The Gaming Archivist: Review

31st of December 2015 (Thursday)

Year In Review:
2015 Review

Review – 2015
This Year Was… …:

... ... a year of personal stretching and branching out to try new things. I had expected this coming into 2015 but could not imagine the extent of the various waters I would end up testing. This is by no means a negative thing, as I actually thrive on new challenges. It makes me feel alive with adrenaline, particularly so when I "crush" it.

Be confident like Fat Amy

But like everyone else in this world, I have only been allotted 24 hours in a day. So when something new comes into my life, something else needs to make way for it. But before we go into that, here’s a flashback of what happened on planet Earth in the year 2015:

The year that was... ...

Bleak news continues to surround our stratosphere in 2015 where ISIL begins to take their war outside of the middle east with attacks resulting in tragic loss of lives, the esteemed geek Leonard Nimoy will never again say "Live long and prosper", Terry Pratchett who made wicked genius level intelligent humor makes the final walk with DEATH, thousands upon thousands pay homage to the life of Lee Kuan Yew, Donald Trump puts himself up for US President which turns out is not a joke, the gay rights movement have their day in the sun in the US Supreme Court, Nepal has had a rough year with two major earthquakes followed by a fuel shortage crisis, Saruman is truly and finally laid to rest, FIFA is finally starting to clean house, debris of MH370 finally found more than a year later, Jonah Lomu a great and gentle man will be missed by many, the migrant crisis continues as refugees have nowhere to go and most recently, Steve Harvey crowns the wrong Miss Universe causing designers all over the world to stand up and be counted.

The importance of good design

The land I live in has been showing up on international news in 2015 for all the wrong reasons it seems. Here’s what happened in waters closer to home: QZ8501 was finally found but tragically there were no survivors, an influx of Bangladeshi and Rohingya boat people who also have nowhere to go and end up in prison camps with mass graves, MAS reborn as Malaysian Airlines Berhad in pursuit of profitability at the expense of jobs, 18 deaths (tragically mostly Singaporean primary school students) on Mt Kinabalu due to an earthquake and the ensuing prosecution of the nudist group who "caused" the earthquake by standing naked on the mountain, where last year we had the Selangor MB fiasco we now have levelled up to the Deputy Prime Minister fiasco, the handling of the 1MDB saga which our Prime Minister has demonstrated grandmaster level of Tai Chi prowess at, the resulting Bersih 4.0 rally being one of the best ever but which sadly resulted in status quo and a schoolyard response called the Red-Shirt Rally, Malaysian football sunk to all time low, then we had our history’s worst ever haze that never seemed to end, GST was introduced with no further extensions and seems to be here to stay, the "to vape or not to vape" saga, Obama comes to visit and Alphaeus Tan stands up with Oreos in his blood to be counted as a Malaysian, on top of sharia compliant trolleys & malls we now have a sharia compliant airline and if you're trying to buy a new mobile phone, I suggest you do it online to avoid the frequent brawling that surprisingly has no alcohol involved.

It's all about da money

A new bromance in the making

Coming down to a personal level, we are happy to announce the arrival of Padawan Babygeek in 2015. Padawan Babygeek came into this world like how college students universally submit assignments, in a rush and minutes before the doctor's predicted date ended. Witnessing the birth of your child is always a unique experience, no matter how many children you already have, it is like meeting someone for the first time but you already know that you'd give your life for them. Padawan Babygeek was born considerate and kind, he sleeps in the same time zone as Malaysians, loves to laugh, misses you when you're not around, believes everything can be eaten if you chew hard enough, holds his own in fights with his sister and screams bloody murder when you need to change his clothes.

Padawan Minigeek is growing into a headstrong tai kar che (lady boss), the number of her kulis (followers) increase daily, she should be on Kids Say The Darndest Things, still cannot draw to save her life, learned how to break the ninth commandment, demonstrates both love and dislike freely, believes that one cannot grow up fast enough and can give you hugs something fierce.

Maybe there is such a thing as too much happiness

After 4 years of working with my previous employer, I decided that it was time for a change, albeit a drastic one. There were many factors leading up to this decision but ultimately the most important one is that I wanted to make my days on Earth count for something beyond myself. Many have asked why I would work more hours, with a more challenging job scope for significantly less pay. I can only say that the hours mean more to me than the pay, that my interpretation of #YOLO although different from the modern day meaning is still derived from the words "You Only Live Once". Money whilst it has its uses, was actually one of the hurdles in the process of making this decision, and simply put, God can take care of that hurdle as well as all the other ones. Oh and the commute is simply awesome.

Now with three kids (yes, one big one too) to mind and a job with more hours, as mentioned earlier, some things had to take a backseat and boardgaming has certainly been one of these things. How have I been coping with the withdrawal? Well, I lend out my games to friends thinking that at least someone somewhere is sort of playing the games through me. I also have a gaming table with chairs set up, ready to go at anytime, just to tell myself that there is always a rainbow after the storm. So before I depress you any further, let's get into the statistics of it.

Those are some sad looking numbers

Not including the KFCgamers Cube Championships, I only have 8 games to my name for the entire year (2011: 43, 2012: 40, 2013: 21, 2014: 23) and a win ratio of 37.5%. The reasons for this were already explained above but the 8 games played was definitely quality time spent and you can of course catch up with the session reports in the archives of this blog.

New Games I Bought:
They say that you are either a boardgamer or a boardgame collector but there is nothing preventing you from being a little bit of both. All bar one of my acquisitions in 2015 were actually purchases paid and confirmed in 2014 but only delivered in 2015 and were nearly all on my wishlist last year as well. Let's have a look at them below:

Games from Essen 2014:

Photo credits - grzech1977

Castles of Mad King Ludwig - I oversaw a game of Castles of Mad King Ludwig and even though I wasn't a Player I was very excited about the gameplay. Playing with four Players bogs the game down a little bit towards the end, I think also because new Players weren't sure what actions were optimal decisions towards scoring points, which makes me a terrible teacher. Can't wait to try this out for myself.

Photo credits - yazvision

Harbour - My last kickstarter foray ended on a good note with Harbour. This game just tickles me in all the right places, humorous fantasy art, interactive building and character powers, a theme that fits the game play mechanics and the game length being just nice in a small fun box. I really don't play this enough.

Photo credits - 3wgames

King of New York - This game plays very differently with different numbers of Players and comes with two versions of fun, chaotic destruction fun & calculated strategic fun. This is probably my go to game when I have a group and I am not certain what everyone's Euro level is. The kids absolutely love this one as well.

Photo credits - nunovix

Sheriff of Nottingham - Still in shrink wrap and not sure what to do with it now that Christmas has come and gone. I think some people would kill me seeing what I have that just sits collecting dust with no plays. Will probably remain a potential gift.

Photo credits - henk.rolleman

Sushi Go - I'm starting to embark on tweaking my collection to include games for younger children. Sushi Go is by no means a kids only game as evidenced by it appearing on Wil Wheaton's Tabletop. The fact that I love sushi in real life is just a bonus.

In a related milestone, I managed to make my first sale on the second hand market with Dungeon Lords. I'm actually somewhat surprised at the vibrancy of the boardgame second hand market in Malaysia and I'm wondering if some of my games should get a better home rather than collect dust instead of plays. Some of those potentially on the list would be Suburbia, Eminent Domain and maybe Race for the Galaxy. They could be used to fund games still on my wishlist like CV & Orleans or the following that are new to my "on the fence" list:

Photo credits - Hexanauta

Roll for the Galaxy - I'm still thinking whether I should trade Race for the Galaxy for this. It has gotten some rave reviews from the reviewers I follow on YouTube but I'm still rather on the fence for this one mainly because of the dice mechanics.

Photo credits - avyssaleos

The Pursuit of Happiness - I see this as the penultimate version of The Game of Life which I thoroughly enjoyed as a kid. You could live as all these different personalities each time you play and it was really fun especially when you have yet to grow up and all possibilities were still available to you. The game does look a bit too busy which is why I'm on the fence and I can certainly afford to be, as games of this genre don't make it so quickly to our shores.

Essen 2015 was a relatively quiet affair for me. No fevered rantings, blood racing or psychotic stalking of YouTube uploads about the fair. This is mostly because a lot of my favourite designers were "taking a year off", still designing good games but those that are more non-typical of their genre, ala Codenames & Hengist. Which is probably a good thing since time is more of a limited luxury these days.

Closing Thoughts On 2015:

So is this the end of the road for the hobby I actively started back in 2011? I think there will be a fair amount of scaling back compared to before. Due to a circumstance called growing up, my siblings and I don't meet up as often or live near each other anymore. Thankfully my work hours will be scaled back a teensy weensy bit next year so KFCgamers will come back online and based on my calendar, we should be able to do about 6 meet ups for the whole year. So whilst my heart still starts pounding a little faster if someone asks me whether I'd like to play boardgames, the brain loads up a list of checkboxes that range from length of game (factor in AP tendencies of person asking), time of the day, agenda for the day, children nap times, potential eye daggers from the spouse and so on and so forth before a confirmation can be forthcoming.

The identity of the collector in me is definitely being held on a leash. "He" is only allowed to satiate the himself on games below a certain value like Sushi Go and is asked healthy questions like "Will this get played?" & "How many people do you know that would play this with you?". It is perhaps similar to growing older and having to ask "Is this good for my cholesterol?" & "Will this give me gas?". Want a tip to being a healthier boardgame collector? Have two kids then calculate their college tuition fees in Malaysia.

On a more personal note, 2015 has been a year of significant changes. Having Padawan Babygeek enrolled into the clan, Padawan Minigeek starting Jedi classes (preschool), moving house (yes I didn't mention that did I?), changing vocations, trying out new things and adjusting to a period with less boardgames. Does this mean I would rather have stayed put and maintained the status quo? Heavens no, all change comes at a price but the price to change for the better is like the red pill in The Matrix, it hurts at first but you come out in a better place than where you were before.