Eurogames - Stewart Woods
2012 McFarland & Company
Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of the book. Also, some of my articles and my game are referenced in the book.
Summary
A nice introduction to Eurogames and to some game studies topics in general. Well written, accessible, covers the topic without much industry detail. Could have used more about specific Eurogames and its culture and less about other topics.
Overview
Eurogames is around 200 pages, excluding 50 pages of preface, introduction, end-notes, and bibliography.
Chapters 1 to 4 (about 70 pages) cover the history of board games in general and Eurogames in particular. The history does not reach back to ancient cultures, but sticks mostly with modernity. After dividing games into classic, mass-market, and hobby games, hobby games are then divided into genres, each with a short history. The book analyzes the origins of Eurogames in America and Germany and briefly mentions game awards and conventions.
Chapter 5 (40 pages) categorizes Eurogames, mostly through mechanics, with a brief introduction as to how the categories were chosen. This section also includes talk about elements, rules, mechanics, goals, themes, information aspects, chance, and the end-conditions of Eurogames.
The remaining 95 pages discuss players and the motivations behind play. They spend a lot of time on a 2007 survey of BoardGameGeek users conducted by the author, giving us the makeup of a typical circa-2007 BGG user (one type of Eurogamer). They discuss collecting games and the relationship that gamers have with publishers and designers.
Why gamers play is then discussed, including an overview of "flow", social interaction, luck, and the other elements of games that are fun, as well as goals, and the tension between fun and striving to win. Social problems with games (such as cheating) are also discussed. The book concludes with a few pages on games and culture.
Reactions
This book is aimed at the general public, i.e. not academic and not business. It is easy and friendly, and covers the general idea of Eurogames very well. It also covers, slightly more than necessary, various topics in game studies: what gamers are like, why people play games and why they cheat. These topics are covered in order to flesh out the idea of the kind of person who plays Eurogames, but the analysis really applies to any gamers of any genre, and even tp anyone who plays games at all.
It's a fair survey of these topics; for more depth, you can read many of the titles referenced in the bibliography. I found the topics to be only peripherally concerned with Eurogames and gamers, and so were not really necessary. Instead, I felt that the book should have spent more time going into depth about certain Eurogames.
For example, a couple of pages on how Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride was designed, how it is played, how the mechanisms interact, and how sessions go. Maybe focus on a dozen other popular games. Also missing were details about the game industry; how the industry arose in general is covered, with mentions of Z-Man Games, Rio Grande Games, Mayfair Games, etc, but not a look at real facts about the current game industry: number of companies, profits, distribution, penetration, country statistics, etc.
I say this only FYI. You can't blame a book for what it's not trying to be.
The book provides good coverage of many parts of the social scene of the die-hard gamers: the early Internet groups, the awards, the evangelists, and so on. It includes many quotes from BGGers on every topic from what makes a game fun to what makes a game serious.
One problem I fault the book for is that its data about gamers and their motivations comes from a voluntary survey of BoardGameGeek users. I don't think that BGG users necessarily represent Eurogamers, or even gamers, in general. They are a certain type of active social gamer/collector, and tend to have a myopic view of the world. In my own town of about 40,000 people, only a handful of people come to game nights and have BGG accounts, but dozens or even hundreds play or have played a Euro or hobby game.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the read. Those of you who are unfamiliar with the history of modern hobby games, or with the various topics covered, such as what makes a gamer enjoy games, will find this book to be a pleasant overview and a nice read.
Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Day 8: Still Sick
This morning at around 9 I left Killarney heading toward Limerick. And promptly got stuck motionless for 30 minutes due to road work. I didn't get to Limerick until nearly 12.
My first stop was at the South Court Hotel which is supposed to have a large antiques and craft fair, only I didn't notice that the fair is scheduled for Sunday, not today. My second stop was at the Hunt Museum, listed as a top destination on tripadvisor. Even though the hotel was "straight down the road, can't miss it", it once again took me an additional half hour of driving around - missing the museum, looking for a place to park - to get there.
As far as the museum goes: eh. It's an eclectic collection that was originally the private collection of some rich guy. The individual items might be interesting if you see them at a friend's house, but in a rich guy's house, or castle, or in a museum dedicated to just this guy's stuff, I feel like I'm watching Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. It's voyeurism; not deep enough to give any real history or be especially interesting. I can't stand castle tours for that reason; I have to pay a rich guy to see his stuff? Please.
Now, if the collection of historical items, jewelery, ceramics, paintings, etc were divided up among the national museums, each added to the proper collection, I would feel differently.
And that's the way Yehuda c's it.
Poetry
Anyhoo, the real reason I thought it might be worth my while to check out the museum in the first place was that there was supposed to be a poetry reading at 2:30. In this case, I had the right date, and the poet in question showed up only a few minutes late. Funnily enough, no one else turned up, so I was the entire audience.
The poet in question was a man named Barney Sheehan, who doesn't have much of his own poetry (I think). He runs a poetry reading night Wed nights at the White House pub in Limerick for the last ten years, which has apparently attracted some good Irish talent. Barney came to read selections from a book he created/edited containing pictures, quotations, and poetry from Desmond O'Grady, a man who counts as influences his personal relationships with Ezra Pound and others. O'Grady is still alive, but doesn't get out much.
Barney was thrilled to meet me, as someone from Israel and someone who has tried to organize poetry readings (and who has written some poetry of his own). Barney spent too much time reading the introductory notes and quotations from the book and not enough time reading the actual poems; he was proud of his work and it was important to him to impress on me the importance of Desmond. It didn't matter much, as I enjoyed meeting him and listening to him. And I got to read a few more of the poems while other people were wandering around us, viewing the exhibits and talking.
He was kind enough to gift me a copy of a different book containing poems read at the White House during the first years of the poetry gathering. He really wanted/wants me to come back to the gathering tonight, but I'm too sick. If I get out at all, I'll poke my nose around Castleconnell, which is where I'm staying.
Tomorrow it's back to Dublin.
My first stop was at the South Court Hotel which is supposed to have a large antiques and craft fair, only I didn't notice that the fair is scheduled for Sunday, not today. My second stop was at the Hunt Museum, listed as a top destination on tripadvisor. Even though the hotel was "straight down the road, can't miss it", it once again took me an additional half hour of driving around - missing the museum, looking for a place to park - to get there.
 |
| Not the Hunt Muesum |
 |
| Not the Hunt Museum |
 |
| Also Not the Hunt Museum |
Now, if the collection of historical items, jewelery, ceramics, paintings, etc were divided up among the national museums, each added to the proper collection, I would feel differently.
And that's the way Yehuda c's it.
Poetry
Anyhoo, the real reason I thought it might be worth my while to check out the museum in the first place was that there was supposed to be a poetry reading at 2:30. In this case, I had the right date, and the poet in question showed up only a few minutes late. Funnily enough, no one else turned up, so I was the entire audience.
The poet in question was a man named Barney Sheehan, who doesn't have much of his own poetry (I think). He runs a poetry reading night Wed nights at the White House pub in Limerick for the last ten years, which has apparently attracted some good Irish talent. Barney came to read selections from a book he created/edited containing pictures, quotations, and poetry from Desmond O'Grady, a man who counts as influences his personal relationships with Ezra Pound and others. O'Grady is still alive, but doesn't get out much.
Barney was thrilled to meet me, as someone from Israel and someone who has tried to organize poetry readings (and who has written some poetry of his own). Barney spent too much time reading the introductory notes and quotations from the book and not enough time reading the actual poems; he was proud of his work and it was important to him to impress on me the importance of Desmond. It didn't matter much, as I enjoyed meeting him and listening to him. And I got to read a few more of the poems while other people were wandering around us, viewing the exhibits and talking.
He was kind enough to gift me a copy of a different book containing poems read at the White House during the first years of the poetry gathering. He really wanted/wants me to come back to the gathering tonight, but I'm too sick. If I get out at all, I'll poke my nose around Castleconnell, which is where I'm staying.
Tomorrow it's back to Dublin.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
RIP My Uncle Howard
A few months after losing her husband, my mom lost her brother on Friday. I'm spending tonight and Tuesday night with her in Beit Shemesh. I'm tired of being a bearer of down vibes to my friends and readers. As Mirah says in Daniel Deronda, "I am too ready to speak of troubles, I think. It seems unkind to put anything painful into other people's minds, unless one were sure it would hinder something worse."
I'm reading / listening to Daniel Deronda. What a shock it must have been to readers in the 19th century to encounter the rich, sympathetic, Zionist Jewish world in the context of a traditional English novel.
Obgame: I played two games of Set with the kids of the kind family who invited us for shabbat lunch. It's only a game if the players are evenly matched.
I'm reading / listening to Daniel Deronda. What a shock it must have been to readers in the 19th century to encounter the rich, sympathetic, Zionist Jewish world in the context of a traditional English novel.
Obgame: I played two games of Set with the kids of the kind family who invited us for shabbat lunch. It's only a game if the players are evenly matched.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Shabbat Gaming
Friday evening we went to some friends. I played Five Stones with one of the kids. Later in the evening I saw them playing a game I hadn't seen before: Spin & Trap. They didn't have the rules, and were obviously playing it wrong, since one person simply undid what the next person did ad infinitum. The real rules don't allow you to place the larger spin device onto your opponent's marbles, which helps a bit, but not much. I think the game will still be unterminating.
I played Anagrams with my shabbat guest, and Sunday night I played Scrabble with Rachel. She shot ahead by some 60 points, while I was stuck with racks of six vowels. I managed to score a Bingo (terrier) near the end of the game, and squeaked out a victory solely due to the points left on her rack (went from -3/+3 to +3/-3).
Watching Scott Pilgrim inspired me to read the graphic novel series, which I just finished. It's very cool. It's got flashes of deep: a transparent metaphoric structure, but it works it well and, in some cases, subtly and skillfully. A fun read, and the drawing and layout are well executed.
I played Anagrams with my shabbat guest, and Sunday night I played Scrabble with Rachel. She shot ahead by some 60 points, while I was stuck with racks of six vowels. I managed to score a Bingo (terrier) near the end of the game, and squeaked out a victory solely due to the points left on her rack (went from -3/+3 to +3/-3).
Watching Scott Pilgrim inspired me to read the graphic novel series, which I just finished. It's very cool. It's got flashes of deep: a transparent metaphoric structure, but it works it well and, in some cases, subtly and skillfully. A fun read, and the drawing and layout are well executed.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Philosophical Pig Tales
Philosophical Pig Tales: the Origins of Modern Ethics Explained Through Retellings of the Classic Story of the Three Little Pigs by Katie Hatz
I so want this. This is the funniest thing I've read in a year, at least. I laughed out loud at every page. The entire text of all three stories, about hedonism, stoicism, and nihilism, is online. Warning: the pictures are not all safe for children, as they include topless pigs and profane graffiti.
I so want this. This is the funniest thing I've read in a year, at least. I laughed out loud at every page. The entire text of all three stories, about hedonism, stoicism, and nihilism, is online. Warning: the pictures are not all safe for children, as they include topless pigs and profane graffiti.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Librivox.org: Free Downloadable Audio Books
BBC gets pretty repetitive, not to mention the fact that their concepts of interesting and balanced don't match mine, and Israeli radio stations are hit and (mostly) miss. And I can't listen to game podcasts all the time. So I was thrilled to find librivox.org, a site that does for audio books what Project Gutenberg does for books: convert them and put them online, for free.
There's something about listening to a soothing voice read a literary classic that makes even the most complex book enjoyable and accessible. Those of you who have a hard time sitting down to read an 18th or 19th century novel might just get hooked if you can listen to it being read. I think it evokes the primal pleasure of being read to as a child. And a reader - a good reader - makes any text more vibrant and comprehensible.
The audio files are divided by chapter. Some books are read the entire way through by a single reader, while others are read by different readers. Quality varies, but most are good. Some are excellent. My favorite so far, and my lucky first choice to which to listen, was Brenda Dayne reading The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.
The version of Anne of Green Gables that I listened to had a few middle chapters read by someone with a cloying voice, but there are at least five versions on the site. Silas Marner was also read excellently.
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