On Saturday, I had the opportunity to work as part of Fantasy Flight Games‘ demo team teaching people at Salt Lake Gaming Convention how to play X-Wing Miniatures. As you may have already discovered, X-Wing is probably my all-time favorite game in the entire galaxy. And so to get paid to sit down and teach people to play it all day was an amazing experience. What made it even better is that my voice decided…
If you haven’t noticed, I love board games. But there’s this problem… You see, whenever I play a game, I get sucked so deep into it that to me, it’s real. The characters I control, the decisions I make…if I don’t do everything just right, someone’s life will be ruined. For me, it’s more than just a game. It’s an immersive journey in which I control my fate. In a lot of games, the stakes…
I’m a weenie. It’s true. Sure, I can charge into a brick wall (i.e. Tongan) and take him down in a rugby match, but if there’s a wasp in my kitchen, I am unable to maneuver a plastic cup to its position on a wall, enclose it in, and deliver it from our home. My wife can, but I, as we have already discussed, am a weenie. It’s not that I’m afraid of getting stabbed by…
Last night I had the memorable experience of being interviewed for an online teaching position by my laptop. I’ve had interviews in person, over the phone, and quite possible via Skype (I just can’t remember if that last one actually happened…). But I had never been interviewed by nobody. The institution in which I applied decided it was best and most fair for all applicants to take part in an on-demand video interview. I did this…
I don’t know why I keep going back to the dentist. Every time I do, they not only tell me I have millions of cavities (okay, maybe it was just three…), but then they try and murder me. Two weeks ago I went to the dentist. A new one, because the last one told me I had holes in my teeth that didn’t belong and they needed to be filled. Fine. Fill them, but I’m…
Let’s talk about luck. Luck of the draw, luck of not getting run over by Santa’s reindeer (sorry, Grandma)…You know, luck. In stories, we don’t really like it when some lucky happenstance comes around and makes things all better for the protagonist. I mean, buddy, if you’re a good protagonist, you gotta learn to do things yourself! Right? Yes. And no. But mostly yes. However, while we don’t want our characters getting by all thanks to…
Just this week we finished our campaign of Pandemic Legacy. If you’re familiar with the co-op came Pandemic, then you’ll know how this game is played (for the most part…kind of). Otherwise, let me shed some light on it. Pandemic is a cooperative game in which players take on roles of CDC agents trying to eradicate diseased cropping up throughout the world. The only way to win is defeat all the diseases before you run…
While Flag Dash is still on Kickstarter, I was fortunate enough to acquire a copy and show it off at SaltCON this past weekend. I’ve been able to play the game quite a few times and have gotten a pretty good feel for it. It’s now my pleasure to share my thoughts on the game. Flag Dash is a game recreating our favorite childhood (and college…) pastime: capture the flag. I love capture the flag!…
The team of scientists from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention worked tirelessly to keep the outbreaks at bay. Quarantines struggled to remain in place. Try as they might, the situation was getting out of hand. As the diseases spread, riots broke out. Citizens turned barbarous. Cities fell. The team moved sluggishly through each city they came to, doing what they could to fight the epidemic, but it was without hope. Their resources were being used…
As a grad student, I moved in with my friend who had his own place. It was nice enough, except in my room there was no bed, so I slept on an air mattress. It beat buying a new one. One cold winter night I lay fast asleep. I sleep better in the cold. Deeper. Must be a side effect of being Canadian. Anyway, sleep had overshadowed me like a thick fog. I was out for…