February 28 2001 RussCon Report

6Nimmt	7	RussW 6 Marty 4 Clay 2 Matt 0 BobR -3 Dan -3 Clayton -6
Pirateer	4	Tim 3 Alfred 1 Sarah -1 Daniel -3
6Nimmt	8	RussD 7 RussW 5 Marty 3 Clay 1 Dan -1 WendyWhe -3 Alfred -5 Steve -7
Carcassonne	3	Jeffles 2 Carly 0 Clayton -2
HighSociety	4	RussW 3 JeffF 1 RussD -1 Clay -3
BigCity	5	Matt 4 Sarah 2 BobR 0 Tim -2 Daniel -4
WebOfPower	3	JeffF 2 RussD 0 RussW -2
Knights	3	Clayton 2 Jeffles -1 Carly -1
WitchTrial	5	Steve 4 JP 2 Dan 0 Alfred -2 Marty -4
Carcassonne	5	JP 4 Dan 2 RussW 0 Steve -2 RussD -4
TajMahal	5	Matt 4 Carly 2 Daniel 0 BobR -2 Tim -4
LostCities	2	Carly 1 Matt -1
WebOfPower	4	JP 3 RussW 1 Dan -1 Steve -3
Mu	4	Marty 3 JeffF 1 Alfred -1 Jeffles -3
SchottenTotten	2	Steve 1 RussW -1
Knights	5	Marty 4 Jeffles -1 JP -1 Carly -1 Matt -1

6 Nimmt is a pretty nifty German card game that's won awards and is famous and stuff but for some reason we never played it until now. It was good and well worth checking out. It involves trying not collect points; the game ends when someone reaches 66 points. In the second game, Steve skyrocketed to 70 points after just 2 rounds; the next-worst score was Alfred with just 34. But it's ok for me to make fun of Steve for that as long as I mention that he crushed me in Schotten Totten later by claiming 3 stones in a row before I'd claimed even one stone.

It just wouldn't be a RussCon Report if I didn't mention Carcassonne.

Meta Party Game Results

Jeffles was the Meta Party Devil. Here is the nigh-incomprehensible meta party game he emailed out:

Alright, this meta game requires no conscious participation.
So, you can just , oh you already did.
It's the diversity game.
You get points for each new opponent & game you play.
You lose points for each opponent & game you play again.
You add all your points up and multiply by the number of games you have played.
Highest points wins.
In detail
First play of game for night +1 point.
First play of game all year +3 points.
First play of game at Russcon +7 points.
New opponent +1
Repeated opponent 1+ (-1 * number of times you have played them)
Game which has already been played at Russ con that night -10
Special note, sadly all individuals with the same name are actually the same person. So if you play one Jeff, Russ, Dan.... you've played them all and will lose points after that.

My theory is that Jeffles was on crack when he wrote these rules because I think they're as unclear and full of holes as that frustrating game Empire. No one was quite sure what was going on (although it did encourage Daniel to bring his Australian "Squatters" game, in a desperate bid to simulate sheep worming again), and at the end of the evening Jeffles had no idea who had won. So I figure since he called it the diversity game, I'd use the rules to my own Diversity Game! According that there is a tie between me and Matt. So Matt, if you would like to email out the next week's Meta Party Game, go for it, or else let me know I'll make next week's Meta Party Game!

Evening's Soundtrack

Dune, Original Motion Picture Score
Blue Velvet, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Wild at Heart, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Lost Highway
the Straight story, music from the motion picture soundtrack

'Tenderness can be just as abstract as insanity' --David Lynch

Ratings

Rank ratings:
 0.5333 JP (4)
 0.5000 JeffF (3)
 0.4615 RussW (7)
 0.4167 Marty (5)
 0.3158 Matt (5)
 0.1429 Sarah (2)
 0.1250 RussD (4)
 0.0769 Carly (5)
 0.0000 Clay (3)
-0.1250 Dan (5)
-0.2727 Tim (3)
-0.2727 Jeffles (4)
-0.3571 BobR (3)
-0.3684 Steve (5)
-0.4118 Alfred (4)
-0.4286 WendyWhe (1)
-0.6000 Clayton (3)
-0.6364 Daniel (3)

New Win ratings:
 0.3333 JP (4)
 0.2632 Matt (5)
 0.2500 RussD (4)
 0.1667 Marty (5)
 0.1538 RussW (7)
 0.1053 Steve (5)
 0.0909 Tim (3)
 0.0000 JeffF (3)
 0.0000 Clayton (3)
-0.0909 Jeffles (4)
-0.1429 WendyWhe (1)
-0.1875 Clay (3)
-0.2083 Dan (5)
-0.2143 BobR (3)
-0.2308 Carly (5)
-0.2353 Alfred (4)
-0.2727 Daniel (3)
-0.2857 Sarah (2)

That scamp JP is the Devil again! I am Vice-Devil.

Links

Radiskull and Devil Doll Episode 7!

A Wired article talks about the wacky strong affection AIBO owners feel for their robot dogs.

Gallery of CSS Descramblers has a variety of artistically presented software to read encrypted DVDs.

Dan Becker's Gaming Challenge 2001 page is chock-full-o-stats about some of your favorite RussCon gamers! :)

Honey Bears World is perhaps not as cool as it sounds, yet Jeffles will be unable to resist visiting!

The Atlantic's article "Geek Studies" is a sort of litcrit look at the phenomenon of geekdom from a variety of historical and cultural perspectives. My favorite bit was this:

Borsook claims that geeks are inordinately attracted to sadomasochism, not, as trauma theorists would be quick to assume, because they were physically or sexually abused as children, but simply because S&M is contractual and explicit -- with limits, roles, and preferences negotiated in advance. S&M is nearly algorithmic; it minimizes the difference between having sex and writing code.

The help page I posted last week is NOT actually on the Microsoft webpage. Thanks to Alert Reader WendyWhe for the link to a cool site Crypto-Gram with explanation of URL spoofing!

The Spice must flow!

Russ