ALFRED'S BEST OF THE BLOGOSPHERE

Before we start, I'd just like to briefly dedicate this week's installment to paprika--the duct tape of the bachelor/grad student kitchen.

Thank you.

Once again, this is my somewhat idiosyncratic compilation of what I think are the "best"--best-written, most thought-provoking, whatever--posts appearing on gameblogs in the past week. This week, I tried to cast the net a little farther, and I think there's some really good stuff here.

To wit--

Did you know that Mark Jackson doesn't think Twister sucks? I only played once, scarred me for life. Not a good game, as pointed out, for socially-awkward middle schoolers. Good luck with that fever...

Another thing I only tried once or twice in middle school was roleplaying. I never had any fun, as a player or a GM; nobody really had any clue what was going on. I don't really have much of a yearning to try it again now--kinda like Twister, now that I think of it--but Mikko and Jay make a good case for it. I particularly liked Mikko's description of some Indie games; some interesting concepts there. (And why would someone translate them into Finnish?)

Some good session reports out there. I like pictures, and/or nice descriptions of new games. Ed Rozmiarek has a nice one featuring Alexander the Great, and on another continent comes evidence that more gender-balanced game groups really do exist than those I've been around...I'm presuming it's not just me.

Over on Gamefest, I liked Rick Thornquist's post on jerks who are eager to pounce on perceived "shilling" and whatnot on the 'Geek. In the comments, Chris Farrell mentions an Anti-Knizia bias out there, which I haven't perceived, but then again I don't get too involved in Geek-based game discussion. I also liked Jeremy Avery's Two Words Contest; a nice twist on the "Identify This Game!" theme.

Trabsact Sagme has a neat link to a Brazilian project to document indigenous games of the Amazon. Great stuff, but part of me wonders just how indigenous some of these are; these aren't entirely cut-off populations and a lot of the games have parallels in other cultures (including the west). A worthy project though, to be sure.

There have been a couple of times I've seriously toyed with the idea of moving to Alaska for a few years, to work at this one volunteer-run radio station in Nome. Never did it, of course--yet another of my grand schemes that never quite came off--but I've been interested in Alaska, and Coldfoot's Way Beyond Left Field stories from Walter Tommy are fascinating, for glimpses into life in the Great White North (see update), with its difficulties and attractions.

UPDATE to appease the Canadian readership: Alaska's big, it's up north, and it's mostly white, but--true--"Great White North" is as Canadian as bacon idiot Molson ads. As I'd hate to add to the difficulty some have telling the difference between Canada and a US state, Alaska shall heretofore be referred to by its nicknames "The Last Frontier" or "North to the Future," which is a fine designed-by-bureaucracy slogan to put on a license plate. Many thanks to Linnaeus for bringing this to my attention.

Mr. Nizz, AKA the great Walt O'Hara, played Settlers for the first time this week. He also played Knights for the first time, and didn't hate it, which makes him different from me. One thing we do have in common is a love of Wild West shootout games--particularly The Rules with No Name--that's a PDF link, by the way--so finding out about a source of cheap buildings that aren't made of cardstock. (This is one of those cases where all three links, for me, placed the site among the BotB this week.) It's a good 'un, and Walt likes that camera work...he also mentions that he's big in France, but it's those two hits from San Marino that really impress me.

And that's about it for this week. It's a big blogosphere out there, so get out in it!