Computer Gaming

Windows released a security patch that disabled the ability to play many games from disc.  Like a huge list of games.  The one that mattered to me was Civ IV.  Apparently when the game starts up it checks the disc to ensure it's not a pirated copy before initializing play.  Microsoft decided that whatever the game did for its check created a Windows security flaw and therefore released a patch to prevent that check.  It was kind of frustrating to try and play the game and be told, "nope! no can do."


I could buy a digital copy of the game for $30 and play, but man, I already bought the game once.  I asked Ben to start watching Steam for sales, hoping that maybe I could at least get it for a better price.  I really don't like Steam.  It is a resource hog.  I don't like being required to log onto their servers to play my game.  I don't like being forced to watch their ads before I can play my game.  But I have to admit, I do like paying only $7.50 for my game.


Which is what it eventually went on sale for.  So now I can play Civ IV again.


On another computer gaming note, about 10 years ago I used to play a lot of MTGO (Magic the Gathering: Online).  The company supported a play option called Leagues which was a ton of fun.  It was a great way to play Magic without putting a ton of time & money into it and on a playing field that was relatively level in that folks with huge card collections didn't have any advantage.


Then Wizards of the Coast, which publishes Magic, rebuilt their software and stopped supporting Leagues ... but with the intent of starting them back up sometime in the next year.  Which did not happen.  Or the next year, or the next year.  Or ever, it seemed.  /sigh.  Then just this past month, they started Leagues again.  Woo Hoo!


I got into one and am losing horribly.  LOL, I haven't played MTGO in almost 10 years.  There's a learning curve for the new software, for the pace. Man, I'd forgotten how quick a pace you have to play online.  I actually lost my first match in the League by timing out!  I'll get the hang of it though.  It'll be fun.


I am a happy gamer.

February was awesome!

On Thursday 2/11 Tabby & I went to Disney on Ice.  During intermission Tabby informed me that she didn't really like Disney princesses anymore, but she liked going out with me. Maybe next year we'll do something different.  Or not ... Tabby also said she did like the dancing.  We had fun and the dancing really was great. Especially during the Rapunzel segment.  They performed an extended version of it this year that included a "hair rope" from which the skaters would dangle about 20 feet up while spinning, flipping, whatever.  It was impressive.


On Sunday 2/21 we (the Green Bay crew, Sam, Jack, and my neice, Tylor who has an internship at Kohler company) met up at Jack's place in Sheboygan to celebrate Sam's birthday.  Ice Cream cake, a game of Bang!, Annie and of course just hanging out with family.  Fun time.


Friday 2/27 there was a Father/Daughter dance at church.  Like last year, Becky did photography for the event and Tabby was a relentless taskmaster. "Lift!  Spin!  Dip!  Now chase me!"  So much fun I am still sore.


Saturday 2/28 Ben I went to the Fire & Ice game convention in Manitowoc.  Saw some friends I haven't seen in a while.  Played some games with a few of them.


Ben played some Smash Bros. while we waited for the first game to start.  I bought a book from the $1 used book guy to read during down time, but didn't actually get to read any of it. 


We played a game called Hexplore It that the designer was at the con playtesting for a Kickstarter campaign sometime in spring 2017.  It was fun.  Very similar to the Runebound series of games.  Players v the board.  Players won.


Someone brought a 3D Settlers of Catan game board.  Ben & I played a game on it.  I got a very good start.  About 20 minutes in the running joke became, "haven't you won yet Jack?"  Unfortunately, Ben built in some low resource number areas and didn't get lucky on the dice.


Randall Tupper ran a game of Eclipse with a new expansion ... time travelling races!  I played the new time travelers.  If you've played the game and are interested, the time travel mechanic allows the player to take a free action this turn while paying for it in future turns.  It saves a few resources over the course of the game and provides a degree of momentum on the board.  It didn't feel like a game breaking mechanic, but then I was the one using it, not playing against it.  And I did win.  Ben did well in the game, 3rd place, I think?  I finished with 36 points, 2-4th place clustered around 30-34 points.  5th & 6th were lower.  Most of the game it looked like a player named Eric was in the lead.  He had a fair chunk of the board, plus the central tile.  But in the end he was in 4th place with only low point value systems, while mine were high value and I got a lot of extra points going gangbusters in the tech race.


Ben & I played a 2 player game of Ascension while waiting for the final game.


Final game was a six player Bang!  I misread my role card, thought I was an Outlaw when I was actually the Renegade.  Ended up being the first one dead.  Ben (as a deputy) & the Sherriff made a good stand against what amounted to four Outlaws, but in the end the outlaws managed to win.


Bonus:  I have 3 book reports!


Cowboy Angels by Paul McCauley.
The book is a kind of alternate history where something called "Turing Gates" have been invented.  They are gates that allow us to travel to parallel dimensions ... alternate realities.  The USA in the dimension where these gates are invented adopts an official policy of alliance with all versions of the USA across any discovered dimension.  The challenge is that not all USAs hold the same values.  The USA that was taken over by communists, for example.  Or the USA that engaged the USSR in a minor nuclear exchange after the Cuban missile crisis and is being rebuilt with aid from its European allies.  Eventually, that peacenik Jimmy Carter gets elected president and shuts down the program, leading to a crisis in the agency charged with how we use the Turing Gates.


Adam Stone was one of the first agents to travel through the Turing Gates to try and foment these alliances.  He has since retired, but comes out of retirement to help save Tom Waverly, another of the first agents and a good friend of his who has gone rogue with some mysterious, murderous agenda.


I thought the concept was really cool.  The delivery was okay.  McCauley relies heavily on the characters in the book knowing things that haven't yet been revealed to the readers.  It became kind of a mindless read because why try to figure things out when doing so requires information you don't have?  Won't have until the solution is presented? And that's kind of too bad in a book about a really thought provoking idea.


I mean, it was a fun read, but I just felt like it could have been more.


The Good the Bad and the Smug by Tom Holt.
Mordak, King of the Goblins, has some revolutionary ideas about being evil ... such as working alongside elves of all things!  When the Dark Lord himself begins having similar ideas, something is certainly amiss.  And when the humans get their finances in order!  And how is it all related to the number of Goblins being recruited, via interdimensional doughnut, to work in Hollywood?


Tom Holt writes in a style very similar to Terry Pratchett.  Maybe a little more absurdist than I personally prefer, but still a fun read.  The book is even thematically similar to a Terry Pratchett book called Snuff.  One of my all time favorites, in fact.  I guess inviting that comparison is really this books shortcoming.  If you're thinking of reading it, I'd just suggest reading Snuff instead.  At least read Snuff first.  Or just don't miss the chance to read Snuff because you spent your precious time reading this book instead.


I did enjoy it enough that I did finish reading it, though.


This Is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams.
Dagmar, Charlie, Austin and BJ were the core of a gaming group back in college.  Though they have since gone their seperate ways, they all live in the LA area and stay in touch.  Charlie is the owner of Software company AVN Soft. Dagmar is the director of alternate reality games (ARGs) for Great Big Idea, a subsidiary of AVN Soft.  BJ was Charlie's partner at AVN but was fired from the company before it became successful.  Austin is a successful venture capitalist.


When a murder occurs that affects them all Dagmar begins to use (i.e. manipulate the participants of) the current ARG to solve it.


The book was very exciting.  The characters were fun and engaging.  The plot was intricate and unfolds well as the story progresses.  The recurring theme about the value of crowdsourced ideas is well developed.


Our library categorized the book as Science Fiction.  I assume because role playing games are central to the development of the story, but they're not really what the book is about.  It's more mystery than scifi/fantasy.  I would suggest reading this book to anyone who enjoys either genre.  The only real criticism I have about it is that Williams portrays Frito Casserole as a bad thing.  I mean, YUM, Frito casserole!