The Alpha and The Omega

One of my friends shocked pretty much everyone on his Facebook feed when he admitted that he was not going to get the "new" Pokemon game.  For those of you who don't know Cory, he is basically a real life Pokemon Trainer.

His mom kicked him out of the house when he was ten, he got into a lot of fights with other kids, and sometimes other adults.  Eventually, he took down a major crime syndicate while on his way to becoming the very best.

Okay, so that last paragraph wasn't true.  At all.  But he does like Pokemon an awful lot; just check out his DS collection... he has one for each edition of the game that came out for that system (for those of you who aren't handheld gamers, it's like nine or something).  I also like Pokemon a lot.  It's an excellent game, whether you are the "target demographic" of eight-to-twelve year olds with power fantasies, or a gamer who's rapidly approaching middle age.  It's easy to understand, there are very few penalties for failure, yet there's a deep and rewarding endgame for those who want a nearly infinitely replayable game.  One of the greatest draws to this game is that you can set your own goals, whether it's to fill out your Pokedex (that's Poke-speak for nerd-catalogue) and "catch 'em all" as the commercials entreat, to beat the Elite Four and become League Champion, to build the perfect team and take all comers in battle, or to simply collect as many "shiny" Pokemon as you can.

Not long after I met Cory, Nintendo released a remake of the second game in the series for DS, Heart Gold/Soul Silver.  I think it was part of how we bonded, because even if we didn't battle together, we sure had a lot of common ground to cover (even if a lot of it was me hassling him for buying the same system over and over).  I probably spent a total of 300-400 hours over the three DS pokemon games that I bought, and a lot of those hours were spent trading Pokemon WITH MYSELF.  Which makes it all the more puzzling as to why I'm not picking up the game either.

So what happened in the last four years?  Why would a game that's had it's friendly, approachable tentacles wrapped firmly around my free time fall so far from my personal good graces?

The fact is, while each release does introduce some changes to the basic formula, these changes are very incremental.  This game is only a little different from Pokemon X/Y, which came out last year, and it's a remake of a ten year old game, to boot.  X/Y was the same minor step forward for the series, as was Black2/White2 before it and Black/White before that.  Simply put, it's the same reason that Call Of Duty or Assassin's Creed sales have been flagging year over year, and it's the same reason that next years Batman: Arkham Whatever game will also be lukewarm.

Games are a business, and when it comes to games with big budgets, no one is willing to take the risks that they should take in order to make the form progress.  The only ones who will take those risks are the devs with the least to lose: the independent developers, and this works the same way as indie movies.  For every indie darling like Gone Home (which everyone, gamer or no, should play) or Hotline Miami, there are literally thousands that will fail to make back even the cost to develop.


Pokemon is kind of the exact opposite of an indie game, though, and realistically, the market for the next game in the series is still in diapers.  For the rest of us, six generations of the same gameplay is beginning to wear.  Sometimes, becoming the very best is just not enough.

Garlic Time!

 Ahhh... Garlic...  Look at it.  It's like a seed from the gods, isn't it.  So much potential, so much flavour.  Bust open the head, and pull out a clove or two, I'm going to show you how to get the most out of your garlic.

 Place the side of a wide knife over the top of the clove, and give the top of the knife a sharp blow with the heel of your palm.

 Pull the peel off and slice them to about 2-3 mms wide.

 Turn them around, and mince them finely, and salt the garlic with a coarse grind.

 Now take the side of your blade and pull it across the garlic in sections, crushing it down into the board.  You should feel the salt grinding the garlic through your knife.

 By the end of it, the garlic should look like this:

Now you can use it like this in stirfrys, sauces, whatever. The crushing activates an enzyme in the garlic that gives it a distictive taste, and added garlicky goodness.

If you have fresh or dried herbs, chop them up, and press them into the garlic, too.  Works great for marinades, curries, stirfries, anything slow cooked.  You can do this for salad dressings, but if the fresh garlic seems too harsh, let it sit in the acid of your dressing for at least a day or two to make it more mellow.  Anytime a recipe calls for a clove of garlic, if  you can take the time to do this, it will always taste better.  Always.

Wood For Sheep: Puerto Rico

 So you've got your feet wet.  You've played Settlers, Carscassone, maybe you've played Cards Against Humanity.  What comes next? 

Puerto Rico was top of the BGG list for years, including when I started getting serious about boardgames.  It has spawned a couple of different card games, but the unoffical one is better than San Juan. It's a medium-weight role selection game with lots of decisions and low down time. It plays 3-5 players, with an unofficial variant for 2, and it plays quite differently with each number of players. Among my original gaming group (which numbered 5), it became like chess, a game that we knew all so intimately it was like a language.  Most games will take just under two hours, but your first will be longer.  My fastest game was 40 minutes.

In Puerto Rico, you collect VP (victory points), by either manufacturing and shipping goods,called "shipping", or by constructing buildings (for VP and special abilities), called "building".  Each round, the Governor (first player, marked with a red flag token) gets to choose first from the available roles: Settler,  Builder, Mayor,  Craftsman, Trader, Captain and Prospector. Every other person then executes the same action that the governor took, in clockwise player order.  Once everyone has spent their turn, then the next player selects from the remaining available roles.  After every player has picked a role and all the actions resolved, the roles reset, the three unchosen roles each get a doubloon, and the flag moves to the left.

Settler: Players choose from the available plantations: corn, indigo, sugar, tobacco, and coffee.

Builder: Players use money (doubloons) to buy buildings that either refine indigo, sugar, tobacco, and coffee into trade goods, OR buildings that give special abilities.  All buildings give VP.  The most expensive buildings give bonus VP based on certain scoring areas.

Mayor: Players recieve "colonists" to work the plantations and buildings.  If there are no colonists on a plantation or building, then it doesn't work.  This is the only questionable part of this game.  If you're uncomfortable with the games pieces essentially representing colonial era slaves, than I can't really do anything for you.  They're just disks.

Craftsman: Populated cornfields and paired populated indigo, sugar, tobacco and coffee plantations and buildings produce barrels of trade goods.

Trader: Players take turns selling a trade good.  Corn is worth the least, coffee the most.  This is the way most of the money in the game is made (which is then used to buy buildings)

Captain: Players take turns placing trade goods on ships bound for Spain.  Each barrel is worth 1 VP, regardless of type.

What makes this game great is that even though there is very little randomness (the order/availability of the plantations), there is a lot of variation in strategy. The war between players who pursue the building strategy and those who pursue the shipping strategy plays out differently every game and player order is just as important to decision making as board state. There is no direct conflict in this game, but even so, players can have a great effect on their opponents' boards. All the game mechanics dovetail nicely into the theme (unlike a lot of games which seem to have mechanics pasted on), without being hampered by it. An elegant system that makes you feel like a badass for making your opponent ship the coffee she had been trying to sell for the last three turns, even though you're just moving around little wooden "barrels".

After you've played a few rounds, it will click. After you've played a few games, you'll want to introduce this game to all your friends.

I love this game.  It isn't without it's problems, but its got a lot of interesting decisions, and is kind of the grand-daddy of modern German Boardgaming. 

Welcome to Eurogames.

Grilled Cheese Time!

Considering that my last Cooking Time post was all out of season, I thought that this one should be a little more weather-appropriate. Grilled cheese is one of the ultimates in comfort food, and it's dead easy to make. Butter two slices of bread, put one butter side down in a fry pan on medium heat, put a couple of Kraft singles and top with the other slice of bread, butter side out. Press into pan and flip once; fry till golden brown, and open up a can of Campbells tomato soup. You're done and fed. But if that was all this post was, you'd be disappointed, and Ellen would kill me for promoting Kraft and Campbells (they're the tools of the devil).

Given this basic framework, still there's a lot of variation; the kind of bread, cheese and even the spread (can you believe that the French/Swiss use mayo instead of butter?) will make a considerable difference to the result of your sandwich. And there are optional fillings also! You can spring for a sandwich press, but consider the implications of that, and I'm not just talking about counter/cabinet space. Eat too many of these, and you'll need a bigger couch. Just use a frying pan.

Bread: White bread is classic, if boring. If you want plain bread, go for a sourdough, or at least something-not-loaf-or-baguette-shaped. If you want to play with the big boys, go hard with a good multigrain. We're really into Dave's Good Seed bread right now, but there's a lot of different kinds of breads out there. Find something with a good texture or something interesting about it. Olive loaf. Marble rye. Texas pumpernickel (just kidding!).

Cheese: Obviously, this is the heart of the sandwich. Despite Ellen's protestations, Kraft singles are actually ideal because processed cheese is designed to melt evenly, without oilyness. (fun fact: Kraft Singles are called "American Cheese" because it is the type of cheese native to the US. Many restaurants in Canada will call it "Canadian Cheese" but that is straight up wrong. Canadian Cheese, the variety, not simply "cheese made in Canada," is the kind of mozzarella curd that is used in traditional poutine, although in Quebec, it is also eaten straight). However, this is kind of cheating... you're cheating in making the food, and you're cheating yourself of a better eating experience.

Hard cheeses like cheddar are nice, most of them have strong, sharp flavours that come out nicely when warmed, but tend to oil up a bit much, especially since you're spreading the outside of the bread with fat anyway. Soft cheeses melt nicer and have tend to have milder flavours, so if you use them, you're fancy. Also, you're probably wasting the nuances of yada yada yada. Personally, I like sharp cheeses with this much bread. If you have to go soft, go with something bold like a roquefort, gorgonzola or even a goat. Cheeses like Brie or Camembert are best served on a plate with some crackers, grapes and wine. And a beret. Spread: Salted butter is pretty much the only choice here. You CAN use garlic butter, and as I stated above, some madmen use mayo. The important things here are high fat, low moisture. If you're using margarine, stop reading now and delete the bookmark. I never want to see you here again. Go play Farmville or something.

Fillings: Okay, so you've melted cheese between bread. Now it's time to kick it up a notch (credit: Emeril Lagase). Thin slices of onion can really make a difference, it adds a bit of crunch, and that kind of pungent sweetness just pairs so well with a sharp cheddar. Tomato is another great, easy addition, but you have to be careful, as cooking tomato will change it's texture, and release moisture that can make the bread soggy, so if texture is a trigger, you should probably stay away.   Mustard isn't really a filling, but it can enhance the flavour of the cheese as well, even if you don't like mustard. Just like it brings out the flavour of the meat in a burger, mustard is one of cheese's best friends. Thin sliced deli meat is kind of a dicey proposition. Ham, chicken, and turkey are good, generally everything else isn't so great. Roast beef can be kind of heavy, and cured and uncured sausages like salami, pepperoni and mortadella will add too much fat to an already fatty sandwich. Whatever you add, slice it thin, and don't stack too high! Cheese is the star.

Whew! That's a lot, but I'm going to end on a couple of variations that you might like!

The Wattersley: What I make for Ellen and myself, it's a nice fresh grainy bread, with 2 year Baldersons cheddar (Costco FTW) and salted butter. Sliced red or white raw onion. So good.

The Yarrow: White bread, kraft singles and ham. The inspiration for this article. Serve with Campbells Tomato, and salted top Premium Plus crackers.

The Blondie:  Baldersons or pepperjack with bacon and thin sliced red onion on sourdough.  Straightforward and amazing-uh just like Lindsey. Uh. 

The Yoga Mom: Artisinal bread you got at the Yaletown Farmers market. Locally sourced gorgonzola. Free run, organic butter. Thin slices of free trade Anjou Pear. If you're too tired from grooming your ironic moustashe to make this, I'm sure you can find it at your local speakeasy or underground food truck. Seriously though, blue cheese and pear all melted together on a good sourdough...

The Pantry: Sourdough, process cheese, with tomato and onion. The trick here is to butter the bread, then press sprinkle grated parmesan cheese into the butter. Layer as normal, serve with way too many shitty fries.

 The Cory Jong: Cupcakes instead of bread, cheese whiz instead of butter. Fry in a grill pan you got as a reward from Club Nintendo.

Ol'Smokey: 12 grain bread, smoked cheddar, soft cooked bacon, a sprinkle of ground dry mustard.

The Balki Bartokomous:  Goat Cheese on Pita with olives and sundried tomatos.   Roll up and pin together with a toothpick, brush with garlic infused EVOO or some of the tomato oil, and baking at 275 for 40 mins, turning every ten.

Extra special thanks to Lindsay Fowler and Brett Yarrow for contributing their recipes this week.  Please leave your recipes for grilled cheese in the comments!

Wood For Sheep: Family Games

One of the challenges that I have as a boardgamer, is that the kinds of games that I like are generally quite complex and take some time to explain. This doesn't lend itself to family gatherings (especially in my family) where there are varying levels of attention span and tolerance to complex games. What this means is that I have to have a stock of games that are not only easy to teach, but can accomadate a wide range of player counts and are largely portable/durable. Spot it hits all of these high points. The game comes in a small tin, so it's super portable and is just 55 round cards with a couple of rules cards (one for each game variation). Basic gameplay is very simple, each card has a series of simple pictures on it, and each card has exactly one matching picture in common with every other card on the deck. All players have to do is spot the matching symbol, call it out, and grab it. The player with the most cards at the end wins. It's super easy to learn, super fun to play, and super easy to cheat at. But then you're a bad person. Snorta LOOKS like a kids game, and it is, really. Each player gets a little plastic barnyard animal and a barn to hide it from the other players. There's a deck of cards that also has pictures of animals on them. Players take turns revealing their cards one at a time onto indivdual piles in front of them. If the card on top of a player's pile matches the card on any other player's pile, the two matched players have to race to make the noise of the animal hidden under the other players barn. The loser of each face off gets the winners pile, and the first person to run out of cards wins. Like I said, this LOOKS like a kids game but trying to remember what animal is under the barn of someone sitting across from you is harder than it seems! I've seen fully grown men turn red in the face over this game, and let me tell you, winning a game by yelling "Moo!" at the top of your lungs is strangely satisfying. Wits and Wagers This game is the most "boardgamey" of the trio. Because it plays kind of like a cross between Trivial Pursuit and a casino table game, it's instantly familiar to older players, and it's still simple enough to teach to younger players. The game is played over seven rounds, and each player will write their answer to each question on a miniature whiteboard in dry erase marker. Every answer will be in the form of a numerical value, whether it's a count of something, a date or a percentage. Players order their answers in ascending order on a playmat that assigns odds to each answer, with outliers getting higher payouts. Then everyone places their wagers on the answer that they think is the closest without going over (the "The Price is Right" reference is another warm and fuzzy for the oldies like me), and once the answer is revealed, everyone who bet on the correct answer gets their payouts. This has the uncommon party game circumstance where players can end a round with fewer points than they began it with, but the game is generally so light, and games so quick, that this is generally not going to ruin someones night. Liar's Dice or Perudo is super popular in South America, and is easy to improvise with 5 dice and a mug per player. Our set consists of a bunch of dollar store dice, and easter egg dye kits from Value Village. Everyone simultaneously rolls their dice, covering them with their cups. After everyone reviews their roll, one player starts play by declaring a bid based on ALL the dice on the table. Bids take the form of a number and a pip-count, like "eight-sixes" or "ten-fours". The next player has to either increase the bid or say "it's a lie" or "dudo (I doubt it)". Everyone reveals their rolls, and the table tallys the relevant valued dice, INCLUDING ones as they are wild. Whoever was "in the wrong" loses one of their dice and play continues with the "winner" of the last round. Great game for large groups, we usually play until one person loses their last die, because it sucks to get eliminated AND have to watch everyone else play.

Salad Time!

Salad gets a bad rap.  A lot of people don't like it because they've been exposed to bad salad and they don't know any better.  Iceberg lettuce with a few carrots grated over it is not salad, it's punishment for crimes in a past life.  You should know better.  This recipe will show you how to make a salad out of just a mix of lettuces and dressing, and it'll taste better and be better for you than most other sides.

Your mix should be 50% crunchy lettuce, 25% soft lettuce, and 25% flavoured greens.

Crunchy are the aforementioned iceberg or a nice romaine.  Leaf lettuce is also good.  Butter lettuce or spinach are good for the soft lettuce.

Now the flavoured greens can be almost anything.  Try to avoid super dark greens, as they're quite dense, but after that, go wild.  Arugula, endive, sheep sorel, lemon balm, curly leaf parsley, you name it! Radicchio is super tasty in small amounts, and fennel adds a gentle licorice taste, which is nice (even if you don't like licorice).

Chop it all into similarly bite sized pieces (not too fine!), and submerge in cold water.

Now the dressing is the good stuff.

 

The basic salad vinaigrette is 1 part acid to 3 parts oil, but I find that too heavy.  I try to go to 1 acid:2oil, but usually end up closer to 1:1. The acid is usually vinegar or lemon juice, but you can use lime or anything similar.  Season the acid how you like, but salt and pepper are key, (balance the salt to the acid).  I like seasoning salt, garlic powder, and Mrs. Dash or Garlic Plus.  Use whatever you like, but shake well and TASTE IT.  You have to taste it to know if you want to eat it.

Drain and spin the lettuce, then toss with the dressing (try to use a bowl that's a bit too big).

At this point, the salad is basically done, but you know what veggies you want to add to it.

If your acid is balsamic, then tomatoes are a no brainer.  Onions, peppers and cucumbers are good staples all around.  I'm allergic to carrots (honestly), but if they go in, you should julienne them rather than using a grater.  Grating carrots removes any bite they might add to the salad, which is bunk.  Mushrooms are a dicey proposition if you don't KNOW your diners' stance on them.  Some people just can't stand them for whatever reason.

Next time, experiment with cheese, berries or deli meat, but taste any "unorthodox" ingredients with the dressing before you add them into the salad wholesale.  Because I guarantee you'll regret it if you don't.


Congratulations.  You're not a savage anymore.

And the award goes to...

I don't know any gamer that likes awards shows. I can't remember the last non-VGA awards show I watched, and the last VGA that I saw was the one where they announced Skyrim.

In my (heavily biased) mind, awards shows are generally geared towards the people who celebrate pop culture and mainstream trends. They watch reality TV, drink Pumpkin Spice Lattes, debate who wore it better and have no idea what a PS Vita is. And while there's nothing specifically wrong with that, my point is that as a subculture, we don't really care about awards shows.

Game of the Year awards? Count me in! Top 10 (or 20 or 30) lists? Sure thing! But the actual pomp of opening envelopes and handing out statues is kinda... old fashioned. Media has changed, the way that we consume it is changing, and it will continue to change. We don't want to sit and watch broadcasts anymore, and even livestreams feel oddly confining to a consumer base that is increasingly on-demand focused. Spike TV took a nod in that direction last year with the horribly rebranded VGX, but it looks like things are going to change again.

It seems that Geoff Keighley, the host of the VGA/VGX, is now bankrolling his own show, and I'm cautiously optimistic about it. In an interview with Polygon, he states that "This show will be a show I am making for the game audience, not for the pressures of the television network or some of the desires they had. Gamers are a mainstream, massive audience that wants to celebrate our culture in a certain way. This show may not be something that works on Spike or any television audience. We're sort of building something for a different audience. I want to make it successful for a gamer audience first and gain their respect. That is something that wouldn't have worked on Spike or on any TV network."(credit Polygon)

Good god I hope so.

VGA/VGX started out as a gaming industry analog to the Oscars or Emmys, but over the years, ended up devolving into a series of "world exclusive" game announcements, flash-in-the-pan musical acts, and pandering pseudo-gamer celebrities with awful humour based on outdated stereotypes. If Keighley wants to make this work, he's got to make good on his claim that this show will be for the gamers. It doesn't bode well that his advisory board has representatives from "Activision, Electronic Arts, Konami, Microsoft, Nintendo, Rockstar, Sony, Valve, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment" (credit Polygon), but there was no mention of any game journalists, no pro gamers, no indie developers.

Of course, this IS a business venture after all, so there will need to be some concession to the big money guys, but for an advisory board for a show that's "for gamers", there seem to be few representatives in that line up. Where is Jeff Gerstmann, Anita Sarkeesian, or even PewDiePie?

I don't know how this show is going to end up, but I REALLY don't want to see Joel McHale phoning it in to make more cheetos jokes. Instead, why don't we stack the lineup with fan favourites and standout designers. Ditch the "edgy" bands with the word "Fire" in their names and swap them for Video Games Live or anyone on the PAX concert lineup. Get the writers at Double Fine and Telltale to write the teleprompters, instead of the marketing shills that have increasingly stuffed the script with stilted jokes.

Can you imagine what it would be like to see Felica Day trade one liners with Max Temkin from a script written by Ron Gilbert, before introducing The Protomen? Maybe Charles Martinet and Nolan North doing live voiceover for an animated skit between segments? Ken Levine presenting Shigeru Miyamoto with a lifetime acheivement award?

Now that would be a show for gamers.

Wood For Sheep: Sid Sackson

Whenever I play a boardgame anywhere other than in a private residence (and even then sometimes), invariably, a passerby will ask "Hey, is this like Monopoly?"   Rarely, people will ask if it's like Risk, but Monopoly is what people know.  It's also horrible.

Are your children old enough for you to talk to them about Sid Sackson?

Sid Sackson was a German board game designer, and an avid player himself.  At the time of his death, there were more than 18000 games in his collection.  His games focused on economic models and negotiation mechanics.  And I'm going to tell you about the ones you should play instead of Monopoly


Acquire
This game is pretty much the definition of a cult classic.  3-6 players, it plays best with any number, but I wouldn't play this game with anyone younger than 12, maybe 10 if they're bright and have a good grasp of money.  The idea of the game is to build and buy stock in "corporations" that are represented by tiles on a grid.  When any two tiles touch, they form a corporation, stocks of which are traded on the open market.  The value of the stock increase as the corporations gain tiles, and when two corporations touch, they merge, with the larger corp "buying out" the smaller. A bit of a brain burner with a fair amount of randomness, it sounds as dry as dust when I explain it, but the game is studded with interesting decisions and is one of my favourites.

I'm The Boss
This is a negotiation game for 3-6 players, it plays best with 6.  I'd play this with kids as young as 10, but make sure the rules are clearly taught. Players take control of one of six investors, and try to make "deals" worth varying amounts of money.   Each deal has a number of required investors and it's up to the active player to put the deal together, dividing up the value and sealing the deal.  However, every player also has influence cards that they can use to block, copy or even steal investors from other players, or even to become the active player themselves!  The gameplay is usually fast and exciting, with most people engaged even when it's not their turn.  An excellent negotiation game.

Haggle
This is a party game for 10 or more players.  Before the party, the hosts will prepare a package for each guest, that has a number of coloured cards (usually 10), and two or three out of a set of 10-15 rules that will determine how the cards are scored.  Over the course of the party, players will negotiate to trade coloured cards or rules between each other, using whatever valuation they would like.  At the end of the game, each package is collected and scored, with the winner getting a prize of some sort.  This is a great game, but it skews heavily in favour of math nerds.  Last time I played this, there was a three way tie for first, because they had all min/maxed the game.  Nerds.


The No Game
Another party game, it's probably not Sid Sackson's invention, but he does mention it in his book and it's simple enough to play with any crowd.  Everyone gets a wearable, easily transferable token, like a pin or ribbon, and play starts immediately.  The only rule is that you are not allowed to say "no".  "Nah" and "nope" are okay, and so is "know".  If you catch someone saying "no", you get one of their ribbons, and the player with the most at the end of the night gets everyone's admiration.

One of the advantages all of these games have over the usual Milton Bradley fare is that there is no elimination mechanic.  Rather than win by last man standing (and we all know how boring it is to be first one knocked out), there is a game end condition and everyone tallies up their points.

So give one of these a shot, especially if you're a lapsed boardgame player.  If you're interested, keep an eye on this space and I'll try to post weekly about some game that I think you should play.  

Salsa time!

This recipe is excellent for practicing knife skills.  Remember, always use a cutting board, always cut straight down when possible, and keep your knife in contact with the board as much as you can.

As everyone knows, fresh cut salsa is one of natures most perfect foods.  You should learn how to make it.  Lycopene is not only fun to say, but it's really good for you.  I'm sure the fancified readers out there will be able to make all sorts of creative dishes with this salsa (fish? I guess??), but for me, eating it with chips is the one true path.

Why The Hell Does Everyone Call This My Salsa, It's Not Like I Invented It Or Anything

Get a bowl with a lid.  Figure out what volume it is, and then fill it to just over the rim with tomatoes.  This is a rough measurement, because you'll need all those tomatoes, and the spaces between them are for onions and stuff.  Oh, and make sure the tomatoes are firm, and don't use more than a third Roma tomatoes.  Roma tomatoes are too dense and I've had batches go bad before they're ready to eat.

Wash the tomatoes and set aside. 

Grab some red or white onions. DON'T use yellow.  They're for the kind of salsa those commies make (sorry, watching The Americans now).  I generally use half a large onion per litre that the bowl can hold.

Dice the onions as finely as possible with a knife (don't try to cheat and use a food processor or a slap-chop or something, the bruising to the onion will affect the flavour).  Put 'em in the bowl.

Get two limes per litre and make sure they have smooth skin.  The limes with rough skin will yield less juice.  But you knew that, right? Juice them and pour them over the onions. You want the onions to marinade in the lime juice while you're dicing the tomatoes.

  

 Grab 3-4 stalks of cilantro for every litre and chop finely, including stems if you like.  Put them in with the lime and onion, put in a bit of salt (just a bit, we're doing more later) and mix that whole mess up.

Dice the tomatoes to as close to the size of the onions that you can get, and just place them over the onion mixture.  We want it to marinade for as long as possible before mixing in the tomato juices. This will take a while.  I'll wait.

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(BTW, I usually blend about 2/3rds of the tomatoes in a food processor, and only chop 1/3rd, but you're supposed to be practicing knife skills) 

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Once all the tomatoes are diced and in the bowl, mix everything thoroughly.  Add a bit of salt at a time, mix and then taste the juice.  It won't taste ready, but you're looking for the harsh tang of the lime juice to be cut with the salt.   Once that tang is gone, cover it and put it into the fridge.  It should be ready in about 12 hours (more depending on what proportion of Romas you used), and you should turn it as often as you can.

It'll keep for a few days, again depending on how much salt and lime there is.

Wii Sports Densetsu

Wii Sports was a masterstroke for Nintendo.

It had been several generations since any console shipped with a pack in title, most companies to that date had abandoned the practice to cut upfront costs to the consumer, letting them choose what their first game would be.   Looking back, it would have seemed quaint for jaded gamers at that time to "have" to get Wii Sports with their system, but the move wasn't aimed at jaded gamers.  It was part of a very carefully orchestrated marketing plan aimed at generating a new consumer base, just like Sony did with the PlayStation two generations earlier.  I'll bet most people reading this can think of at least one family gathering where a non-gaming elder broke a vase or something while playing Wii, and they probably had a great time doing it

I've touched on this before, but the Wii really was a revolution.  Not only was the controller unique, it was approachable in ways that the XBOX controller and the Dual Shock 2 just weren't.  The commercials showed families in white clothes and white living rooms playing with what looked like a white TV remote.  It was a far cry from the social construct of the anti-social gamer of the past or even the dark and edgy "mature" gamer we liked to see ourselves as.  It was pure, simple fun, and anyone could play it.

Consider the nature of most AAA or "hardcore" games.  Generally, the activities are outside the realm of everyday interaction.   You're saving the world or a princess, or whatever, and usually killing a lot of people to do so.  Maybe you're becoming the King of the Iron Fist, or colonizing an alien planet, or fighting off zombies. My point is, the activities are pretty abstracted from what most people would do, and that's why gamers like them.  The escapism is a huge draw.  But the downside is that, like the controller, these gameplay types aren't approachable.

Conversely, Wii Sports was welcoming to new players because everyone knows baseball, golf, tennis, boxing and bowling.  Swinging a bat or racquet are familiar motions.  Nintendo was smart enough to simplify the games to the point where there was only one basic interaction with the game.  Swing, roll, or punch.  That's all.   Familiar, intuitive and SO fun. 

Combined with the marketing campaign and a sort of viral evangelism among players to "convert" their non-playing family, and you had the best selling console of last generation and a lot of those sales were made to first time console buyers.

Now, those people play Candy Crush or Kim Kardashian: Hollywood while their Wiis collect dust in the attic.  Well... at least they're gaming.

Potato Time!

The first thing I learned to cook was hashbrowns.   McCains or no name, didnt really matter.  It was easy, filling and easy to experiment with seasoning.  These days, I cut my own hashbrowns from whole russets or whatever is on hand.  These potatoes are good with breakfast but can be time consuming so its best to leave them for a more elaborate dinner or a weekend breakfast.  Floury potatoes work best but other types work fine.

 

When making this recipe, your key skills should be consistent sizing of the potatoes, and making sure that you stir often enough (situational awareness).

Adrian Potatoes

 

Potatoes
HSP Oil
Salt

Seasoning mix (see below)

Cut potatoes into1-2 inch cubes, enough to cover the bottom of a large fry pan in a single layer. Pour 1/4 inch oil into the pan. Salt the potatoes, this will help them to crisp up later.  Fry for 30 mins on LOW stirring occasionally (you can hold the dish at this point indefinitely by removing from heat, just warm it back up before continuing), then crisp on med high.

Drain, then transfer to a small bowl to toss with spices.  I use a mix of seasoning salt, garlic salt and Clubhouse Garlic Plus, but Mrs. Dash is also good, even a splash of lemon juice but that might take the crisp off if you use too much.

Serve immediately.

The above recipe is super unhealthy so heres an alternative for you. 

Kinda Healthy Potatoes

Preheat an oven to 375.  Cut up the potatoes to any size as long as pieces are consistent and drop them in boiling water.  Bring back up to boil then simmer on med low until fork tender (time depends on size of cubes). Lightly coat with a mixture of season salt and oil, bake at 375 for 10 mins, shaking the pan 2-3 times.

Transfer to small bowl and toss with seasoning as above.

Patatas Bravas

If you want to get really fancy, turn them into Patatas Bravas, a spanish tapas classic.  Sautee shallots, garlic, onion, tomato, on med.  Season with paprika or pimenton, and something with heat, (cayenne, chili flakes, franks red hot, tobasco... it doesn't really matter).  Blend the whole mixture with either an immersion blender or food processor then put the sauce back on the heat to thicken it to taste with a bit of corn starch dissolved in COLD water.  Spoon the sauce over the potatoes and garnish with fresh chopped parsley.

Optionally serve with mild aioli.

...I'll eventually get to the point where I attach appropriate pictures to my posts.

The False Stereotype

There seems to be this perception, even today, that "gamer" means a specific kind of socially inept teenage-to-mid-twenties male. In 2012, the average age of the gamer was 37 years old, and was split fairly evenly between genders.  The only reason that the average age fell to 30 in 2013 was because the annual study increased its scope to include iOS games.  The change in ESA reporting is only playing catch up to be reflective of the population's playing habits... so many people play Facebook or iPhone games, that they outnumber the console hardcore quite significantly. 

Over the next twenty years, the average age of gamers will continue to rise until it matches the average age of the general population.  Like reading books, watching TV, and watching movies, being labelled a "gamer" will no longer be a function of social status or age, it will be something that everyone simply does.  But that doesn't mean that every gamer is the same.

Casual Gamers

Before it was announced, the Wii was known as Codename: Revolution.  Nintendo debuted the Wii in 2006 and it went on to become the best selling console of the last generation.  Being underpowered compared to it's competitors, the goal was not to compete directly, but rather to create market share with inroads into demographics that typically would play videogames. Ex-Nintendo VP Marketing Perrin Kaplan recalled a story on IGN's NVC podcast from just before the Wii launch.  She and her marketing team got footage of senior citizens playing Wii due to the simple innovation of having intuitive motion control.   It was a revolution that set Apple up for their next move.

Just one short year after Nintendo showed the non-gaming world what you could do with a piece of plastic that was smaller than a TV remote, Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone.  Now everyone had (or wanted) an amazingly versatile, mobile piece of tech in their pockets. And you could download Angry Birds, Candy Crush or SpaceTeam anywhere, because the thing had an internet connection.


The Casual Gamer generally likes one kind of game and will play it as long as its simple and they prefer convenient platforms, Facebook games and Phone Games.

Dudebros

There are two seasons for the Dudebro: Call of Duty, and *insert sports game here*. They also play the occasional racing game.  Generally, they play on a single system, the one that their friends play on, usually XBOX or Playstation. There might be a sense of "sports/tough guy" attitude from them, too.  Although there is a possiblilty of racism, misogyny or homophobia in this group,it can include "girl dudebros", and "queer dudebros"  These guys like presentation.  If a game looks and sounds pretty, they'll think its a good game.  Dudebros have a lot of overlap with Fanboys.

Fanboys

Fanboys are really into one company for some reason.  Nintendo has the longest history with this kind of consumer, and the other two major fanboy companies are Sony and Microsoft.  There are still people who swear by whatever system they started out on, or there are some hipsters like me who think that one dead system or another was the "greatest console ever made"

Nostaligia gamers are a neat subset of fanboys, typically of the 16-bit (SNES, GENESIS)era, possibly 64-bit (N64 or PSX).  

Scholars

Scholars are generally system agnostic, playing the games that they find on whatever system they have, typically several current platforms.  They are also open to the widest variety of digital and analog games.  Some play D&D or similar tabletop roleplay.  They generally prefer design elments like art direction and level design over graphics or system specs.  Scholars also can favour certain designers or studios, and sometimes have 3rd rate gaming blogs.

Basement Dweller

This guy gets a bad rap.  He's the stereotypical suburban white male, possibly living in his parents basement or still in high school or college.  He plays something "nerdy" with a high time commitment like WOW or EVE Online.  He's bad with girls and has poor hygene and low self confidence, and has the worst tendencies of all the above types.  Snobby, offensive, rude, you name it.

Does any part of that sound familiar?  All the above game types exist in us all, we have the good and bad tendencies of a lot of different kind of gamers, because we ARE a lot of different kinds of gamers.  People who are the hardest of hardcore at Street Fighter likely can't play League of Legends or DOTA2 very well.   We all like our genres and our systems and we all have our favourite games, and it's okay.

Just remember to respect your fellow human being, and we'll be fine.

Nintendo Densetsu

Why is it that whatever is being said in console arguements, that for the last 10-12 years, it's been Playstation versus XBOX with nary a mention of Wii/WiiU?

With 100 Million sold, Wii was far and away the most successful console in the last generation, and it did so by opening the videogame market to the casual crowd. 3DS is a moderate success, whose best feature is not it's 3D, but it's StreetPass capability.  Microsoft and Sony are fighting each other for the guys who play Call of Duty, and every other "AAA" release. Nintendo isn't fighting for hardcore gamers anymore, it's selling to:

1.  Lifetime nintendo/pokemon fans,
2. Gamers who like portables
3. Gamers who commute
4. Lapsed nintendo fans who haven't played anything after SNES
5. casuals who bought the wii, played it for a year, and left it to collect dust (and these people likely dont even know that WiiU is a thing)

Nintendo Densetsu is going to be a look at some of the things that Nintendo has innovated and revolutionized since it entered the videogame business.

Again, I hope to make it weekly, but we'll see how well I can keep up with my own deadlines...

Cooking Time!

So, time for something a little different. 

Cooking Time! is going to be a weekly series where I focus on one anchor dish for a beginner cooks repertoire.  It's designed to teach core skills via simple, inexpensive meals.  I don't know when the regular post day will be so consider it an irregular series until I find my footing with this thing.

I'll try to have the first one up in a couple days max.

Mailbag

Dear HD,

Now that the new systems have come been out for just about a year now.... which one should i get? I only have enough money for one system and a couple of games... help me HD... you're my only hope!

             -Deliberating in Delaware

Dear Deliberating,

This is a question I've gotten a lot in the week since I've started my blog.  Literally thousands of emails a week deal with this issue, so I'm going to address it once and for all.

The choice of which console to get is a weighty one, and you don't want to make it lightly.  As you say, the current gen of consoles has been out for about a year, but the thing that we really should be paying attention to is exclusives.  If you HAVE to play TLOU: Remastered, then you're a PS4 guy.  If you HAVE to play Sunset Overdrive, than you're an XB1 guy.

Here's a third option for you.  Get whatever system  you didn't have for last year or upgrade your PC.  This short of a time out from launch, there isn't that big of a library for either major system (or even WiiU, out for 2 years, but if you are one of the Nintendo faithful, you either have a WiiU or you will soon), so why pay top dollar, to play uprezzed versions of games that are available on the last generation of consoles?  Yes, everyone wants to be a part of the conversation with the new consoles, but if you can bear it, there are so many games that you've already missed out on.

X360, PS3 and Wii can all be bought for a song now, and their libraries are pretty full of exclusives that you didn't play.  Hell, I have all three and there's a whole lot of games I don't even have, let alone play. Halo (3, Reach or ODST), Gears of War (1, 2, 3, Judgement), Uncharted (1, 2, 3), Resistance (1, 2, 3), The Last of Us are all very available and inexpensive.  Dig through the bargain bin at gamestop and see what's there at 2 for 20.

New consoles cost at least 400, plus a controller and a game at 65 each.  Including a possible game bundled with it, you have two, maybe three, games for about 530 dollars, and that doesn't include XBLive or PSN (each systems proprietary online service, with annual fee).  That much money could get you a 360 and about three dozen used games.  These figures are approximate and don't take into consideration Games with Gold or PSN Instant Game Collection.

Or, grab some RAM and a new video card and upgrade your PC, use the leftover money on the next Steam sale.  Oops.  Now you have more games than you will ever have time for.

Now, if after all this you STILL insist that you have to have a new generation console, then just get the one your friends have/will get.  Exclusives and minor differences in power and online service aside, you want to be where your buddies are, so that you can party up and be on each others friends lists, trade games, play online together.  There is no advantage that any system has over the other that would trump inclusion in your gaming circle.

Unless you want to play EarthBound or A Link to the Past.  But then, you already have a WiiU, and there's nothing wrong with being one of the faithful.

The Shelf Of Shame

As gamer larva, we generally have more time than money.  When the world was new and I had an NES as my primary console (the 2600 had been mothballed for a couple years at that point), evenings, weekends and school breaks were devoted to my chosen religion.  I can remember an entire spring break lost to Dragon Warrior III (a day killing classic if there ever was one) and more nights than I care to admit squeezing every last bit out of questionable releases like Legacy of the Wizard (the less said about it, the better).   Sixty bucks is a hell of a lot of money for a ten year old today, just think about how much it was back when it was uphill both ways. In the snow.

It didn't really matter if it was good or bad.  You kind of just dealt with what you had, because you couldn't afford anything else.  Allowances, birthdays and Christmases were carefully allocated resources.  Trading and rentals mitigated a lot of this ration-state I was borne of, but by large, I made do.

As I grew older, games took up less of my free time, and less of my time became free.  I was working a part time job, looking for ways to get turned down by girls (or at least, being told by them that I'd make some other girl very lucky some day),  and generally, being a delinquent.

By the time I got my first real grown up job and  real source of income, I was working 13 hour days, 6 days a week testing games and what time I got off, I didn't want to spend playing them.  Dark days indeed.

Round about the same time, Sony had instituted it's Greatest Hits collection.  Best sellers that had been on the market for at least a year, were repackaged at a mere 20 dollars.  Nintendo and Microsoft followed suit a few years later.  Good games had gotten cheaper, and more of them were being made.

These days, Wal-mart will slap an $18.93 sticker on any game that's been hanging around for over six months.  Costco seems to have some kind of overstock buying deal with at least one outlet, because their prices are the same.  And Steam sales.  And free-to-play.  And iOS.  Hell, Sony is giving away 24 games a year for the price of their online service!

Yikes.

My backlog is literally as long as my arm (that's what she said), and the tide shows no sign of turning anytime soon. Games that take longer than 100  hours don't help either (Thank you Roslyn and Jess, respectively).

After coming back from PAX this year, I'd resolved to work through the pile, gradually.  Starting with Twilight Princess, which had been in that sub-set of shame known as "started but not completed", and moving through Metroid Prime 3, I'm making gradual progress.  But what IS progress?  Do I have to finish the game?  Do I have to 100% complete it?  What's the minimum time that I have to spend on it?  What about roguelikes or traditional style arcade games that have no end?

In the end, there's no satisfactory answer to any of these questions.  You simply have to pick your battles and be a part of the conversations you want to be included in.  You can spend all your time getting good at DOTA 2 or League Of Legends, or you can sit back and watch streamers play without ever booting up a game yourself.

Or you can move out into the woods and become a farmer (with an incredibly supportive wife).

Next week, we're starting Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!  Guess Ni No Kuni is going back on the shelf...

Influences

Pokemon has affected my life outside of gaming more than any one other IP.

At the core, it is a very basic JRPG, but it was engaging, simple to learn, and portable.  Combined with themes of sportsmanship, friendship, and teamwork (and a half hour daily commercial, trading card game, and near infinite line of merchandise), these three elements made it popular not only with it's "target" demographic of young children, but with players of all ages.  Ostensibly, the game is about being the very best: mastering the typing chart, collecting the gym badges, defeating the Elite Four, and eventually becoming the League Champion.  However, the true secret to its success was in the marketing tag line's appeal to gamer lizard brains everywhere: "Gotta Catch'em All."

Collecting is kind of what nerds do.  It's taught to us from an early age, you have to get all the power-ups, all the pieces of the triforce, and in Pokemon, every monster.  But you cant.  At least, not by yourself.  That was hard for me to come to grips with, because after elementary school, I didn't meet a whole lot of gamers. 

I'm going to go off on a tangent here for a bit.  In my elementary school, after the NES came out, kids would gather at recess and lunch to talk about games.  Advice, rumours, and war stories were how we spent the majority of our time. ("No seriously, Samus is a girl!"  "No way!").  This was a painfully short period of my life.  High school came and it seemed that everyone else "grew up" and stopped playing games.  All of a sudden, sports and girls became more important, and games weren't even for nerds, they were for kids.  University was more of the same, except the range of acceptable activities broadened to include drinking, writing bad poetry, being into bands you've never heard of, anything but videogames.

When I started working at EA, I was suddenly surrounded by people who could discuss genre and design and it was a revelation, but even in the largest studio in Vancouver, I couldn't find anyone  who was willing to trade Pokemon with me.  I was forced to go to Pokemon TCG events full of kids as young as 5 to find partners... and being in my mid-twenties, I kind of stuck out.  Parents got it, though.  A lot of them played, too, so they understood the compulsion was as sinister as my intentions got.  I wasn't trying to kidnap their kids, just the kids' poke-thralls.  I still remember the day I got Mew at Metrotown, surrounded by a sea of waist high trainers and their incredibly patient guardians.

A wise man once told me, "You will never get rich trying to get money, you have to have other people get money for you."  And while I haven't figured out the trick of having people get money for me, one day I got wise and founded Vancouver Gamers Group.

For the first few months, it was just me.  I sat at the food court with my DS, playing games for four hours at a time by myself every Friday night.  Weird, right?  As time wore on, people slowly started finding the group.  The first big boost to membership came on the release of Dragon Quest IX, another "single" player game with deep social hooks. Over time, people came and went, but a core group eventually formed, and I kept seeing the same faces week after week.  Eventually, without really meaning to, I found myself at the center of a community.

I would go to my desk job during the week and be surrounded by people who didn't really understand my hobby (and a lot of who would disregard it, and me, as being childish), but when I went to the meetups, all of a sudden, I was with peers. Every month or so, Ellen and I would host a party at our place, and twice a year, there would be an open house.  The last one we had, it was standing room only, and we counted in excess of eighty people.  All for the love of games.

In the five years since I started the group, I have made some of the best friends in my life.  But I still haven't caught them all.

Here goes nothing

When you’re a kid, the generic question that most adults will ask you is “what do you want to do when you grow up?”  This question always baffled me.  I had no idea, and I still don’t.  The life plan was: go to school, get good grades, go to university, get a job, get married, have kids.  That’s what you do.  Ignoring the larger problems with this kind of pre-planned life, adults seemed to want to get me to fixate on the “get a job” part of that plan.  What kind of job would you get? What are you going to be?  What will you make of yourself?

Ugh.

For a large part of the population, work is something you do to pay the bills and make it so that you can do the things you want to do.  There are, of course, people whose employment either fulfils them or suits some need or aptitude that they have, and they are the lucky few.  But no kid ever says “I want to be a Mortgage Broker when I grow up!”  

So I went to school to study Literature, because it was what I loved.  I learned to read critically, and write essays, and by the time I finished, that love was ground to a fine powder under the weight of 3500 pages a semester.  I ended up not reading another novel for over a decade.  After graduation, I got a job in the games industry because it was what I loved.  I worked on some of the worst and best games I’ve ever played and by the time I was “laid off,” it was years before I could play anything without mentally logging bugs and design issues.

The rest of my employment history isn’t important.  I waited tables for years, and was good at it, I worked for a bank and was good at that, too.  But I wanted to do those two things that I used to love, write and play games.  

So let's try that for a while.