December 1 1999 RussCon Report

16 people, 16 games.

It's the end of an era (a hairy white era) as Harry prepares to move to the cultural wasteland of Athens, Texas (pop. 10000) to become a prosecutor, descending into a lifestyle of petty crime, board game withdrawal, all night poker & bourbon in a desperate attempt to relieve the boredom, and strippers with pancake makeup and beehive hairdoos. This will surely cut down on his RussCon attendance... I'm sad to see jolly Harry go, and I'll be even sadder if he doesn't get my Metallica CD returned to me before he leaves Austin, the dirty rat. Good luck in Athens, Harry!

Also, RussCon alumnus Jeffles in Seattle writes "Tear gas SUCKS (be sure and bring water if you're gonna get sprayed)". Good luck smashing the consumerist corporate culture, and see Fight Club if you haven't already...

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Game Results:

MoleHill 2 WendyWhi 1 JonathanC -1
MoleHill 2 JonathanC 1 WendyWhi -1
MoleHill 2 WendyWhi 1 JonathanC -1
MoleHill 2 JonathanC 1 WendyWhi -1
FootballStrategy 2 Tim 1 Harry -1
UmReifenbreite 4 RussW 3 WendyWhe 1 Jerrie -1 Clayton -3
Outpost 5 Marty 4 JP 2 Alfred 0 JeffF -2 Jay -4
Raj 5 Marty 4 JeffF 2 Jay 0 JP -3 Brady -3
Mu 4 JP 3 JeffF 1 Marty -1 Jay -3
Candidate 3 Tim 2 Harry 0 Alfred -2
ExecutiveDecision 6 KevinH 5 RussW 3 William 1 JonathanC -1 WendyWhi -3 Jerrie -5
Bluff 5 RussW 4 WendyWhi 2 JonathanC 0 William -2 Jerrie -4
FootballStrategy 2 Alfred 1 Tim -1
ZirkusFlohcati 5 WendyWhi 4 William 2 JonathanC 0 RussW -2 Jerrie -4
ZirkusFlohcati 5 William 4 JonathanC 2 WendyWhi 0 Jerrie -2 RussW -4
Vinci 4 Harry 3 Brady 1 JP -1 Marty -3

Um Reifenbreite (By the Width of a Tire) is a bicycle racing game where each player has a team of 4 bicyclists. We found it all right but not great; it may be better with the advanced rules.

Executive Decision took a while (as we got used to it, and people talked a lot) and there was some grumbling, but I liked it. It's a simple elegant economic game with a game theoretic model (no chance, and it has simultaneous orders).

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Evening's Soundtrack:

Babes In Toyland, Fontanelle
Marillion, Misplaced Childhood
Nirvana, In Utero
Sonic Youth, Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star
U2, Achtung Baby

Just kidding around.

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Rank ratings:
 1.0000 KevinH (1)
 0.5000 Tim (3)
 0.3333 Harry (3)
 0.3333 WendyWhe (1)
 0.2941 William (4)
 0.2857 Marty (4)
 0.2000 RussW (5)
 0.1429 WendyWhi (8)
 0.0909 JeffF (3)
 0.0714 JP (4)
 0.0476 JonathanC (8)
-0.1429 Alfred (3)
-0.2857 Brady (2)
-0.6364 Jay (3)
-0.8000 Jerrie (5)
-1.0000 Clayton (1)

New Win ratings:
 1.0000 KevinH (1)
 0.5000 Tim (3)
 0.4286 Marty (4)
 0.2000 RussW (5)
 0.1667 Harry (3)
 0.0588 William (4)
 0.0476 WendyWhi (8)
 0.0000 JP (4)
-0.1429 Alfred (3)
-0.1905 JonathanC (8)
-0.2500 Jerrie (5)
-0.2727 JeffF (3)
-0.2727 Jay (3)
-0.2857 Brady (2)
-0.3333 WendyWhe (1)
-0.3333 Clayton (1)

Kevin pulled a Brady Maneuver, and Clayton pulled a Reverse Brady Maneuver! One must play more than one game to be eligible to be Devil, so Tim is the Devil. Harry and Marty are Co-Vice-Devils. WendyWhi and Sea Biscuit share the Dedicated Award (racking up those Molehill games).

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Links:

Bizarre and fascinating article about corporate naming; highly recommended:
http://www.salon.com/media/col/shal/1999/11/30/naming/index.html

Tell your position on issues, and this site ranks the candidates for you. Turns out the best candidate for me is Ralph Nader...
http://www.selectsmart.com/PRESIDENT/

Dave's recent suggestions for Pokemon cheating are used in this mainstream article by a nongamer mom:
http://www.momsonline.com/agesandstages/schoolage/motheringkids/hybrid.asp?key=SApoke1

News story on quantum computing and how software business might become radically different:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/339196.asp

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"Let's do the ball control thing." --Alfred

Russ