2004-06-23 RussCon Report

I'm not sure I follow the 2nd class logic that led me to become Meta Devil, but RussW will probably regret his decision....

Well, it seemed like a good idea to try and pick a Meta Game theme that would be topical. So I checked some of the greeting card websites, which seem to have created a holiday for virtually every day of the year, and it turns out that this Wednesday, June 23, is National Pink Day.

Stop groaning.
"Oh, for the love of pink..."

Here's the rules:

Meta Devil points will be awarded for a variety of reasons:

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Each time playing a game with the color pink in it: 1 point

This includes all items used to play the games, but does not include the box or rules sheets.
Please get me to verify, and then mark each game that has pink with a circled P in the logbook.
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Each time being the sole winner of a game with the color pink in it: 2 points
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Each time being one of multiple winners of a game with the color pink in it: 1 point

For the purposes of this meta game, "multiple winners" includes the cases where more than one individual wins (has the most devil points) or the winner is a team, or multiple teams win. If everybody ties for the same place, (everybody receives 0 devil points), then no meta-devil points are given.
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For each item of clothing or jewelery with the color pink worn to Russcon: 3 points
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For each item of food or drink with the color pink brought to Russcon: 3 points

For the purposes of this Meta Game, food items that are groups (cookies, packs of pop, etc...) will be considered as one item.

I'll keep track of food, clothing, etc... points throughout the night, just find me and let me know.
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I was unable to determine, via a cursory browsing of the web, what the origins of National Pink Day are (besides the presumed vested interests of the greeting card industry.) Therefore, 5 points will be awarded to the person providing the most liked explanation of the history of the holiday, be it real or fictitious. You can email me your entry, or add it to the list that I will provide on the night of Russcon. You can make multiple entries. Everybody at Russcon is permitted to mark each entry with a +1, -1, or nothing. The entry with the most positive score gets the five points. Yes, this has been blatantly plagiarized from Ben's Tao Te Ching Meta Game:
http://russcon.org/RussCon/2004/0421.html

If there are ties, the five points will be evenly distributed among the winning explanations.

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Most total Meta Devil points is next week's Meta Devil! Ties to be broken by random roll if needed. I will decide what is or isn't pink. RussW can overule me if he feels like it.

Games with pink: Ticket To Ride, Exxtra, Ricochet Robot, and Guillotine.

Theories proposed for why Pink Day is celebrated, in order of popularity by the evening's voting (it was a tough crowd):

• -1 (Fina) : In honor of breast cancer awareness
• 0 (RussW) : Pink is celebrated because blood is the stuff of life, and vodka is the booze that doesn't freeze, and together they make a tasty pink drink.
• 0 (JimG) : Kevin got his first issue of Hustler
• 0 (Whendy) : Pink day celebrates the ocular infection "pink eye".
• 1 (KevinU) : This holiday, currently set to June 23, has its roots in ancient pagan traditions. After spending a day of nude partying to celebrate the summer solstice, everybody was pink the following day.
• 2 (Matt) : Birthday of Reservoir Dogs' "Mr. Pink"

Hence Matt gained 5 meta points for his compelling explanation (and for anyone who hasn't seen Reservoir Dogs, you really should!) Furthermore, Whendy wore a dress with pink, and brought some very aromatic pink strawberry candies; Kevin wore 2 pink pieces of clothing (shorts and shirt), I wore 3 different pieces (tie-dye skirt (which I can be seen wearing in this "Where's Russ?" photo of a wedding at the Flipside) and tank top and my stencil monkey shirt which has a pink monkey).

Combining the various earned points, Kevin reckoned the final scores as follows:

• 1 : Chad, Fina, JimG, Vince
• 2 : Ben, Clayton, MarkY
• 4 : JP
• 7 : Whendy
• 9 : Matt
• 11 : KevinU
• 15 : RussW

I was a juggernaut of pinkosity, and so I am the Meta Devil and will design next week's Meta Game! Which seems somehow pleasing since it will be my last RussCon for a while.