Fun Things About Victory By Robert Bickford

24 Jan Fun Things About Victory By Robert Bickford

Oh great, now I’m craving chocolate chip cookies
When Conor, the wunderkind and DEO (Dad Executive Officer) of Inside Up Games, nudged me to put some of my board game experience into writing, he said ‘Don’t stress’.
Conor is the #EvilCreator behind Summit, a board game where you must avoid the ravages of mountain climbing, hourly blizzards, and marauding mountaineers- a real low stress chilled out game, right Conor? Given my fear of the #EvilCreator, I am heeding Conor’s advice, and will try to keep my review style casual and stress free. This is my challenge. I accept. Feel free to call me the #AgreeableBlogger.
The title of the blog emphasizes fun. I selected a font size of 48 for the ‘Fun Things’ part of the masthead and a meagre 12 for ‘About Victory’. This reflects the actual percentage of value I put on winning and strategy within a gaming experience. In other words, winning (and your genius unparalleled strategy that got you there) is the quarter cup of chocolate chips, and fun is the full cup of sugar in the proverbial chocolate chip cookie. Sure, we all savor that melty chocolate morsel but the cookie is a bland mess without sugar…is my point.
I am conscious that, in a world so saturated with video, this is what literary people would call a bunch of words on a screen. So, in order to convince you to click and read and re-visit, I’m going to make unexpected turns when I write about games. I’ll favor story over strategy. Voice over volume. Fozzy over Kermit. Keaton over Bale. Lists over actual sentences. For example.
There’s some talented and knowledgeable reviewers on Youtube whom you can easily find for some comprehensive reviews and playthroughs and strategy breakdowns. My reviews will provide some description of game play and some description of strategy. I’ll also refer to the atmosphere of the table, and add in some silly inane story.
With all the creative takes on game mechanics these days, I won’t often categorize games by their mechanic (e.g. card drafting, area control, grid movement, variable player powers). These categories can appear in many different ways in a game. Instead, I’ll try to describe the way the mechanic feels while playing.
In terms of what games I like and will review, I’ve tried a lot- almost all kinds, and enjoyed them all. I’m into narrative. If the story of a game blends well with the art and its game mechanics then I’m usually a fan, an early adopter, a replayer. Subjectivity makes the experience unpredictable. How fun a game ends up being depends on who’s around, how the rule book or turn sequence melds with the mood and social dynamic of who is present and what kind of week they’re having.
Conor has suggested I include a paragraph about fun. Part of me thinks he just wants to be entertained by someone trying to write about fun. Never the less, I’m gonna do it. I’ll include a few notes listing the fun things about victory at the end of each review. Even though I often lose.
Actually, instead of describing how I plan to do reviews, I’ll just do one.
Stay tuned at InsideUpGames.com in the coming week for my first review of Odin’s Ravens.