All ashore that's going ashore! The Ship was one of my favorite disappointments of my earlier Steam days: a wonderful idea that never got the player base it deserved. It was the Sims meets Hitman, as you not only had to stalk and dispatch your prey with a creative arsenal but also had to manage a variety of needs such as Hunger, Thirst, and... Nature's Call. Nothing could compare to waiting for your quarry to sit down on the commode to do their business and then bursting in with a samurai sword. And now it's being Remasted... er... remastered.

Warning! This is a spoiler free review. You have been warned. Of what, I'm not sure, but there is a warning. It's even in red font.

​This holiday season saw many a board game played by me and mine, and I thought I would throw together a list of the best I played. Not the best I received. No no, because I haven't had time to play all the games that somehow managed to creep into our collection like roaches. That and a lot of the games that I enjoyed most belonged to other people.

Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald is a game that pegs itself as a 15 minute heist game, so I will peg this as a 15 minute review. Whether or not I actually write it in 15 minutes will be indiscernible to you, so I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. The heist, the whirlwind heist of Dr. Langeskov going after an emerald which happens to be cursed, terribly in fact, and also involves a tiger, is indeed finished in about 15 minutes. Which could be how long it took me to write this review.

You really just have to go play it. Anything I can say about the game just takes time away from the 15 minutes you could be spending playing Dr. Lozengskov, The Tigger, and The Terrifically Crushed Emerigold. It's an experience that must be experienced to be experienced. Sure there's some bugs here and there, with lighting issues, wonky event triggers, and a completely overpowered tiger, but that appears to be part of the game's charm. Plus, it's a free game developed by a team during a time when most of its members were on strike.

Dr. Loss'n'koff, The Trigger, and The Terrifyingly Crashed Emergence is 15 minutes of blissful sound assaulting the castle that is your head via the drawbridges that are your ears, 15 minutes of gorgeous graphics stabbing your eyes softly with color schemes and shadows, and most importantly only 15 minutes long.

Dr. Emerald, The Langeskov, and The Cursedly Terrible Tiger is available on Steam here or on the developers' website here. Right now. It will probably take longer to download than to play. 15 minutes.

EDIT: Please excuse this article. In an effort to expand our horizons, encourage fresh ideas, and give our regular blogger a small break, we hired a new writer, who penned this atrocity of an article. Unfortunately, it was already published before we could stop it. Rest assured, 2 To 4 Players will return to its normal, high-quality articles as soon as Tom has returned from his vacation. The author of this article has been fired and hopefully fed to a tiger. And cursed.

It's that time of year again. A time when snow falls, people stand outside grocery stores with little red kettles, and Christmas songs blare and Christmas decorations line the store shelves. Yes, it's Thanksgiving! The most oft overlooked holiday of them all. No store plays Thanksgiving music over their speaker system. It's a downright shame.

Before tomorrow arrives with its food-coma-inducing extravagance and we all lose the ability to function for the last half of the day, I thought I would take the time to address what I am most thankful for. Well, ok, so its not what I am most thankful for, but its what I'm most thankful for that pertains to this blog: board games! Without further ado, here is 2 To 4 Players' Top 5 Board Games to Play on Thanksgiving.

Said every gamer ever. I think every gamer secretly relishes a long illness as a chance to sit down before their computer/console and spend days wallowing in misery as they while away the hours consoling themselves by indulging in their digital diversions.

This was not one of those times. I unfortunately had to have a spinal fusion to fix a damaged nerve and herniated disc, the result of a breakdancing accident back in college (yes you read that right) which put me on bedrest for two weeks. I could not convince my wife to move my computer up into our bedroom for some cockamamy reason which my med clouded mind cannot recall, and so I could not play any computer games. I could not stay upright the time it would take to unbox a board game, much less actually participate in one.

So. There it is. In all its box-filling, game-cupboard-hoarding glory. Sentinels of the Multiverse. I should mention that the above picture is the base game and all of the possible expansions. I included it to a) show how truly vast this game has become and 2) because I think the way the boxes deal with expansions is the coolest thing since sliced cards. Yes kids, did you know that? We used to have to slice our own decks of cards. They were made like loaves, and if you sliced them too thick, you just didn't have an Ace of Hearts that time around, I guess.

A number of things have happened recently. There was a grand opening of a new game store in Omaha, a second Game Shoppe. There was a gaming convention here in Omaha, which I sadly was unable to attend. And last but certainly not least, my brother became engaged to his fiance. I say these things not because they are what has kept me from blogging (more on that in a bit) but because they all tie in to the title of this post and therefore what it is about, and that is the general atmosphere and demeanor that I find surrounds gaming.

Now, when I say gaming, I am referring more specifically to board/card gaming, because as a whole I find most video gaming, at least in regards to playing with other people online, at best a tolerable experience and at worst an utter bang-my-head-into-the-wall cry for help. People are always sleeping with each others' moms, and if I do something amazing it's due to my haxorz and if you do something amazing it's because of your 1337 skillz. Of course that refers to playing with random people, my friends I play online games with are AMAZING! Brown nose brown nose smooch smooch.

While I find the general atmosphere surrounding online multiplayer video games to be slightly less appetizing than gouging out my eyes with a rabid chihuahua, I actually quite enjoy playing board games with random strangers. Take for example the opening of the new Game Shoppe. Everyone there was all about having a good time. There were a ton of tables set up with a steady rotation of board games being played by anybody who wanted, not just people who had won the previous game; not just people who had purchased something that day. Anybody who wanted to try a new game was welcome, by both players and the staff. Never having been to one of these, I was unsure of what the protocol was for getting in on the next game. I had so many tactics I could try: should I stand sheepishly off to the side of the table looking longingly at the board in hopes that someone would pity me and invite me to join them, or should I jump on top of someone once they lost their particular game and tear out their jugular, thereby establishing my dominance and ensuring a future spot at the table? Thankfully, all I had to do was ask a group of three complete strangers if I could sit down and join them for a game of King of Tokyo. Which I played, proceeding to win (sneer sneer) and then purchase. That's how they getcha!

The staff were all exceedingly friendly too, as willing to simply stand and discuss games with you and attempt to get you to buy them. If you had a question; they were helpful, insightful, and knowledgeable. They did not call you a noob when you did not know how every little nuance of a game worked; they did not tell you they had conjugal relations with your mother. All in all, everyone I met that day had a smile on their face and a die/meeple/card board thingummie in their hand.

And that I think is how most board gamers are. Of course we are delving into stereotypes, which is always dangerous, and I will address the exceptions that make the rule, but it seems to me that most people who play board games are easy to get along with. Why is that?

It could be that board gaming offers a playful way to problem solve, which then in turn makes problem solving in real life easier to do. It could be that board gaming encourages one to rely more on their intellect rather than gut reactions and twitch reflexes as so many video games do. My favorite idea currently is that board gaming is inherently a social experience. It requires people to actually like spending time with you. Any social pariah can have a Steam account and troll people online. But to be able to gather friends together, sit around a small table and maneuver cardboard pieces around another larger piece of cardboard for hours on end... That requires you to actually be someone people want to be around.

Now of course there are exceptions. I know of some people who treat board games as if they are their only remaining course to be the alpha. Looks have failed them, sports be damned, so it shall be in board games that they carve their legacy. Rules? They make the rules. If they win? That's as it should be. If they lose? You must have played the game incorrectly, missed some crucial rule or cheated in order to beat them, the head honcho. And you know what? No one plays games with them for long, and they alienate one group and move on to another to begin the agonizing process all over again. 

Do I bring this up because I think more people would be happier if they played board games? Possibly. Do I bring this up because I think board gamers will inherit the Earth? Almost definitely. But mostly I bring this up because it was this atmosphere that helped to realize one very important thing.

I knew, when my brother introduced us to his girlfriend, that we would get along and that she would fit in very well with our family. And that was because she played board games with us. She enjoyed board games and played them frequently with my brother in California. Now, I know it seems silly to think "I knew she would marry him someday because we played Yahtzee together blah blah blah." Ok, first of all, it wasn't Yahtzee, it was Betrayal at the House on the Hill. Get your facts straight. And second, it's not as though it was the simple fact that she played board games that made her mesh. Seeing the way my brother and my soon-to-be sister-in-law played games together showed a great amount of compatibility in the way they dealt with problems together, how they communicated, and in the end, how they had fun together. And that was very encouraging.

Can all the world's problems be solved by board games? Not until they make a nutritional cardboard supplement. But I do think board games can make people have fun a little more, enjoy each other's company a little more, and maybe enjoy life as a whole a little more. Wow that got really sappy toward the end. Quick, gotta do something hardcore. What's that? Review Sentinels of the Multiverse?

Challenge accepted.

This is the first post of what I am calling Delving With Devs, in which I interview developers about their games and find out a bit more about what makes them tick. The developers. Or the games? Both? Sure.

OBEY is a game I am following very closely, as it is not only highly enjoyable but also terrifying in a way that most games are not. It does not scare you by throwing frightening creatures at you, or isolating you in darkness. It scares you by giving you something very dangerous. And I don’t mean it gives your character something dangerous, it actually gives YOU, the player, something dangerous: power. The goal of this game is to be the one in power, and that doesn’t necessarily mean you control the eponymous gun-turret-Robot. It means you have influence over others, and the game shows you what you can do with that power. It holds a mirror up to your actions, especially when the actions you were committing are committed against you. And when you think about it too hard, it can be scary what you will do with power. And enlightening. So just what exactly happens in this game? I won't do it justice trying to explain it, so here. I'll be lazy and throw up the game's trailer.

I think if OBEY had box art, that last line would have to be one of the call out lines. You remember those? Back when games actually came in boxes and had artful containers? "I'll go back to this pillar of light and be a good bunny." 

I'm terrible at this game. I'm too trusting, I give people too much money when I'm in the Robot. I'm not devious enough to do well at this game. Maybe that's a good thing? Maybe?

I was able to contact the developer of this game, Dan Dez, and asked him a few questions about the game’s creation, the reasoning behind it, and what he has seen thus far in the game’s life.

Thank you so much for taking time to answer my questions. My first question is sort of vague, but I’m hoping you will take it and run. When someone clicks on the Story tab of the opening menu, a box of text pops up that offers not your typical story, but an explanation of power, and more importantly, the subversion of power. What prompted you to make the game with the concept as it is now, that of holding power over others and the choice to follow the system and OBEY or subvert the system and revolt?

Dez: 
Well, one thing that keeps hammering me as a human being as I am working is the following question:  Is what I am doing worth doing at all? Is making a video game worth the time that it takes to make? When I meditate on the question, the answer I come up with is that the vast majority of games are not worth making: they have either already been made before, and/or are frivolous.  Of course this is just in my own opinion, but if I am going to spend several years of my life on something, I want it to have value above entertainment.   Games like all art, are forms of communication.  The question must follow: As a dev, what are you trying to communicate?  The "story" and metaphorical aspects of OBEY are my answer to that question.  I think it's time for games to move past just trying to be 'fun'.  In this regard, I think calling these things 'games' at all is a limitation.  And it's unfortunate, but I think there are very few developers that ask themselves or think about such things.  Jason Rohrer, and Brenda Romero are two exceptions I can think of.

Why bunnies?

Dez: 
Baby bunnies were the most innocent and defenseless creatures I could think of, but it's not important that they are bunnies specifically.  Mainly, they are designed to contrast their (apparent) vulnerability with robo's (apparent) invincibility as much as possible.  Further, I wanted players who think about what's actually happening in the game to realize that it's pretty horrible to witness innocent creatures hurting each other... in fact, I even considered making them human babies committing atrocities against each other, but it would have been too distracting.  Still, the idea is to first cause at least a little bit of shock to see such creatures hurt each other, and then to be unable to draw the distinction between them and human adults:  yet here we are, as our countries starve each other with sanctions, bomb each other, steal from each other etc.... and even work to coerce or convince you to join a military or wave a flag to help it all along.  People are hoodwinked into taking part in what amounts to a mass scale tribalistic prisoner's dilemmas.

I was in a game once and you logged in to check the server, and one of the players mentioned that the placement of one of the buildings lent itself to a permanent hiding place for bunnies that made it extremely difficult for the robot, and you said you would rotate the building, basically an instant reaction to player feedback. How else has input from the OBEY community helped shape the development of the game?

Dez:
From the start, I knew this had to be a community centric project simply due to the fact of me being the only developer.  I can't even test the gameplay by myself!  So I try to make it easy for people to influence the game wherever I can:  that started by allowing custom maps, translations, and server settings.  But the community has had a ton of influence besides that: the introduction of auto-pay, the power plants and numerous game features in addition to the maps that players have made, and the wiki, which have been huge community contributions.  Right now a player is helping me write the leaderboard backend, which we are making open source.  OBEY is a social game, and I have always wanted it to belong to it's players.

What other forms of media did you draw/get inspiration from? What books, movies, video games, etc.?


Dez:
I can't point to other games as inspiration, but I would say a lot of writings on sociology, political science, and philosophy have definitely inspired and educated me to make the game the way it is.  The writings of Chomsky, Tolstoy, Dawkins. The work of psychologists Zimbardo and Milgram have influenced my thinking. The work and teachings of sociologist Larry Diamond. 'A Theory of Power' by Jeff Vail was also a direct inspiration in making OBEY the way it is. 

The game lends itself very well to zany situations popping up, desperate plans, the dreaded corpse banks. What is the craziest scenario you have seen in a game of OBEY?

Dez:
I think the craziest thing that happens, and it happens every so often is when the bunnies create situations where they strong-arm and coerce the robot player (who ostensibly has the power, but is actually quite vulnerable if the game state turns chaotic).  Where they blackmail the robot into paying them or doing something stupid in exchange for information, or weapons, or for protection from a non-existent danger.  Actually, one of my favorite plays was by a player named MaximumPower, where he had a battery near the feedbox and said to the robot "can I have extra money for this battery?"  The robot paid him, and then he hid it behind the feedbox (instead of loading it in), to again in a few minutes bring it out again to ask: "Do you pay extra for batteries?" and do the same to be paid once again by milking the same battery over and over.  Then, the robot would get subverted and the new robot would be none the wiser.  He pulled a ton of payments out of that battery - I think I was the only other player who caught onto the scheme since I was a spectator in that particular match.

Thank you so much for your time, and keep up the good work!


Dez:
I will! See you in the game.


OBEY is currently in Early Access on Steam here, or you can check out Dez's website for more information.