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Dec. 23rd, 2001 10:58 pmHappy birthday ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lorimelton!
lorimelton!Dec. 23rd, 2001
family visit
Dec. 23rd, 2001 10:59 pmWe went to my parents' today for Christmas. (They're Christian; we're not. But they are pretty attached to the dinner and gift exchange, so we go.) We were having trouble figuring out what to get my parents, and ended up giving them a gift certificate for a vacation. They've gone on a bunch of bus tours -- a few days in Atlantic City, a weekend of shows in Toronto (Phantom twice, I think), and assorted things like that. So we contacted the company they buy these from, found out what one of these will cost this coming year, and bought them that. I always feel funny buying people gift certificates (or giving money), but in this case I think it was the right thing to do. They seemed to appreciate it.
They got me a digital camera. Woo hoo! It appears to be complicated enough that I couldn't just pop the batteries in right then and take some pictures; I should read the manual first, which I'll probably do tomorrow night. But I am so looking forward to being able to screen my shots immediately and retake them if they aren't good! Not to mention the instant gratification -- not having to use of the roll of film before getting use of the pictures will be a big win.
They got Dani a copy of Civ III, but Dani didn't understand the family ground rules about obvious gifts and proximity to Christmas, so he bought himelf a copy a few weeks ago. They're in the process of exchanging it for a different game that reviewers who like Civ III seem to also like. (Europa Universalis II, for those who are curious. I've never played it.)
They got me a digital camera. Woo hoo! It appears to be complicated enough that I couldn't just pop the batteries in right then and take some pictures; I should read the manual first, which I'll probably do tomorrow night. But I am so looking forward to being able to screen my shots immediately and retake them if they aren't good! Not to mention the instant gratification -- not having to use of the roll of film before getting use of the pictures will be a big win.
They got Dani a copy of Civ III, but Dani didn't understand the family ground rules about obvious gifts and proximity to Christmas, so he bought himelf a copy a few weeks ago. They're in the process of exchanging it for a different game that reviewers who like Civ III seem to also like. (Europa Universalis II, for those who are curious. I've never played it.)
Yesterday we went to Robert and Kathy's to play games. Dani wanted to play Twilight Imperium, a space game that he says is more strategic than tactical (unlike the space-combat games like Starfleet Battles), but we had the pesimal number of players for that (5) so we played Age of Renaissance again. I played London for the first time; playing a naval game where it's hard to make a mad dash for the middle east was novel. (I had been hoping to play Venice.)
We also played a new (to us) game called Vinci. It's sort of an abstraction of Civilization, kind of. Each civilization in the game has two randomly-assigned advances; these determine both special abilities and how many units you have. When you start a civilization, you enter the board (abstraction of Euope) anywhere you like and expand for as long as you can. (There is a simple, deterministic system for conquering teritories.) You score after each turn (different advances reward different things -- e.g. you want to have lots of farm land if you have irrigation or whatever the farming advance was called). When you think you've reached the point of diminishing returns, you can declare your civilzation to be in decline, abandon it in place (it'll keep scoring for you as long as it exists), and start a new civilization. It's a fun game, and took us about 2 hours to play. I think experienced players would play in under an hour and a half.
We also played a new (to us) game called Vinci. It's sort of an abstraction of Civilization, kind of. Each civilization in the game has two randomly-assigned advances; these determine both special abilities and how many units you have. When you start a civilization, you enter the board (abstraction of Euope) anywhere you like and expand for as long as you can. (There is a simple, deterministic system for conquering teritories.) You score after each turn (different advances reward different things -- e.g. you want to have lots of farm land if you have irrigation or whatever the farming advance was called). When you think you've reached the point of diminishing returns, you can declare your civilzation to be in decline, abandon it in place (it'll keep scoring for you as long as it exists), and start a new civilization. It's a fun game, and took us about 2 hours to play. I think experienced players would play in under an hour and a half.