The Religion Against Game Variants
It's not the bible. I'm not going to go to hell for changing the rules.As a game designer, I know how arbitrary a game's final design is. It's a collection of components and mechanisms; they don't come...
View ArticleWho Did It? The Story of the Clue VCR Game
Tim Labonte writes to tell me about his documentary on Clue: The VCR Game, the first VCR game from 1985 (30 years ago). Tim and co interview most of the people involved in the creation of the game,...
View ArticleMovie Reviews: Ex Machina, The Age of Adelaine, Pitch Perfect 2, Inside Out,...
Ex Machina: Unfortunately, this is a very good movie. Unfortunately, because I'm not entirely happy with the answers to some of the questions raised in the movie, but I admit that they are asked and...
View ArticleStatus Update - Jerusalem, Book, Vacation
I am happy to be back in Jerusalem, hosting the Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club, attending Jerusalem's uniquely Jewish and Israeli divrei torah and poetry slams, in my new apt, valued by my manager at...
View ArticleVacation Day 1: A Laser Light Show in a Toxic Atmosphere
Tal, Saarya, and I were not overly impressed with Alitalia.I have never flown and spent less time in the airport terminals. We were delayed by traffic on the way to the airport and had only five...
View ArticleVacation Day 2: The Game Professor and the Cave
The Game ProfessorIn the morning I navigated the Boston MTA, made famous by The Kingston Trio in their 1950s song about poor old Charlie stuck on train due to a proposed fare increase to charge people...
View ArticleVacation Day 3: Widow's Walk on the Appalachian Trail
Wed morning we made pancakes with fresh Vermont blueberries, pure Vermont maple syrup, and Green Mountain Eye-Opening blend coffee. We were then joined by my children's relatives: ex-brother-in-law...
View ArticleVacation Day 4: Rainstorms in Life and Theater
Thurs morning we made pancakes with fresh Vermont blueberries, pure Vermont maple syrup, and Green Mountain caramel-vanilla coffee. We then drove to spend the day with my children's relatives.Along the...
View ArticleVacation Day 5-7: Fiddles and Foghorns
Travels Friday we left our lovely cabin in the woods and drove the long way to spend shabbat with friends of friends in Sharon, MA. We found a little river (Miller's River) in some little town (Erving)...
View ArticleVacation Day 8: Snores, Stores (Shaw's), Shores, and Scores
We woke up in our beautiful small house in a garden near a small pond on one of the islands on Maine's south coast. For some reason we all slept late. We didn't do much today, which was my plan, but...
View ArticleVacation Day 9-10: It's Raining Wild Raspberries
At night you need a sweater (that's a "jumper" to you folks who don't speak English in its original American). It rained sometime in the blackness of Monday night. Early Tuesday dawning there was a...
View ArticleVacation Day 11: No Part Left Untickled
Today was a trip to the airport. We had to leave our pretty little cottage.We stopped at the outlet stores in Freeport; L.L. Bean's outlet is next to an Old Navy outlet and several others. In L.L....
View ArticleVacation Day 12-18: Drinking Cappuccino in a Cafe in Rome
City Rome is a city, and not an especially beautiful one. Why this should surprise me is, in itself, surprising. What Rome has is occasional nice building architecture from the last several hundred...
View ArticleMovie Reviews: The Martian, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Intern, Two Night...
The Martian: Following on last year's thrilling Interstellar, about a bunch of guys making a long trip into outer space who need to use science to solve major problems in order to get back home comes...
View ArticleNew Games to me in Recent Months
Amerigo - A big box game of island exploration. There are seven phases in five turns. Each phase you toss wooden cubes into a tower and the number and color of cubes that make it back out the bottom...
View ArticleReviews: Supergirl (TV pilot), Bridge of Spies, Ant-Man, Trainwreck, At...
Supergirl (TV pilot): SNL did a skit that lampooned what a Black Widow Marvel superhero movie would be like, It simultaneously lamented the lack of female-centered Marvel movies and anticipated that,...
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2015 Holiday Gift Guide
This guide includes games for young and old, for every sex, generation, temperament, and culture.Whatever you do, and whatever you celebrate, there is no better way to spend a Christmas, Hanukkah, or...
View ArticleMovie Reviews: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, Mission Impossible: Rogue...
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2: This movie, while not as good as the first two films, is a fine action flick with some unique elements that sets it apart from other modern action movies. One is...
View ArticleReview: Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens (No Spoilers)
When the movie ended, I mulled over how to react. It took a lot of mulling. I could not instantly say "This was great!" I certainly couldn't say "This was bad!" Is it good? Is it great? Is it good only...
View ArticleThe Real Reasons The Force Awakens Fails as a Star Wars Movie
In a word: development.George Lucas had the vision and ability to unfold scenes that were slices of an epic story, not just connected pieces of one story.In IV, consider the first scenes with Luke and...
View ArticleShabbat Gaming
I spent the weekend at my brother's; one of his boys had a bar-mitzvah. We got to play a few games:High Society: First play for me and everyone else. This is a quick auction game from Knizia. You bid...
View ArticleMoriarty or Mutants: I Review the Marvel and DC TV Show Pilots, plus...
TV But first, more about Supergirl - In my initial review, I said that the dialog was horrible, the action sequences senseless, and the premise that having a girl superhero movie be more about...
View ArticleFar From the Madding Cow: Starting a One Month Vegan Challenge
I've decided to be vegan for the month of February. "Why?" you ask. That was clever of you to ask me just as I was writing this blog post. Good timing!Well, I'll tell you:I hate domesticated animals....
View ArticleNot Yet Down for the Cow: Heifer Way Through My 1 Month Vegan Challenge
Here's the surprise: it's easy to be vegan if a) you already don't eat milk or fish, b) you know how to cook and/or you get your lunches from work, and c) you are generally not subject to strong bouts...
View ArticleThe Cow that Can Be Told is not the True Cow: Reflections on a Month of Veganism
My diet during the first half of the month was insanely good: lots of dark green leafies, mixed complete proteins and whole grains, low fats, little processed food or sweets. Being a vegan makes it...
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