obsessed

I can be quite an obsessive person. To the point of not working. (Other people give up sleep or food, but I could never do that.) My obsessions in the past have included reading, gaming, multiplayer gaming, drinking, clubbing and various sports. (They are in order, so you can practically watch me growing up!)

My latest obsession is board games. Over the last couple of months, I've been introduced to games like Bang!, Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne and Apples to Apples, just to name the ones I really like. These range from role playing games and resource-management/building games to games with lots of talking and arguing. They test your intelligence, strategy, wit and wittiness; and they do it all in a social context where you can get to know more people. And since we own the games instead of going to places like Settler's Cafe, it doesn't cost much at all. Certainly much less than $14 a glass.

So I spend my weekend nights with random people playing various games. It's good because it doesn't really distract from work. It takes quite some planning to get eight people together, so on weekdays I can pretty much focus on what I need to get done. That was before I discovered Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico is currently the #1 ranked game in the U.S. It's another resource-management game, but there's quite a bit of complexity so it lends some depth to the strategy. We only played it once, so I kind of got the hang of the rules and gameplay, and figured it was quite fun. And then I was introduced to the online version. That was the beginning of the end.

The online version requires the installation of some simple software to run the applet. The interface is very simple, and reminds me of the simple GUI that BBS games used to have a decade ago. Of course, this is much more intricate, and can be played with others. Playing against the computer, each game lasts about 10 minutes and you can quickly get the hang of the game and begin to understand the necessary strategy. And everytime you lose ... you want to play another game. If you don't know the game, instructions can be found here.

I haven't even tried playing with online opponents yet. I don't dare too. I might even lose sleep over that.

Well, if anyone wants to play Puerto Rico online, let me know. Or if you want to try playing various other types of board games and meet fun people, all are welcome.