On elegant game design…
You will often hear or read gamers refer to ‘elegant’ game design but for me this is a descriptor that needs some illumination. For me at least elegance is about balance, beauty, stability, sophistication and uniqueness. So for me, an elegant game needs to comprise of all of these ingredients.There are two 2009 games which for me represent all of these ingredients and that I consider ‘elegant’. These are games I enjoy playing and will happily agree to a game of any time. They are:Tobago from Rio Grande Games, designed by Bruce Allen.Endeavor from Z-Man Games, designed by Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray.Here is a look at e

We will remember them…
I have an uneasy relationship with Armistice Day (Remembrance Day, Veterans Day, you may pick your poison here.) because I am a gamer and one who enjoys gaming war. Armistice Day celebrates the signing of the armistice that ended World War I on the western front between the Allies and Germany, signed on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" 1918. Today the event is used to mark those who have died in all conflicts. My family or more specifically my grandparents were less affected by the Second World War than most as neither of my grandfathers saw gunfire. My mother’s father suffered from polio and worked in administration in The Arsenal at Woolwich, he died when my

On strategic thinking…
Today’s short post is a prelude to a series of posts I hope to write on the subject of strategy.I am someone who is fascinated by strategy. Not just strategy in gaming but strategy in all of life and especially in business. Also I am interested in other peoples take on what good strategy is.An Example: During the 2008 Presidential Election John McCain claimed that Obama did not know the difference between a strategy and a tactic. As a military man he behaved like this was a killer blow, and I am sure the tiny percentage of the population who do know the difference were mortified.. It happened in one of the debates if I remember correctly and McCain hung on to that

On teaching games… and ungrateful players.
Recently I have had the opportunity to introduce some folks to new board games. The credit crunch has not hit me too hard for buying an occasional newly released board game that stirs my interest, and that allows me to teach it at Board Game Night.In teaching games for several months now I have developed some personal guidelines that I follow when hosting that I believe work well. I thought I might detail a few of them here:1) Remember WHY you are teaching the game.When given the opportunity to teach a game to new players you have to keep in mind WHY you are teaching the game. Firstly and perhaps most obviously, you want to interest players into playing t

On sharing time with an encouraging wife..
Those of you who know me will know that I have a stressful job. I have to manage the expectations of demanding users in a demanding environment and this year’s challenge has been on how to deliver that with scant resources. In my work time is everything, every minute counts when fixing a problem and regularly millions and often billions of dollars are on the line. One statistic that often blows people away is the traders I look after trade on average 3.6 Billion dollars a day. It is a tough job, but overall it appears I have done well… but only from the perspective of my employer…A sad thing about stress is that it has to come out sometime. Keeping it all together at work