I downloaded Battle of Gundabad for iPhone yesterday. It’s a 1:1 rules-clone of the card/boardgame Dominion. There are good and bad elements to the implementation, but I mostly wonder why Rio Grande Games doesn’t release their own official iOS version. A $3 app with $3 for each expansion would be a goldmine for them. I don’t understand the economics that would entice a third-party independent developer with no name recognition to knock off their game and not try to get one on the market themselves. There are people at in the BGG community who severely dislike knock-offs, but when the rights-holder doesn’t use their own property, (and it’s not illegal to create a game rules-clone), there’s no alternative to the user other than wait. And I’ve tried waiting before…
A few years ago a Greek invented a higher-order type Rubik’s cube called a V-cube. Instead of a 3x3x3, now you can buy a V-cube that’s a 7x7x7. He even has a patent up to 11x11x11. It’s been a few years now and there’s still absolutely no word on any other cubes higher than the 7x7x7. That doesn’t mean you can’t buy an 11x11x11, but you’d have to go to a third party and V-cube wouldn’t see any money for their patent. The online puzzle-making community bans all discussion of such knock-offs. This is fine, but if the economics are there for a no-name Chinese company to produce these, why is the branded and established V-Cube company not doing anything with their patent?
In the meantime while I’m waiting for my official V-Cube 11, I’ll be playing Battle of Gundabad on my iOS.
One of my favorite The Office moments:
Michael:Darryl, have you ever been in a gang?
Darryl: Why?
Michael:It’s an advice question and if you don’t want to talk about it I completely understand. I know it’s very personal, so…
Darryl: [looks at camera and smirks] No, um, I have.
Michael: [relieved] I knew it. Ok, what are we talking about here? Crips? Bloods?
Darryl: Both.
Michael: God.
Darryl: Yeah. Them and the Latin Kings, the Warriors, Newsies.
Michael: Okay, so dig this. You’re on the street and one of your gang disses you.
Darryl: Oh my goodness.
Michael: Yeah. Right. So what do you do to get ‘em to make it right?
Darryl: Well see, um, in the gang world, we use something called “fluffy fingers.”
Michael: What is that?
Darryl: That’s when someone really gets in your face, you know, you just start ticklin’ ‘em.
Michael: Really?
Darryl: Yeah. And he starts tickling you. And pretty soon you laughing and hugging. Before you know it, you’ve forgotten the whole thing. Y’all just go to church together, get an ice cream cone.
Michael: I would have never thought that gangs would be tickling each other.
Darryl: Oh, it’s effective.
Last night playing Split/Second, a racing game for Xbox 360, I was once again witness to why their online rank system was broken: Eight players ranked #1, #1, #1, #4, #95, #99, #99, #99. A win for me mentally would be to come in 5th, but it would still knock me a rank back if I wasn’t already last at #99.
I switched to Survival mode - a less popular mode where you pass trucks dropping explosive barrels and see how long you can last without crashing. I have no idea how many players it takes in the lobby to trigger event, so me and this other stranger started a private room so we could do more than chat about the weather in the virtual lobby.
I was fascinated by the difference in our approach to online play. It was my second time online ever in Split/Second, and I had just completed the single player to 100% wins in every category. Only after I exhausted solo-play did I dare venture online. This guy however had yet to get past the very first tier of events. With no cars unlocked - and little experience - he would be bound for failure online. Even if he had fast cars, he wouldn’t match my knowledge of the courses. No, I didn’t use my fast cars, but instead chose one of the slowest, so at least he’d had a fair shot at winning. He did so… twice… although I won the majority quite easily.
Sometimes I never get around to online play, while others go there first. It intimidates me. That’s where the real competition is, and I like to be good. Two vastly different approaches.
Q: “What could we have done to make your experience better?”
My answer:That inflatable slide exit with a complimentary beer actually sounds like fun.
