You know, having more than one blog is giving me existential headaches, at least in terms of writing. I have this personal blog, which has no real theme, and then I also share a game design blog with Brian over at Royal Steamwork Society (RSS). I’ve even jumped on the Facebook bandwagon not too long ago, which is sort of a miniblog, really. When I have something I want to share, sometimes I don’t know where to put it, heh.
Take, for example, a recent contest run by publisher Days of Wonder for their game Small World. Looking back, I see I only posted about that over on RSS and not here. Anyway, they officially announced the winners today and I am pleased to announce that I am one of them! They awarded 3 grand prizes, 1 special prize, and 9 secondary prizes, and I am a recipient of one of the secondary prizes for my special power “Historian.” The prize itself is $150 and 12 copies of the mini-expansion containing my idea, but really, the thrill of seeing my name in print and getting emails and phone calls from CEO Eric Hautemont is worth way more, haha.
Now if we could just get a full game published in the near future, we’d be rocking.
contest, days-of-wonder, small-world
Something that’s been bugging me more and more lately, and I don’t know why it started, is the obession with pirates. I mean, I like a pirate themed game as much as the next guy, but it’s really starting to bug me how much pirates are marketed to kids. Pirates, especially those from the “Golden Age” as popularized in movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and in kids television shows as innocent as Backyardigans, WordWorld and even VeggieTales, were generally sadistic, murderous criminals.
More and more when I see these things, or children’s Halloween costumes, I can’t help but wonder why we glorify piracy. Such diverse boardgames as Pirate’s Cove (from family-oriented publisher Days of Wonder) and Blackbeard (a classic Avalon Hill title by esteemed designer Richard Berg, recently republished by GMT) remain fairly popular, and even I have a design idea or two with piratical themes. I bought some black stones with the Jolly Roger on them at a local store called Primarily Kids, just because they look cool and I want to use them in a game.
Some reading on Wikipedia reveals that the Jolly Roger has slowly been divorced from its purely piratical usage and into something more abstract. For example, during WW2 it was used by British and Australian submarines “as an indicator of bravado and stealth rather than of lawlessness.” It was (and is) used on military aircraft, and various insignia. I suppose something similar has happened in the greater culture, where playing pirates is as innocent as “cops and robbers” and “cowboys and Indians.”
Of course, I’m not especially enamored of Ryan one day learning how to play at those games, either. I think I prefer him sticking to Kung Fu Panda or Transformers, something with a little less overtly criminal history or human-on-human violence, haha.
backyardigans, blackbeard, days-of-wonder, gmt-games, jolly-roger, kung-fu-panda, pirates, pirates-cove, pirates-of-the-caribbean, richard-berg, submarines, transformers, veggietales, wordworld