Who among you played Riven and Myst? Did any of you actually like them?

I would have posted this as a poll, but I wanted to read some cogent discussion. My students say that the games consist of "random puzzles without much of a unifying plot". From just looking at the game descriptions and playing similar games such as 3 in 3, 7th Guest, and 11th Hour, I find this whole genre too tedious and boring to play all the way through. It just feels like homework to me.

My cousins were crazy about 7th Guest, and I remember a few classmates who liked puzzle games. Since the mid-1990s, though, and especially since I started my LJ, I haven't come across anyone who professed to liking them. Anyone?


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Banazir

Does anyone reading this play any of the Asian chess variants?

• xiangqi (象棋) - Chinese chess


• shogi (将棋) - Japanese chess


• janggi (장기) - Korean


• chaturanga - Indian

One of These Is Not Like The Others: If you've read a bit on the history of chess, you probably know that Chaturanga is the attributed ancestor of the first three and of Western chess, with its French queen and all her attendant craziness. I'm guessing it migrated independently to China and to Japan, as shogi has its pawns one rank forward and xiangqi has the unique pao (cannons).

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Banazir

Cribbage, or crib, is a card game traditionally for two players, but commonly played with three, four or more, that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations which gain points. Cribbage has several distinctive features: the cribbage board used for scorekeeping, the eponymous crib or box (a separate hand counting for the dealer), two distinct scoring stages (the play and the show) and a unique scoring system including points for groups of cards that total fifteen.

According to John Aubrey, cribbage was created by the English poet Sir John Suckling in the early 17th century, as a derivation of the game "noddy". While noddy has disappeared, crib has survived, virtually unchanged, as one of the most popular games in the English-speaking world. The objective of the game is to be the first player to score a target number of points, typically 61 or 121. Points are scored for card combinations that add up to fifteen, pairs (plus triples and quadruples), runs and flushes.

Cribbage holds a special place among American submariners, serving as an "official" pastime. The wardroom of the oldest submarine in the fleet carries RADM Dick O'Kane's personal cribbage board onboard, and upon decommissioning it is transferred to the next oldest boat.
                -Wikipedia

Ben McBride (bdm7935) introduced me to cribbage as part of his fall, 2006 term project in CIS 730. Does anyone one my friends list play it? I still haven't quite got the hang of it, but I became intrigued by it mainly because of the multiple modalities of the game and its rich and complex combinatorial properties.

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Banazir

Nationstates 2

I keep hearing about NationStates II and wondering a) what the chief differences in game content and mechanics are and b) whether people will be allowed to transfer old nations (which IMO would cause some issues with game balance, from the start).

They Came From Hollywood

Similarly, They Came From Hollywood looks to be smashing good fun.

Shards: MMORPGs and MPOGs

What's this I hear about free UO (and EQ2) shards?
I must admit, I'm curious about these purportedly free Ultima Online (and EverQuest II?) shards.
More than anything else, I'd like to see whether there's anything suitable as a graphical MU* venue of teunc/guggle.

I'd also like an environment for prototyping small vehicles and agents for massforge. Nothing on the level of WOW, though, which by all accounts is digital crack.

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Banazir

Late Friday night (in the wee hours on Saturday), I looked up E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series to see if I wanted to read Chronicles of the Lensmen, Vol. 2. I learned a lot about Triplanetary.

The Smurfy Dyson Sphere of Smurrowdelphia is patterned in part on a whimsical notion of a titanic flying arcology (part high-impulse generational ship, part Shkadov thruster, part spindizzy a la Blish). I shouldn't be surprised if the Smurrowdelphian(s) had some mindpowers, even if some were Lensworthy.

Meanwhile, The Dominion of The Great Orcish Horde has landed in Balrog Cuttings, bringing a taste of Draenor's finest (or worst, depending on one's point of view).

What the trask am I wibbling about? NationStates, of course.
There's no way to play the game and make much measurable progress based upon skill, as yet; however, the three-year-old rumor that NationStates II is coming out inspired me to re-create all my nations, a move that is generating a little interest. As for NationStates II? There may be trade. I'm not interested in another war game in earnest, so I'll be quite satisfied with adventuring and diplomacy.

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Banazir

(Click on image to enlarge.)

What's next, The Sims 2050: Carbon Footprint, or maybe a SimCity 4 add-on module? (The above really does look a lot like an MMORPG called HabboHotel, not that I've ever played that.)

Where's the Alternative Fuels MMORPG? Of course, if environmental issues made it into World of Warcraft zengeneral would probably start a Burning Crusade... literally.

In other news: I watched The Ring, and it was good, though no better than I expected from its reputation. More on this later.

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Banazir

Now's the time to see how original and fun you guys can be (you have it in you! I know it!) so play along. Come on, play along. You know you want to.

In this post, talk with your icons, and only your icons. Post early, post often, and respond to whomever you want. Just leave a dot or a dash in the comment field if LJ tells you you can't post a blank comment.

All righty, then...
Let's go, folks! Figgy has nearly 70 icons and counting already! Can we match that? I think we can!

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Banazir

UK Trip 2005: A Tronkie Travellogue
Day 10: Edinburgh, Scotland (IJCAI Conference)

( Learning complete, ready to learn! )

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Banazir