I call a point of order.
Monday, October 27th, 2008
I like to think I’m not all that different compared to other people and like other people I do go through my phases of just wanting time and space to myself and then sometimes the other extreme where I feel I need to get out and do more. Well this weekend was great for the latter, kicked off with a concert of game music on Friday night followed by a few days of meeting people and playing games.
First off was the Video Game Live concert which was held at Festival Hall in London where music from games as early as Donkey Kong and as recent as World of Warcaft was orchestrated and played by the English Chamber Orchestra. It was great to see (hear) that music from games is being appreciated outside of their original intention and form. Often I have got snickers when people have glanced at my music collection to see countless folders of game music, for some reason people seem to find it unusual to listen to such specifically – I don’t. I find there are some great pieces of music in there which are as enjoyable if not more so to listen to compared to anything else.
I was also introduced to a new card game over the course of Saturday night called Chairmans (Mao). Now I heard a lot of mixed opinions on the game before playing from people who either really liked it or the exact opposite from people who really really hated it – no surprise really, everyone likes different things but nonetheless my interest had been perked for a few months wanting to know what my own reaction would be to the game. After a few hours of play however it became obvious it was the sort of game for me.
For those of you who don’t know it the concept of the game is mystery, the game play and challenge is inverse to normal design where as opposed to being told the rules at the start the objective throughout is to learn the rules as you go along (and new rules are always being made but can never be explained). To me that is awesome (and at the same time I can understand how others might fight it hopelessly infuriating), it sparks my curiosity and want to observe and work-out how and why something works. My only sticking point about the game is that it is fairly aimless which makes it more a challenge of endurance as more rules are added (I was told of a 16 hour game was once played by the people I was playing with) and to me that seems a little too much.
