Vince's Feedbag of Myopic Discordance

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September 15, 2005

Thoughts on Pachisi Variants

First off: sorry Team Brad-Rick-Doox for not getting to play your game. It sounded like a neat concept from what I was able to hear during your meetings.

Tropical Circle of Life

I played this game twice. I enjoyed this game. Also, I really found myself struggling with this game. I think it was the math.

The game itself was pretty sound. Unlike some other comments, I had no problem with the abstract nature of the piece because our own sides of the board were pretty clear, I thought. The theme of the game was very appealing; I was reminded of various experiments and theories in evolutionary behavior, especially computer programs by Axelrod.

One thing that felt weird was the fact that all the pieces were already out in playable position. With Pachisi, getting another piece out of the center was an enjoyable event, a sort of “A HA!” moment. With this, I really didn’t get that sense; one could say it was all downhill from the start, since you could never play more than the four pieces you start out with.

And then there’s the math. It was a bit frustrating that I had to go through every piece I had on the board to figure out what was the best move I could make.

I think the fact that there was this sort of equality between the players from the start and lasting for a significant time through the game kept the game from being as close as it could be to its Prey/Circle-of-life theme. Or that could be my own personal prejudices, where tropical jungle life is cold, ruthless and unforgiving. Still, a fun game.

Cops and Robbers

I think I should admit off the bat: this game annoyed me with the first die roll. It was thematically spot on.

I just couldn’t stand the theme. The thought of an inept and unwilling police force angered me; seeing it happen on a board where I could do little else but roll and watch as they puttered around, doomed to failure at the hands of more mobile thieves.

At least in our game where nothing went right for our donut eating cops, happily munching away while the lucky double-rolling throngs of robbers were off doing the things that robbers do best.

The board and instructions were pretty shaky. It was really hard to get a feel for the ordering of things. If there was an example of a turn progression in the instructions, that would have been really helpful.

Coattails (Quick thought on our own game)

I talked a bit about how this game came about with much consternation, very aware of what it meant in terms of treatment of life theme. If I had any sort of drawing ability, I would have drawn this whimsical title graphic showing various tuxedoed folks running on top of everyone’s coattails in a line. People stepping on people’s heads, falling down, jumping over people, sprawling on the floor, jumping off to the side… It was a fantastic image and we rolled with that… much to the detriment of this concept of larger life theme. In my mind that was a worthy sacrifice, but…

Posted by diamante at September 15, 2005 11:20 AM

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