The other night I couldn't sleep. Over the Christmas break, a friend had mentioned a competition from a while back to redesign Monopoly. The idea stuck in my head. What an interesting challenge: “How do you redesign Monopoly as simply as possible while keeping the core of the game intact?”
I tossed and turned over the question for hours. My, admittedly poor, repayment for insomnia was several ideas that might actually work. I thought I'd share them.
Before going into detail, I should clarify that I actually like Monopoly a lot. I know, that puts me in a minority. Most people find it either too long or too luck-based or both. I admit that those issues are there, but I love it anyway. The history behind the game is fascinating, both the story of its creation and the uniqueness of its design for the time. The core system of buying property, trading it and profiting from it is really fun and exciting. I have a ton of fond memories of hardball negotiations and impossible comebacks, not to mention the arguments over house rules that preceded every game with my friends. Those discussions helped kindle my interest in game design. I at least have to respect Monopoly for that. It's just barely enough to compensate for the tedium that suffuses most of the game.
Before redesigning Monopoly it's important to understand what works about the game and what doesn't. As mentioned, what works for me most is the wheeling and dealing. I like having to valuate properties, sort out trades and hope I get the better end of the deal. I especially love making money off my opponents when they land on my spaces. (I promise, I'm not really as soulless as that sounds.) And I like the tension that the dice add to those moments.
What I hate about Monopoly is being in last place and feeling like I have no way to compete; or conversely, having a commanding lead and knowing that I need to go through the motions for another hour before the deed is done. I hate having almost no control over the outcome of my turn. Most of all, I hate that trading properties, my favourite part of the game, happens in a quick flash and then is done forever. To that end, my modifications need to change the end-game condition to make the game shorter and more fair; give players more control over the outcome of turns while maintaining a degree of uncertainty; and give players reasons to trade properties all throughout the game, not just in the middle of it.
With that, I offer Bertonopoly: my set of rule modifications that attempt to improve on and emphasize the core of what makes Monopoly interesting in the first place. I limited myself to use only the components that come in the box (the one I grew up with anyway – I'm not sure if they've added weird stuff in the intervening years). If I don't say a rule has changed, assume that it hasn't.
Bertonopoly
Monday 11 January 2016
Friday 20 November 2015
The Beautiful Game
Back from hiatus with my #3 game on my arbitrary list.
#3 - Go
There are a lot of different reasons I might love a game. Maybe it's strategically engaging, or leads to fun interpersonal dynamics, or provides good stories, or it's simply hilarious. The games that I've written about here all exhibit those traits to one degree or another. Go exhibits them too. But that's not why I love it.
I love Go because it's beautiful. Not beautiful in the way that many games have painted boards or sculpted miniatures. Beautiful in the way a poem or a piece of music is beautiful. Go, for some reason, resonates with me.
#3 - Go
There are a lot of different reasons I might love a game. Maybe it's strategically engaging, or leads to fun interpersonal dynamics, or provides good stories, or it's simply hilarious. The games that I've written about here all exhibit those traits to one degree or another. Go exhibits them too. But that's not why I love it.
I love Go because it's beautiful. Not beautiful in the way that many games have painted boards or sculpted miniatures. Beautiful in the way a poem or a piece of music is beautiful. Go, for some reason, resonates with me.
Sunday 8 November 2015
Extra Life Post-Mortem
Extra Life went very well last night! Unfortunately, we didn't quite have the resolve to complete the full 24-hours, but from 8 am Saturday to 4:30 am Sunday, we had at least one person playing a game at all times. It was draining, but entertaining, for us and hopefully for the few people who watched the stream. My friends also beat their goals for donations, so that's very exciting.
I'm definitely planning on doing it again next year, with a few changes to make things run more smoothly. We'll definitely have a more solid schedule for what games we'll be playing, both to give potential viewers a better idea of what they'll be watching and to reduce the amount of energy we waste just trying to decide what to play. More single-player games are also a good idea. We had a lot of multiplayer stuff this year, which is great, but single-player games are usually less stressful, easier to play for longer period and give people the opportunity for breaks. If we make those changes, I'll be looking forward to participating even more fully next year!
I'm definitely planning on doing it again next year, with a few changes to make things run more smoothly. We'll definitely have a more solid schedule for what games we'll be playing, both to give potential viewers a better idea of what they'll be watching and to reduce the amount of energy we waste just trying to decide what to play. More single-player games are also a good idea. We had a lot of multiplayer stuff this year, which is great, but single-player games are usually less stressful, easier to play for longer period and give people the opportunity for breaks. If we make those changes, I'll be looking forward to participating even more fully next year!
Friday 6 November 2015
Extra Life
Tomorrow, I'm participating in the Extra Life gaming marathon to help raise money for the Children's Miracle Hospital Network. The idea is that between 8am tomorrow and 8am on Sunday, I'll be playing games with friends, streaming live and folks can donate money to see us lose our minds. All proceeds will go to help kids.
I don't have a personal donation page, but my friend Kellen is organizing things, so you can donate to his page here and watch the stream here.
I'm both excited and terrified, which probably means it will be good.
I don't have a personal donation page, but my friend Kellen is organizing things, so you can donate to his page here and watch the stream here.
I'm both excited and terrified, which probably means it will be good.
Wednesday 4 November 2015
Boo-urns
A few years ago, after brainstorming with a friend about a board game set in Prohibition-era Chicago, I watched the first two episodes of Ken Burns' Prohibition for research. For some reason, I never watched the third. But yesterday I realized that all of Burns' PBS documentaries are on Netflix, so I finally finished what I started.
I had never seen a Burns documentary before Prohibition, but I quite liked this one. The only complaint I have is the overwhelmingly romantic tone and the emphasis on American exceptionalism. Both were expected, but I could have done with fewer tinkling piano tunes and assertions that Prohibition was foolish because no American will stand being told what they can't do. Aside from that, it was a fascinating story, filled with tons of interesting characters. I still think there's a fantastic board game waiting to be made about the topic. Whether it would broadly deal with the fight for the 18th Amendment or the fight for its repeal or focus on bootlegging or gang wars, I'm not sure. Someday, I'll sit down and come up with something.
Continuing my recent insatiable appetite for baseball, I started watching Burns' Baseball today. Clearly, the man likes his titles straightforward. This one is older that Prohibition - 1994 versus 2011 - and is even more romantic and indulgently American. Speakers insist that baseball is the most perfect, most beautiful game ever devised. I can't exactly argue against that position, but praise inflation - when "best" comes to mean "good", while "good" is barely passable - annoys me. Worse though, is the constant insistence that baseball is quintessentially American and the perfect metaphor for everything about America. As a Canadian baseball fan, who knows that the game as been played here as long as it has been in the States, this irks me. I've only seen one episode so far, but there's not yet been a mention of baseball being played outside the US. Hopefully later episodes at least address Cuba, Mexico, the Domican Republic and Japan.
That said, Burns' should get credit for purposefully and pointedly refuting the Abner Doubleday myth. And I was surprised that even in the first episode, which deals with the 19th century, black baseball players are featured heavily. It would have been easy to talk about Jackie Robinson and leave it at that. Instead, a good chunk of time is spent on the black players who made it to the 19th century big leagues only to be forced out by owners who caved to pressure from racist white players.
Those stories, and all the others about the evolution of rules, the creation of leagues and struggles around professionalization, make the program worth watching. I'm interested to get to the later episodes, since this was made in 1994 - right in the middle of the steroid era, before many knew it was the steroid era. I imagine the discussion of those years will be much different - and less cynical - than it would be if the documentary were made today.
I had never seen a Burns documentary before Prohibition, but I quite liked this one. The only complaint I have is the overwhelmingly romantic tone and the emphasis on American exceptionalism. Both were expected, but I could have done with fewer tinkling piano tunes and assertions that Prohibition was foolish because no American will stand being told what they can't do. Aside from that, it was a fascinating story, filled with tons of interesting characters. I still think there's a fantastic board game waiting to be made about the topic. Whether it would broadly deal with the fight for the 18th Amendment or the fight for its repeal or focus on bootlegging or gang wars, I'm not sure. Someday, I'll sit down and come up with something.
Continuing my recent insatiable appetite for baseball, I started watching Burns' Baseball today. Clearly, the man likes his titles straightforward. This one is older that Prohibition - 1994 versus 2011 - and is even more romantic and indulgently American. Speakers insist that baseball is the most perfect, most beautiful game ever devised. I can't exactly argue against that position, but praise inflation - when "best" comes to mean "good", while "good" is barely passable - annoys me. Worse though, is the constant insistence that baseball is quintessentially American and the perfect metaphor for everything about America. As a Canadian baseball fan, who knows that the game as been played here as long as it has been in the States, this irks me. I've only seen one episode so far, but there's not yet been a mention of baseball being played outside the US. Hopefully later episodes at least address Cuba, Mexico, the Domican Republic and Japan.
That said, Burns' should get credit for purposefully and pointedly refuting the Abner Doubleday myth. And I was surprised that even in the first episode, which deals with the 19th century, black baseball players are featured heavily. It would have been easy to talk about Jackie Robinson and leave it at that. Instead, a good chunk of time is spent on the black players who made it to the 19th century big leagues only to be forced out by owners who caved to pressure from racist white players.
Those stories, and all the others about the evolution of rules, the creation of leagues and struggles around professionalization, make the program worth watching. I'm interested to get to the later episodes, since this was made in 1994 - right in the middle of the steroid era, before many knew it was the steroid era. I imagine the discussion of those years will be much different - and less cynical - than it would be if the documentary were made today.
Monday 2 November 2015
Recommendations for November 2
More recommendations!
First, a great article from Evan Narcisse at Kotaku about the need for better portrayals of blackness in video games. Don't have a lot to say about this one, other than that I really appreciate how he specifies certain black characters in games as examples of how to do things well, but reminds the reader that it's not enough to just clap your hands and finish at that. Also, apparently this is an except from The State of Play, an anthology of video game cultural analysis which just came out. I think I'll have to pick that up.
On that note, Laura Hudson at Offworld (which I really need to read more regularly) has a nice feature on Kiro'o Games, the first game development studio in Cameroon, and their upcoming game, Aurion. I actually remember hearing about this last year and am glad I was reminded of it. Video games often lack a sense of identity that draws on where they were made - or at least, that identity tends to be implicit. So I'm glad that we're starting to see games come out of areas outside of the traditional development centres of North America, Japan and Europe. (Chilean developer ACE Team is another example.) That these folks seem to be pulling a Tolkien on African history and mythology makes me even more excited.
Because of the Blue Jays recent, but too short, playoff run, I've fallen back in love with baseball. Which means I've been reading a lot about baseball history. Corinne Landrey at The Hardball Times wrote about how this years World Series between the Mets and the Royals is the first ever not to feature one of the original eight MLB teams. That's pretty shocking, considering that this was the 53rd World Series since the MLB started expanding. Equally shocking, to me at least, was that the New York Yankees used to be called the Baltimore Orioles. Weird. I also liked this article by Rany Jazayerli at the recently shutdown Grantland about the biggest plays in MLB history. Baseball is great because of how it's punctuated by moments like these. Dozens and dozens of things happen that seem to be of no consequence and then all of the sudden games, series and seasons pivot on one hit, one catch, or one throw. And to round out the baseball reading with contemporary events, here's Jeff Sullivan at FanGraphs congratulating the Kansas City Royals on winning the World Series yesterday - and for being such a damn fun team.
Finally, some Canadian politics, in the form of comments on Justin Trudeau's policy plans for electoral reform from Evan Solomon at Maclean's and the Syrian refugee crisis from the CBC. These were both important issues for me during the election, so I was glad to see some continuing coverage of them. Both articles are a bit pessimistic, though. On the electoral reform front, while the Liberals might put forward a ranked ballot as the easiest change that also benefits them, I'd prefer anything to First-Past-the-Post (although my preference is Single Transferable Vote.) On the refugee crisis, I find it strange that the article talks about the difficulty in processing the applications for so many people before the end of the year, but doesn't really address what those applications are like and whether things could be done to reduce the paperwork.
One final recommendation, although not for an article: Bouletcorp is a fantastic webcomic that everyone should read. It's mostly in French, but there are English versions of many strips, so you have no excuse!
First, a great article from Evan Narcisse at Kotaku about the need for better portrayals of blackness in video games. Don't have a lot to say about this one, other than that I really appreciate how he specifies certain black characters in games as examples of how to do things well, but reminds the reader that it's not enough to just clap your hands and finish at that. Also, apparently this is an except from The State of Play, an anthology of video game cultural analysis which just came out. I think I'll have to pick that up.
On that note, Laura Hudson at Offworld (which I really need to read more regularly) has a nice feature on Kiro'o Games, the first game development studio in Cameroon, and their upcoming game, Aurion. I actually remember hearing about this last year and am glad I was reminded of it. Video games often lack a sense of identity that draws on where they were made - or at least, that identity tends to be implicit. So I'm glad that we're starting to see games come out of areas outside of the traditional development centres of North America, Japan and Europe. (Chilean developer ACE Team is another example.) That these folks seem to be pulling a Tolkien on African history and mythology makes me even more excited.
Because of the Blue Jays recent, but too short, playoff run, I've fallen back in love with baseball. Which means I've been reading a lot about baseball history. Corinne Landrey at The Hardball Times wrote about how this years World Series between the Mets and the Royals is the first ever not to feature one of the original eight MLB teams. That's pretty shocking, considering that this was the 53rd World Series since the MLB started expanding. Equally shocking, to me at least, was that the New York Yankees used to be called the Baltimore Orioles. Weird. I also liked this article by Rany Jazayerli at the recently shutdown Grantland about the biggest plays in MLB history. Baseball is great because of how it's punctuated by moments like these. Dozens and dozens of things happen that seem to be of no consequence and then all of the sudden games, series and seasons pivot on one hit, one catch, or one throw. And to round out the baseball reading with contemporary events, here's Jeff Sullivan at FanGraphs congratulating the Kansas City Royals on winning the World Series yesterday - and for being such a damn fun team.
Finally, some Canadian politics, in the form of comments on Justin Trudeau's policy plans for electoral reform from Evan Solomon at Maclean's and the Syrian refugee crisis from the CBC. These were both important issues for me during the election, so I was glad to see some continuing coverage of them. Both articles are a bit pessimistic, though. On the electoral reform front, while the Liberals might put forward a ranked ballot as the easiest change that also benefits them, I'd prefer anything to First-Past-the-Post (although my preference is Single Transferable Vote.) On the refugee crisis, I find it strange that the article talks about the difficulty in processing the applications for so many people before the end of the year, but doesn't really address what those applications are like and whether things could be done to reduce the paperwork.
One final recommendation, although not for an article: Bouletcorp is a fantastic webcomic that everyone should read. It's mostly in French, but there are English versions of many strips, so you have no excuse!
Sunday 1 November 2015
It's Halloween!
Well, yesterday was. But yesterday I was recovering from one party and preparing for another. That's pretty rare for me - Halloween's not my favourite holiday. Last time I dressed up was three years ago. I don't have any special antipathy for it, I'm just bad at thinking of costumes and worse at making them. But this year, with the aforementioned two parties and lots of friends who love the holiday, I felt I had to do with something.
Subtlety is not BuzzFeed's style, so the costume had to be obvious. Nothing more obvious than writing it on a T-shirt. This was easily the toughest and most time consuming part of the costume. That's mostly because I'm stupidly picky about tiny things, so I spent ages trying to get the font exactly right and used markers instead of paint because they allowed more precision. Funny enough, markers also allow three times as much wrist-pain and ten times as much time. Next time I'll use paint.
I did get some compliments on the lettering though, so maybe it was worth it.
Here's the main feature of the costume, as previewed in the T-shirt. Left to right, it's Cinderella, Elsa, Pocahontas, Nala and Aurora. The nails were done by my friend Meghan and I wish I had close-ups of each of them, because she did a fantastic job. There are all sorts of little touches to make the characters recognizable. I make the outfits out of felt and glued them to a cheap pair of gloves. But because I was dumb and bought the felt and markers before picking the princesses, I didn't have quite the right colours. That's why some are a bit off.
Last week I came up with the idea to go as a BuzzFeed listicle. I wanted something mildly clever, obvious and easy, making BuzzFeed a perfect fit. To line up even better with the current zeitgeist, I chose Disney princesses as the topic for the listicle. The problem was that even though the idea started as a cop-out, I ended up liking it a lot and put way too much work into it. What was a supposed to be a thrown-together gag ended up taking a whole afternoon and many craft supplies.
Luckily, it turned out really well. Unfortunately, I don't have a good picture of the whole thing together, but here are the parts.
First, the shirt:
Subtlety is not BuzzFeed's style, so the costume had to be obvious. Nothing more obvious than writing it on a T-shirt. This was easily the toughest and most time consuming part of the costume. That's mostly because I'm stupidly picky about tiny things, so I spent ages trying to get the font exactly right and used markers instead of paint because they allowed more precision. Funny enough, markers also allow three times as much wrist-pain and ten times as much time. Next time I'll use paint.
I did get some compliments on the lettering though, so maybe it was worth it.
Here's the main feature of the costume, as previewed in the T-shirt. Left to right, it's Cinderella, Elsa, Pocahontas, Nala and Aurora. The nails were done by my friend Meghan and I wish I had close-ups of each of them, because she did a fantastic job. There are all sorts of little touches to make the characters recognizable. I make the outfits out of felt and glued them to a cheap pair of gloves. But because I was dumb and bought the felt and markers before picking the princesses, I didn't have quite the right colours. That's why some are a bit off.
And for completion, here's the right hand. Left to right, there's Jasmine, Ariel, Snow White, Belle and Mulan.
I was surprised by how much of a hit the costume was. The shirt was too baggy to be easily read, so I had to explain it a lot, but once I did, people seemed to enjoy it. And I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it too. So maybe I'll do another costume next year. I'll have to plan things better though.
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