For now, though, I think I'll just leave the timestamps alone. It seems more...honest, I guess. Certainly my friends who have had to wait extended periods of time for an email from me will recognise the current state of affairs and consider it authentic. Still, it will be good to know that I can alter the timestream when I'm writing a post while at work. [grin]
I decided to celebrate the New Year by hosting a 24-hour gaming event - from noon on Sunday, 31 December 2006 to noon on Monday, 1 January 2007. This is actually the third time I have done this. I would like for it to be an annual event, if I could just stay in one place long enough to become connected to enough enthusiastic gamers.
The first time I organised a New Year's Game-a-thon was in Sydney for the start of 2002. I had been living in Australia for just under two years and I was hosting a weekly game group - Queen's Birthday Gamers - as well as attending Pat Brennan's weekly group - Pymble Gaming Arena - and Nick Stables' occasional one (no name). This meant there were plenty of gamers who really liked to game. That, combined with Rob Muirhead allowing us to hold the event at his comfortable condo near the beach - we took a break to watch the sunrise over the ocean - made for a quite successful event. Lots of games played, lots of fun, and several of us made it for the full 24 hours; though I remember having to wake Rob to have him tell the other team the time had elapsed in some (word?) game where it was his turn to watch the timer.
The second Game-a-thon was in Cleveland, Ohio, USA for the start of 2005. I was again hosting a weekly gaming group - The Games Project - as well as participating in weekly Boardgame Meetups - http://boardgames.meetup.com/38/ - and basically gaming as much as possible. The plethora of gaming opportunities may have led to a more relaxed - or jaded - perspective for my fellow gamers, as I did not get the attendance to make the event last the entire 24 hours. If I recall correctly, one group of players came early and stayed until early evening. About the time they left to prepare for parties they were attending, another group came that ended up gaming until about 2 AM. As I'm not a fan of solitaire games, I ended up joining Ann in bed. 14 hours is a good amount for a gaming session, but it left the obsessive-compulsive-completionist aspect of my personality slightly dissatisfied.
Hmmm, every time I've hosted one these things in the past, I ended up moving out of the country later that year. Is this a harbinger for 2007? I'm planning on *staying* in Australia this year, but perhaps the Game-a-thon knows something I don't.
Anyway, I'm once again actively involved in the boardgaming community where I live - which is Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Ann and I host Gamers Without A Name every Thursday evening, as well as a group of semi-gamer friends on Sundays. We also play Tichu with John Farrell and Scrabblette every Wednesday. I generally get to Critical Mass, a twice-monthly public gathering. And there are a few other gaming opportunities I'm often unable to take advantage of. Which is to say that I'm pretty much gaming as much as I can, which I think is a good thing.
A month or so before the event, I sent out the word to the folks I typically game with. I wanted to give everyone enough advance warning that they could commit to the event on their calendars. When the event came around, two people - John Farrell and Trevor Younghusband - had said they would be there with the intention of staying for the entire event. Hmmmm. Am I really that much more enthusiastic/fanatical about gaming than most other people? I guess so.
I was a little worried that three players would not be enough to keep the gaming energy high for the duration, but figured it was certainly possible and it would be fun to see what happened. But then Peter Hawes said that he would be gaming with us starting at 1 PM, that he had to leave about 7 PM for a party, but that he would probably be back early the next morning. As it turned out, his party ended shortly after midnight and he came back around 1 AM and stayed for the duration!
This was particularly good because around 10 AM, John and Trevor decided they were just too tired and had to go home - two hours shy of the goal! But Peter was still keen to play. So I taught him Caylus by playing a very long instruction-and-discussion-oriented game of it. We actually finished around 2 PM, so the event actually lasted 26 hours!
The company of friends was enjoyed, many (15) fun games were played, and the event lasted 24+ hours. A true success!
Here's what we played:
Ticket To Ride: Marklin Edition - I have yet to *ever* win a Ticket To Ride game; and that includes all the different versions. My only saving grace is that I seem to slowly be getting better. I used to always get big negative points at the end of the game for not completing my routes. That seems to be happening less frequently now. John needed to play this for his "play all of The BGG Top 50" quest and I think the fact that he soundly beat Trevor and me (I was in a distant third/last) helped the process of lowering his aversion to the theme of trains. (I've been there, done that. I used to not care for train games myself. But checking out the games of Alan R. Moon, a designer who really likes trains, led me to some very good gaming experiences and now I'm much more willing to give such games a chance, even though I don't entirely understand the love some people have for them.)
Pizarro & Co. - A game I got from my BGG Secret Santa. It's an interesting auction game where your choices get increasingly smaller as the game goes on. In fact, it's possible that your entire game strategy will be set by the end of the first (of three) rounds. John hammered the card drawing and card-trading abilities of Marco Polo and Vasco de Gama and sailed to an easy victory. I was in last place again....
Ra - This game was like Ticket To Ride to me, in that I usually did very badly; as in, it was not unusual for me to end the game with fewer points than I started with! Consequently, I wasn't too fond of the game. But there was enough there to keep me interested - or my fellow players insisted on playing it - and I kept playing. Eventually, some of the strategies must have worked their way through my thick skull and I finally won a game. Now, I *usually* do decently. This time I won. John and I were tied, but I had the 11 sun and he had the 10 sun, which gave me the tie-breaker.
Carcassonne - A game I like quite a bit. I was able to continue my winning streak. (Two games in a row constitutes a streak, right?)
Loopin' Louie - A cult classic in the Eurogaming community, even though it's not a Eurogame. It's been recently reprinted and John found copies with damaged boxes for $15 AU at the local Big W. I went and got a copy for myself later in the week. John and Trevor fooled around with the game while I got the chilli cooking.
Rummikub - John and I were interested in playing this for our "play all the Spiel des Jahres winners" quests. There's not really much to this Rummy variant played with tiles. We played it, said "huh, I guess that's it," and moved on to the next game. (I won, though.)
Pony Express - A lesser-known and lesser-appreciated Alan R. Moon game of betting and horse racing. I decided to start getting some of my lesser-played games to the table during this event. It's a fun enough romp with a bit of excitement in the racing. John pulled out the win.
Rheinlander - A game liked by our group, and one of the first we played when I started Gamers Without A Name. I've managed to win every time we've played - which sometimes surprises me - and now I always have the tension of "Will this game break my streak?" Not this time!
Jumbo Grand Prix - A simple Knizia card game of collecting cards to produce the best car and driver for a number of races. Sufficiently quick, light and fun.
Metro - I was introduced to this game when I attended ConVic in Melbourne in 2006. It impressed me as a light, friendly game with some tactical play options. Milsims had the game on sale for super-cheap and I bought a copy. When I introduced the game to GWAN, my fellow players showed me that it was actually a nasty game of spoiling people's plans! That came as a bit of a shock to me, but I still like the game well enough and the group seems comfortable with level of nastiness. (Perhaps too comfortable.... [grin]
Amazonas - John really likes this game and wanted to play it. (By this time, we were taking turns selecting the game to be played.) I find it "OK," but not too exciting. John's enthusiasm and play experience paid off for him, though, as he claimed first place by a substantial margin.
Metro - Peter joined us again and this game was selected for another play (by Trevor, I believe). John's earlier actions came back to haunt him, as Trevor and I mercilessly killed his routes. This worked better for Trevor than it did for me, in that Trevor tied with Peter for the win.
Australia - Peter brought this game and offered it for play. It's a game I like quite a bit; it matches how I think, perhaps. John's rather down on it, however. Peter took the victory.
The Bridges of Shangri-La - Another game that Peter brought. It was the first play for all of us. It's a really interesting game design, but it requires careful thought and planning. We didn't have that, and when we knew what we were doing by the middle of the game, some of us discovered that we were in no position to win. That was certainly my experience, anyway. Still, I like the design well enough that I look forward to playing it again and exploring its possible strategies. Peter won our game.
Caylus - As I said, John and Trevor decided they had reached their exhaustion limit and decided to go. Peter wanted to learn Caylus, so I taught it to him, with much discussion of possible options and strategies as we played. It took a really long time - about four hours! - but it was fun. I won, but the game was really all about the learning.
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