From the only reliable source of news on the net, the Onion. I have never gotten into the Massively Multiplayer Online scene, no doubt due to being too cheap and lacking time. I prefer sensible games like War in the Pacific-Admiral’s Edition, where, if you are lucky, you can complete a game in a little less time than the war took. Ah, we computer gamers are a wild and crazy breed, with the emphasis on the last part of the equation.
World of GeekCraft
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Funny! Fairly new to gaming (excluding the days of Space Invaders, etc,) and only play FSP. War in the Pacific looks like one helluva strategy game though. A 330 page manual! LOL – too much!
A 330 page manual. You are a geek! 🙂
And proud of it!
At 40 nautical miles per hex, I think WitP would take a little longer than the war–on average.
Sounds like Campaign for North Africa for the computer-minded.
Precisely Dale! Richard Berg would be proud! Gary Grigsby is readying a second game on the East Front.
Grognard’s paradise!
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2152221
So, all the billable hours and the weighty responsibilities of a prestigious barrister has somehow reduced Donald to such trivialities as a game that requires reading of a 330 page manual???
Prayers needed here, please, for our dear friend.
e., I played these type of games long before I became an attorney. My first game was the venerable Panzer Blitz from Avalon Hill purchased by me for Christmas by my parents in 1971.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PanzerBlitz
Avalon Hill–may she rest in peace. PanzerBlitz, Panzer Leader, Squad Leader, Britannia…to name but four that provided much comradeship and boasting opportunities during my adolescence.
Talk about a run of unbeatable classic games. I think my favorite part was that AH owned its own printing press, which is why all its game maps were hard-backed. I still appreciate that to this day.
Say, did you ever come across the Panzer Leader 1940 variant published in the General? Absolutely fantastic–if a little daunting for the Allied player.
Oh yes. I never punched it out though. Sold it on e-bay for a good price last year. The General was a fantastic magazine. When Avalon Hill went under in the last decade, seeing the General end was the bitterest part of it for me.
Yes, Panzer Blitz is still in my house. Has been for over 30 years now. Still pull it out now and then for an afternoon of enjoyment. I am also somewhat partial to the original Tobruk.
Sounds like I missed out on some good gameboarding. A lot of fond memories of all-night Axis & Allies games though.
Rick:
Oh, those are fun, too. But don’t deprive yourself–heed the siren sound of eBay…
Unfortunately, I’m a Civilization addict: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_IV
And when not playing Civ4 (what the latest version is called), I still like playing a game of the old-fashioned board variety- Risk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_%28game%29
What memories!
Ah, Sid Meier’s Civilization series. We Civ IV all the time in my family, especially my wife.
You have a keeper Donald!
I have only McDonald here who plays Civ4 and he quits the moment my tanks roll over his horsemen.
The next big invention will be Third Life, in which participants create avatars who sit at their computers playing Second Life 🙂
On a somewhat related note, a new study has revealed that internet traffic in the United States tends to spike at precisely 8 p.m. Eastern Time… a phenomenon some attribute to that being a common time for people to get together online to start playing WoW.
The study also found that the “prime time” traffic hours on the internet are 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern time — most likely due to people staying up late to watch You Tube and other videos (including, of course, the kind they don’t want spouse or kids watching) and to set straight everyone who’s wrong on the internet 🙂
Speaking of complicated tabletop war games, has anyone ever tried Confrontation? My husband bought a starter set for this, but the rules (at least to me) are really hard to figure out…. I personally have an easier time interpreting pollution control and Medicaid regulations 🙂
By 11:00 PM I have usually been in bed for an hour. Of course I also get up at 4:30 AM.
Elaine,
That would explain why you were able to read the entire 1,000+ House bill on ObamaCare!
🙂
You flatter me, Tito, because I didn’t read the whole thing… maybe about 5 pages 🙂
Some other features that I think would have to be part of Third Life (based on stuff I’ve read about Second Life) would be:
Avatars with the ability to eat, drink, and relieve themselves while sitting at the computer;
Avatars with the ability to age, get wrinkles, gain weight, lose their hair, run up huge credit card balances, and take up boring professions like accounting and insurance sales;
Built-in spouse/significant other avatars who argue with your avatar about how much time your TL avatar is spending on SL, and whether marrying or having virtual sex with a total stranger’s SL avatar constitutes cheating on them;
The ability to post You Tube videos of your TL avatar’s lavish SL wedding or the birth of their virtual SL baby.