Day 21: Spellslingers

Geek and Sundry have another game playing show, called Spellslingers. It is newish and features the host playing Magic: The Gathering with friends. In this episode, he's playing against Felicia Day:


Now, I've played Magic: The Gathering since the fifth grade, which officially makes it the game I've played longest. Not most, because most of my friends had little interest in both the rules or the constantly expanding nature of the game, but I've got a lot of experience with the game. Enough that I feel completely comfortable in saying this:

It is one of the worst games to watch.

This episode was a pretty decent example -- if you're not playing a set of games back to back, it is very easy to have a fluke round where one deck completely steamrolls the other. It's not particularly fun for the loser or viewer, and can be completely unavoidable, unlike most games that are interesting to watch (even Chess, which many people don't enjoy watching, never screws one player over at the start, and there is never a "pre-determined" win or loss). Collectible games in general tend to have this problem due to always having new things released, meaning the players with the most capital will eventually come ahead in repeated playing sessions. Play RISK 100 times, and each round could be anyone's game. Skill can always be a huge factor, but in Magic it takes a backseat to luck.

Storage for some of my extra cards. My favorite part of the game is deck building.

I love Magic. This show did all the bells and whistles it could and looks nice, but I can't imagine sitting through many more episodes. I'll try it and hopefully be wrong -- there's a lot to love about the game and I can, to this day, spend hours with friends just having repeated matches after matches.

One possibility of making this show in particular better would be some sort of limited deck construction or draft. Everyone ends up pulling from the same exact set of cards to make their ideal deck shows an additional level of skill or foresight that is completely lost in pre-constructed play.

... I'm ranting. I'm happy Magic is getting some exposure/love on Geek and Sundry because it's a huge title in geek gaming. It's just not the most exciting to watch raw gameplay (play two out of three and speed up time or show the best of the match ups would be my method).

Day 5: Some Useful Resources

Still haven't seen my computer today, so this will be another phone post where I'll add links and such later.

For how, I wanted to give a shout out to some of my favorite nerd-rated websites. Please note, this is not a comprehensive list, some the ones coming to my currently very sleepy mind:

GameFAQs

Want to know about newer games, when something was or will be released, or need a large and active message board community devoted to your favorite game? Chances are, GameFAQs is the place to go. They also have a comprehensive selection of of user-generated walkthroughs, tips an tricks, and more or less anything you could want. I also pop on their message boards related to Comics and Graphic Novels, Star Wars, and games I loved (wanted to love) and would like to see more done with (Brink). Sure, there's a lot of chattel on the message board, but they're usually good for some entertainment or interesting insights.

MyComicShop

I'm sure I mentioned this website when I wrote about how to start collecting comics, but it is still incredibly useful. They have an extensive list of back issues, TPBs, and alternate covers. Also, they are priced appropriate based on condition, which is the one are Amazon can be a bitch sketchy about. Prices tend to be competitive with Amazon as well (it's the only other site I use to buy comics). The Wife demands I giver her credit for this find, because before she did the research and looked it up, I was generally forced to hunt on eBay...

Freecycle

This isn't exactly a nerd resource, but it can be instrumental in helping you do something like build a nerd-cave. Freecycle is a website where people sign up for groups broken down by town. On this list, they can post OFFERS of things they have at their house but don't want any longer, ranging from furniture to electronics to books, or post REQUESTS if they're hoping someone has something they're looking for. The trick is that everyone on this website is for free -- folks recycle their items here when they might otherwise thrown them in the trash. If you have a way to haul furniture around, there are some really great finds -- I've added a couch and bookshelves since moving back to MA, but many states and towns are represented.

Tumblr

I'm not much one for Social Media, but if you are a fan of something, try to look it up on Tumblr. You will find entire fandoms (groups dedicated to a particular show, series, movie, etc...) based around any given thing and can either join in the discussions or simply follow them and watch. I personally subscribe to these fandoms: Supernatural, Marvel, Cthulhu/Lovecraft, Harry Potter, and plenty more. Some of the posts are hilarious, more insightful, and some quite surprising. Nothing quite like a good Misha-pocalypse.

Geek and Sundry

This is a YouTube channel I've mentioned before, but I strongly suggest you seem them out. My favorite shows on the channel are Wil Wheaton's TableTop and Felicia Day's Co-optitude, but there are many more that can appeal to any nerd.

That's about it for now. There are doubtless hundreds more and I skipped any of the myriad sites that deliver news. I'll add to this list periodically when things spring to mind, so please feel free to drop a line with your own suggestions!

Day 1: Board Games!

Happy new year! Almost missed today's first post... you know, the beginning of "The Month of The Nerd" I mentioned last time!

To start, I just wanted to write a bit about what has been catching my interest more and more lately: board games! I've always enjoyed them in various forms, but titles such as Monopoly and Sorry! aren't exactly what I'm talking about. Classic, mainstream board games are fun and almost anyone can play them and have a good time.

Well, I suppose you CAN spice it up...

Unfortunately, my preferences have always been a bit more difficult to get into and therefore make it difficult for me to find anyone to play with. Starting with Chess, a very common strategy game, there are many people who don't have any clue how to play and much less drive to learn. Bump it up to something like Stratego, and the real strategy is to just find someone willing to try it out!

My favorite games are competitive strategy games that have many techniques available and long enough to actually see progression. Risk would be the entry level board game here and I was fortunate enough to find a group of friends in college to play with. In fact, we played almost every single night. I've got multiple versions: "Updated" Risk, Godstorm, Star Wars (the prequel one, unfortunately), Halo, and, my favorite, Legacy. I'll eventually collect more, but my main quest with Risk at the moment is to find a steady group to finally play through multiple Legacy games -- the board actually has permanent changes and additions that add up to a unique version after 10-15 times played. I still don't know what all the changes will be because I'm trying to find a group that can enjoy all the transformations and not just random players who may never touch it again.

So much potential!

Thanks to Wil Wheaton's TableTop show on the Geek and Sundry YouTube Channel, I've been seeing a whole range of games that I'd never consider -- mostly due to having no one to play with, but also because they're generally expensive and I'm always loathe to try something new with no guarantee of enjoyment.

Very excited to add Cthulhu to my board gaming!

Since watching every single episode of TableTop (which comes out something like every other week), I've picked up Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures, Forbidden Island, and Eldritch Horror (not featured on the show, but a similar title was). The last two are even cooperative titles, which usually doesn't interest me. The Wife and I enjoyed Forbidden Island and I'm still trying to get her to play a full game of Eldritch Horror -- the first attempt was a bit of a bust because I didn't know how lengthy the setup could be.

X-Wing Miniatures is enjoyable and scratches my collectible itch, which isn't always easy to do.

For those who struggle to find players in their own board game quest, I suggest you reach out to your local hobby shop. I have two relatively close to me that host regular game nights -- usually card games such as Magic: The Gathering, but if the shop sees an interest elsewhere, they're generally willing to branch out. I hope to stop in on one such night at TJ Collectibles in Milford, MA soon and see what board games they actually play and how open they are to suggestions. I'll do a further post on that when it comes to pass.

Anyone else have any board games they love but maybe aren't that well known? There are a lot of grand strategy titles I'd love to look into, but that will be a ways off until I can produce enough offspring to field a game of something like Twilight Imperium...

I have no idea what any of this does (Twilight Imperium)...

Enough rambling for now! No clue what's coming tomorrow, but it will definitely be something. Yeah, something.

TableTop - Elder Sign

What do you get when you mix Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day, and H.P. Lovecraft? An episode of TableTop that has three of my favorite things!

Check out TableTop Season 1 Episode 11:

... Now I really need to pick up a copy of Elder Sign. The game looks just confusing enough for me to get super interested in and have no one to play with v.v

Also -- first recording of The Podcast is a Lie tonight, look for it soon! And tell your friends, damn it!

Geek & Sundry: I've been missing out!

I'm bad at YouTube. I follow a few channels, but I never seem to find time to watch videos that don't involve short clips of cats being adorable. This morning, thanks to Pinterest, I noticed that Felicia Day tried out parkour. I enjoy Felicia Day and I think parkour/free running is awesome -- what could go wrong? As a video, nothing! It was a lot of fun to watch.

Then I realized there was a ton more content. Yes, this was all realized today. I really don't keep up to date with web videos and I don't even follow too many blogs. I have the same issue with podcasts -- I get recommendations all the time, but when it comes down to it, I find my attention pulled to writing, reading, or playing a video game.

Well, this is my public apology for not being supportive of the channel Geek & Sundry until now. It is a channel that is all about the things I love from some amazing people, including, but in no way limited to, Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton. My unfamiliarity with the rest of the creators will be something I rectify ASAP!

Why am I posting about this? Because I'm going to make an effort to catch up on all the previous content on G&S AND keep current with new things, and I'll be posting a weekly favorites section where I link (and probably rave about) a video I thought was amazing and no one should miss out on (as I have been). This weeks is going to Felicia Day's parkour/free running adventure:


Also, I've been inspired. In college, a group of friends and I used to play RISK almost every night. When I moved to NY a few years ago, that stopped. Whelp, I'm planning on moving back to MA soon. This Summer would be the earliest. I'm hoping I can get my friends together regularly when I'm up there and I'd like to incorporate a Game Night series where I tape my friends and I playing different games (or just RISK, if that's all they're interested in) and work it into a feature on here.

If that sounds a bit dull or stupid... bear with me! This just came to me this morning!

Alright, now I'm going to get back to work...

Note: If I'm missing more wonderful channels on YouTube, let me know! The Nerd is always looking to increase his nerdy level.