February 20 2002 RussCon Report


News
Game Results
Meta Party Game Results
Evening's Soundtrack
Ratings
Links
19 of us played 21 games.
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News

I have been sticking to my New Year's Resolution of attending Tuesday night Go Club at Great Hall Games... there's always a good turnout, with players of various skills including beginners, so go players and wannabe go players should come check it out.

Game Results

Carcassonne3RussW 2 MarkY 0 Clayton -2
Vampire4MarkY 3 RussW 1 Whindy -1 Clayton -3
Traumfabrik5Jeffles 4 Marty 2 JP 0 Dan -2 BobR -4
Metro5PJ 4 RussD 1 Steve 1 Matt -2 Fina -4
Tichu2( Clay William ) 1 ( Ben Whendy ) -1
ZirkusFlohcati5Clay 4 Clayton 2 William 0 Fina -2 Ben -4
Traumfabrik5Jeffles 4 Dan 2 BobR 0 JP -2 Marty -4
Vampire4Fina 3 Clayton 1 Clay -1 Ben -3
Auction20023Steve 2 PJ 0 Matt -2
WebOfPower5MarkY 4 RussW 2 RussD 0 Carly -2 Whindy -4
WasSticht4Jeffles 3 William 1 JP -1 Dan -3
Carcassonne3Steve 2 JP 0 Dan -2
StephensonsRocket4RussD 3 MarkY 1 RussW -1 Marty -3
Bluff5Steve 4 Dan 2 MarkY -1 RussW -1 JP -4
Tichu2( Matt Carly ) 1 ( Whindy PJ ) -1
Can'tStop3MarkY 2 Steve 0 PJ -2
CosmicCoasters2JP 1 RussW -1
CosmicCoasters2JP 1 RussW -1
CosmicCoasters2JP 1 RussW -1
CosmicCoasters2JP 0 RussW 0
CosmicCoasters2RussW 1 JP -1

Holy smokes, I won another game of Carcassonne this week! Poor Clayton got lapped.

Traumfabrik apparently had a burst of popularity, getting played twice. I wouldn't mind trying it again, since I think I never got to play it with the correct rules. This is a game which we probably played wrong in more ways than any other game at RussCon, for several weeks discovering different rules we were misplaying.

Auction 2002 was some game Matt discovered that used a regular deck of cards, or a Tichu deck, or whatever deck, and that's all I know about it.

Cosmic Coasters: great little 2-player game! JP trounced me incredibly, though, in the second game, so we switched sides, and he trounced me even faster. It took 2 more games before I could beat him. Most humbling. The fact that draws are possible is interesting. Even more interesting is that it's possible to have a position from which one side cannot win, but the other side will win with probability 1, but in theory the game could draw out forever if the player who can't win keeps winning the rock-paper-scissors battle, thus denying the other player their win. We had the latter situation occur. If I'd been luckier, then we'd still be playing that game. :)

A reminder: please write and spell clearly when recording game results, make the scores and ranks clear, and remember last initials for people with common names, thanks! This week there was a game recorded with ambiguous Bob. I don't always remember who all was there since I write the Report days later sometimes.


Meta Party Game

I was the Meta Devil. Here is the Meta Party Game I mailed out:
It's been a while since we had one of those wacky always-active Meta Games...

To encourage polite sporting behavior, I present this week's Meta Game:

Participants receive 5 tokens upon arrival. (We will use Remi's old business cards for this purpose; they should fit easily into any pocket.) You may choose not to play, in which case you simply take get no tokens and don't play.

Whenever you make a request or command of any sort, you should say "please". E.g. instead of "Pass me the dice!" or "Can you get me a Fresca?" or "Take your turn!" you might something like say "Please pass me the dice!" or "Can you please get me a Fresca?" or "Take your turn, please!" If a participant doesn't remember to say "please" when asking for something, then any other participant may say so and request a token from the non-pleaser. In case several people all notice the lack of "please" and request a token, the first requester gets it. (Note that requesting a token from a non-pleaser is itself a request...) In case of tie, the non-pleaser may choose whom they give their token to. If you run out of tokens, you are eliminated and play no more. If a non-participant points out the lack of "please", there is no effect; a participant may then claim the token if desired. If no one points out a lack of "please", then of course nothing happens.

Asking an informational question is not considered a request. E.g. "Is it my turn?" or "Can I show all my dice?" is fine; one needn't ask "Please, is it my turn?" or "Can I please show all my dice?" (We will ignore philosophical questions of whether this is in fact a request for the listener to give you information. If you like, say that the only requests that count are requests for some sort of material action, and requests for information don't count.)

Of course honest sporting behavior is expected. In the exceedingly unlikely event that someone sincerely accuses someone of not saying "please", and the accused sincerely says they did say "please", the accuser is innocent. In the event of other uncertainties, ask the Meta Game Moderator or work it out yourselves.

Your score = # tokens you own when you leave (at which point your tokens go out of circulation); tell me, or write your score in The Book. High score wins. In case of tie, I will pick the person who seems more polite!

P.S. I will give you a bonus point if you give me a note during the evening that has the Evening's Soundtrack written on it.

Russ, your friendly Meta Moderator.

This worked out fun for the folks who participated, and I enjoyed seeing an always-active Meta Game in action again. JP collected the most points, so he is next week's Meta Devil! He will cook up some JP-esque mischief for next week.

Evening's Soundtrack

Bauhaus, Press the Eject and Give Me the Tape
Eurythmics, Be Yourself Tonight
Jack Off Jill, Sexless Demons and Scars
Marry Me Jane, Tick
Run Lola Run, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Several people detected the commanding theme. Boobie prize to Dan for guessing dyed hair. :)


Ratings

Rank ratings:
 1.0000 Jeffles (3 games played)   
 0.6429 Steve (5)
 0.5000 Clay (3)
 0.5000 MarkY (6)
 0.3636 RussD (3)
 0.2500 William (3)
 0.1111 PJ (4)
 0.0476 RussW (10)
-0.1667 Clayton (4)
-0.1765 Dan (5)
-0.2000 Carly (2)
-0.2273 JP (10)
-0.2727 Fina (3)
-0.4286 Matt (3)
-0.4545 Marty (3)
-0.5000 BobR (2)
-0.7500 Whindy (3)
-1.0000 Ben (3)
-1.0000 Whendy (1)
New Win ratings:
 1.0000 Jeffles (3)
 0.5000 Clay (3)
 0.4286 Steve (5)
 0.3333 MarkY (6)
 0.1111 PJ (4)
 0.0909 RussD (3)
 0.0909 Fina (3)
 0.0000 Carly (2)
-0.1250 William (3)
-0.1364 JP (10)
-0.1429 Matt (3)
-0.1905 RussW (10)
-0.2500 BobR (2)
-0.2727 Marty (3)
-0.2941 Dan (5)
-0.3333 Clayton (4)
-0.3750 Whindy (3)
-0.3750 Ben (3)
-1.0000 Whendy (1)
Jeffles is the Devil! Steve is Vice-Devil. Clay is Vice-Vice-Devil. MarkY is Vice-Vice-Vice-Devil. JP & I share the Dedicated Award. Whendy pulled a rare and dangerous Reverse Brady Maneuver.

Links

Large rotating hamster wheel houses? Check out the experimental housing vision.

Don't Cross the Memes! TotL.net Human Virus Scanner is a fun little icon-recognition quiz.

PCs Are Incorrect on TV Wired article reveals that in tv and movies, good guys use Macs and villains use PCs... but that's old news. More interesting is that good guys play chess and villains play go.

eNormicom will help your company solve its e-dentity crisis.

Limp Bizkit Guitarist Search: A Behind-The-Scenes Account. The author is angry at Limp Bizkit, apparently with good reason.

All you have to do is move your mouse left and right, and you too can juggle!


please stop saying please

Russ