January 01, 2005
Happy Fucking New Year
Well. The week that rang it in was pretty dang shitty. Work has been rough, two holidays in a row will do that.
But I'm pissed at a friend right now. He's a really good guy in so many ways. But, there is this game, Carcassonne, that I really, really like to play, that he introduced me to. We play the game with reasonable frequency.
Its just that he doesn't play honestly. By that I mean to win for himself. He plays to foul others up. Of course he does end up winning in the end anyways, so the effect is the same, its just the means are, well, dirty. By analogy, if this game was long distance track running, he would end up running into his opponent to topple them to the ground. Of course, he would still suffer slightly, but his opponent would suffer more because they didn't expect to be toppled to the ground, and as such spent more time to get back up to speed.
Another analogy. In business, it is illegal in many instances to sell a product below cost with the intention of running your competitors out of business.
Instances like this end up being a game of seeing who can hurt the other more before one party loses.
So, tonight half way through the game I just got pissed and stopped playing. Not a literal walking away from the table, but I was placing my pieces down in such a manner as not to score any points. When I had the simple possibility of scoring points I did not announce or score them. More or less if someone is going to play dirty, I just would rather not fuck with it. Especially when its a game, and not about survival or something life threatening.
To the unnamed person: I'm not playing Carcassonne with you for quite sometime, and yes I'm serious about it this time.
To anyone else in the Cincinnati area who likes Carcassonne: Need somebody to play with?
Hi, Nick.
Ran across your blog/journal/whatever by accident.
I enjoy your writing. I scoped out your NaNo stuff too. I also participated in the NaNo, got my words in by November 25, and am still working on the Novel...
I share your despair at the reelection of "W"--what a sorry state of affairs.
I have ignorant idiots in my family too--who believe "W" is a "Christian" because he says he is...and that all black people are lazy welfare collectors, all gay people are abominations, and all public school teachers are "secular humanists" teaching the kids "how to use rubbers" and to believe "man evolved from monkeys."
Sigh.
How do you educate people who refuse to acknowledge the validity of whole groups of others? I just don't know.
Anyway. I just thought I'd respond to your comments. My brother is a gamer like the friend you describe. It is NO FUN to play with someone that plays like that. He deliberately destroys or blocks resources and takes horrific and completely irrational revenge if you do anything that slightly impedes his progress on the game.
When the rolls of the die do not go his way, he pouts and whines and acts like a three year old instead of the 49 year old he is.
Our last game devolved into me threatening to fly airplanes into all his cities--after he referred to me as "the third world." He did not find it amusing, and I said, "You can't repress us indigenous people forever without suffering the consequences."
The we had a long argument about the responsibility of the "haves" to help the "have-nots." And whether or not the U.S. had the right to dictate to the rest of the world what was and was not appropriate behavior in the global community.
Ah, well.
I have a blurty account--You're welcome to go have a look at it, but I'll warn you, it is mostly bitching and whining and pissing and moaning.
I've been thinking of deleting it entirely and starting over with something less self-indulgent.
Best wishes.
Cho