Don't go, Go!

A few weeks ago I finally learned how to play Go. Go was invented in Korea thousands of years before chess, and is supposed to have even deeper strategies than chess. I had learned the basic rules of the game, which are very simple. However, knowing when to stop placing stones was something I didn't grok, partly because I didn't play enough and partly cuz I didn't have any training from someone who actually knew. My friend Greg mentioned Go one day, and I jumped at the chance to finally learn how to play. After a few strategy sessions, and explaining things like ladders, eyes, and atari, I really started getting it. We've only played about 10 games, but I am seeing good and bad moves and traps. It's great fun!

Fantastic Distraction

My friend Greg sent me a link to the game: Fantastic Contraption (http://www.fantasticcontraption.com). It is a 2 dimensional ‘ant-farm’ world with a physics engine and 5 different pieces to make what you might think of as ‘robots’. You have a work area where you decide how many of each piece to use and attach them together. There is a ‘puck’ in your work area which you must transfer to a goal area. As soon as the ‘puck’ is completely within the goal area, you have solved that level. There are no points and no score. You have either successfully finished a level or you have not.
Here is a contraption that you might think would work, but it gets stuck. (Same as picture above.)
This game sucked me in like nothing else in years! The free game has 20 levels, and runs in a browser. You can save your levels and you get a URL so you can find them again.
What really takes time is the multiple iterations of the modify/test loop. Especially as your machines get more complicated, making changes frequently doesn’t quite change the outcome like you might expect, so then you change it again and run it again. And again. And again.
I think this game was made by someone who has full knowledge of my psyche and what it finds most intriguing/addictive/etc. I have stayed up all night a couple of times already (until the sky started getting light!) Fortunately for me, I have finished the 20 levels. Then I optimized for fewest pieces. So, I’m pretty much done. Unless I do some more optimizing on the 2 or 3 levels where it might be possible to further reduce the number of pieces.
Let’s just say that there is no way I will pay the tiny $10 fee to buy the full game. I wouldn’t come out of my house for a year, maybe never. With the full game you get more levels, of course. You can also build your own levels and share them with friends. Etcetera. Yeah, right. If I bought that game, I wouldn’t ever have any more friends!
To me, optimizing each level to succeed with as few pieces as possible was the obvious thing to do. I mean, after you succeed with some complicated contraption, can you make a simpler one and still succeed? After you look at this game, you may be amazed to learn that you can do at least 18 of the 20 levels with 10 pieces or fewer. It’s true.
Regardless, it’s been tons of fun!

Don't get Mad Auntie, get Eventide!

Today and tomorrow is the Prerelease for Eventide, Magic: The Gathering’s latest expansion pack. I would love to go. However, there are only 3 Prerelease events in California. California! That’s a lot of miles between venues. I wanted to go, cuz I like Sealed, and this is apparently that format: one Shadowmoor starter deck and 3 Eventide booster packs. Also, it’s all new cards! But, I don’t know anyone locally who wanted to go and I also didn’t want to go by myself. So, I missed this one.
There is great news for future Prereleases, at least as far as proximity goes. In their effort to make it easier for people to start playing Magic, (this is the year of acquisition), Wizards has decided to expand the number of Prerelease venues. They will let individual stores host Prerelease events. This is great for me cuz I’m half way between LA and Santa Clara, the 2 nearest venues this weekend. 200 miles is a bit prohibitive.
I’ve gone to Santa Barbara, and would go there again. That’s only 2 hours away. Of course, that means it’s 65 mph * 2 hr = 130 miles / 25 mpg = 5.2 gallons * 2 way trip = 10.4 gallons * 4.60 $pg = $47.84. Ouch! And that’s only to SB. Definitely want to get a group to carpool.
If Captain Nemo’s in SLO hosted an event, I could walk to it! That would be so sweet. Plus, it would bring out more of the local Magic community into the light, or at least to a place I could meet them.
So, until then, I won’t get
Mad Auntie, I’ll get Eventide. Or at least I will after it’s officially released.

Blokus Trigon

My friends Aurora and Al gave me Blokus Trigon yesterday. I haven't had a chance to play it yet. However, I love Blokus (the one with a square grid). The triangles feel much more tricky to me. I'm very good with geometric puzzles. But I get the impression that Blokus Trigon is more difficult. I guess we'll see when I actually play.