[Vision2020] new topic: games

Sun Jan 7 17:04:09 PST 2007

Ted,

Please tell the ancient mystics I'm sorry.  You see, only someone as limited 
in spatial cognition as I could possibly link Blokus with Go.  It was the 
squarish board made up of littler squares, you see, that got me.  That and 
the little token thingies, which I think is not how Go-ites refer to the 
stones.  Thankfully, I avoided comparing Go with Pente.  I made that mistake 
only once and barely lived to regret it.

I have a beautiful old 4-track cribbage board with brass pegs, as well as 
the Hodgins' $6.95 special training board, but the last person who tried to 
teach me the game ran screaming into the woods in sobbing frustration.  I 
believe Charles is still wandering about the forest north of Princeton, 
regretting to the very core of his being the day that he said, "Sure, I'll 
teach you!"  It's sad to see the devastation we humans can unintentionally 
wreak on those around us.

And Chas, I agree -- Yahtzee is an exercise in masochism, which reminds me 
of a painfully funny, painfully true story from my college days:

My roommate, Christine, was dating a real toad named Todd, who had the looks 
and personality of a strawful of milk and yet managed to make her life a 
living heck with his petulance, jealousy, and immaturity.  One day, perhaps 
after a few drinks, my other roomie and I asked her if she was just a 
masochist or something.  Chris answered,

"No way, you guys!  My family's been Catholic for generations!"

Sigh.

Thanks for the recommendations --

keely

From: "Ted Moffett" <starbliss at gmail.com>
To: "keely emerinemix" <kjajmix1 at msn.com>
CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] new topic: games
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2007 00:21:42 +0000

keely et. al.

Do not arouse the ancient mystics wrath!

Blokus is very different than Go!  Blokus suits families better, and allows
brain teasing options, within the rather flexible ways the game can be
played, but Go reaches into the highest levels of human cognition in a board
game.

Go is arguably the most incredible board game in history, perhaps dating
back 4000 years!  No computer program yet can come close to beating the best
Go players.  It is astonishing for the incredible complexity that develops
out of the disarming simplicity of the rules, and highlights the functions
of human intelligence that those darn computers cannot yet best us at.
There was a Go club on the Palouse that once met regularly at the home of a
WSU computer scientist.  The game is very big in China, where it was
supposedly invented at least 3000 years ago, and in Japan and Korea.
Sometimes a very good Go player has visited the Palouse from these nations,
associated with WSU or the U of I.

Chess is a plodding mechanical limited predictable game in comparison with
Go, which is why computers are so very good at Chess, and stymied by Go:

http://www.game/club.com/gohis/go.htm#FundamentalRule

http://gobase.org

Only two people can play Go.  This is not the sort of family game that
Blokus can be, with four different colored pieces for four players.  Go has
only white and black stones, all the same kind, except for the color.  Go
stones are placed on intersections of lines on a board with 19 X 19
rectangular placed lines (a perfect square is avoided for aesthetic or other
mysterious reasons), while Blokus has 5 different sized pieces for each
player.  Go has no restrictions on where the stones may be placed when the
game starts or at any other time, except for the KO rule (same board
position not allowed twice in a row to prevent infinite capture), and
placing stones into surrounded intersections (suicide), while Blokus
mandates starting corners for each player.  In Go stones are captured by
being surrounded, while if I have this correct, Blokus rules do not allow
capture of pieces.

Go has a very clever handicap system achieved by placing stones on the board
at the start of the game in predetermined positions, the number of stones
given dependent on the relative skill of the players.  This can allow for a
competitive game between players of very different skill levels.

I've spent many hours studying and playing Go... I recommend the game to
everyone, but I guess it's not the best family game given only two can play.

Ted Moffett

On 1/7/07, keely emerinemix <kjajmix1 at msn.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>I took a break from being screechy, gnarled, smug and shrill by playing a
>new board game this afternoon with Jeff and the boys -- Blokus, which we
>bought at Hodgins as our "family gift" for Christmas.  It's an
>award-winning, Mensa-endorsed game similar to dominoes and Go, I think.  I
>have the spatial ability of a lemur, and yet I'm able to learn this
>geometric, block-placing game easily, and I've won twice now.  So, my New
>Year's Family Board Game recommendations are:
>
>1. Blokus
>2. Backgammon
>3. Pente
>4.  Mancala
>5.  Yahtzee
>
>I am, without question, the world's worst chess player; I taught both of
>my
>sons when they were five and they've been beating me since they were six.
>In addition, I'm dying to learn how to play cribbage, but I don't know how
>and the online and in-print instructions are too confusing.  Still, on a
>dreary, sloppy winter's day, it's great to hang out with the guys, turn
>off
>all electronica, and play a nice, testosterone-charged board game together
>(with my husband and two teenage boys, everything is
>testosterone-charged!).
>   Any other recommendations from the Visionaires in my life?
>
>keely
>
>_________________________________________________________________
> >From photos to predictions, The MSN Entertainment Guide to Golden Globes
>has
>it all. http://tv.msn.com/tv/globes2007/?icid=nctagline1
>
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