Hi Eric,
Happy Geek of the Week week geek.
You state that for you, games are not more important than literature, movies and music. Particularly in your styles of interest, who do you think have been some of the most influential figures in these three areas? What do you think have been the most influential works?
Why?

If your music dates you how I expect it does you must be approximately mid thirties. Is that true?

You have rated a lot of games. Some of the games that are rated well below their average include: Empire builder, Iron Dragon (you descibe as fantasy empire building) and Cosmic Encounter (though I have never played it I understand that this is sci fi empire building).
Do you think empire building games are often overrated? Do you dislike empire building games in general or are there aspects of empire building games that you see as essential that these three just don't have?
Also you have a few games that you rate far higher than the average. They are often games that you describe along the lines of silly but fun/beer and pretzels.eg Wiz-War, Lie Cheat and Steal, Block Mania, King's Breakfast etc. Do you find light games are generally underrated in your opinion on BGG? Are there any common factors (eg no downtime, tense but fast, comical etc) to the light games that you find "fun as hell" (King's Breakfast comment) or do they all have very individual factors that make them favourites?
Are your comments on Louis XIV, Shadows over Camelot, Traumfabrik or Wallenstein needing an update or have you still only played them once each?

For those interested in catching up on past Geeks of the Week here is a handy forum list:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/84208
Thanks to Woundwart

Thanks for the honor, Mike. Wow, a lot of questions! I'll start with just the first batch. I tend to be long-winded so I hope this remains interesting.


We host a game day at our house once a month with our regular group, which is about twenty people strong. Most are longtime friends so it just grew out of that. The male/female mix is about even. Few are serious enough to frequent BGG. Usually, we have two tables of lighter games and one ‘heavier’ one. I do both during the course of the day.

Visits from our friends Clark and Lisa or my sister Isabel and her boyfriend Mason always end up in a mini game night, too. I’ve started to attend some outside local events to play new games, but I haven’t done a convention (stayed there) in about fifteen years.


Christina likes Lost Cities, LOTR: The Confrontation, Mystery Rummy #1 and especially Kahuna. Samurai, Carc: The Castle, and Ticket To Ride also get a lot of play. She plays lighter fare on the game nights (lately, a mid-session Werewolf game has become the norm and she's a fan). She's a 6 Nimmt! and Geschenkt fiend at the moment.

My kids love games but that's at least partly because of my programming. It’s a wonderful way to spend time with them and a good motivator - “Finish your spinach now and we’ll have time for half a Die Macher game before bedtime!" The real challenge is that my son is ready for light euros but my daughter, at 4 1/2, really isn't. She just wants to play Pretty Pretty Princess (which I've contemplated a bit - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...), Gulo Gulo and Pitchcar. She regularly crushes us in all three.


That is a combination of things. First, I am willing to give a game that seems lousy (like games based on other media) a go. Second, I rate kids’ games for adults and then say something like ‘double the score for kids’ or some such.

Lastly and most significantly, I am 'selective' (others might say 'picky' but don't listen to them). I rate based on my preference, not necessarily the quality of design. Power Grid, for example, is a well-designed game I don't like so I rate it pretty low.

A game I rate a 7 is a very good game I play regularly. A 5 is a good game I play once in a while. Perhaps my perception is a bit off from the ratings here but I reserve high ratings for the ones I really like.


Yes, it's an obscure character from Spenser's Faerie Queene.

No, no - only joking. But I wonder if I'd have gotten away with that one In all honestly, it is just a made-up nickname from a long time ago - although Dave Arnott simply didn't believe me when I told him that at the last SoCal Gamesday. Ah, well.


At Disney, there were Magic players but I'd dropped that long before. A group at Imagineering (the folks who make the theme parks) invited me to play Settlers once but I never made it over. One guy in my division proposed doing PC ports of Euro games since we were trying to branch out to non-Disney stuff (family-friendly Euro themes sounded good). Never went anywhere. At my current job, I've never done any gaming, although I do BSW from a local i-cafe and play with some of my normal group at lunch sometimes.

Writing - mostly spec and demo writing these days since my primary job is to lead a group of production teams but at Disney, there was a lot of creative work. These days, I focus my creative energy on novels and game design.

How long ago did you drive the 210? It gets worse every year. I have a Prius, so I get to use the carpool lane.

I mostly listen to books on tape but podcasts, too. BOT help me fill in gaps in my reading history. I mean, honestly, in the modern day – does anyone have time to read the lesser novels of Thomas Hardy or Henry James?

Board game podcasts are the norm but I’ve heard some others recently. Nothing amazing yet but The Ricky Gervais Show is funny enough to be more of a threat to my driving safely than recording a podcast.

I especially like the ones mentioned above plus The Vintage Gamer. Some are still finding their voice (mine included). I prefer those focused on board games as I don’t do wargames or RPGs.

Okay, now the podcast stuff...


Not long. Sometime after Mark Johnson called for more board game content in podcasting, I thought 'why not?' I have no illusions about this being anything but a bit of fun for me, although I appreciate all the nice people who have expressed that they like the show.

Fairly easy. Mark told everyone listening to his show how to do it - and cheaply. I've directed some questions to Mark himself and he's been very supportive and helpful. I was concerned about the time commitment but that is why I wanted to record while commuting (which I also thought was kind of funny).

A lot of people have expressed concern, which I found amusing. Don't worry - I start the recording before getting on the road and then don't stop it until I get home from driving slowly in the carpool lane. I don't think it is any worse than talking to a person while driving.

I actually recorded more than fifteen shows on the road before publishing anything and the first episode is the only one I've allowed out. I've re-recorded a few but feedback I received encouraged me to switch to recording while not in motion. Having notes is helpful in keeping things straight. I might go back to recording in the car for session reviews if I can't find time to sit down and record. We'll see.

Members of the Burgess Family are just yakkers. I restrict the length of the shows a lot because I blather on too much. The Guilty Pleasure show was twenty minutes longer but I chopped it because I thought it was too long. I do a fair amount of editing and was once told that I overdid it so much that I sounded like I was on crack (that was Arnott again...) I believe that had to do with me cutting pauses too much to cut the show length. I think it's better now.

Oh, it's probably been overdone but who cares? That said, if she does come on, it will be on a multi-guest show with some other women from the group.

Absolutely. I've got at least three shows planned to bring in other voices. Planning the time has been the issue but it will happen soon.

Nope on all three counts.

I believe it is a good development. Internet users have become accustomed to information management anyway so they can sort through and listen to the shows that interest them. As long as shows are properly identified, it is fine. My show is less popular when I talk about lesser known games but that's okay. They are there in the archives if someone decides later that they want to hear it because they ran out of better content.

I have no angle other than I am probably on the more casual gamer end of things than most and I veer off on other subjects when the mood strikes. I hate to sound so cavalier but I'm not too concerned about it. I liberally borrow from Boardgames To Go's format because I think it works. While I know Mark is encouraging everyone to do their own thing, I figure it will work itself out. As long as I'm having fun, I don't worry much about what other shows are doing.

I never looked at the numbers until I was asked about it by a publisher who wanted to send me a game to review but I now know it is growing nicely. The latest show has quickly shot past 500 listeners, which sounds good to me. No idea how that compares to the others.

Yes - just go ahead and do it. I think the community still wants more content. If you have an angle, more's the better. I do think recording a number of shows before releasing one is a good idea, just so you get used to the format. Of course, it came to me pretty easily. I've been told I sound immensely natural while talking to an answering machine. I choose to accept that as a compliment.


Wow, you're going to take all my content for the missing BGB Volume 2 - which I'd planned as a background show. Maybe I'll hold off on that one until the podcast unless there is overwhelming public demand.

People have been very generous with praise and it is always nice to hear. I really appreciate your comments - especially as I greatly admire your work (more GameKultur, please).

SHEYLON!

1)I've been wondering this for a while. What's your avatar? Is it from a game? It looks like it's from a Bullwinkle cartoon or something. Inform us!

2)You rate Lord of the Rings a 10! Please tell us why in exactly 5 words.

-Burke

Eric,

Congratulations on being chosen Geek of the Week. I was born in Los Angeles and raised out in San Dimas. Now I am in the somewhat less hospitable climate of Washinton, DC. Which is a long way of saying, I wish I was there.

Anyway, on to the brutal grilling . . .

1) You mention that you don't like games that run too long. Yet on your current hot 10, you list Caylus, Reef Encounter and Rail Road Tycoon. All three are pretty meaty offerings. Is your tolerance for longer games on the rise?

2) I love Disney, but I also root for the Empire in the Star Wars films. Growing up in Southern California, it was an integral part of my childhood. You worked there. Is Disney as cynical a corporation as it is often portrayed in various venues?

3) Who is America's greatest living writer?

4) You mention politics as a hobby. You live in a state (and in a part of a state), that by my estimation, is almost universally unconcerned with the goings on in Washington. However, Californians are very socially and environmentally conscious relative to a lot of other states. What is the disconnect? Is it as simple as geography?

5) What is you unpublished novel about?

6) Comic Books or Graphic Novels?

7) Do you think that there is a better hamburger than an Inn & Out hamburger and if so, where can it be found?

8) I see you are a fan of Entourage. Me too. If there was an Aquaman movie starring Adrian Grenier, would you be tempted to go see it?

9) What's your favorite game to play with your kids?

10) What novel have we not read, that just cries out to be made into a game?

Jason

Congrats on becoming Geek of the Week. I note that you are a fellow XTC fan - bounus question - fav album or track? (I wish Aldie would fix the search on letters so that you could click on XTC, U2 etc)

Fourteen questions some of which are a bit heavier – but I like hearing answers to those sort of things as I think they’re revealing of other aspects of a person’s thinking. Apologies if this takes you a half hour to answer.

As usual the first 10 are general: 5 are games related and 5 aren’t. The last 4 are just a bunch of stuff that I’m interested in.

1. Do you enjoy Party Games once in a while? If so which ones have done it for you? Do any deserve more than 5 in ratings terms?
2. You don’t seem to be much into wargames. Are there any that you are keen to play that you haven't yet got to - and why those ones?
3. Which 5 games would you say were the most pure fun you ever played? You can define “fun” in anyway you feel is right.
4. Paths of Glory? Was it really as bad as all that? Did you have someone playing with you who knew the game well?
5. Are there any kids’ games that deserve to be rated higher than they are and why? Are there any you’d like to try out and maybe bring the kid out in yourself?
6. Which are the most interesting places you have visited, and where would you most like to go in the future (apart from Essen)?
7. Should the melting glaciers of Greenland keep us all awake at night? …Where do you stand on the whole global warming issue? Is it the biggest problem facing mankind which some folks are choosing to ignore at their peril or a colossal red-herring that gets way too much media-coverage?
8. What are the best 10 albums of all time?
9. Which three characteristics in a person do you most like and dislike?
10. Who were your 5 greatest people of the 20th Century? Name 10 if you really want to.
11. Is there any type of comment on BGG that really tends to get you particularly frothing at the mouth or keen to unleash some invective? (aside from this question  )
12. Do you ever feel that Euro game design is getting a bit stale these days? Have you ever groaned either aloud or inside when you’ve seen yet another game with the same mechanic you’ve played scores of times already? Name names if you like!
13. Which films and songs bring a tear to your eye?
14. When have you been most scared in your life? I mean really scared.

Congratulations Sheylon! I really enjoy your podcast.

A few questions:

1. I think it's great that your favorite music ranges from My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult to Red House Painters. Do you still like TKK? While in my industrial phase, I liked their early pseudo-Satanic stuff, but once they went off on the disco/trash tangent I kind of stopped following them.

2. What, if anything, do you think of Mark Kozelek/Sun Kil Moon's Modest Mouse covers album?

3. What is the name of the band that does the theme music for your podcast again? Do you know them personally?

4. It seems like you really must have been into 4AD back in its heyday. Were there any 4AD bands that you disliked? What are your favorite labels these days?

5. Can you expound a bit on why you rate Torres a 5?

Eric -

Congratulations on being Geek of the Week! It is such a well deserved honor for you.

I was wondering -

1. You mentioned that your an unpublished novelist. How many novel's have you written? Can you tell us a little about the first one you wrote? What was it about? What was your inspiration for writing it?

2. You mentioned that the Burgess family is a bunch of Yakkers. Can you tell us a little bit about your family and where you inherited your tendancies from?

Thanks!

You mentioned being an RPGer in an earlier life. What games did you play (any favorites)?



What is your most memorable RPG moment?




What is your most memorable boardgaming moment?

Hi Eric

Congratulations on being Geek of the Week. You're the second GotW that I've gamed with!

Having just been over to the US again and having seen carpool lanes, I was wondering what a Prius was and why it would let you drive in one?
Could you explain for us Brits, please?

How come you weren't at ORCcon, but your sister Isabel was? Is she a more serious gamer than you? (Sorry, just teasing!)

Shakespeare, D.W. Griffith and The Beatles

No, only joking. Wow, that is a broad question (or series of them, I should say). I wouldn’t suppose to know who in these massive art forms is the most influential over everyone, so I’ll stick with who has “influenced me” in the only one of these art forms I practice:

Literature: Joyce, Salinger, Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, Heller, Hawthorne, Vonnegut, Calvino, Mishima.

For films and music I like, check the profile.



Those are very long answers and I'm a long-winded guy. I'll come back to them lest they use up all my energy tonight.



Spot-on. I’ll no longer be of primary interest to Madison Avenue this Summer.



(See above for my reasoning behind lower ratings than the norm.)

Well, no. "Empire Building" games are fine. The first two you mention are games I would term 'crayon rail games' that happen to be called “Empire Builder” (and its offspring). And I just don't care for them at all. I played Empire Builder and other crayon rail games a lot in the 80's with a group who just loved them and never really found them to be much fun. Turn to turn, they are too repetitive for my taste and I feel they overstay their welcome.

I've recently come to like Railroad Tycoon with its Euro mechanics, nice components and reasonably manageable play time but the old crayon games still don’t appeal to me. Again, I rate them on how I like them and my willingness to play them again, not just on the quality of the designs.

Cosmic Encounter – I wouldn't call this an 'empire building' game either. More of a conquest and colonization game, in my memory. I realize it was innovative for its time but I didn't like it back in the 80's and I'm puzzled to see people still playing it now. I respect it as innovative in the “rule exception” mechanic and such, but it doesn’t mean I want to play it. Again, I find it overlong, rather repetitive and the ‘trick’ of it (the alien races) is fine but not enough to hold my interest. Thus, the low score. But I did enjoy the recent Vintage Gamer podcast on it and I recommend you give it a listen.

True empire building games would appeal to me fine, although they tend to be a bit long.

In some cases, yes. Wiz-War is a game that I still think is great but fond memories do inform my perception. Lie, Cheat and Steal is another sentimental favorite, although I think it was ahead of its time, too. Block Mania is nothing but nostalgia, as anyone who heard my recent Guilty Pleasure Games show knows, and King's Breakfast is just a great filler that I can play with adults or kids. The 'fun as hell' bit came from playing the wonderful implementation on BSW in four minutes or so. It is fast and furious - and the perfect thing to do when you have ten minutes before you really should be off to sleep.

Okay - I can think of something else to do with that ten minutes...but this is a family-friendly site.

I do think light games are often given short shrift on BGG ratings. Deeper games are just rated higher. I think BG geeks love the complex designs and are honoring the designers for their masterful work. More often than not, I rate games from the gut.

I guess you could say I make no apologies for my low or high ratings. I've always felt that anything worth feeling is worth feeling strongly.

Wallenstein, yes. I've played it more and my enjoyment grows with each game. I will probably end up boosting it to a 10 soon because I think it is a really terrific experience. Traumfabrik and Louis still need more play. Shadows Over Camelot I have played more and, yes, I just dropped it to a 7. I think it has a repeat play issue. I've now played it about eight times and I'm definitely less enthusiastic. I still think it is a good game, but not quite the corker I'd pegged it as.

I recently revealed this information on my Guilty Pleasure Games show, although I’ve occasionally referred to it on BGG.com in some posts. The character is from the classic 1971 game “Lie, Cheat and Steal”. Here is a link to it: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/866.

This is not a highly rated game (and I have given it the highest rating it has), but I do think it is funny, highly enjoyable and way ahead of its time in many ways. Again, listen to the Guilty Pleasure Games, Part 1 show to hear my full view of it.


Okay, how about: “Best theme-mechanics combo ever”

To be honest, I would consider dropping it to a 9 now due to the rarity of play. The setup time is a real problem and it may have some replay issues for many in our regular group. I still find it to be a great design and it does a masterful job of capturing the feel of the book. Few games are that good AND have great theming.

I live on the border of the utterly charming city of San Dimas and bear the brunt of many a “Bill and Ted” joke. Yes, we are having a mild winter, although it was a chilly 48F at six in the morning the other day! Sorry – I’m a native and nearly lifelong Southern Californian. We love those jokes!

Maybe, but ‘long’ is a relative term. When I say ‘long’, I mean that I’m glad we’ve moved away from the days when any game you chose to play would take the entire evening – thinking back to those games of the 80’s (lots of Avalon Hill, for example). I can play Caylus or Reef Encounter pretty quickly now – two-player Caylus on BSW with my friend Bernie can take less than an hour. RRT – well, I have only played the once and I’m having a hard time getting it back to the table but I do like it. If I could find a way to shorten the game to about 90 minutes, I would make the necessary adjustment.

I have no problem shortening games if I think they wear out their welcome before their normal end time. For example, we often just run two races in Royal Turf for a shorter game. You get all the fun of the game and the luck is spread out enough over that amount of time. I mean, that's not even a long game and we shorten it. I don’t take game rules as gospel.

It is and is isn’t. Not everyone with mouse ears on is just looking at your wallet. The Disney halls are full of people passionate about honoring the Company’s legacy and bringing great entertainment to families. But there are also tons of high-powered VPs who just care how two years of Disney looks on their resume. I worked there in the darkest days in modern history – after Frank Wells died and before Eisner finally moved on. At that time, the focus on squeezing money out of the brand was deeply unpleasant, what with the dreadful sequels to classic Disney movies, the misguided and clumsy ‘tweener’ focus of the late 90’s movies and the utterly embarrassing last three theme parks the Company created (not including the opulent Tokyo DisneySea that Disney made for the Oriental Land Company). In all honesty, Disney himself did plenty of cookie-cutter movies and sequels, too, but it just became so coarse and desperate in the last decade that the old ‘spinning in the grave’ comment was commonplace among average consumers.

That said, I’m very optimistic about the future. Bob Iger has made some wonderful moves – including the elimination of a soul-crushing internal department called Strategic Planning and buying Pixar. Some on Wall Street take issue with the 7 billion cost but it doesn’t seem so bad when you remember that Eisner paid 5 billion for the worthless Fox Family Channel. Add this acquisition to Iger’s quixotic decision to acquire rights to Walt’s pre-Mickey creation “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” at considerable cost a couple of weeks ago and you have a man that is at least hinting that he ‘gets’ what it takes to run Disney.

Well, I have a hard time sorting stuff like the ‘greatest’ out since everyone has different ideas about that kind of thing. It's probably someone like William Gass but, sentimentally, I’ll go with J.D. Salinger since he wrote one of my favorite novels – no, not “Catcher in the Rye” – “Franny and Zooey”. No novel ever packed the kind of emotional punch that one did for me, although, like all his novels, you need to read them at the right point in your life. I read F&Z in the first year of college – the exact right moment. I loved the disregard for the form. One novelette and one novella (which is just endless talking!) somehow come together as a great novel even though it shouldn’t work - not according to how I was taught to write a novel.

I guess that's a bit of a cop-out since Salinger hasn't published anything in decades but there you are.

Further, I tend to read a lot of stuff written by dead people.

Well, it is geography but this is also five or so years into a bad time for California and Washington, DC relations. I know there is a feeling now that we need to do our own thing and ignore the stuff going on that frightens us.

Maybe it is also the haphazard notion that what is created in the movies will somehow change the rest of the world in a positive way? That is simultaneously optimistic and rather pompous – plus, it co-exists with all the awful stuff done just for the money that usually ends up having more of an effect on the world than any positive stories Hollywood creates.

But sometimes doing our own thing politically works out. Look at our smoking ban in the workplace - doomsayers called it stupid, predicted that all bars and restaurants would go out of business, mass hysteria would envelope the state. But, no – it worked and we’re expanding it – and other states are following suit.

Of course, we also had the freakshow recall – so we’re hardly perfect. But, then, 2003 was a year of mass insanity in the US anyway.

I’m a bit of a politics junkie – especially around major elections. Getting back to games - I would love to play a great political game but there aren’t many. Still waiting for my chance to play Die Macher.

The first one is a character drama about a guy coming back to his hometown for a wedding but there is a gaming element to it. I suppose most of my fiction is about the games we play in our lives – and I’m not talking about Tigris and Euphrates. I find the ‘game’ concept very informative to my themes and thus, each chapter in the book is basically modeled after the rules of a particular game. I have another novella with a similar obsession with solitaire. The new novel I am currently writing is also steeped in games and there is pretty open mention of euro games (and video games).

That said, they may not appeal to the BGG community if I ever try to get them published. They aren’t science fiction or fantasy. They are modern day character-driven stories. Perhaps if Anne Tyler visited the Gathering of Friends and decided there was something there to hang a story on.

These days, neither. As a kid, I liked Jim Starlin’s “Dreadstar” and I would still like to option it and write a screenplay. Like everything, it got awful after not too long. I recall liking the “Metal Men” and “Elementals”, too. Both are ripe for a refresh and a terrible summer movie.

I recall liking “Watchmen” years ago. Someone gave me the “Sandman” and, at first, I thought it was interesting but ultimately found its relentless unpleasantness to be mean and kind of silly.

How many BGB listeners did I just alienate?

I’ve never had a better fast-food burger, although Clearman’s Galley just south of Pasadena is a close second. Also, you should only eat the In & Out fries Animal Style.

When it came to HBO, maybe.

With both of them, the one I personally enjoy playing the most is probably Pitchcar (they like Gulo Gulo more, but I always lose that one). Barn Buzzin’ Goofy may soon displace it - although I love watching the two of them play that against each other even more. The intensity of the stares over the barn makes me so proud.

Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.

Hi Eric,

Three questions for you:

1) Do you go to gaming conventions? Which ones? Which ones do you like the best? Which do you like the least?

2) What is your all-time favorite gaming related story -- can be a funny anecdote or 'great play/hall-of-fame' moment from a game or anything else that you consider your favorite.

and, in a moment of blatant self-promotion:

3) Do you read INDEPTH? If not, why not?

Congrats on being named "Geek of the Week!"

Chris

I love a lot of their albums but I'll have to be boring and go with Skylarking since it has that wonderful song cycle and no lesser song in sight. Black Sea and the Dukes of Stratosphear compilation Chips from the Chocolate Fireball are also favorites. The song list would be too numerous to list.

Sure, I do and many deserve better than a 5 rating. Balderdash is my favorite, which is probably not surprising because of my love of words. Apples to Apples is very funny, too.

I played a lot of Avalon Hill wargames in the 80's because that was the best thing going at the time. But heaven help me if I ever have to go through another game of Flat Top or the like. As for wargames I'm inclined to try, none come to mind. Joe Steadman has illuminated for me most of the reason why they don't interest me - they aren't meant to be "fun", they are meant to re-enact. And that makes me think...life's too short.

That said, I did do Memoir '44 finally not too long ago and it was okay. But that is as close as I will probably get.

Poker for bluffing/joke telling/trash-talking fun. Ra - my favorite game - for good game-play fun. Balderdash for laughing-type fun. Pitchcar with a load of players for competitive-but-not-serious fun. Kahuna - but only with my wife, which is vicious-battle-fun.

The first time, maybe not. The second time - I'll admit I went into it with a bad attitude. By then, I knew it was a game that was highly praised here on BGG and I thought - even though they say wargames have gotten better than they used to be, it still had the CRT, the same little counters and the endless playtime. I'm just not made for these games. Again, I rate on my appreciation for the game and my willingness to play again. A 'good' game that is just 'not at all for me' generally gets a '3'.

Well, I think they are mostly rated fine because I believe the majority of the users rate them based on how adults would like them. That's how I do it, with a caveat that it should be higher for kids. Thus, this is where the personal comments come into play, which I find more useful that just looking at the raw number. If it were called www.boardgamekid.com, I'd rate Gulo Gulo a 10.

I've tried most of the "good" kid ones and I have fun with them - especially dexterity games. I wish I'd obtained some Haba games for my kids but finding them in the US can be a challenge. And, honestly, we have more games than we can possibly play regularly anyway. It might amuse some to hear some that Kids of Catan is my most frequently played Catan game.

I wish I were more well-traveled but my dear wife hates plane flight and nothing would be worth enjoying without her around.

Of those I visited before we met, Australia was my favorite place, actually. The countryside was gorgeous and I really loved the people. I visited when I was in high school and I was highly impressionable so it really made an impact on me. I also loved New Orleans, Victoria, B.C. and the island of Kauai.

Essen is absolutely on the future list, but first I want to come to the UK, being a life-long Anglophile addicted to British comedy and candy. We are also talking about a Mediterranean cruise next year.

Absolutely. I am mortified by how this is being ignored by so many in power. Whenever you have to find all these energy industry scientists to dispute something, you know you are in trouble.

I won't say 'best' - how about my favorite 10? In no particular order:

The White Album - The Beatles, Automatic For The People - R.E.M., Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd, Loveless - My Bloody Valentine, 3 - Velvet Underground, Mighty Joe Moon - Grant Lee Buffalo, Surfer Rosa - Pixies, Rubber Soul - The Beatles, Disintegration - The Cure, Rollercoaster - Red House Painters

Hard to get only ten on here. I could go on a lot longer naming favorite albums. I do love a lot of 'classical' music and jazz, but popular music trumps them both because I like the lyrics.

Like: Humility, Generosity, Compassion
Dislike: Carelessness, Smugness, and Cruelty

Did I answer this one already?

Nothing, really. I can't get too upset about games. They are meant to be fun. When people get angry on BGG, I tend to make jokes. That's the only way to deal with that nonsense, in my opinion.

I won't say stale but it is harder to keep them interesting. More and more of what I call "Frankenstein's Monster" designs are coming out and they are often wonderful (Caylus) or sometimes less so (Kreta). I don't have a problem with recycling a good mechanic (when will someone put the card system from Eiszeit into a truly great game?) but if games are too similar, well, they just won't go over as well and will probably sell less. That's okay. There are more than enough good games out there already.

Hmm..."Imagine" tears me up every time. So does "Everybody Hurts" and My Bloody Valentine's cover of "We Have All The Time In The World" (our first dance song at our wedding). Hearing my four year old daughter sing my favorite (and perhaps the most beautiful) Christmas song in history, "Christmastime Is Here", made me tear up big time. Oddly, the movie "Love, Actually" hit me at the end recently when we saw it again on the cable, but I think it had more to do with Richard Curtis realizing that the coda of The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" should go on a lot longer than it does in the original recording. I think it was also that I sensed that pain of distance from family and friends - something I've never had to experience much since I live so close to most of my favorite people.

A lot of what is going on in the world right now makes me scared for all of us. Really.

1. I am similarly uninterested in the disco junk that TKK did later, although I was amused that they had their little moment in the spotlight with “Sex on Wheelz”. But the scary stuff seems cool way back when - I mean – that’s what drew me to heavy metal as a young kid, later punk and then industrial music – what seemed the most threatening at the time. Isn’t that what all young men seek in their music? Something that will frighten the parents? The early TKK was fun but I also haven’t paid any attention to them since the disco stuff came out. And, of course, although industrial music now seems quaint and somewhat silly, I do still think “Kooler Than Jesus” is a corking album (really, a compilation). Their concerts were a riot, too.

2. I think it’s something a lot less than the Red House Painters. The ponderous music on those albums were so wonderfully matched with Kozelek’s passionate laments. But when he started playing the guitar himself more, his music got less interesting. I still like it but Sun Kil Moon just doesn’t do those epic songs like RHP.

Interestingly, my wife – whose taste in music is nearly identical to mine (an important component to a happy marriage, in my view) – loathes Kozelek. She likes the music on the early RHP records but detests the way he keeps his voice so high in the mix and dislikes the what she calls ‘whiny lyrics’. Part of it also comes from a performance he gave at 4AD’s “All Virgos Are Mad” concert years ago where he stopped the concert and picked a fight with someone in the audience. She already disliked him and then she thought he was a complete loser. Ah, well – I still love her.

3. Cucoloris is the name of the band and, yes, they are friends. I actually work with the guitarist, although she doesn’t live in LA anymore. They have a wonderful EP of their music called “Unfurl”, which they self-produced and it is available for purchase, although their website is currently down because the band is on hiatus.

That said, their music is wonderful. Very 4AD-meets-shoegazer. If anyone is interested in buying their EP, PM me and I’ll pass on their contact information. It's like $5 plus shipping. I’m proud to say Boardgame Babylon has sold them a couple of EPs so far and that I hope it inspires them to record more.

4. Well, any 4AD fan has to love Bella Union now since Robin Guthrie is involved. I still like Creation, too. I don’t have my finger on the pulse of the music scene as I once did but I think a lot of good music is still coming out – you just don’t hear it on the radio.

Forgot to say about 4AD bands I didn't like. Mostly, I loved them although some later stuff was less exciting than the real wonders - Wolfgang Press, Birthday Party, Pixies, Cocteau Twins, His Name Is Alive, Dead Can Dance, Pale Saints, Unrest, Lush and Red House Painters. I wish I liked all three of the This Mortal Coil albums more. There are some mediocre tracks on the second and third one. I wanted to like A R Kane more than I actually do. Clan of Xymox and Throwing Muses were hit-and-miss, in my view.

5. I just think it’s a bit of a bore, really. I am not a big fan of the Action Point mechanic, as it leads to lots of analysis paralysis issues. If I am going to play an AP game, I would rather play one that is more varied like Tikal (which I think is the best of that trilogy, although I admit I only played one aborted game of Java) and one that has a more compelling theme than Torres.

I'm sorry, but I can't resist this topic, as a commuter with a carpool sticker, I'd like to comment.

About 30 years ago here in Southern California facing both bad traffic and bad air polution (there were days where you literally could not see the mountains only 3 miles away, and could not breathe after about an hour of exercise), we started setting aside the middle lane of certain high-traffic freeways to encourage people to drive with more than one person per vehicle (a "carpool"). These High Occupancy Vehicle lanes caught on, and were increasingly included when new freeways were built and old ones maintained.

In 2000, California (and a few other states) passed a law that vehicles meeting extremely strict pollution standards (they also had to be non gasoline-burning alternative fuel vehicles.) could apply for a special sticker to ride the HOV lanes with a single occupant. In 2005, this was extended to certain hybrid gas-electric cars that meet high pollution standards and also get very high mileage. The Toyota Prius is perhaps the most popular car in this category.

It varies, but if there's even a little traffic, it almost always saves time and stress to be able to drive the HOV lane. Even if it isn't going any faster, the HOV lane stops much less often than the regular freeway lanes.




For a lot of people it might be as simple as geography. I'm sure you remember growing up in SoCal; an amazing thing has happened. While we increasingly have more cars than ever before, the air quality has improved overall. Growing up here, I remember having smog alerts at least 50-60 times a year; but I can't remember having even one in the last 5 years. The geography can make certain problems and/or solutions more obvious.

1. That one, I know I answered. Inspiration? Not sure where the ideas form but I know the origin of the drive to tell stories...

2. That's the just the Irish/English side of the family - talkers all. You can get my father and his remaining five brothers and sisters together into a room and you somehow you get about thirty-two conversations going on at once. And they are masters of transition - they tell one story which somehow melds into the next without a pause, so there is no chance to get away. Not that you want to - they chronicle things wonderfully. I'm sure this is where I got my interest in storytelling - which first manifested in DM/GM roles in RPG games, of course.

I enjoyed my chance to play with you, Paul, although I still say I was robbed in Fist of Dragonstones! If I only I'd remembered about that thief card...grr! More details on that in BGB v14.

A Prius is a marvelous hybrid car that everyone should buy, right now. It gets great gas mileage, never needs to be ‘charged’, and drives like a dream – excellent pickup and acceleration, smooth handling and superior control response. Not for nothing was it Motor Trend’s Car of the Year! Matt already talked about carpool lanes and the hybrid owners get to use them to encourage people to purchase them. I bought mine before that law came through but I was glad it did because it cuts down my time (and the length of car recorded podcasts, I guess, too).

Yes, during that Orccon weekend (President's Day, for the non-locals) it did seem like the world was out of whack since she was in attendance and I was not. She's definitely taken offense to my referring to her as a 'casual gamer' (I pretty much consider myself one!) and thinks I do not deem her as a threat.

But I point out (and she will, too) that she managed to defeat me in our game of Money! recently despite my stellar score of $640. So, I promise to take her as a more serious threat now.

RPGs – well, it started with D&D Basic Set back in 5th grade. My first adventure was "Palace of the Silver Princess" (B3? Is that right?) and I was hooked quickly. After switching to AD&D pretty quickly, I started wanting to GM and worked on developing a fantasy world. Played that for a while, plus some quirky Fantasy Games Unlimited stuff and Traveler before making the jump to GURPS – which I thought was dumb at first when I saw there were instructions for making “baby” PCs. I actually took poor Steve Jackson to task at one of the old Strategicons for creating a system that allowed nerdy gamers to do extreme things like create a character with one eye, one arm, one leg but a massive Strength. He was just a nice guy about it and signed my copy of "Globbo" anyway (hey, it was the only game he had at his booth that I didn’t own...)

But I later realized the brilliance of GURPS and I never played anything else since, although I haven’t played an RPG in about 15 years. In my day, though, I ran multiple GURPS games, mostly Fantasy but also Supers for a bit. I doubt I’ll ever play them again just because of time and level of interest issues.

Also, sometime earlier, we played "Dinky Dungeons". On one amazing night, we played a module that I threw together while we sat at a 24-hour Winchell's Donut House (the original "Winchell's", which is in my hometown of Temple City, CA). We furiously played this most minimal of RPGs (Two attributes, baby! "Physical" and "Mental") all night and had a blast on too much sugar and caffeine. I'm sure the donut guy thought we were nuts but somehow the fluorescent light and uncomfortable seats made it better. Alas, the magic of that night was not recaptured in my next DD adventure and the game went missing after that. Ah, youth.

But the most memorable? Well, there were some great times in the campaign I ran with three older women with whom I worked. Ended up getting involved with two of the three at a later point. I think Chez Geek calls it “RPG Nookie”, right?

For the RPG story, I know which story Matt wants me to share...and it's a bit long. Perhaps I'll have to tell it on BGB sometimes or maybe I'll type it out this week if I get a chance. I'm kind of thinking it is one of those 'had to be there' things...

For the board game story, recently, I would say it was winning my first game of Caylus by one point even though all four other players spent to move the Provost the maximum number of spaces back on the last turn. Man, that Provost could have retired on the money he made the last two rounds. Still, I managed to win.

1. I used to attend the Los Angeles area Strategicon conventions from ’86 to about ’90 (including Origins in 86 and 89, back when it toured around) but then being away at college got in the way. I went back last year for a day but, ah, I didn’t feel a burning need to go back (as I mentioned above…)

These days, it is hard to get away for a game convention with a wife and two small children. I plan to do Essen one day, perhaps as part of a family trip to German. BGG.con does sound like fun. But, to be honest, I do plenty of gaming in my home and other nearby venues. I haven’t really the need to go to conventions. I suppose I would go if I knew that I could meet some designers I admire but most of them don’t come to the states much.

2. See the above post...

3. I haven’t up to this point. Honestly, I didn’t know it exists. I'll give it a look.

I forgot to say - I'm hoping Gone Gaming adds a category for "Best Podcast Theme" next year. This is the only category I think I could win.

I just realized that their cafepress store is still up ( http://www.cafepress.com/cucoloris), despite the band website being down. Buy something and it will be fun to wear since people will have no idea what in the world it means. But, seriously, remember when you went to concerts and you had to wear a shirt that was from a cooler band than the one playing? It had to be a more obscure and more hardcore to be really cool. Buy a Cucoloris shirt and you're totally there.

Congrats on being GotW. However, as a rustbelt resident, I have to comment on the current hybrids cars out there.

Purchasing any gas/elecric hybrid vehicle in the U.S. right now is just a personal vote for that technology, and not a financially sensible decision. According to many automobile periodicals and newspaper articles, it would take the average hybrid car driver at least 10 years to break even on the price difference, based on actual mileage savings. Also, if you must buy a hybrid now, there are several available from U.S.-based auto companies. When you buy a foreign car, even if the car was assembled and sold in the U.S., the profits from that car are going to that foreign company, and thus has a less positive effect on the U.S. economy than a hybrid purchased from a U.S.-based company. I realize the coasts don't readily see the impact of buying foreign vs. domestic like those of us in the Midwest do, but believe, the economic impact is huge, and it affects the entire country.

Lastly, IMHO GM has focused their hybrid efforts where it makes more sense -- on buses, not small passenger cars. The hybrid buses used in Seattle and other places (like Yosemite, I think) conserve many times more fuel and cut many times more harmful emmisions than all the hybrid passenger cars in the U.S. combined. They are also focusing on advancing the hydrogen fuel cell as the next generation of auto propulsion, which produces 0 harmful emmisions (only water).

(Backs off the soapbox; returns to work)

Aw, but I'm out of luck now that Boardgame Speak and the Beatnik Turtles are back. Curses!

I absolutely agree with the "Buy American" message here and the overall message about public transportation (which, in LA, is little more than an antiquated and overburdened bus system) but based on my own comparison in the costs of my savings on this purchase versus the similar purchase of a non-hybrid car, I'm doing much better after less than a year. This is largely due to inflated gas prices right now. When you add that to using the carpool lane with the hybrid (saving me loads of time) and the 'cool' factor of the technology on-board (navigation system, bluetooth phone capabilities), plus my personal interest in giving less money to oil companies, this was an instant buy for me.