The Caterers of Catan

For longer than I care to admit I have been part of an increasingly occasional group of board-gamers. The arrival of wives, children and the other trappings of adult life has reduced both the frequency of game days as well as the amount of time available on game day. Game days devoted to such long-form classics as Civilization (still my absolute favorite game of all time) have therefore become game nights in which the game of choice has often been The Settlers of Catan.

Settlers is very popular worldwide and has spawned various interesting signs of devotion, such as these sent to me by increasingly frequent contributor NC:

The Peeps of Catan;
The Pizza of Catan;
The Cupcakes of Catan;
and even
The Gingerbread of Catan

Bon Appetit, but watch out for the Robber.

Update: Kara in comments points us to Catan at McDonald's. I also corrected Bandit to Robber, and surrendered half my resources, rounded down, as punishment.

Sweatshops and Dragons

Today's Washington Post had an interesting article about the socioeconomics of gold farmers. I was struck by the fact that while the worlds in which the farmers do their work are virtual and do not mirror the outside world, in that whether you are a king or a commoner has nothing to do with your real-world status, in this case there are in fact parallels to the real world, in that wealthier players are outsourcing the grunt work to lower-paid workers overseas.

This reminded me of something I had read some time ago about the booming real estate market in Ultima Online. Sure enough, here are some listings.

As someone who barely has time to blog, let alone go on various quests not involving T-ball or groceries, I am curious as to whether regular online players can recognize gold farmers and how often they are encountered. I know that this very blog counts at least one such person, and there is at least one commenter out there who could shed light on this. Get back to me when you've finished your raiding and pillaging, won't you?

You Sank My Speaker!

Wonkette has reported that the Tennesee GOP has been thwarted by a combination of skullduggery and a freshman pushing the wrong voting button. This is the sort of thing that happens all the time in our board-gaming sessions but I haven't seen anything like this in real life.

I will sit back and wait for JJV to decry the subversion of democracy. (The nerve of Tennessee Democrats to want to have more than one candidate to vote for!)

I will do so while chuckling.

Update 1/14: Roll the film!

Game Changer?

For some reason I didn't play a lot of rock-paper-scissors growing up but this would seen to change the dynamics somewhat.

No word yet on this from the authorities.

It Ain't No Sin to be Glad You Rolled a Six

For many years JJV, CRH, myself and others have played various strategy board games like Civilization and, more recently, Settlers of Catan. The latter is better suited to those of us who can no longer, for unfathomable reasons, commit to an entire day of plotting, scheming and backstabbing.

However, I think we could all block out however much time it would take to play the Vatican Board Game. Given the Game Dynamic to which I have referred previously, it could be entirely possible for one of us to manueuver a cardinal with a penchant for installing his illegitimate children onto the throne of St. Peter via a massive bribery campaign. Oops, that's already been done. Art does imitate life, they say, somewhere.