January 26 2000 RussCon Report, Top Ten Edition

14 of us (though you'll only see 13 in the game results and ratings lists).

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Top Ten RussCon Games of the Millennium Results:

There were 16 ballots, from me, Jeffles, Bob, Dave, Alfred, Bryan, JP, WendyWhe, Jerrie, James, JeffF, William, Squeaky, Tim, Jay, and Marty.

Recall that trained RussCon Technicians gave each person's favorite game 10 points, 2nd favorite got 9, and so on down to 1 point for 10th favorite.

Remarkably we have a 3-way tie for the first place game! The number of people who voted for the game appears in parentheses after the title. Note there are 11 games in the Top Ten due to the tie for 10th; if you like, knock out Medici using the number of voters as a tie-breaker.

50 Settlers of Catan (9)
50 Euphrates & Tigris (7)
50 RoboRally (6)
45 Acquire (6)
43 Union Pacific (6)
35 Bluff (7)
32 Elfenland (6)
28 Durch die Wueste (5)
26 Samurai (4)
25 Can't Stop (5)
25 Medici (3)

Knizia, Moon, and Sackson all have multiple games in the Top Ten!

And the runners up are:

23 trainsport austria
23 vinci
20 tayu
19 mu
19 age of renaissance
19 outpost
18 ricochet robot
18 cosmic
15 by hook or crook
14 wizwar
14 el grande
13 rheinlaender
13 zirkus flohcati
13 guillotine
12 freight train
12 ghost party
11 samarkand
10 honey bears
10 res publica
10 mississippi queen
9 starbase jeff
8 bitin off hedz
8 nile
7 hare & tortoise
7 quo vadis
7 loewenherz
7 titan the arena
7 torres
6 mcmulti
6 dampfross
5 money
5 fluxx
5 ra
4 fight
4 medieval merchant
4 high society
3 twilight
3 big cheese
3 tikal
2 molehill
2 pirat
2 last chance
2 kill dr lucky
1 knightmare chess
1 exxtra
1 entdecker
1 before I kill you mr bond

Quite a list of worthy games. I've played all but 6 of these games.

We also received one ludicrous ballot from a deranged astronomer:

Best game: Iron Dragon. Easy!

Number 2: Closet Monster.
3. Preacher: Spread the Word.
4. Eurorails (although it would be better in a fatnasy setting).
5. Freecell.
6. Chess (beats the pants off of go).
7. Beard Growing Contests (although Wendy complains we men cheat).
8. Butt Darts (overheard in a Trinity College dorm room occupied by ROTC).
9. Filker Strangling.
10. Clown spanking (would be ranked higher, but the greasepaint gets all over).

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Top Ten Movies of 1999 Results:

There were 6 ballots, from me, Bryan, WendyWhe, JeffF, William, and Jay. I excluded Gods & Monsters and Life is Beautiful from consideration (they were good movies, but from 1998). American Beauty and Fight Club were the only films to appear on 5 of the 6 ballots.

42 American Beauty (5)
36 Fight Club (5)
31 The Sixth Sense (4)
29 Run Lola Run (4)
28 The Matrix (4)
14 Being John Malkovich (2)
14 Iron Giant (2)
13 Election (3)
11 Three Kings (3)
11 Toy Story 2 (2)

And the runners up are:

9 go
9 the green mile
8 the straight story
8 austin powers
7 magnolia
6 all about my mother
6 mystery men
6 splendor
5 trick
5 lock stock & 2 smoking barrels
3 twin falls idaho
3 tea with mussolini
3 relax it's just sex
2 the limey
2 talented mr ripley
1 besieged
1 stir of echoes
1 the world is not enough

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Game Results:

FormulaDe 8 Clayton 7 Alfred 5 Jay 3 William 1 RussW -1 JeffF -3 Fred -5 JonathanC -7
EnGarde 2 Allen 1 Bob -1
Tayu 2 Allen 1 Bob -1
StephensonsRocket 4 JP 3 JonathanR 1 JonathanC -1 Marty -3
SpaceBeans 6 RussW 5 JeffF 3 Fred 1 William -1 Bob -3 Allen -5
Bluff 5 William 4 JonathanR 2 RussW 0 JonathanC -2 JP -4
Kahuna 2 JP 1 Allen -1
Can'tStop 3 JonathanR 2 William -1 RussW -1
LastChance 5 William 4 JP 2 RussW 0 Allen -2 JonathanR -4

A larger number of racers in this week's Formula De. Unlike last week's game, this was no contest: Clayton pulled ahead early on and never lost the lead. I scored this as a Fred game since he took over for Marty after just a few turns. The Budapest map inexplicably appears to have a sandworm from Dune. (Seriously.) The spice must flow!

Once again I missed out on Stephensons Rocket... Grr!

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Evening's Soundtrack:

Altan, Harvest Storm
Black '47, Black '47
Chumbawamba, English Rebel Songs 1381-1914
Loreena McKennitt, The Book of Secrets
2nd Battalion Scots Guards, Pipes and Drums

Music in anticipation of Clandestine, the cool Celtic band from Houston, who will be playing Saturday January 29 at the Cactus Cafe! They are easily my favorite live band. Fiddle, guitar, bagpipes, drums, female vocals. Join me & others beforehand for dinner at Veggie Heaven at 7:15 if you like, then we walk over to Cactus Cafe. The band starts at 9, but get there early to get in line if you want a good seat. It should be about $10.

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Rank ratings:
 1.0000 Clayton (1 game played)
 0.7143 Alfred (1)
 0.4286 Jay (1)
 0.3182 William (5)
 0.1667 JP (4)
 0.1364 RussW (5)
 0.0769 JonathanR (4)
 0.0000 JeffF (2)
-0.3333 Fred (2)
-0.5000 Allen (5)
-0.7143 JonathanC (3)
-0.7143 Bob (3)
-1.0000 Marty (1)

New Win ratings:
 1.0000 Clayton (1)
 0.2273 William (5)
 0.1667 JP (4)
 0.0455 RussW (5)
-0.0769 JonathanR (4)
-0.0833 Allen (5)
-0.1429 Alfred (1)
-0.1429 Jay (1)
-0.1667 JeffF (2)
-0.1667 Fred (2)
-0.2143 JonathanC (3)
-0.3333 Marty (1)
-0.4286 Bob (3)

Clayton pulled a Brady Maneuver! Marty achieved the rare and dangerous Reverse Brady Maneuver! Alfred & Jay also only played 1 game, so are ineligible for Devilhood.

William is the Devil! JP is Vice-Devil. I am Vice-Vice-Devil. William, Russ, and Allen share the Dedicated Award. Tim wins the rare Undedicated Award for playing 0 games.

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Links:

Another site with animated cartoons of the crude humor variety:
http://www.joecartoon.com

Info about the doomed Watchmen film Terry Gilliam wanted to make:
http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/watchmen.html

Greg Egan's 1998 Hugo Award winning novella Oceanic has its complete text online:
http://www.netspace.net.au/~gregegan/OCEANIC/Complete/Oceanic.html
Read the story that caused a friend to recently lose his religious faith!

Fans of American Beauty might be interested in this unusual sounding event:

The healing power of film: Conflict, defeat and triumph in our "American Beauty".

Will film be the "psychotherapist of the masses" in the third millennium? What are the elements in a film that catalyze our transformation? Are actors misunderstood shamans? And what is it about the film "American Beauty" that stirs our inner waters? Psychotherapist Maria Grace, Ph.D., presents a special screening of "American Beauty" prefaced by a talk on the human myth in film, religion and psychotherapy. The story of "American Beauty" will be used as the blueprint for the struggle of our psyche to reach its longed-for freedom. Arbor, Saturday, January 29th, 1:00 p.m. $8.00

And anyone interested in M. Scott Peck's classic bestseller The Road Less Traveled might want to know that Half-Price Books on the drag has many used copies for $1. (I recommend the book highly if you're at one of those introspective times in life.)

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I see dead people!
(say it in an ominous sotto voce, and try not to grin as that ruins the spooky effect)

Russ