A reminder that many games of our youth were not that stimulating. The author does miss one distinct possible advantage of real life games. They usually involve face-to-face time with real life people, and they often involve disagreements which, without a computer to give the "right" answer, require the development of social interaction skills. However, the main point that video games are a lot more mentally stimulating than, for example, "Candy Land" is a good one to have pointed out in this age of "video games are destroying the children!" paranoia.

Last post for tonight, I promise.

Mind Hacks has a article on how much "Mirror's Edge" makes you feel like you are in the game.

Announcing game day! Every 2nd Saturday starting and 2:00pm and going until people leave (or I get sleeply, whichever comes first), Jeff and will be hosting a game day. The first game day is Saturday 12 Jan 2008.

We have one TV, a PS2, a Wii (with 4 wavebirds), and a small number of board games (Cosmic!). Other people can bring other games. Bringing snacks is also good.

I will post a reminder and a "please let us know if you are coming so we can get a count post" closer to the 12th. However, if you want the event on your Google calendar, email the address I should invite you at to my user name at yahoo.

Via Popgadget, it's Nintendo Monopoly. Most awesome.

I'm going to cry. There is going to be a Desperate Housewives video game.

I gained and lost my first middle of the night card idea last night. =(

Cosmic this weekend?

From the CE newsgroup:

EINSTEIN
Not Bound By Timing Rules

You have the power of relativity. You are not bound by the normal timing rules for game actions. You may place tokens in the cone out of order (although you may not ally after cards are revealed), spend Lucre for any option at any time during a challenge in which you are a main player unless specifically prevented by a game effect, play Edicts and Flares whenever you want, and use other powers at any time before cards are revealed in a challenge. You may not take a turn or challenge out of sequence, and all other conditions for using a card or power must be met (e.g. you must still win a challenge to play Wild Vulch or share a base to play Wild Terrorist.) You may play cards that specify "before Challenge Cards are revealed" after Challenge Cards are revealed. You may play any cards when there's a lien on your hand even if the cards played do not break the lien.

HISTORY: When the Einsteins failed to grasp simple mathematics, they determined it was due to the subjectiveness of their professors. They therefore created a New Math, freeing them from the stoic laws of the rest of the universe. Now they want to supplant those laws with their own.

I am amused.

Shawna! Lookie!

Hershey's Kissables would make perfect tokens for Cheap Ass Games.

Hey Shawna! Seen this?

This is an evil evil power. I think it might be even better than Assassin.

BUREAUCRAT: Enforces The Rules

You have the power of red tape. When another player breaks a rule he is not entitled to, you put any one of his tokens into the warp. Some common illegal rule breaks are: not putting tokens into the cone before pointing it at the planet to be challenged, the defensive player asks for allies first, token retrieved from warp is placed on the cone not a base, forgetting to return tokens to bases or discarding played cards, etc.

Should people running for office be able to lie? Campaigns today are advertisements for a person not discussion or debate of issues. They should be bound by the same sorts of laws which prevent advertisers from lying about their products or competing products.

Terrorists don't do movie plots. This interesting article is from Wired news. Summary: the way we prepare for acts of terror (and natural disasters) is by planning for specific scenarios. However, life does not follow a plot so this sort of planning will only push threat around. I think the difference between specific and general preparation is interesting. With specific planning you might remove most threat of one event but leave yourself open to all others. General planning will relieve some threat of more events; it may not remove all threat of tragedy, but there may be less damage over all. Maybe some people think we can figure out all possibilities, but I do not.

Finally, something a bit lighter. A new game from Square Enix. I totally want it. It looks amusing.

Adding my tags for this entry made me wish I had hierarchical tags. I want to tag this entry "games:cosmic" encounter not "games, cosmic encounter". It would not make a functional difference as long as I always label "cosmic encounter" posts with the "games" tag too, but it would be so much spiffier!

But to the point. Yesterday's power of the day amused me:

BUCK Phase 2, Infinity

Tokens Come Back Later

You have the power of the future. When ever you lose tokens to the
warp, instead, set them aside and out of play. Write down the number
of tokens you lost, from where you lost them, and the order in which
you lost them compared to later tokens you may lose. For all such
tokens, whenever a special destiny or comet is flipped in the destiny
pile, including Power Rewop or Power Outage, return those tokens that
were gone the longest to exactly where they were before they had to go
to the warp. If they return to the cone, they affect the challenge for
the appropriate side they are on. You may still ally normally on either
side. If they were offensive tokens, they become offensive allies
unless you're the offensive player when they return. Tokens that would
return to a moon occupied by another player return to your bases
instead. However, if they return to an empty moon, that moon's effect
takes place again. You can only be zapped at the time tokens would go
off board, not upon returning. If for some reason you do not have your
power, lost tokens go to the warp as normal but returning tokens still
appear where they were lost.

HISTORY: The Bucks have an uncanny ability to avoid the dreaded warp.
They lose their way. The only thing they can do is go home, not
realizing that a long time has passed and are now in their future. They
don't know what to expect upon their return. They might even hurt their
descendants, but at least they'll be there to pick up the pieces and
return home to a hero's welcome.