Melissa Rogerson

Headlines May 6, 2008 - Melissa Rogerson: Why you lost April 22, 2008 - Melissa Rogerson: Family Festival - of games? April 8, 2008 - Melissa Rogerson: Australian Toy, Game and Hobby Fair March 25, 2008 - Melissa Rogerson: Online Gaming March 11, 2008 - Melissa Rogerson: Game designers, Timetables and an Easter Egg February 12, 2008 - Melissa Rogerson: Games Come in Boxes January 29, 2008 - Melissa Rogerson: Plays, Games and How We Describe Them January 15, 2008 - Melissa Rogerson: Beach Games January 1, 2008 - Melissa Rogerson: A New Beginning, and Favourites of Last Year December 29, 2007 - Melissa Rogerson: So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu December 16, 2007 - Melissa Rogerson: Boardgames for Christmas November 25, 2007 - Melissa Rogerson: Multi-Player Solitaire? Nuh Uh!

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Articles

Melissa Rogerson: Why you lost

Next time you lose when playing a boardgame, here are some excuses that you might want to roll out.

Or maybe not.

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Melissa Rogerson: Family Festival - of games?

At a “parents’ get-together” at school this evening, I was approached about participating in the school’s upcoming family festival.

The idea of the event is to have a day for families to spend time together (with other families as well as with their children), trying something new and generally having fun.

After the success of our Family Game Nights at school, they are keen to have a room for people to try out some games - and for us to organise that.

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Melissa Rogerson: Australian Toy, Game and Hobby Fair

Ahh, early April. The time when the thoughts of the gaming world turn to one place.

I’m not entirely sure that that one place is actually the Melbourne Toy, Game and Hobby Fair, but that’s where I found myself on Saturday, checking out the new releases and up-coming goodness.

Here’s a run-down of the good, the exciting and the rest. No photos this year as Fraser pointed out the “NO PHOTOGRAPHY OR WE WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND HURT YOU” signs that I somehow managed to completely miss again. 

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Melissa Rogerson: Online Gaming

It’s hard to blog about games I have played when I haven’t actually played a game in over 2 weeks, at least not face-to-face. Life has crawled on top of me and is beating me about the head in a way that doesn’t usually happen until at least August, usually October. I’m guessing that it figures it needs to get all that out of the way before this October, when it will not have a chance to beat me up as I enjoy myself in Essen.

At least I have managed to play some games online, usually at odd hours of the morning or the very late evening. These are mostly 2-player games, and the range of games is somewhat different from the games I play face-to-face, for a variety of reasons.

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Melissa Rogerson: Game designers, Timetables and an Easter Egg

In conjunction with the Australian Games Expo in June this year, Boardgames Australia will be hosting an event for Game Designers. We see this as part of our mission – looking at both promoting great games (through the Awards) and also promoting great game design.

We’re finalising the program now – so far, we have some input from publishers and game designers (who may or may not be at the event); information about the printing and production process; a round table discussion on rules and playtesting; and some input from IP Australia, the body that administers trademark, copyright and registration. This last thing was something that several people asked about.

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Melissa Rogerson: Games Come in Boxes

There is magic in a games shop.

Walking in, seeing all those games on the shelves, begging to be taken home and loved.

Although I work from home, I often have to travel to meetings. And when I do, I usually try to make time to wander through my FLGS.

The friend who has worked there for years has moved on, but the siren call of the boxes remains. “We look with our eyes, not with our hands,” I tell my kids when I take them shopping - but of course I ignore my own advice when I have the chance to fondle a game box or three.

The funny part of it is that I never buy games there. If they have something I want, I always get Fraser to pick it up for me. This is not quite as sneaky a plan as it sounds, because I do eventually pay for them - it’s just that he has the discount card.

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Melissa Rogerson: Plays, Games and How We Describe Them

On our holiday, I played 18 games. Or 38 games, depending on how you count them. Or even 38 games of 18 games.

Something that seems to be missing in English is a word that means “a playing of a game.” Actually, that’s not quite right—the words are there, but they’re used only for sports (and for some very formal tournaments).

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Melissa Rogerson: Beach Games

Hello from our annual beach holiday! Every year, we hire an old beach house for a two-week family holiday. Every year, I promise myself that I will pack light and that the kids won’t travel with beach things packed around them on the back seat—and every year I fail. This year we did pretty well, until it came time to pack the games.

You see, the house that we hire has no TV. All the entertainment has to be brought ourselves. We like to invite friends down, too, so we take a range of activities. Biggie has brought all her dad’s Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators books, Otto has brought her Fifi and the Flowertots magnetic play scenes and a pile of Charlie and Lola books. I have brought my “neue deutsche Rechtschreibung” reference book and my brand new French textbooks; Fraser brought a mysterious bag o’stuff.

And then there are the games.

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Melissa Rogerson: A New Beginning, and Favourites of Last Year

First, thanks to Eric for the new site for Gone Gaming. While we were sorry to leave our home of the past two-and-a-half years, his suggestion that we move our posts to Boardgame News came at the right time, as our pool of regular writers was dwindling and no new ones had stepped up. Our older posts will be copied over here as well, but you can still read them at the Gone Gaming site (which is going nowhere).

We each have our own focus, although the range of topics can vary. I often write about gaming with our daughters Otto (who will turn 5 in March 2008 and is starting school at the end of January) and Biggie (who turned 9 in August 2007), my involvement with games at school, translating games, and—well, whatever steals my attention as I happen to be writing. I’ll be alternating Tuesdays with my husband Fraser, so you’ll sometimes see us both giving our take on a game or event, usually at least one with the benefit of hindsight.

With 2007 behind us, I thought it would be interesting to have a look back over the year’s highlights. Thanks to some family issues this year, I’ve not had as much time to devote to gaming this year as I would have liked. There were still some stand-outs, though.

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Melissa Rogerson: So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu

Since we’re sharing, here’s the original approach to me and Fraser back in December 2005 to join what we saw as the pre-eminent boardgaming blog.

Hello Fraser, Melissa, “BIGGIE” & “lil`un” and the ‘critters’-if many as I send this for your to read upon and answer quickly please, thanks for reading over it. We would like for the BOTH of YOU to join in at the ‘blog’ for ONE ‘day’ out of the WEEK for a “Weekly” upkeep about YOUR ‘gaming experiences’ with insights, etc. and you could even alternate or however you’d like to approach this: “FROM: the BGG ‘group of geeks” I’d suggest EACH of us write to them(you folks~edit.) with our very OWN ‘notions’ as well, in order to foster IDEAS from them or even US. The better MEANS would be for ALL of us to gather in the CHAT here and maybe some of YOU would be able to LISTEN in for ‘moi’ TALKING through that as well as ANY others capable for this? I’ve been on for hours with folks ALL over the world at NO Cost ‘extra’ for it. At the very least then WE can meet and toss ‘subjects’ off of one another as a ‘sounding board’ discussion and fleshing OUT Group missions. Should you agree to such, nobody’s to FORCE anything upon another AS they can BE in or OUT on whatever matters. I’d surely expect YOU all to join in with “web-cam” meet ups when you’re able, while I’ve got a T V “camera ready” S-VHS kit for actual tapings of ‘gamings’ in a to be featured “Games Channel” of some sort. Most likely they’ll become ‘subscriber based’ for JUST certain and MANY varied types huh? So of course just about ALL can cover their ‘milieu’ since I don’t EXPECT to myself. Then there’s the “local yokels” of which we ALL would comprise for THIS within every country and soon upon the MOON! “Get with the ‘program’ of GET left behind"~that’s a “Xclamato’’ “ Have ‘your people’ contact OUR ‘people’! ” As I so eloquently put this, then it shall involve HOWEVER we can EACH accomplish this, while WE should all strive towards WHAT they’d like as well. You may become “famously RICH” whilst participating too, but it’ll depend upon IF you’d want to AND in what particular ‘manner’ this results in. Take care-Robert.

My response, if I recall correctly, used the phrase “Mouse in the Company of Giants”. I was honoured and surprised to be invited to join the group, and wasn’t entirely sure that I had earned the right to be here.

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Melissa Rogerson: Boardgames for Christmas

It’s fun to play games, but it’s fun to give games too. And with Christmas on the way, giving things is definitely on my mind. (Unfortunately, it’s also the reason why I skipped posting last week—between family, Agricola and work, the last few weeks have been a bit mad).

We have a friend who loves penguins. Like us, she has a 5’ high inflatable penguin; unlike ours, I think hers is still inflated. Last year, we found the perfect Christmas gift: the game Weihnachtspinguine (Christmas Penguins). Not only does it have penguins and even a polar bear, it’s also a pretty fun game. Chalk up a gift-giving success.

Some games really scream out to be given to particular people. Here’s my list:

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Melissa Rogerson: Multi-Player Solitaire? Nuh Uh!

The term “multiplayer solitaire” is often used (mostly by people who don’t like them) to describe games where there is no direct player interaction: you can’t steal my food cubes or blow up my tanks because we are each working on our own grand master plan for our own area of the world.

Coincidentally, the games the term is often applied to include most of my favourite games.

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Melissa Rogerson: Agricola - or, Everything I Know About 17th Century Farming I Learned Online

As loyal readers will know, I’ve spent the last seven weeks or so immersed in translating Uwe Rosenberg’s wonderful new game Agricola.

One of the challenges in translating this game was understanding the richly thematic world that the game encapsulates, and reflecting that in the words and ideas used in the translated text.

Nowhere is this more necessary than in the 360-odd cards, particularly the Improvement and Occupation cards.

I’ve been asked a few times: “Why did you use this word? No-one will know what it means!” This is my answer…

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Melissa Rogerson: Looking Forward, Looking Back

So, Essen is over for another year. The pilgrimages have been made, the booty unshrinked, sprues discarded to save luggage space and weight. The first batch of verdicts are in from the Chosen Few—while we, the Unwashed Masses, scoured the Internet with only one mostly industrial medium-sized German town in mind. And occasionally checked airfares and hotel availability.

My loot is still in transit—a couple of consignment numbers my only link to unimaginable greatness. Or, at the least, to hours of gaming fun. (Frustratingly, the consignment numbers only reveal that the package “is in transit to the destination country"—sometimes no information is better than partial)

Meanwhile, there’s still time for the older games in our collection. Last night, we had six for games night, including two players who are new to gaming. We kept it light but fun: two games of Diamant, followed by at least ten of Bamboleo. For fun factor, especially with new gamers, it’s hard to beat a really good dexterity game.

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Melissa Rogerson: Game Design Challenge

Let’s be brutally honest here. It’s four days till the Essen game fair opens. Three, by the time I post this. And you, gentle Reader, are champing at the bit waiting for reports or hints or photos—or ANYTHING really—that give you any information about what is going on with all those New Games.

I know this, because by Tuesday night I too will be compulsively hitting the Refresh key in case anyone has somehow stumbled across a hidden cache of games and managed to play one of them before the Messe actually opened. (Brief pause to gloat: We did manage to play the new Amigo cardgame Ziegen Kriegen on Friday night.)

So this week, something different.

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Melissa Rogerson: Translating Board Games

An out-of-turn post this week because (for once) I had a post ready early, and Fraser has been busy buying games this weekend. Paradise at our place!

I’ve spent the last week or two deep in the world of rules translation. Now, I’m an amateur at this, but I thought a glimpse into the process might be interesting.

As an example, I will use Agricola, Uwe Rosenberg’s new (Essen) game about agricultural development. This is a medium-to-heavy game (literally—it weighs in at over 2.2 kg or close to 5 pounds), with very detailed rules, as well as lots of theme—and in this context, “theme” means (among other things) 17th century farming terminology. That complicates things because, like most of you, I am not a specialist in historical agricultural practice (although all those trashy historical novels are finally coming in handy). Especially in German.

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Melissa Rogerson: Itchy Feet, Evil Plans and Enlightened Self-Interest

Ah, Spring is here. This is the time of year when my feet really start to itch.

No, I’m not talking about some personal fungal problem set off by the warmer weather—I’m talking about the urge to travel. With new rules and other game information posted daily, it seems, it’s hard for any gamer to ignore the siren song of Essen. Come October, I will be one of many people scouring the internet for those first reports of “What I did today” and thanking the many people who post those wonderful reports.

It’s also the time when Certain People begin bugging me for rules translations. A friend and I joked yesterday that there’s a whole new P500-style business model there—either taking GG donations to determine which game to (unofficially) translate first, or starting a translation and leaving it at a critical point, with an appropriate ransom note.

I am sorely tempted.

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Melissa Rogerson: Pick the Piece!

Time to lighten things up a little with another quiz:

What game are you playing if you use the following pieces/cards/tiles/game constructs?

Count bonus points if you get more than 1 game for an answer.

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Melissa Rogerson: When the Goal Is to Participate…

There’s an interesting thread on the Geek this week about playing games with children, questioning whether the “my two-year-old can beat me at World in Europe” claims are quite what they are cracked up to be.

Earlier this year, I posted about playing Cluedo (Clue) with both the kids. We dealt cards to me, Fraser and Biggie, and played what was really a three-player game, except that Otto rolled dice and moved her person, occasionally sucked one of us over into whatever room she was in, and was shown cards when she did. As I said at the time, by no stretch of the imagination was she playing Cluedo, but she was engaging in a family gaming activity (and loving it).

Over the past year-and-a-half, I have been asked several times about games that a much younger child (or a disabled child) can join in and play with the family—even if they are playing by different rules.

Here are some that I can think of.

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Melissa Rogerson: An Abecedary of Alliteration

One device that always gets my attention is alliteration. Also making up nouns from adjectives (well, abecedarian is a word, so ...)

Here are some alliterative clues: Which of these games sound familiar? No prizes, only bragging rights.

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Melissa Rogerson: Day Tripping - With Games

A friend recently told me my posts here (and elsewhere) were very ‘suburban’. Here’s another one for you, Jon :)

Winter School holidays are here and that meant it was time for me and Biggie to have a Big Outing somewhere. This week, it was Sovereign Hill - a recreation of an 1850s central Victorian goldfields town, and a favourite place for us all to visit.

Unbeknownst to the Bigster, though, the attraction these holidays was not the opportunity to go down t’pit and into the mines, but SNOW! The operators trucked in snow from Mount Buller, some 200 kms away, to create a giant snow slide and to give some snow play opportunities. In addition, snow machines created “snowfalls” every hour or so up and down Main Street. (This wasn’t ‘real’ fake snow though - it looked like teeny tiny bubbles).

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Melissa Rogerson: Games in the Classroom

As a reward for good behaviour, Biggie’s teachers decided that the class would have a games day to celebrate the end of the term. Initially it was going to be all board games, all the time, but lots of the children wanted to bring their own games to school, so “our” part of the day was cut back to two hours.

After much consideration, I cut the list of games to take back to around 17. Gregor had kindly offered to help out, and he brought a couple as well, although we found there was less time to talk than we had expected.

We started the day by talking about games: What makes a game a game? First response: “It’s about having fun with your friends and spending time with them.” How can I top that?!

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Melissa Rogerson: “Where Do The Games Fit In?”

Biggie’s teacher: So, Melissa, what is it that you actually DO?
Me: I’m a consultant in online services. I help companies to improve their websites and web presence, and to manage them better.
Teacher: (Looks confused). So, where do the games fit in?

We’ve had this before, too, with comments like, “I didn’t know you ran a book shop.” (I don’t; we just like to read.)

I wonder whether it would be different if I coached a children’s netball or hockey team three times a week. There doesn’t seem to be an expectation that people are paid for their volunteer sporting activities—so it intrigues me that other recreational activities are automatically assumed to be money-making. I only wish they were! Who wouldn’t prefer to play and talk about games all day?

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Melissa Rogerson: Sneaking in an Extra Post Out of Turn

I am sneaking in an extra post to say two things.

1. The Australian Games Expo was a blast. And the support from the city council was astonishing. They even painted the Expo logo & details on the back of the city’s shuttle bus! (Wish I had taken a photo ...). Next year is when we need to see more people making the trip, especially some international players and companies (mad props to Zev at Z-Man for coming this year). If you are thinking of coming to Australia, why not come in the middle of winter when it is really incredibly cold in June?

2. If you have ever even vaguely considered playing Euphrat and Tigris, you should read Marshall P.’s amazing session report of a game that Latria, Koert, Grinningpik and I played last year. And if you have never considered playing Euphrat and Tigris, then you should read it anyway because it will make you want to play. I never usually do link posts, but this is truly exceptional.

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Melissa Rogerson: Games Australia Announcement

We are away at the Australian Games Expo in Albury this weekend. (I did an interview on ABC radio about it earlier in the week as well as some (unrecorded) regional breakfast radio). I will login with photos if I can find any internet access (unlikely, as I will probably leave even my new pink notebook pc at home).

One of the highlights of the Expo this year will be the announcement of GamesAustralia, offering a new, independent, credible award for boardgames in Australia. We’re delighted to be part of this new organisation and look forward to announcing our first winners in 2008.

Here’s the text:

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Melissa Rogerson: Family Game Night Preparation

This Friday, we’re holding our second “annual” Family Game Night at Biggie’s school.

We’re aiming to take fewer games this year, to try to reduce the game explaining and to get people playing the same games a few times, so they can talk about them later. We’ve also co-ordinated a game drive with a friendly internet game shop with a specialisation in children’s and family games, with a percentage of all sales to be credited to the school to buy some games (probably to use in the out-of-school-hours-care room).

We have a few changes from the session we ran last year.

Based on advice from a friend, we’re trying an earlier start. Last year, we ran 6-8pm or so; this year, we are running 4.30-7.30. That way, we hope to get the after-school crowd as well as parents collecting their children after work, and people who prefer to go home first. I’m a little dubious about how this will work, but we’ll give it a go. We may get more teachers coming along to check the games out, which would be great.

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Melissa Rogerson: Road Tripping

I haven’t played any games this week. I’m madly busy with work, and this weekend we took my dad away for his cousin’s fortieth wedding anniversary.

A road trip is fun.

A road trip with two children can be fun; you just have to work harder.

A road trip with five people—including two children—in one Subaru Outback is more of a challenge. Especially when the first 30 km or so go really, really slowly, and you don’t arrive until after 10pm, so the four-hour road trip takes 5-1/2 hours.

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Melissa Rogerson: A Game Design in Every Gamer - Not Necessarily Good, Mind You…

Regular readers of my personal blog (yes, all three of you ...) will be familiar with the ongoing saga of the mystery smell in my house over the past couple of weeks.

A late night conversation on BSW led to the suggestion that there could be a game there.

We’d start with the gameboard. A simple grid, with a plan of (where else?) my living room. Mark in the fireplace, the window and walls - the furniture is added later.

Now, this is a game where one player takes the role of the mysterious odour, and the rest of the players are the householders, trying to track down and eliminate the stench.

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Melissa Rogerson: Gaming and the Mass Media

As gamers, many of us are evangelists. We love our games, and we want to share them with others.

Gamers organise school games groups; they run clubs; they organise family game nights at schools, libraries or churches; they give games as gifts; they regularly demonstrate games for free. We do this because we love the games—and when you love something, it’s natural to want to share it.

Gaming is a fantastic hobby. It promotes social interaction, it accommodates different-sized groups of people, it can be played in mixed gender and age groups. There’s a growing body of evidence that shows that families that share a hobby like gaming are more resilient than those that lead largely separate lives.

Gaming can foster a range of interests, encourage logical and rational thinking, promote the development and understanding of key skills. It’s cheap, you can do it almost anywhere and, best (and most important) of all, it’s fun!

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Melissa Rogerson: Australian Toy, Hobby and Nursery Expo 2007

Last weekend, I visited the Australian Toy, Hobby and Nursery Fair. Held over five days in the Melbourne Exhibition Centre (known to locals as Jeff’s Shed, after a former premier), this annual trade-only event is also the main fair for games shops and for game sales to more general gift shops.

Proudly wearing my Gone Gaming “Media” pass, I waved the flag for boardgames (and, incidentally, for the Australian Games Expo—I think the organiser should put me on a retainer!) and scoped out what we can expect over the next year.

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