Party Like It's 1492 (A Review of Old World New World)

There's a lot of debate about who, exactly, "discovered" the Americas - Christopher Columbus, the Vikings, the Chinese, a lost tribe of Israel, or even aliens.  Now, with one of Victory Point's latest titles, you can make sure the history books get it right - it was YOU!  It may not be the vast American continents, but a New World beckons nonetheless with all its riches, honor, renown...and dangers.  Can you survive hostile Natives, an unwelcoming environment, and competition from your Old World neighbors to claim both land and glory?

The Paradise is Falling! (A Review of Paradise Fallen)

Paradise has fallen. At least, if you consider the tropical islands of Hawaii to be paradise.  Anyways, sometime in the future, or maybe transcendent of time, Bad Stuff™ has happened, resulting in the destruction of modern civilization as we know it. At least, on the islands of Hawaii. But you, the players, are intrepid explorers venturing into these once lost but now rediscovered islands, braving deadly mists, native tribes, and powerful storms to be the first to re-discover the world that was.

Okay, I pretty much made that up, or rather extrapolated from the box-back description, the island names, and the art on the cover, because there is no backstory written in the rulebook.

Boldly Going... (A Guide to the 4X Genre)

I see many bright stars in your future...

When we dig into the details of board games beneath ground level, we often talk about mechanisms and theme.  Mechanisms to a board game are kind of like the rules of grammar to a book; they are tools to help a designer (or author) connect with the end user to create an experience.  Authors attempt to create emotional connections or communicate ideas, game designers try to create enjoyable game play, but the tools do not inherently create great end products.

Theme in a board game equivocates to the setting of a book; time, place, context for the activity that is going on.  In a book, setting is usually pretty important to the story, although we've all seen remakes, fan-fictions, and retellings that change the setting of a story.  Theme in a game gives context to a players actions; in some cases, theme is central to a game experience.  In others, it simply facilitates the connection between the mechanisms that make up the game.

But there certainly more levels that we can dig into.  Something we haven't really talked about before is genre.  In books, genres are very closely related with settings; science fiction, drama, romance, historical - these all imply a sense of location, at least on the surface.  However, the genre simply defines certain characteristics of a book and sets up expectations for the reader.  What kind of book is this going to be? In the same way, board game genres define certain characteristics of the game, characteristics that are not necessarily tied to the theme directly, nor are they tied directly to mechanisms.  Yet the three can be somewhat intertwined.

So the genre I"m going to talk about today is the "4X" genre, one of my favorites.  This genre is not a set of mechanisms, and it is not directly related to a specific theme (although many 4X games are set in space).  It is simple a set of expectations and characteristics of a certain type of game.  What type of game is that? Well, read on to find out.

Gold Diggers (A Review of The Lost Dutchman)

The sun beats mercilessly overhead with its suffocating heat.  You struggle to push onward, stumbling really, as if in a drunken stupor.  With empty pack and dry canteen, the sweat-stained locks matted beneath your hat brim are the closest you've come to water in days.  From the corner of your eye, you notice a cottonmouth slither through the parched brush.  A mountain lion hungrily observes you from the ragged ridge above, while a vulture hangs lazily overhead.  Questions race through your mind.  Is there really gold in this cursed land?  Will anyone ever find it?  Am I a fool?  Will I make it out alive?