Tag Archives: games

Inconsistency in Series Naming

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This was going to be long, but I’m going to try to make it short and maybe touch on the subject again at a later date. Really, I just think it’s weird how inconsistently many movie series, web series, and product series are named.

I’ve talked before about how the Alien movies went from numbers to weird subtitles for no good reason, and it only take a little bit of movie knowledge to know that Rambo completely changed its title: First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part 2, Rambo 3, and finally Rambo. Even more recently, the Fast and the Furious movies have been changing the name with every sequel. And I would make a joke about them being embarrassed they made so many, but I think that it’s true. At least they are putting numbers at the end of most of them.

Call of Duty got all kinds of screwed up because of “creative differences” in the direction they wanted to take the series, and adding more and more studios to the mix.
Product lines can also be weird. From fountain pens that are being re-issued, to different iterations of tools with improvements not being named differently, and finally to phones, where apparently naming things is just an exercise in making tech historians frustrated.

iPhone Series

Really, web series, whether in text, video, or audio form, are both the least impactful and the most annoying in this category, with many subtle changes to either the titles or formats being made without any explanation. Sure, that doesn’t really matter, but when I’m organizing them into a list or something (which I never do, so I’m not sure why it bothers me) it’s just kinda ugly to look at.

Granted, I’m sure I’ve made this mistake sometimes. But is a little more consistency really that hard? I can’t think that it is. Especially for the web shows and tech lines, who really have complete control over what the thing is being named. I understand that sometimes movies have different people making a name by committee, which is a bad way to do almost anything. But TV shows would have a similar problem, yet most of their names are consistent. I guess I just don’t understand how so many things, especially popular things, could just be so off in the naming consistency department.  Maybe someone should start a firm that’s in charge of that. No one would listen to them, though.

Games That Teach – Axis & Allies and Short Term Planning

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When talking about board games, games so old and still so loved as “Axis and Allies” are hard to find. With so many versions, updates, and house rules, defining the core that is “Axis and Allies” can be difficult at times. One of the core elements,though, is most definitely the controlling of factories to get points to build more units with. And while this mechanic (mechanism) might seem like it favors strategy and thinking over the long term, I’d argue that it really encourages planning in the short term, for your next turn and not for future turns.

The one I have isn't the greatest.

The one I have isn’t the greatest.

Let me try to explain before you scream at me for being wrong (or more likely just leave the page). The resources you get at the end of a turn will not be used until the beginning of your next turn or later. A player can save up for long periods of time but there is almost no point when you’re being punched in the face by you opponent’s pieces. The illusion of long-term consequences comes from this ability to save, but really the game is just about how many IPC’s (resources) a player can get at the end of this turn to have the most effective next turn. While a player deploys resources at the end of their turn, it still means that the maximum they are thinking is two turns ahead, and if they think farther than that (i.e. want a battleship or aircraft carrier, which are expensive) they are likely to get taken out by their opponent who didn’t do that and is fighting with superior strength.

This is also coupled with the fact that the ultimate goals of each side are placed only several spaces away, except for the United States, which is impossible to take and has to produce units and move them across an ocean to be effective (which is why they usually have China). Players don’t have the time to think about turns farther in the future because if they do they’ll be beaten by players who thought about the turn directly ahead.

Now I’m not going to say that this makes for a bad game, or an un-educational game. In fact, the game is quite fun and in certain cases even has the player going for historical objectives. I do think, though, that the idea of Axis and Allies being a grand strategy game is silly. It’s a tactical game on a strategic board, which in and of itself is quite a good way to teach people about proper resource uses in the short term. And saving a few IPCs each turn will lead to getting some more powerful units in the future if done right. I quite like the short-term resource management that Axis and Allies has. And I also like the fact that it has the realism of a series of tactical victories leading to a strategic victory. It definitely isn’t like chess where a series of tactical blunders could stumble you into a strategic success. I like games that reward short-term victories with long-term benefits, even if in some, if not most, will make you second-best to the person who thought through the whole game.

Really, though, “Axis and Allies” is just a good game for dice chucking and pretending to be some foreign super-power for a night with some friends. Even if it isn’t as deep as it looks, it still lasts for some time and holds one’s interest the whole way though (if the players like WWII.)

Games that Teach – BattleStar Galactica and Long Term Planning

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Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game is, as of now (on BoardGameGeek) one of the greatest board games of all time. And it is definitely the most played in my gaming group, which may or may not be a good thing. It can be gamed, and it can be a little annoying, so we can get a just a little mad sometimes. But really, it’s just fun, it’s one of the most fun times I’ve had almost every time I play it.

BSGHero
But there is something about BSG that I just love, and it isn’t revealing you’re a Cylon on the first turn to game the system. (Though I’m not sure this is a problem in the base game, or that it’s even really a good idea. It hasn’t been when I’ve been playing) It is the planning, and the treason (okay, I like the treason and the intrigue that comes with it), but the planning.

The game requires one to envision the endgame when surviving the present situation seems unlikely. While one is dealing with the current enemy warships, skill checks, and entering enemy robots, they must also constantly be thinking about who is and who may be a traitor, and if you might become a traitor in the future.

While you’re spending all your cards now to stop a Cylon (evil robot) invasion of the ship, or prevent a food shortage, you must think about how far this ship will move, is it really worth it to give up all of your cards now? (Yes, yes it is) Now, usually the worst happens, but if one has experienced teammates’ it usually ends in human victory. But what if it doesn’t, what if your teammates’ actually a Cylon? What if you are a Cylon? As long as there is the possibility of someone becoming a Cylon you have to remember to not do “too” well to avoid later suspicion.

And while avoiding doing too well as a good guy because you might become evil isn’t a realistic scenario, it does apply to various aspects of everyday life. Like, should I sink all of my money and/or time into this project, what will it prevent me from doing in the future (being a good villain)? Will it make other things I want to do harder? Etc. And I believe that it has really positively affected me and the way I look at future scenarios. Not to say that I was bad at long-term planning in the past and now I’m magically good, but I do have a bit of different perspective to look at things from and assess the future by.

In the end BSG is just a fun game of intrigue, bad stuff happening, and betrayal (Okay, I promise it’s fun, that sounded better in my head). But it can give a little push in the right direction when it comes to long term planning. It is by no means perfect, and by no means a class where one can develop the skill, but it could easily help with the development. Which is all we can really ask of a board game. (And Treason, we can ask that, too.)

Different Sameness

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So I have been working, and I wasn’t. What was I doing instead? Playing a game. On my phone in this case, but it was a deep phone game. Anyway it got me thinking about some things. Like why I wasn’t working, that was a problem. What made playing this game better than working for me?  And when I say work I don’t mean boring office job: I actually enjoy doing my work. I don’t know why some games just grab me and make me an unproductive zombie. Good thing I’m me and can turn it around into a blog post, right? (Didn’t think so)

Anyway, I was thinking about why some things make me distracted and it occurred to me that it may be a different kind of mental stimulus, like my brain needs to focus on something different so I play a game. But then I was wondering why some people who have boring jobs chose to play boring, simple phone games, like Fruit Ninja or something like that? After thinking about that for a while what I’ve come to believe is that we as humans want something different, but not too different. I play games that involve lots of strategy and planning, which is similar to what I do, but different enough to be interesting. I think it’s fascinating how things like this work in my head. Like I want something that is the same, but will make me think the same is not boring.

I guess that’s the way we do everything. It’s the reason we don’t like change or end up branching out too much in life. We specialize in what we enjoy, or learn to “enjoy” (Read: tolerate) what we do. And we don’t want to do something different, but we get bored, so we yearn for something else. And something very similar is still something else.

At least this is my theory for the time being. I’m sure it will evolve with time, but now that’s what I’m thinking.  If you have any ideas similar or contrary I’d like to hear them. I could just be completely wrong.