Game Carnival #8 for 17 Oct 2007

Welcome to the Game Carnival! Have we got some special rides for you! Try not to eat too much cotton candy, though; I really don't want to clean up that mess :-).

Seriously, we have gaming-related entries from all up and down Blog Street. Click on all the links -- maybe you'll find your new favorite blog.

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BOARD GAMES

James Lewitzke presents Top 10 Awesome Monopoly Variations posted at Toptenlisted. It is a list of Monopoly variations he would like to see created. Googopoly might get me to play the game one more time :-).

CARD GAMES

You didn't think I was going to run a carnival and not set up my own stand, did you? Scroll on down to read my post about Fluxx.


VIDEO GAMES

Over at The tr00f, Matt is already predicting that Bioshock is the Game of the Year.

Alfonso at Valhalla TV is conducting an experiment in making money with online videos of exhibition games.

Keira Peney presents Does a pretty box cover mean good sales? posted at Write the Game. It looks like a bit of research went into the writing of this post.

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Thus concludes the eighth edition of the Game Carnival. If you are interested in hosting an edition of the carnival or contributing a post, contact Jeff over at Play2Relax. See ya in two weeks!

Game Review: Fluxx

Fluxx starts out with one simple mechanic: draw one card, then play one card. No other rules are given at the outset, which truly makes this a game that you have to play to understand. Whenever we bring it to the table, newcomers go "Huh?"

Basically, the 84-card Fluxx deck can be broken down into four categories. There are Actions, Goals, Keepers, and Rules. The Rules cards change the "draw one, play one" mechanic. The Action cards can cause people to do things like switch hands or draw extra cards. No one knows what the winning condition of the game is until someone plays a Goal card, but it usually involves someone having a certain combination of Keeper cards in front of them on the table. That's it!

There are several varieties of Fluxx. The rules are the same but there are a few different cards thrown in based on the theme. The creators appear to be aiming at all segments of the gamer community because they have Christian Fluxx and Jewish Fluxx alongside EcoFluxx and Stoner Fluxx. The biggest departure from the basic game is their new edition called Zombie Fluxx, which adds undesirable keepers called Creepers to the mix. I've been thinking about adding another Looney Labs game to my collection, and I think that Zombie Fluxx may be it.

I will acknowledge that Fluxx is a game that gets a lot of flack from serious boardgamers because of all the randomness. In my opinion this is a game isn't for them; it is for new gamers. It has a sense of whimsy that isn't bogged down with heavy strategy. I've also noticed that kids pick up on this game much more quickly than adults do. If you are a fan of unpredictable play in your games, then I would recommend Fluxx.

Friendly Local Game Store vs. Online Shopping: A Compromise?

I was on the website for the game Ghoulash looking at their retailer list. I don't think I have a game shop in my area but I've learned from my experience with the online knitting community that if I check the websites of products, I find local stores that I didn't know existed.

Anyway, I didn't find a shop in my area but there is a game shop in Durham that takes online orders. It occurred to me that this might be a good compromise for me. Part of the argument for shopping in a brick-and-mortar store is to support local business. Shopping online at at North Carolina store keeps the money in the state and that is better than nothing, right?

Game Carnival in one week

Gameguy, the owner of the game carnival over at Blog Carnival, has asked to me to host the next one on 17 Oct. So if you have written a game-related post on your blog recently, send me a link so I can add it to the carnival post. This carnival is about all kinds of gaming -- card games, board games, video games, whatever. I would prefer it if you didn't send a link to a year-old post, but if you think you have a well-written post from the days when only two people were reading your blog, go ahead and send it!

Back and ready to play!

I'm back in full effect! Unfortunately, I didn't get to play any games on our cruise but we did introduce the idea to our traveling companions. Of course, as soon as we said "Let's play cards!", the first thing the women said was "I'm no good at cards." That's because everyone around here automatically assumes that playing cards means poker or spades or (in the case of our black friends) bid whist. I can understand why the women hesitate. I don't play spades with ABM. He has so many years of experience playing that game that he is unable to play it casually any more and gets frustrated with me when I mess up. That is one of the good things about introducing people to new games; the women are more likely to give a game a try once they realize that the men don't have the advantage over them. Anyway, since our cruise buddies live in our subdivision I think we will be able to coax them over to the house for a game night.

I have several games lined up to try. It is just a matter of finding time to play. With ABM working extra hours to cover the loss of my regular paycheck and the kids having more homework this year, it seems like no one has time to play with me :-(. However, I will find a way to squeeze a few games in and report back to you guys.