Apparently my birthday is coming up in 8 days? Which would be great, expect that Spring Break is also coming up. Which would be great, except that I was fired a few months ago and so I've been substitute teaching as my income, and with no school means no money. If I still had my teaching job Spring break would be fantastic, becasue it was a salary job and I got paid even through Spring Break and stuff. And that would have worked out even better this year becasue my birthday is that week so my birthday would have had no school. Which normally would have been a good thing but now it stinks.
Anyway, it's been pretty hard and depressing, and (obviously) no one knew I had gotten fired, except for my wife. I only told a handful of people. But with Jensen's baby blessing today both Jackie and David asked me about my work and so I told them what happened so now I might as well tell everyone so that there aren't any secrets. Especially since Hannah my sister is coming to visit later this week.
So I've been looking for work, but odds were slim that they'd hire a teacher midway through the year (Jan 10 was my last day working for APA). And I've looked at other jobs too. I got substitute teaching as the job I have right now, which pays like, half of what APA did with no benefits. And I did subbing before, but that was back when, like, I had no kids and Heather had a job too. And now I have, like, two kids and Heather didn't working and I'm supposed to be providing for my family and I feel like I can't. And it makes me super sad.
*sigh* I'm just typing this all out to get it out of me, and I guess to tell people who think that their life is crappy and everyone else's lives are all figured out that they're wring. Not everyone else had it figured out. Stop comparing your worst to the false idea of their life that they give you, even though their life might actually be crappy behind the smoke and mirrors they put up. Heck, Ryan came through town, twice, after I was fired and he never even knew. And he stayed at my place.
My life isn't all bad, of course. This last Thursday was a teacher career fair at BYU and I went and talked to a few Arizona schools about working there next school year, after doing my student teaching. One school asked if I could do my student teaching while I taught there, which means that they really want me? or something? And it's close to Mesa, but there was another school that was close to Mesa, and I need to figure out this whole student teaching thing because if I just straight student teach then I won't get paid and that means no income for four months, plus hoping beyond hope that then something will magically open up in January, and if not then I'll have my licence but no job to show for it and anyway...
Also, I've been to the Good Move Cafe a few times, and it's awesome. Heather and I participated in a Settlers of Catan tournament there and met a new friend named Chris and then the following Tuesday Chris and I met up there and played games for about 5 straight hours, which was totally amazing. this last Saturday (yesterday) was a game night at the Wilk and that was fun, plus I won the game King of Tokyo! Which I can pick up from the BYUSA office this week. I'm nervous though becasue at the event they just said BYU ID, which I do have, but my claims ticket says Student ID, so I hope they don't suddenly refuse to give it to me because I'm not a student.
Anyway, and I saw Jacob and Brandon today before the baby blessing but never got a chance to invite them to play games sometime. But with job worries mounting due to Spring break coming up, I guess I should have other things on my mind.
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Monday, March 12, 2018
My Top Five Favorite Game Mechanics
My brother Ryan is engaged! Happy Engagement Ryan!
My Top Five Favorite Game Mechanics
(5) Little to No Downtime (such as Simultaneous Action Selection)
Downtime is the drag on all games. Nobody likes to wait around the table doing nothing and waiting for it to be their turn so that they can finally do something. When I design a game, I often think about downtime and strive to eliminate it. In games like 7 Wonders and Sushi Go, however, all players take their turns at the same time, so there is very little downtime. Adding something you can do when it's not your turn, such as trading in Settlers of Catan, can also eliminate downtime. Any game that eliminates excessive sitting around waiting for your turn again has marks for them in my eyes.
(4) Variable Player Powers
I love it when games have variable player powers, or something that you can do that the other players can't. It feels as if you are better at something or more powerful at something. For example, in TZolkin Tribes and Prophecies, a player could be able to treat two wheels as the same wheel, or treat a spot as if it were empty, or pay a corn to do an action right in front of them, basically a turn early. In co-op games such as Pandemic and Forbidden Island the player powers really shine, as it makes you feel like an important member of the team, doing what only you can do.
(3) Deck Building
Dominion is my all time favorite game. I love the idea of deck building, of playing your turn not just for your turn but also setting up what you can do on future turns! If I want to be able to do something on a future turn, I can take this turn to set it up. Something else that is so awesome to me is the idea that at the end of the game your system and another player's system can be completely different, even when you started with the same stuff. And which system to build and how leads to all sorts of awesome things involving my number 1 favorite game mechanic, explained in greater detail below.
(2) Worker Placement
For some reason, the idea of putting a guy in an area to take an action is just so awesome to me. Maybe that's why my game Somerset had a Worker Placement style mechanism. I love the fact that there are only so many things you can do, but they're all there in front of you, and you have to decide which order to do them in, and which ones, adn on top of that it's a race to get to them first becasue in most worker placement games if someone else goes there first you can't go there, so there's a race element to it too.
(1) Multiple Pathways to Victory
I love games that force you to think about which of the multiple pathways you could go down to win. For example, in Village, do you win by sending people on journeys, or getting stuff for the market, or killing people off the fastest, or putting them in the church, etc. etc. In TZolkin, do you go for resources or corn or skulls and which technology track do you focus on? In Dominion, there could be anywhere from 10-15 different paths you could try and take based off of the combos the cards give you. Which combo would work better? Which cards can supplement those? In 7 Wonders, do you go for green, or try blue, or get a lot of brown and grey so that people pay you, or build your Wonder? I love games where there isn't a clear answer on this and you have to choose and hope that for this particular game your choice was the best. It's way better than knowing you have one thing you have to do and then you do it. So, Multiple Pathways to Victory is my favorite game mechanic.
My Top Five Favorite Game Mechanics
(5) Little to No Downtime (such as Simultaneous Action Selection)
Downtime is the drag on all games. Nobody likes to wait around the table doing nothing and waiting for it to be their turn so that they can finally do something. When I design a game, I often think about downtime and strive to eliminate it. In games like 7 Wonders and Sushi Go, however, all players take their turns at the same time, so there is very little downtime. Adding something you can do when it's not your turn, such as trading in Settlers of Catan, can also eliminate downtime. Any game that eliminates excessive sitting around waiting for your turn again has marks for them in my eyes.
(4) Variable Player Powers
I love it when games have variable player powers, or something that you can do that the other players can't. It feels as if you are better at something or more powerful at something. For example, in TZolkin Tribes and Prophecies, a player could be able to treat two wheels as the same wheel, or treat a spot as if it were empty, or pay a corn to do an action right in front of them, basically a turn early. In co-op games such as Pandemic and Forbidden Island the player powers really shine, as it makes you feel like an important member of the team, doing what only you can do.
(3) Deck Building
Dominion is my all time favorite game. I love the idea of deck building, of playing your turn not just for your turn but also setting up what you can do on future turns! If I want to be able to do something on a future turn, I can take this turn to set it up. Something else that is so awesome to me is the idea that at the end of the game your system and another player's system can be completely different, even when you started with the same stuff. And which system to build and how leads to all sorts of awesome things involving my number 1 favorite game mechanic, explained in greater detail below.
(2) Worker Placement
For some reason, the idea of putting a guy in an area to take an action is just so awesome to me. Maybe that's why my game Somerset had a Worker Placement style mechanism. I love the fact that there are only so many things you can do, but they're all there in front of you, and you have to decide which order to do them in, and which ones, adn on top of that it's a race to get to them first becasue in most worker placement games if someone else goes there first you can't go there, so there's a race element to it too.
(1) Multiple Pathways to Victory
I love games that force you to think about which of the multiple pathways you could go down to win. For example, in Village, do you win by sending people on journeys, or getting stuff for the market, or killing people off the fastest, or putting them in the church, etc. etc. In TZolkin, do you go for resources or corn or skulls and which technology track do you focus on? In Dominion, there could be anywhere from 10-15 different paths you could try and take based off of the combos the cards give you. Which combo would work better? Which cards can supplement those? In 7 Wonders, do you go for green, or try blue, or get a lot of brown and grey so that people pay you, or build your Wonder? I love games where there isn't a clear answer on this and you have to choose and hope that for this particular game your choice was the best. It's way better than knowing you have one thing you have to do and then you do it. So, Multiple Pathways to Victory is my favorite game mechanic.
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