Quirkworthy

No, not a game about bees (though I did do one of those). Just my mood this morning after a great gaming session last night. As I said on Facebook, I think everyone should try gaming. Why doesn’t everyone?

What is it that we (as gamers) aren’t doing to explain to the wider world that gaming is so enjoyable?

Is it really that 90% of the world isn’t wired to enjoy it? The studies I’ve seen on the value of play makes me doubt that.

Is it that people are too busy to meet up with real people face to face, and that “gaming” now means digital gaming and that’s it? I’d say there was a strong measure of this, though even these gamers are missing out on a lot of what I’d call gaming. As every study on communications will tell you, 90%+ of the information we communicate to each other is done by body language and tone of voice. It is simply not the same playing online (as much fun as MMOs, etc are).

Is it that people simply don’t know what’s there, and think that the world of games games is just Monopoly, chess and Ker-plunk? I think this is true too.

Working on the assumption that more players is a good thing, then what can we do about it, over and above what is done already?

And Demented have finally set a date (for their Kickstarter) 🙂

I’ve been working with these guys for a while, though only on a rules front. They need zero help from me on the miniatures end of things. Their work is amazing!

It’s been an interesting experiment for me, as I’ve not been writing the rules, but critiquing and reviewing them instead, offering suggestions and options for improvement. Mentoring, if you like. It seems to have been quite a successful process, and I’ll be offering that service more widely later this year.

But back to Twisted…

The chaps are really keen to make their game as much fun as the crazy background demands. It still has all the normal moving and fighting stuff you might expect of a skirmish game, but it can all get a bit… well… Twisted when The Engine intervenes. And when does The Engine intervene, I hear you ask. Well that’s a big like the old one about the gorilla with a machine gun. What does it do? Whatever it likes.

I think there’s a bit more tweaking of the game left to do to really finesse it, and the KS will have some beta rules for you to try out so you can join in the process. It would be great to hear what you think. Personally, I think that Twisted has a really nice atmosphere about it, and tells a fun story, which for me is an important part of a game. The fact that the miniatures are so good is just a cherry on top 🙂

Back online. Finally.

This is all fallout from the house move, as regular readers may have guessed. It all went abysmally wrong at almost every step, and it’s been a massive time sink. No internet in the new place either, and the incompetents who are supposed to get it turned on promised me it would be in place last Wednesday, then Thursday, then Friday, then “please ring again tomorrow and ask because I don’t know when it will be live”. Seriously, that’s a direct quote. Turns out it’s not till the end of this week. Allegedly.

However, I have moved into a new office, and that does have a connection. In fact, it has a ridiculously fast one, which will be very nice for Skyping around the globe, as I often do.

Anyway, this is just a little note to tell you that I’ve not been ignoring you deliberately, and that I’m back now. These’s a small matter of a mountain of email to dig through before I see much light, but at least I can make a start now 🙂

When the year is this fresh, it’s customary to declare all manner of noble and ambitious goals for the forthcoming twelvemonth. “What are your New Year’s resolutions”, people ask.

My own custom is not to make them. They are seldom adhered to in any case, and my thinking is that a random date is unlikely to make me stick to something that the rest of my situation would not. Put another way: I know from experience that the change in year does not imbue me with heroic reserves of willpower that I otherwise lack.

For me, moving house is far more of a notable change in my circumstances, and is a much better trigger for thinking on new ways of working, new projects, and yes, (re)defining goals. Of course, the farce that is our current attempt to move continues to grind on unresolved, so we’re not quite there yet. A curse on solicitors (well, one of them at least)!

I do have a number of intriguing plans in mind, and some great projects I’ve signed up for. Just nothing to say yet 🙂

I’m sure there is a game in here…

Still living in a building site. Yesterday someone managed to break part of the lighting, so now we need an electrician. Today one of the key builders is off sick. No wonder nothing has been built on time or in budget since the pyramids (Sorry Mr Khufu, can’t be done, mate… ).

Of course, me being me, I’ve started designing the game of the awfulness, as something to take my mind off things. Or, at least to see the lighter side (I’m sure there is one). Actually, I think this makes the perfect topic for a take that! style game. Certainly it feels like someone’s playing crappy cards on me all the time…

I’ll get my own back next turn 🙂