Tonight I attended the regular campus gaming event and picked the game Everdell to play. During this summer I found myself at a board game bar in Dayton they had this game but I didn’t have the opportunity to play it. Originally the artwork is what interested me in playing the game because I like the forest and the animals remind me of children’s books I used to read a lot growing up. If I had to envision myself in an ideal happy place, it would be a magical forest, hence why the game I designed takes place in a similar setting.
I took a look at the other games available tonight but I just kind of knew that I wanted to play Everdell, even if that meant playing it by myself. I’m not very good at figuring games out on my own so I called Grace from class and told her if she could make it to the gaming event, she should try so I wasn’t stuck figuring it out alone. I assembled the tree and by the time I got the board set out, Issac came over and asked if he could show me how to play the game and play it with me. I didn’t know many people at this event and the people I did recognize seemed very interested in the games that they had picked to play, so I wasn’t eager to recruit anyone. I am glad Issac took the initiative to come help me, and he seemed genuinely excited to play, he said this game is one of his favorites. Eventually, more people expressed interest in playing and we were able to start. Originally one of the first comments that were made was that Everdell is comparable to Wingspan in terms of complexity and I really think that was an accurate statement. I’ve played Wingspan and really enjoyed it, but I think I enjoyed this game more just because of its theme and interactive game pieces.
When playing the game I really enjoyed all the cards, understanding the cards is definitely the most complicated part of the game but I feel like I was able to comprehend them after they were explained. I tried to play high-value cards but ended up without a lot of points at the end of the game and my city only had 10 cards instead of a full 15. Even though we played the game for almost two hours, it seemed like it went by too quickly and that we should have had more time to build our cities, I guess that just means that I was having fun. I felt like I consistently had a lot of cards, and was running out of resources, so maybe I should pick a new strategy next time. At the end of the game, I definitely lost and did not have the first or second highest amount of points, but I know what I need to do next time. In the future, I feel like I would like to understand more about how this game could be played as a single-player game or just with two players, and to what extent that changes the gameplay dynamic. Overall I am so glad that I finally had the opportunity to play this game. I definitely want to play this game again and will likely get it as a Christmas gift.

I’m genuinely very glad that I had the opportunity to play this game again. The first time, my group was entirely lost and the other group members just did not seem to enjoy the concept of the game in general. I did not realize we were playing this game this week, so I showed up to class unprepared, but the game demonstration helped a lot. I think although my group was very lost the first time we played, having at least a little knowledge of how the game works was reassuring when we were trying to figure it out again. The first time I played TIME Stories, I left with more questions than answers, but I appreciated the artwork and mystery element to the game. This is definitely the most immersive game I’ve played, and because of that, I think it’s a new favorite. Playing this game feels like I’m in a video game or movie, but I like that we have choices and can come back to rooms or decide as a group how we want to go about playing the game.
Week two of this game felt a bit more intense than week one. I think I liked the exploration phase of week one better than the more calculated game play of week two. I was glad that we had some group members that really understood game play and could remember all of the choices we needed to make for the second time around playing the game. For the second week, I definitely took less of a leadership role and more so followed the members who seemed to have a plan in order. To be honest, I don’t know how people would play this game and successfully complete the mission the first time, just because I feel like there’s a maze of steps that need to be done in order to successfully complete the game, and there’s too many dead ends that can cause your team to die or run out of time. I did enjoy how the game ended for the most part, I feel like it made sense to the story, but I also felt like it was slightly uneventful. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting but it felt like it was just suddenly over.
To be honest, I don’t think most of my friends would be able to sit through an entire game of Time Stories due to the time commitment. I think I understand it enough now to where I can explain how to play, and they won’t feel too overwhelmed by the complications, but convincing them to play a 4 hour long game with me is asking a lot. I think in order to convince them, I would have to explain to them how the game works in advance, and give them a few details of the plot to gauge their interest. However, my friend Josh might enjoy the game because he enjoys video games and I feel like this game demonstrates some video game-like qualities. Josh also likes to fully commit to things he’s doing and doesn’t like giving up and also does not like losing, so I feel like he would be more likely to sit through this game than other people because of the challenge. Overall I think I would play another version of TIME Stories. I don’t know if the zombie game that follows the asylum version really sparks my interest, but some of their other plots might.

This lecture series was a treat to attend, and yes the pun was intentional. Carla talked about being unapologetically herself and coming into her true authentic self as she’s gotten older and how her acting career propelled her to come out of her shell. She advised us to take the windy path, and that life’s unexpected events help make us who we are. We don’t need to have everything “figured out,” and that we should aspire to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Say yes, adventure follows, then growth.
Then Carla transitioned into talking about her wardrobe and how she values her wardrobe and allows it to reflect her personality. Carla encouraged us to embrace who we are by the self expression of our clothes. When Carla is wearing clothes that she likes and feels comfortable in, she feels powerful and confident. Throughout her time on tv, there have been times where Carla was told how to dress or do her makeup and hair, and she’s come to realize how valuable self expression can be on your mood and performance. Despite the media’s wishes, Carla Hall has insisted on letting her hair go naturally gray, rather than dying it artificially. This was a decision she had to think about a lot, because it goes against society’s expectation that gray hair should be colored to look more youthful. Now with gray hair, Carla promotes the natural beauty of aging and being your authentic self, gray hairs and all. This was Carla’s way of taking her power back, and not letting others have too much influence over her life. She claimed that she would rather lose a job being who she is vs keep it trying to pretend to be someone else.
Some of the things Carla spoke about really resonated with me. She is also an enneagram 7, which is “the enthusiast.” This was unsurprising, as she gets very enthusiastic about everything and radiates a very positive energy. In her words, her superpower is that she loves people, and I feel like this is the same for me. I also love that Carla is very passionate about being your authentic self because this is something I frame my life around. Lastly, Carla discussed the importance of living in the moment and how when you’re overthinking things too much, you lose authenticity by being too calculated. We draw attention to ourselves when we get too embarrassed, but if we just accept our mistakes and learn to laugh at ourselves and not take things too seriously, we become more magnetic.

I’m genuinely very glad that I had the opportunity to play this game again. The first time, my group was entirely lost and the other group members just did not seem to enjoy the concept of the game in general. I did not realize we were playing this game this week, so I showed up to class unprepared, but the game demonstration helped a lot. I think although my group was very lost the first time we played, having at least a little knowledge of how the game works was reassuring when we were trying to figure it out again. The first time I played TIME Stories, I left with more questions than answers, but I appreciated the artwork and mystery element to the game. This is definitely the most immersive game I’ve played, and because of that, I think it’s a new favorite. Playing this game feels like I’m in a video game or movie, but I like that we have choices and can come back to rooms or decide as a group how we want to go about playing the game.
I was not the time keeper while playing the game, and to be honest, I still don’t really know how that part is played. It seems like every time we engage in combat, or switch to a new location we have to move the time pieces, but I don’t understand the concept enough to do it on my own without clarification. It also seems a little unclear who receives the object if two people are in the same room at the same time. Does it really matter? It seems like either everyone wins or everyone loses together in this game. I also feel unsure about what the different characters really mean and how our character choice impacts the story. If you have played the game before, is there a strategy to pick certain characters? Or are all the characters pretty much equal and just have slightly different strengths and weaknesses that end up balancing out in the end.
This game taught me that it’s important to not rely on other people to know what is going on because someone has to take on the leadership responsibility/ role and instruct others in that situation. The first time I played this, nobody knew what was going on, so nobody was really able to take on a leadership role. Part of leadership is being prepared and taking initiative. I’m glad we were able to collaborate better the second time around and I think everyone took turns coming up with strategies about what our next move in the game should be.
To be honest, I don’t think most of my friends would be able to sit through an entire game of Time Stories due to the time commitment. I think I understand it enough now to where I can explain how to play, and they won’t feel too overwhelmed by the complications, but convincing them to play a 4 hour long game with me is asking a lot. I think in order to convince them, I would have to explain to them how the game works in advance, and give them a few details of the plot to gauge their interest. However, my friend Josh might enjoy the game because he enjoys video games and I feel like this game demonstrates some video game-like qualities. Josh also likes to fully commit to things he’s doing and doesn’t like giving up and also does not like losing, so I feel like he would be more likely to sit through this game than other people because of the challenge. I am looking forward to finishing the game next week!

This week we played Ladies and Gentlemen. I’ve played this game one other time, and I think I enjoyed it a lot better the second time than the first time. The first time I think everyone was a bit more confused, we did not really know what we were doing, but everyone seemed to have a better understanding of the game this time, and so did I. It felt good to be able to somewhat guide people through the game, at least the people playing the ladies role. Both times I played this game I played the lady role, and I am completely okay with that. Although I haven’t played the gentleman’s role, their role seems less fun for what type of game I would like to play, although I do appreciate the competitive aspect to it.
I think this game reminds me of being a kid in a way, almost like an adult version of Pretty Pretty Princess. I like that this game is interactive and as someone who played the lady role, I get to go to different shops and pick out fun outfit pieces. I am a very visual learner and I just appreciate good visuals in general, so looking through all the fun outfit pieces is my favorite part of the game. The first time I played this game, I really did not have any strategy for it. I just kind of tried to pick outfit pieces that looked aesthetically pleasing together and had a high amount of stars, I did not focus on the designer aspect of it too much. I also did not purchase any servants the first time I played this game, I did not understand that they can actually really help you win the game, and that having them can be super beneficial if you know how to play the game. The second time I played this game, I did use the servant cards, and I focused more on receiving high points for my outfit pieces, rather than color coordinating and matching. Although, I do think that would be a fun element to add to the game, to give people bonus points for some kind of color coordination aside from just having pieces from the same designer.
I think in regards to the hardest part of this game, I think for me it is knowing what needs to be prioritized. My lady that I was playing, ended up going to the ball without shoes. To me, this seems like a big issue, but according to the game, this was fine and we ended up with a lot of points anyways. I struggled to know which stores to go to as well. I thought the ½ off rule was a little confusing and I kept forgetting to apply it or when I should. I kept forgetting if I received a discount from an item if it came from my store, or someone else’s. For leadership, I think out of all the games we have played this semester, this one ties the least to leadership. It is very individualized, every person is playing competitively against everyone else and nobody is really leading the team or helping each other. I think to a degree I saw a few people demonstrate that they seemed to genuinely understand the rules of the game, so they helped everyone keep things straight and on track, but aside from that, I did not witness many leadership qualities. With this being a very animated game, I think this game would be fun to play with my friends that I studied abroad with, or maybe my coworkers at work. I think this game is meant for people that genuinely want to play a somewhat competitive game, and might enjoy the theatrics of the stereotyped gender roles associated with the game.

This week we played Survive- Escape From Atlantis and overall, I enjoyed this game. The game itself is very simple and I like that it implements so many aspects of other games into it, such as Battleship and Sorry. Getting started with the game was difficult at first because of the different elements to the game set up. There’s some pieces that are a part of the expansion pack and we weren’t totally sure which pieces we needed and which were part of the expansion pack at first but we were able to figure it out. We had a little confusion as to where to put our pieces on the board. It seemed strategic to put all of our pieces as close to us and our dock as possible, but yet we wondered if there might be an advantage to spreading them out more. We all ended up putting our pieces close to each other and our dock, which I think was somewhat a good strategy. I had played this game before, so I did think that I had the upper hand on how to win the game originally, but that proved to not be true. Everyone else seemed to pick up on the game strategy rather quickly.
As far as game play, I had planned to load a full boat and take it quickly to my shore, which did not work out for me. I can’t remember what happened to my first boat, I think a whale hit it. However, I was able to quickly load 2 other boats and was working on taking them back to my shore when a whirlpool hit both of them at the same time. In hindsight, I wish I would have left some of the people that were far away and would have just immediately taken a not full boat to shore just so I could get at least a few points. I only escaped with 1 point, which was not very good! However, I think it was a good strategy to not put too many people on the tiles that were supposed to be eliminated first. A lot of other players ended up in the water and eaten by sharks due to putting their tiles on the first eliminated ones. There were a lot of interesting game play dynamics and I appreciated that people were simultaneously working in favor of themselves, while also somewhat in the favor of others, and somewhat against them. For one turn you might be working with someone, and then the next turn you might be working against them. This can happen by choice or just by the nature of the game.
Next time playing the game, I think I would really like to try it the normal way again and see how my fate changes. After playing once more and getting the hang of a new strategy and game play, I would like to try to play with the expansion pack because that seems like it would add even more interesting and intense game dynamics. I think this game can relate to leadership easily because there’s a lot of multitasking happening at all times. While you’re working to save your people and get them back to shore, you’re also concerned about what is happening to your players all across the board that might experience difficulties getting back on shore. The players also need to demonstrate leadership by being dedicated to their own mission. I don’t agree with this, but some styles of leadership are very dominant and people will actively step on others in order to get what they want. This game brings out the competitive nature in people and in order to survive, one must engage in the cutthroat aspects of the game and stay dedicated to each personal mission. It’s also important in leadership to learn how to reroute when things don’t go according to plan, and that’s something we did a lot in this game.
I think this is a game that not only I would play again, but I would also want to play with my ex boyfriends’ family from back home. This sounds odd, but we used to play a lot of games together and I think they would enjoy different aspects of this game. I think the turns take too long for my friends at school, they would probably get bored waiting on people to make decisions for their turn, but my ex’s family doesn’t mind long or complicated games.