Monday, December 15, 2008

End of the Year

With Christmas and New Years behind me, I was thinking back on the year that's just ended. The one constant in the universe is change, and a lot has changed since this time last year. So much so that I'm thinking that maybe I'm remembering things incorrectly. The biggest change is that I have 3 kids now instead of 2. That I'm pretty sure of.

It's hard to believe that at this time last year I had only played maybe 5 or 6 boardgames in the previous couple of years. Now, it's my primary gaming outlet, even more so than video/computer games (with the noble exception of Worldwide Soccer Manager). A quick count at BoardGameGeek has me having played 71 games in 2008. Maybe 5 of them were miniatures, the rest being boardgames. And it was probably more since I didn't start using that site until June.

I'm not necessarily singing the praises of boardgames though. I'm not saying that since I've discovered boardgames I've decided to give up miniatures, because I haven't. I think the main reasons I've been playing so many boardgames is that the people I live near now play them they don't require as big of a commitment as miniature gaming does.

Boardgames also look cool, as I've stated before.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Soccer (Football)

Recently the call went out to the Army of Central Maryland's Yahoo group for people to run games at Cold Wars 2009. I said I would run a game.

So I'm sitting here thinking that it's very easy to say you're going to run a game, something else entirely to actually do it. But it shouldn't be a big deal, since I'm going to put on a modern African game and I won't have to paint anything new. That doesn't mean that I won't paint anything new, but since I've got a fair amount of miniatures and scenery already I won't have to stress about it.

I'm also sitting here playing Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009. This is the US version of Football Manager 2009, a very popular computer game in England and my favorite computer game of all time. When I say game I mean all of the versions that I have played, which right now is probably around 5 or 6. Anyhow, in these games you manage a professional soccer team. Originally the game was all text-based. When your team played a game, the only feedback you got on how things were going came from text that flashed along the bottom of the screen. Later versions introduced a 2D representation of the game, with your players appearing as little circles on the field. This latest version has a 3D match engine, though it is pretty rudimentary and pales in comparison to video games like EA's Fifa series. But, looks are not what this game is all about. It's got a lot of depth and really makes you feel like your running the team.

That's all for now. Steven Gerrard just rang a shot off the post in the first minute against Manchester United. Gotta watch the game.