Tuesday, April 17, 2007

What in the world!?!


Now McCarthy's The Road has won the Pulitzer! What is this world coming to?

I'm thrilled, mind you. Just shocked.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

The trouble with abstracts is it always gets worse


I've always been someone who said, "I hate abstracts."

But I've recently given in and played—and bought—a few...and ya know what? I like 'em! I do so like them, Sam-I-Am!

It started with an online game of DVONN, which intrigued me to no end. I played Torres after that, and it jumped into my Top 10. Then it was Ingenious, which was just...um, ingenious. A game of Yinsh convinced me that maybe these Gipf games were worth checking out.

And when I look at other games in my collection, they're arguably abstracts with the thinnest of thin themes: Bridges of Shangri-La, Hive, Through the Desert.
So what's the problem? If I play any of my abstracts even a couple of times, I've probably got a huge advantage over anyone I play who might be new to the game. This means I couldn't just bring one of these out with my wife, otherwise I'd crush her...and that's just not fun.

So while I'm finally coming around to them, I wonder how much they'll actually get played. Unless I can convince my wife—or one of my regular gaming buddies—to get in on the ground floor, I'll have no one to play these great games with. Maybe that's why "I hate abstracts..."