Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

GamerDad's Boardgame Wrapup

Posted by Zonk on from the little-plastic-men dept.

The truly excellent site GamerDad has been featuring a good, hard look at recent releases to the boardgaming scene since Gen Con last month. Anything you might be interested in playing with little plastic pieces is covered in their great, family-focused coverage. "Publisher of the popular Settlers of Catan among other fine European imports, Mayfair Games was promoting the game Ragmortha with a giant game setup. Each player is a goblin sneaking into a wizard's lair in order to steal back the gold he owes them. Players rush around trying to gain gold and avoid the evil wizard by playing cards on each other. It is one of those silly family games where players can add to the rules making it more of an experience than a game. For example, a player might be required to begin playing while standing on one foot, and another player might not be allowed to say the word "card" anymore. Meanwhile everyone has to tap the table with their elbow whenever the word "turn" is said, and so on..." You may have also seen elsewhere that GamerDad recently suffered a heart attack. There's a way on the site to contribute something, if you can manage it.

15 comments

  1. Aha! by Cap'nPedro · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    1. have a heart attack
    2. post to Slashdot
    3. ???
    4. profit!

    Now it all makes sense!

    1. Re:Aha! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Maybe you should have done a fucking search of the contents of the page before shooting your mouth off? Let's see, ctrl-F, type kdawson, yup - highlighted right there at the top. But no, you couldn't be bothered to do that. You had to jump in and start questioning people because your tiny little brain didn't pick up the fucking reference. Have some sympathy for others and don't fucking post here ever again you stupid cumdumpster. I hope your mother gets diarrhea tonight.

    2. Re:Aha! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ??? Yeah the GP is a douche, but what's kdawson got to do with it? Zonk posted it.

    3. Re:Aha! by eln · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's a poorly done copy and paste troll. Seriously, the quality of trolls around here has really been declining. The GNAA guys used to change their stock copy and paste troll all the time to reflect the story or even just recent stories in the news. Now they can't even be bothered to change the name of the editor before posting. Trolling is truly a lost art.

    4. Re:Aha! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who intentionally posts controversial or contrary messages in an online community such as an online discussion forum or USENET, with the intention of baiting users into an argumentative response.[1]
      Contents
      [hide]

      * 1 Etymology
      o 1.1 Early history
      o 1.2 Trolling in the 1990s
      * 2 Intent
      o 2.1 Identities
      * 3 Usage
      * 4 Concern troll
      * 5 Specific trolling subcultures
      * 6 See also
      * 7 References
      * 8 External links
      o 8.1 Troll FAQs

      [edit] Etymology

      The contemporary use of the term first appeared on Usenet groups in the late 1980s . It is thought to be a truncation of the phrase trolling for suckers, itself derived from the sport fishing technique of trolling. The latter can be compared with trawling.

      The word likely gained currency because of its apt second meaning, drawn from the trolls portrayed in Scandinavian folklore and children's tales; they are often ugly, obnoxious creatures bent on mischief and wickedness. The image of the troll under the bridge in the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" emphasizes the troll's negative reaction to outsiders intruding on its physical environment, particularly those who intend to graze in its domain without permission. The word occurs also in John Awdeley's Fraternity of Vagabonds (1561) to characterize the first four of twenty-five types of disobedient male servants or "knaves." The first entrant in Awdeley's list is particularly illustrative:

      Troll and Troll by is he that setteth naught by no man, nor no man by him. This is he that would bear rule in a place and hath no authority nor thanks, and at last is thrust out of the door like a knave.[2]

      It seems a singularly apt description, though no provenance has ever been demonstrated to connect it with the modern usage.

      "Troll" was used in Santa Cruz, California, to designate homeless people by anti-homeless individuals, and a T shirt was worn, with the picture of a homeless person, a "not" line drawn through it, and the words "no trolls".

      The origin of the phrase has been discussed in oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the related term "patent troll" (eBay v. MercExchange, 29 March 2006):

      JUSTICE KENNEDY: Well, is -- is the troll the scary thing under the bridge, or is it a fishing technique?...
      MR. PHILLIPS [attorney for eBay]: For my clients, it's been the scary thing under the bridge....
      JUSTICE KENNEDY: I mean, is that what the troll is?
      MR. PHILLIPS: Yes, I believe that's... what it is, although...maybe we should think of it more as Orcs, now that we have a new generation.

      [edit] Early history

      Prior to DejaNews's archiving of Usenet, accounts of trolling were sketchy, there being little evidence to sort through. After that time, however, the huge archives were available for researchers. Perhaps the earliest, although poorly documented, case is the 1982-83 saga of Alex and Joan from the CompuServe forums. Lindsy Van Gelder, a reporter for Ms. magazine, documented the incident in 1985 in an article for her publication. Alex (in real life a shy 50-year-old male psychiatrist from New York) pretended to be a highly bombastic, anti-religious, post-car-accident, wheelchair-bound, mute woman named "Joan", "in order to better relate to his female patients". This went on for two years, and "Joa

    5. Re:Aha! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +6 funny. This is a brilliant fucking post, the only one on this whole god damn page worth reading. Why can't the douchebag shiteaters just fucking chill? Fucking islamic extremists.

    6. Re:Aha! by hapycamper · · Score: 1

      Actually, I wrote the above articles. While I actually submitted my entire GenCon series of articles to SlashDot when they were posted, they weren't accepted at that time. The above blurb comes from someone not associated with the GamerDad site (as far as I know...) -Matt (not GamerDad, but I write all the boardgame & RPG coverage for the site....)

  2. Credit Where It is Due by GWLlosa · · Score: 1

    I'm fairly certain the 'heart attack' plug is something Zonk or someone added afterwards, and is not, in fact, an insidious profit-making scheme on the behalf of the "GamerDad" in question.


    Unless, of course, "GamerDad" IS Zonk...

    1. Re:Credit Where It is Due by bar-agent · · Score: 1

      Penny Arcade also mentioned the heart-attack thing, and is asking the community to help.

      --
      i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
  3. A record of some kind? by OakDragon · · Score: 1
    Will this story set a record for the lowest number of posts attached to a front page story?

    (Maybe, if this meta-post didn't push it over the top...)

    --
    Dark Reflection
  4. Too fancy for me. by WeblionX · · Score: 1

    I still prefer backgammon, especially when it comes in its own briefcase.

    --
    (\(\
    (=_=) Bani!
    (")")
  5. The *rest* of the article by Txiasaeia · · Score: 2, Informative

    The submitter failed to link to the second half of the article, in which games from Rio Grande and Wizards of the Coast. An interesting mention by GamerDad was The Battle for Hill 218, including a playable version here.

    --
    Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
  6. EULA by TheLink · · Score: 2, Funny

    "where players can add to the rules making it more of an experience than a game. For example, a player might be required to begin playing while standing on one foot, and another player might not be allowed to say the word "card" anymore. Meanwhile everyone has to tap the table with their elbow whenever the word "turn" is said, and so on..."

    Are you sure those are the rules of the game? Maybe someone was reading the game's EULA instead ;).

    --
  7. Classic Battletech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm very surprised that while the article mentions WizKids' Star Wars: Pocketmodels (which I think is totally stupid, IMNSHO), it fails to mention the launch of the Classic Battletech Introductory Box Set. This is probably the biggest push to get new people involved in one of the oldest (and best) tabletop war games that the line has seen in years.

  8. Only a few of the articles... by hapycamper · · Score: 1
    Actually, the two mentioned articles are only part of the GenCon coverage over at GamerDad. The complete coverage is as follows:

    Unplugged: GenCon 2007 Indianapolis, invaded!
    Unplugged: GenCon 2007 - The Video Games All your board are belong to us!
    Unplugged: GenCon 2007 - The Role Playing Fear the brain in a jar!
    Unplugged: GenCon 2007 - There's always a first time Boardgamer and family man, Larry Baxter, describes his first visit to a game convention.
    Unplugged: GenCon 2007 - Boardgames, Boardgames, Boardgames An alphabetical tour of publishers from Asmodee to Z-Man Games
    Unplugged: GenCon 2007 - And more Boardgames The second half of our alphabetical tour