where El Grande really falls apart, however, is in the AI. There are two general classes of AI within El Grande: the dumb ones and the smart ones. The dumb ones are atrociously, embarassingly bad--as bad as the AIs in Iron Dragon that regularly get stuck. They do stupid things like always moving their cubes from the castille to Galacia. Even if the king's there.

The smart ones, meanwhile, are quite good. They're going to keep kicking my butt until I can get a better handle on the game and better concentrate on what's going on. Unfortunately they're built very slowly and ineffeciently. Until recently I was using a circa 2000 IBM NetVista machine, and whenever one of the smart AIs got a complex move (usually involving an intrigue card) it was take 2-4 minutes to figure out what to do, which is utterly unacceptable in a computerized board game.

So until recently I found El Grande utterly unplayable, because I wasn't willing to sit watching my computer think and unlike Iron Dragon it's not a sufficiently experiential game to enjoy even if your opponents are laughably stupid. However, in January I started using a machine that's several times better than my previous one, and I've been delighted to find that the El Grande smart AIs now run in an acceptable amount of time. The worst lag I see is 5 or 10 seconds, not several minutes.

So, last month I wouldn't have recommended El Grande at all. This month I can say that it's probably OK if you have a decently modern machine, though I'm still a bit unhappy that there's no middle ground: the dumb AIs are pathetic, and the good AIs kick my butt.

El Grande is a German release, but as with the Carcassonne releases, there's a simple flag you can flip in one of the config files to turn English on.

Conclusion

It's been great to see the increasing release of German board games as computer games in the last few years. I hope to see more of them in the future, either great standalone releases like Carcassonne or even great, well-supported online releases like Ticket to Ride.

There's still some lessons to be learned with AIs and with UIs, and I'm going to talk more about that in a future week, but for now I hope that more companies will be producing more of this like, hopefully with some lessons learned from the current crop.

A Guest Speaker

Friday I was contemplating what I could write about this week when I came upon a post on BGG by Jason Little (ynnen) looking for something to occupy his mind over the weekend. I decided to ask him if he’d like to write something for Gone Gaming and lucky for all of you, he said yes, otherwise you might be sitting here reading my session report on Litter Box Maintenance. Please give a hearty Gone Gaming greeting to the King of Geeklists, Jason Little.
~~~~~~~~

Games that Tamper with the Space-Time Continuum
Jay Little/ynnen

Boardgaming is an engaging, spirited hobby that exercises a player’s creativity, decision making prowess, sportsmanship and a variety of other attributes. But what many people fail to realize that gaming has significant scientific impact, as well – the ability to warp time and space.

A common phrase heard in our household is “it’s what o’clock?” This is usually said in outright shock as I look at the clock after a long night of gaming or when my wife asks if I was ever planning on coming to bed when I’m sucked into juggling some MMORPG, play-by-web or online boardgaming at BrettSpielWelt.

I swear it had to be 11 or 11:30 p.m. at the latest. How on earth did 2 a.m. get here?

The Space-Time Continuum is a fragile and fickle thing, especially with regards to gaming. Some games have a predictable effect on the Space Time Continuum, while others have a wildly variable impact. There’s just something about games, though, that has the potential to either make time grind to a complete halt (not a good thing) or the exciting opposite, where time warps past and the hours melt away like minutes.

Games create this positive Time Warp by developing a setting where I can easily immerse myself in the gameplay. This seems more likely to happen with games featuring strong thematic elements, a wide variety of turn options or results that unfold in interesting game narrative. Even if such a game has a fair amount of downtime between player turns, I find myself engrossed in my opponents’ turns almost as much as my own.

Then there are those rare gems, those stellar games which create maximum time warpage by incorporating several of these elements – greatly impacting the Space Time Continuum.

Thematic Time Warp: A strong theme, especially fantasy or science fiction for me, can help a game transcend its mechanics and limitations to become a truly immersive experience, quickly compressing time. Component quality, art and other aesthetic touches can add to this vibe. Feeling that your actions are tied somehow to the theme can go a long way to creating a time-sliding sense of immersion – not necessarily as a simulation, but where you can suspend your disbelief and imagine “what would I do in their shoes?” regarding the gameplay. Sometimes we also ham it up and get into character, adopting bad accents or letting theme influence our decision over strategy.

The chaos and simplicity of something like Talisman doesn’t prevent the game from sucking me in as I revel in the great artwork and fantasy theme evoked by the components. I’ve wasted entire days playing Talisman before, where I’d swear only a few hours had gone by before realizing that the sun had already set. I’ve got a powerful Troll decked out with armor and a sword – you bet I’m going to go fight that Ogre in the mountains rather than slink off to the forest.

Other games that provide this level of Thematic Time Warp for me include Organized Crime, Blood Bowl, Cosmic Encounter and Monsters Menace America.

Strategic Option Time Warp: Having a lot of options can help time zip by as you reel off the myriad possibilities in your mind. But when it’s not your turn, this may end up bringing time to a standstill as you wait for your opponents to go. This is where the Space Time Continuum shows how fragile it can be. So a delicate balance is needed. I think a lot of two player games benefit most from this, where I can still reasonably plan out and enjoy the immersion of decision making while my opponent makes his move – but more players may introduce enough chaos where that sort of planning is impractical, or simply adds so much time between turns that I lose focus.

This is the type of immersion that determines whether or not an abstract game (by my definition ineligible for thematic immersion) appeals to me. I can really get into a game of Abalone or Zertz. They provide a good mix of compelling and open-ended decision making – each decision with its own forking paths of possible outcomes. At the same time, I’m still engaged during my opponent’s turn, either by hoping they overlook a certain move or starting to create contingency plans for the variety of options he has to choose from.

While this time warping may not have an appreciable effect after just a single play, a good abstract will often call for a quick rematch or best 2-of-3 series – after which, time easily warped to a much later point than I would have imagined possible.

Other games that provide this level of Strategic Option Time Warp for me include Samurai, El Grande, Santiago and Caylus.

Gameplay Narrative Time Warp: The most immersive quality to me is a game that tells an interesting story as the game goes by. These are the sorts of games that keep me the most engaged during an opponent’s turn or hold my attention even after I’ve been eliminated from contention. This is the stuff of The Great Session Report. After a game with a strong narrative, I feel like I’ve just read part of a good book or an episode of a TV show.

Despite its length, Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition keeps me on the edge of my seat as time tumbles past. I can’t wait to see if my opponents start their own border disputes, if certain stretches of space will be explored, or what sort of impact the political system will have on this sort of game. These are the games you tell stories about when you and your gaming buddies get back together. “Remember that game when the Xxcha decided to go military and almost took over Mecatol Rex before the Hacan recovered and beat ‘em back? Man that was great!”

Other games that provide this level of Gameplay Narrative Time Warp for me include Mall of Horror, Hammer of the Scots, Wallenstein and Minion Hunter.

Thanks to (grandslam) over at BGG for bringing up this topic in the first place – which quickly led to a few sleepless nights thinking it over.

Game Design

Some people make a menu for a shabbat meal by sitting down at the table with a pad and paper and a bunch of cookbooks. I make a menu by looking in the fridge.

My first rule is to use up what's already there. Half a can of tomato sauce. Dill. Mint. Two grapefruits. A half bottle of white wine. Open can of mushrooms. Half an onion. Carrots. Broccoli. These ingredients are just sitting around and will spoil if they are not used.

The next rule: every week I make at least one thing that I've never made before. It could be a new recipe, or just something I make up. True, a half a can of something means that the other half was already used this week. My job is to use it in a way that whoever used the first half didn't.

I made chicken with mushrooms and wine a few weeks ago. What else can I do with the wine?

This week's idea: wine and grapefruit sections. Section the grapefruits, soak in wine, add sugar, mint, and cinnamon. Yum. It sounds good on paper, but how will it work out?

My first problem is trying to separate the grapefruit sections and take them out of their membranes. Apparently this is not one of my skills. About half of them I manage to get out two thirds of the way. The remaining half fall into pieces or crumble into their individual pulp sections.

The rest of it is easy enough, and it turns out to be tasty. Only, I think it could be better by having the grapefruits served in a more viscous syrup rather than just a liquid. I'll have to try again.

OK, what's next?

I have a bunch of potatoes to use up. I make potato kugel too often; what should I do with these? And that onion? My onions often dry out when I cook them with the chicken. And my chicken often sticks to the bottom of the pan. I decided to solve all of this at once by cooking the chicken on top of the onions in water, and then adding the onions to the potatoes.

The remainder of the meal is simple inspiration, but the timing has to work. Cook carrots in water, remove, mix with Moroccan spices. Barely cook broccoli in the same water, remove, rinse until cool, mix with Chinese seasoning. Cook "soup" noodles in same water, remove, rinse, toss with oil and set aside. Use veggie water as soup stock, add some salt, tomato sauce, dill, kohlrabi, chicken pieces and celery.

Brew an iced tea.

Shabbat Menu for 6

Tomato chicken soup with kohlrabi and celery, topped with noodles.
Chicken and mushrooms
Moroccan carrots
Chinese broccoli
Potatoes and onions
Grapefruit in white wine
Ice tea

The above was created ad hoc, so we have to rewrite the directions in order to streamline the preparations:

Ingredients: tomato sauce, mushrooms (fresh is best), chicken, onions, kohlrabi, celery, carrots, broccoli, cumin, tumeric, paprika, salt, pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, veg oil, garlic, potatoes, teabags, grapefruit, mint, white wine, sugar, dill, short thin noodles, cinnamon, oregano.

1 - Add enough chopped onions to cover greased pan
2 - Add chicken pieces (save some for soup) and mushrooms, salt, pepper (opt: brown sugar)
3 - Cover pan and begin baking
4 - Add carrots chopped to 1 inch pieces into boiling water
5 - When carrots are half done, add broccoli chopped to 2 inch pieces
6 - Remove carrots and broccoli from water and rinse until cool
7 - Add potatoes to water and continue boiling
8 - Separate broccoli to bowl and add soy sauce, salt, sesame oil, and sugar to broccoli.
9 - Add garlic, cumin, tumeric, salt, and olive oil to carrots
10 - Remove potatoes when done and chop into chunks
11 - Add noodles to water for a few minutes; remove and toss with veg oil
12 - Place potatoes in greased pan and cover with paprika, oregano, salt, pepper
13 - Add salt, tomato sauce, dill, kohlrabi, chicken pieces and celery to soup and cook
14 - Brew teabags in 2 quart pitcher
15 - Separate grapefruit sections and place in bowl with wine, cinnamon, mint and sugar
16 - Remove chicken from oven when done
17 - Remove onions from chicken and place on potatoes
18 - Toss and fry potatoes and onions a bit
19 - Remove teabags, add sugar

Done

Of course, all shabbat meals also include: challah and wine/grape juice. In Israel, they also include "salatim", such as hummus, red eggplant, and so on. And my wife always makes a green salad. Your own family may have different ideas of what makes a meal.

The timing is important. You don't want to cook the broccoli in the potato water. You want to cook the broccoli first. That way you don't have to rinse the starch off of the broccoli. You need to cook the potatoes before mixing with the cooked onions. And so on. It works together pretty well in the right order. If you change one thing, you have to consider the balance, timing and flavor combinations of the entire menu.

Another thing about timing is to ensure that the whole process doesn't take all day. By combining the elements in a staggered way and using various cooking techniques, I can have three things going at once. The whole process takes about two hours, not including cleanup, which is about right for a shabbat meal. That same amount of time would be too long for a weekday meal.

Of course, a menu can't be a success until it is tested. You will find that what you like doesn't always correspond to the likes of your family. You also have to be prepared to deal with leftovers, as a dish that is tasty right after it is cooked may not be as appetizing the next day. In the same vein, a menu that worked one day can become stale when repeated too often. Some people like to eat the same foods day after day. Some like to try something different all the time.

It is definitely possible to make changes. From my experience, every menu is really just the jumping point to the next one. After all, I came up with this one by accident. It is not the exact outcome that matters, but the basic ideas. All it takes is some style and a willingness to experiment knowing that you may have to throw away some mistakes.

Yehuda

to fondly bid adieu

It is with our collective "regrets" that we pay homage to our fellow 'blog`r' "Joe Gola" as he makes his departure here, while we ALL wish him and his the very best regards then. Getting the "word" out upon this matter is foremost the BEST 'means' of obtaining leads for those who have to contend with such. I am constantly reminded upon this fact whenever I happen to 'see' some "commercial" about one of them many "Drug Companies" on "T V", while those tend to also bring up some discrepancies that I recollect as well. From when I first 'viewed' an episode from the "T V" series of "Barney Miller"-(probably in "rerun"), then the "issue" of the "Drug Companies" being in 'business' JUST for that 'aspect', while neglecting to create "cures"/'drugs' for the mostly RARE or even extreme 'cases' of maladies, was being 'discussed' within this. I really couldn't tell YOU how this has 'progressed' since then either, so should someone ELSE 'know', then by all means inform the rest of 'us' about that. The gist of the matter was that 'they' wanted to pursue the MOST "profitable" of these, so anything "affecting" people under a certain 'number' wasn't given as much "considerations" for their "R & D" staffs. What a "corporate policy" eh? Well, I'd also advocate "infecting" ALL of the "celebs" with a "disease du jeur" in order to bring much more "attentions" upon the little known 'kinds' that don't have some "official" backings for those. Hey, they don't 'seem' to matter much UNTIL they have 'affected' someone better 'known' than YOU or ME even!

So what IS "my problem" about this? I'll hereby 'declare' the ongoing "War on Ignorance" and it's an un-ending 'sort' of 'Conflict' with too many "casualties" and the 'bodies' piling up just about everywhere. NOBODY is 'safe' and we should have an "Alert Indicator" for this with such as the likes of a "lit lightbulb" at the TOP to indicate "Safest" down to the lowly and much maligned "dunce cap" announcing the "State of Decryance" and of which even the 'dumbest' can "relate" to as well. Of course, we'd even HAVE our very 'own' spokesperson in none other than the personage OF the "PREZ" of the 'dis-United States' here, so we's GOT 'that' going for 'us'! In addition, then there's the "policies" of 'his'n' in which "selling off" of whatever can 'be' SOLD, has reached NEW 'lows' that ought to "shame" the previous administration for decades & many to 'see'. Just HOW 'low' could they 'stoop'? Well, I wouldn't put it past 'them' to be able to "pickpocket" a 'midget'-("little person") with the greatest of ease, while I'd "rate" THEM as being between a "snake fart" and "earthworm droppings" on a 'scale' of LOWEST "forms", so that you get the general 'idea' for this.

There's an ongoing "topic of discussion" at the "Geek" upon 'designers' having some form of "expressing" themselves while "under the radar" of the BIG 'Companies'. Let's face it folks, 'they' will ONLY become "enamored" with some innovative 'design' ONCE that has "proven" to be 'profitable', and you can't really blame them for this! Even WHEN these have "appeared" to become ever the MORE "profitable" sorts, then what is WITH their 'attitudes' regarding this "reluctance" for providing those yet again? I'm specifically talking upon the likes of "We the People" or even "Hannibal: Rome VS Carthage" and many others that folks are clamoring FOR! Oh sure, someone will bring 'up' that perhaps some other "company" will be making a few of these available once again, just as soon as the "pigs emerging from posterior orifices" are a common & "everyday" 'occurance'.

Here's a "shout out" to "The Vintage Gamer" podcast, while with the most "au courant" 'episode' has to 'do' with the OLD "Diplomacy" game itself:
"The Vintage Gamer"
We certainly expect to 'see' and "give a listen" to many more of these as well, and "Good JORB!" too.

P.S.-I had to "update" this with a bit of "News" that I had discovered regarding a legendary 'figure' of which many are quite familiar with and this just happens to be "Pappy" Boyington of "Baa Baa Blacksheep" fame. Not too long ago at the "University of Washington" in Seattle, then a 'monument' to HIM was "voted down" by the majority of the "Ass. Stud.Un.Wash. Council Members"-(emphasis ON phallic 'members'), while a 'form letter' of DENIAL about the incident had also been 'issued' from none other than the "University President's" office as a followup! Here's the LINK to read further upon the matter:

"ruleof reason.blogspot"

Well, they ALL should 'make' excellent "Politicians" one day, as they're just following in the footsteps of many others who have trampled underfoot the select few who have made an ultimate 'sacrifice'-(in vain, no less it appears), just so that THESE 'people'-for lack of a "print friendly" description upon their "despicablenessiveitiousivity"-can preserve their 'decorum' of "pussyfied" existances! Sorry about some of my "FRANCELAND"-'speak' here. Yes, let us NOT "look up" to anyone who served their 'Nation' and the rest of the "freedom loving peoples" of the WORLD! Why everyone just 'knows' that had "Ghandi" or these 'people' been 'running' events, then those mean ole "Nazis" & "Fascisti" & "Japs" would have just gone HOME sad & dejected instead of trying to "take over" the 'World' eh? NOT in yours or theirs or our "lifetimes" quite yet right? Man, I'd say "sterilizations" are TOO 'good' for the likes of 'these'! They ought to become "instant organ donors" for anyone ELSE with a better "mindset" than these possess, as they're wasting their "precious existance" like a bunch of 'truffle-stuffed-shirts' that they are. Better still, have these folks 'perform' some "mine clearing duties" as a 'lesson' that they'll "learn", but just won't "learn from" such 'experiences' eh?
"Have a 'nice' life. . .that others 'bought & paid FOR' with their 'own'!"

The Door to the Outside

It is with some sadness that I must announce that this will be my last regular post to Gone Gaming. I have enjoyed contributing to the site and being a part of this excellent group of people, but at the same time I have always been aware that my table time has never been sufficient to provide material for a biweekly column. My desire to write is fueled by the enthusiasm generated by gaming, and without this spark the exercise feels less like a stroll through a pleasure garden and more like a forced march through a desert. During these months that I have been part of "the staff" here I have always hoped that this situation would improve, but, in the end, life is what it is.

It occurs to me, though, that I am in the fortunate position of (theoretically) having an audience, and so there is an opportunity in my hands to send out a message about something which I think is important. It doesn't have much to do with gaming, unfortunately, but I hope you'll bear with me anyway; while it may turn out to be meaningless to some readers, for one or two it may be the word of warning which helps them to brace themselves before a storm.

The easiest way to begin is to talk about my son. My son is now six years old and is an active, happy and loving boy, one who likes to go on hikes, play with his cars and trains, mess around on the computer, go to the movies, jump on top of his Dad, and lots of other little kid stuff. He is learning to read, he likes to play music, and he recently surprised me by counting to one hundred and ten. However, in the time leading up to his second birthday, we began noticing that something was different about our child. He still only had a few words, and was unusually uncommunicative for his age; he often did not respond to his name or look up when someone entered the room, and he seemed to not have very much interest in the people around him; when excited he would arch his back and flap his arms in a repetitive way; he did not "pretend play" with toys but would instead sort them or line them up; and when in a high-stimulus environment, he could not settle down and play but would run around wildly in circles. We took him to see a developmental pediatrician, and she diagnosed him with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, or ASD.

Every year, an increasing percentage of children are being diagnosed with ASD, a permanent disability which affects sensory input, language development and social relatedness, and which is also often associated with over- or undersensitivity to stimuli, rigid routines, and repetitive behaviors. In some cases the effects are mild, and in truth there is no clear boundary between the mild end of ASD and the shy or quirky end of normalcy. In other cases the effects are devastatingly severe, with individuals who cannot care for themselves independently, individuals unable to communicate by speaking or even pointing, and individuals who can become panicked by the ordinary sights and sounds of the everyday world. I hesitate to speak of statistics, as they tend to elicit as much suspicion as alarm, but according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, ten years ago the rate of children being diagnosed with autism was 1 in 2,500; today, that number is now 1 in 166, making it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined. In California, the number of people treated for autism by the State Department of Developmental Services in 1993 was 5,000. That number is more than 26,000 today.

Some have contended that this sharp increase in the statistics has more to do with the frequency of diagnosis than an actual increase of symptoms, and it is true that physicians have begun casting a wider net as they have gained more understanding of the disorder. Previously the definitions of Autism and Asperger's Syndrome* were rather narrow and only included those individuals affected most severely; now doctors are coming to view the umbrella as being a much broader one. The 'spectrum' in Autism Spectrum Disorder refers to the fact that, unlike other developmental syndromes, not all individuals share precisely the same symptoms to precisely the same degree, but rather will have a sigificant number of common symptoms from a cluster that has been recognzied as being autism-related. One child might be non-verbal while another might talk a blue streak, but both might have difficulty with social relations, have sensory defensiveness, and engage in repetitive behaviors. Regardless of the change in definitions, however, the fact that the problem is growing, and quickly, is very real. Talk to the parents, educators, and pediatricians in your life about their experiences; things are quickly reaching the point where everyone knows someone who knows someone who has a child receiving services for developmental delays associated with ASD. Compare that to your own memories of childhood. Certainly I had never heard of autism as a youngster, and speech therapy was for kids who stuttered. And now? I can tell you this: not only is my son not the only kid in town with ASD, and he's not even the only kid in his grade.


What This Means to You

The reason that I am writing about all this today is that a great deal can be done to help kids with Autistic Spectrum Disorder if it is recognized early and if they receive early intervention through therapy. Children are in development-hyperdrive in the first years of their life, and for them to be missing pieces to the puzzle early on has a snowballing effect as time advances, leaving them further and furher behind their peers with each passing month. A lack of relatedness at one and a half leads to or exacerbates their difficulty with language at two and a half, and their difficulty with language at two and a half leads to a lack of real-world knowledge at four that further widens the chasm between themselves and those around them. Furthermore, obsessiveness and rigidity of habits can become a serious problem for individuals with ASD, and the sooner parents nudge these kids down the road to becoming flexible, the better. The refusal of the character of Raymond to buy his underwear anyhwere but K-Mart in the movie Rain Man is not an exaggerated picture of a person with autism; if anything, this character adapted perhaps a little too quickly for someone who had been institutionalized for his entire adult life.

As emotionally difficult as it may be—it's hard for us parents to consider that anything might be awry with our children's development—it is very important for new parents and parents-to-be to be aware of the early signs of autism in children. Typically these start manifesting at some point between eighteen months and two years of age—though some say they can be caught as early as twelve months—and they include such various things as a failure to respond to their name, lack of attention to other people's faces, difficulty transitioning from one activity to the next, lack of ability to engage in shared play, and lack of or loss of words. Much more detailed information can be found here and here.

For those who already do have a diagnosis, I recommend investigating Relationship Development Intervention. This approach is based on the theory that people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder are missing key, low-level, but teachable skills that involve interpersonal relatendess and dynamic thinking. I feel strongly that this is a worthwhile approach and that it has helped bring out the great potential in our son; in the early days he was so disengaged that my wife and I feared that he would never be able to share looks, smiles and laughter with us; now he leaps into our arms, gazes lovingly into our eyes and giggles hysterically as he tells us one of his idiosyncratic jokes. Traditional thinking about autism is that these individuals are incapable of complex social interactions or else simply abhor them; RDI's approach is that these things can be taught, and that once the individuals get started down this path, they want to learn.

In addition, I also suggest that parents investigate the biomedical routes that are available, specifically with a physician who is involved with DAN. Research is finding that children on the Autistic Spectrum tend to have issues with digestion, nutrion, allergies, inflammation and detoxification, and while there is no magic bullet that will cure autism, we have learned some very surprising things about our son while investigating this side of the problem, including his allergies to many common foods and a propensity towards severe systemic yeast infections. It is important, however, to use a consumer's discretion when investigating this route, as there are likely to be a certain number of care providers whose enthusiam or salesmanship outstrips their qualifications and who are only kept in business by the desperation of parents.

On the subject of the biomedical aspect, I should mention that there is a vocal contingency of people who believe that there is no evironmental influence at play in autism whatsoever and that the condition is genetic, end of story. The Wall Street Journal in particular has been very careful to always take a dismissive tone towards the idea that this is a situation that could have been avoided. If one were sufficiently paranoid, one might wonder what interest a financial daily has in editorializing about autism. All I can say is that parents should listen to both sides of the argument before they decide what course they will take in treating their children.

One other thing I'd like to mention is that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under age two watch zero television. Now, there is no proof that TV, computers or other electronics play a role in autism, but infants are freaky little sponges, sucking up information at an impossible-to-conceive rate, and I often wonder if the inexorable logic of electronic toys and computer programs (and their recent tendency to focus on abstractions such as numbers, patterns and shapes, even when targeted at children of an age for which that content is not appropriate) and the precise, unnatural repetition of experience via DVD or CD exacerbate autistic children's overdependence on static systems (predictable, mathematical, unchanging) versus dynamic systems (relative, indefinite, human).**


Good Things

We've had a tough road, no doubt, but our boy has surprised us by his readiness to rise to every challenge. Once he was a child closed up inside his own world, distant, aloof, shut off and disconnected. My wife and I worried that he would never open up, never be able to share a smile or a laugh with us, never reciprocate the love that we felt for him. However, with a lot of hard work on our part, and even harder work on his, we have a happy, laughing boy who rushes into our arms for hugs and kisses, who tells us his thoughts and feelings when he has the words to express them, and who will take my hand, drag me away from the computer, and say "Daddy, come and play." Many challenges remain: his language skills and social skills still need a lot of work, he continues to be challenged by sensory issues, some rigidities and obsessions still linger, and he is only taking the first tenuous steps towards interacting with his peers. I have found, out, however, that there is one social activity of which he is extremely fond, evidenced by a photograph sent home from school; in the picture my son can be seen relaxed and one of the gang, lying on his belly in among a tight circle of little kindergarten kiddies all centered around...Candyland.

Thanks to everyone who has read and commented on my stuff here at Gone Gaming. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute an article now and then. So, until next time, be sure to keep the door to the outside open.


___________________________________

* Aspberger's Syndrome is a name for a particular manifestation of ASD, once thought to be a separate pathology from Autism but now considered part of the spectrum. It is characterized by high I.Q. and strong verbal skills, though the other deficits of autism, such as underdeveloped interpersonal skills and difficulties with dynamic systems, remain.

** The difference between a static and a dynamic system in this context is that the rules of a dynamic system can evolve whereas in a static system they do not. A casual conversation is a dynamic system because, among other things, topics can change, there is no set ending point, and even the roster of participants can change mid-stream. It is still a system and not a random phenomenon, however, because, even if it is not predictable, it is guided by a collective train of thought, social cues and the judgment of the participants. For example, in the middle of the conversation one of the group may notice that others are behaving in a distracted and listless fashion while a topic is being discussed and so, even though that person might have more to say on the topic, he will allow the flow of conversation to go off on a tangent to keep the entire group engaged. Another person may adopt a tone of levity on a subject, and, depending on whether the group reacts with smiles or uncomfortable fidgeting, will either continue with the jest or drop it. In contrast, games are generally static systems, as players typically cannot decide to change rules mid-game, they cannot walk away and then rejoin the game twenty minutes later, and they are not supposed to change their goals halfway through (for example giving up on gathering victory points and instead trying to make a pleasing pattern on the board with their pieces). However, there are often dynamic systems associated with games, for example negotiation, psychology, metagame, and of course whatever tangential social interactions are going on during the gaming.