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Top 5 Tabletop Games of the 1960s

Top 5 Tabletop Games from the late 1960s

Published on by Kyra15 Comments

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. Back with another Top 5 Tabletop Games of an era and we’re also back with the second half of the 1960s (1965-1969). If you want to see our picks for the first half of the decade, you can follow this link.

We’re getting back into the swing of things, so let’s reiterate the ground rules again before we get started.

1: Cultural relevance plays as much of a factor as overall quality. A game might make a list that doesn’t hold up to others of its type, but you must admit the game is everywhere.

2: Only one game from a franchise makes the list. This will become more of an issue the closer we get to games with expansions.

3: Longevity plays a role, too. A game doesn’t have to fly off the shelves today, but it had to have some widespread appeal for a decent time.

Feudal board game Top 5 Games from 1960s

5: Feudal (1967)

The 1960s had a lot of Chess-like board games—and I do mean a lot—but none of the Chess variants reached the heights of Fred Beustchler’s Feudal. A part of the 3M Bookshelf Series (3M also produced a lot of Sid Sackson and Alex Randloph’s early work), Feudal tasks players with occupying an opponent’s castle or capturing all an opponent’s royalty. The play area consists of four plastic peg boards depicting empty, rough, and mountainous terrain.

Feudal tabletop game Top games from 1960s

Feudal has a unique set-up. Players place their pieces on their peg boards in secret and reveal how they deployed their units simultaneously. This leads to different strategic problems each game and every game plays out differently. We had to include one Chess-like board game. Feudal is the best of the bunch.

Triominoes board game Top 5 games from 1960s

4: Triominoes (1965)

Simply put, Triominoes is a variation of dominoes that uses triangular tiles. The tiles are equilateral triangles so they fit in neatly with each other. Players can play a Triomino if they have matching numbers with the six potential values 0-5.

Triominoes tabletop game Top 5 Games from 1960

I’ll be honest. Triominoes intimidated me while I was growing up. So many numbers close together looked confusing. But there’s no doubt that the game has a legacy.

Kerplunk tabletop game Top 5 game from 1960s

3: Kerplunk (1967)

Sometimes the simplest concepts make the best games. Kerplunk consists of a transparent plastic tube, plastic rods called straws (26-30 of various colors), and several dozen marbles. Players take turns removing a single straw from the tube while trying to minimize the number of marbles that fall though the web and into their trays.

kerplunk board game Top 5 game from 1960s

Kerplunk beget several similar games in the future, specifically Jenga. This family of games has built-in tension. Remove the wrong straw and the marbles pour out.

Twister tabletop game Top 5 game from 1960s

2: Twister (1966)

The tail end of the 60s saw a lot of simple games or new twists on older games. Speaking of twists, our next game is Twister.

Each version of the game comes with a spinner. And each spinner is divided into four labeled sections: left foot, right foot, left hand, and right hand. And each of those four sections are divided further into the colors red, yellow, green, and blue. After spinning, the combination is called (right hand red) and players must move their matching hand or foot to a circle of the correct color. Last player standing wins.

Twister board game Top 5 game from 1960s

Simple enough. And we’ll see a lot of other simple designs that have stood the test of time on this list.

Operation board game Top 5 game from 1960s

1: Operation (1965)

We go from moving one’s body in weird ways to a game featuring someone with a weird body. Operation challenges players with extracting silly body parts from a hapless patient. During the game, you acquire cards which dictate body parts you must remove. The body parts rest inside a hole and if you erroneously touch one of the hole’s metal sides, a sudden buzzer and light-up nose indicates the patient’s pain. Players want as little pain as possible in Operation. Successful extractions give the player money and the player with the most cash at the end of the game wins.

There have been countless versions of Operation. I believe my kids had a Spongebob themed one. Maybe it was Shrek. Regardless, Operation has never been out of print since its release. And I don’t see that happening in the next 60 years either.

Did we get the list right, for the most part? Let us know in the comments. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Check out the other lists in this series:
Top 5 Games prior to the 1930s
Top 5 Games of the 1930s
Top 5 Games of the 1940s-50s
Top 5 Games of the early 1960s
Top 5 Games of the early 1970s
Top 5 Games of the late 1970s
Top 5 Games from 1980-1981
Top 5 Games from 1982-1983
Top 5 Games from 1984-1985
Top 5 Games from 1986-1987
Top 5 Games from 1988-1989
Top 5 Games from 1990-1991

Video Game Review: Genshin Impact

Gacha Game Review: Genshin Impact

Published on by Kyra1 Comment

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. I’m kicking off these gacha critiques with Genshin Impact. I have two logins (one for PC and the other Playstation), so I’ve spent plenty of time in Teyvat (the world Genshin is set in). But I’ve only recently revisited the game. The new continent Natlan brought me back. So, what does Genshin look like in over a year? The graphics are dated but not as bad as I would’ve thought. The oversaturated colors bugged me. They’re loud. So loud that I almost grabbed a pair of sunglasses to shield myself from the glare. The music was always great, almost iconic. But these are surface-level viewpoints. How does Genshin Impact hold up to some of these new or updated video game criteria that we talked about in yesterday’s post? As it turns out, not too well.

Mechanisms: 5/10

Genshin conducted a massive copy paste to Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s mechanisms, so you won’t find too many innovative game mechanisms. The mechanisms that are here work well, even if they are dated, but more on that in the following segment. Is there anything left to say than Genshin’s mechanisms whimper banal?

Above Image from GameDesigning.Org

Gameplay Loop: 8/10

It worked in Breath of the Wild, and it works here. The core gameplay loop can keep players engaged for countless hours. That can be a good and bad thing. Elemental reactions play a huge role in Genshin’s combat, so players will often switch characters. Breath of the Wild only has Link. The physical swapping of characters goes a long way to hold a player’s attention, and it doesn’t hurt that players need to build more than one character and that each of these characters have different interactions.

Respecting Time: 2/10

Genshin does little to respect a player’s time. It’s an older game, four-years old at this point, and it shows its age. As I mentioned previously, Genshin borrows most if not all of its gameplay from Zelda: Breath of the Wild and that includes the glacially slow glider and snailing up mountain faces. And there are so many mountain faces. But it goes deeper than that. Repetitive storylines and dialogue with no way of skipping said dialogue can make me want to rage quit. The game time gates upgrade materials. One can only farm materials on certain days of the week. I forgot about this in my year off. Why can I only farm skill scrolls on specific days? It makes no sense.

And speaking of these upgrade materials and skill scrolls, one can’t skip the domains these items can be found. You must defeat the same bosses or mid-level bosses every day. Every. Day. I miss older gachas. They knew they were mobile/timewaster games and allowed players to skip. I’ve beaten this level with a five-star rating before, so I can spend my energy and auto-clear this domain. The trend of disabling auto-clear in gachas began with Genshin. Hoyoverse assumed the attitude of “I created a robust world with better graphics and demand you see this world as much as possible, even if it’s repetitive.” Ugh!

It takes one-two minutes to defeat these domains. That’s not that long but considering you could clear about eight to twelve a day, that’s a good ten-twenty minutes. It’s half that if you use condensed resin (which acts like finishing the domain twice in one go), but you also need to farm the items with which to make condensed resin, and we’re doing the time warp again. And not in the fun Rocky Horror way. These domains don’t sound like they take long, but time adds up fast. Genshin also offers daily tasks which don’t take that long, but they’re daily tasks and they can last up to five minutes. It’s a lot of busy work with not enough pay off.

And it goes even further with minor time wasting inconveniences. Items burst out of things. I don’t know how many times I’m on a mountain face, open a chest, and the treasure spills down the mountain. Really? Auto-collect the treasure. And I can’t interact with things like a waypoint for the first time if an enemy spots me. I don’t have to see the enemy. Half the time I’m scratching my head wondering where the enemy is. Genshin invents new ways to waste time. But it’s super easy to finish the battle pass. That’s a huge plus.

Battle Pass: 4/10

Genshin doesn’t really require a player to purchase its battle pass. I advise purchasing the battle pass once annually because some extra goodies can go a long way, but one can get by without it. And if that was all that mattered, I would’ve given Genshin top marks.

Unfortunately, Genshin has seen few upgrades to its battle pass in four years. There has been one major inclusion: artifact experience items. Genshin Impact is playing with a player’s ability to build their own artifacts with these experience items and that could ease the pain of farming artifacts. I didn’t mention this in the Respecting Time segment, but Genshin’s artifacts are the most time consuming of all items one must farm.

That said, I still can’t give Genshin high marks in Battle Pass because the BP weapons are okay at best, and the ability for players to build their own artifacts is getting tested in this patch. We don’t know if Genshin intends to keep this function, even though it’s been in Honkai: Star Rail from the beginning. Fingers crossed that it stays.

True Cost: 3/10

Genshin is below average in terms of True Cost, but I struggled with how far down it should fall. It originally received an average score years ago, but I have more context with which to stratify Genshin Impact. The release of Wuthering Waves (WuWa) and how much Kuro Games gifts their players with free five-stars and upgrades and convenes (those are WuWa’s version of a gacha turn) leaves Genshin in the dust.

Even so, I can’t crater this score. One doesn’t need that much in terms of primogems (the in-game currency players can buy with real-world money) and only a few characters are needed, specifically anyone who can facilitate hyper bloom. But it’s fun to get new characters and Hoyoverse’s other game Honkai: Star Rail (HSR) is far more generous. Both HSR and WuWa provide more in-game currency for exploration and completing events.

Sure, Genshin has given their playerbase more primogems and free gacha turns in this patch (5.0) than most other patches, but someone smarter (and more dedicated toward number crunching) than me kept track of how many gacha turns a person can make with freemogems and gifts in Genshin versus HSR. Over the years, Genshin has given players 80 turns per patch. To date, HSR gives players at least 100 turns per patch with just finishing in-game content. That means that HSR players are guaranteed a five-star character each patch, while Genshin players must pay for 20 turns of the gacha crank or not get a five-star. Or they need to get lucky. Just be lucky. Simple.

And it doesn’t stop there. Genshin Impact changes for the worse with its weapon banner. You must lose the 33% chance twice before getting a guaranteed weapon. If you miss both times and go to hard pity every time, you could spend hundreds of real-world dollars. Yikes! Genshin’s weapon banner is abysmal. What’s worse is that the current banner is an improvement. I saw a video years ago of someone spending thousands of dollars and never getting the banner weapon.

Narrative: 7/10

I gave Genshin an 8/10 for this category years ago. I would’ve given it 9/10 if I only gauged its story and not the storytelling. Genshin Impact has an engaging story; Hoyoverse stinks at telling stories.

This will be a problem with most gacha games. Gachas tend to dice up a story, toss the segments into the air, and let them fall wherever they will. As a result, I can seldom follow what’s going on in Genshin’s story. I need YouTube creators like Ashikai to compile Genshin’s story from various mediums, to include mangas, short animations, one shots, forums, and even some events that I may have missed because I was AFK. Quick plug, you should check out Ashikai’s YouTube channel; they do amazing work.

Once you know the plot points, Genshin Impact has a great story. The idea that this could be a post-apocalyptic world, and the sky is fake fascinates me. I won’t spoil the whole thing here. You should check out Ashikai’s playlist on World Structure Theory. Great stuff. The narrative itself rocks. I just wish Hoyoverse would elevate their storytelling.

Storytelling: 2/10

Ugh! Genshin hardly makes sense half the time and the times when it does make sense, Paimon repeats what a character just said.

Random NPC: I think the wolf headed east.

Paimon: It sounds like (random NPC) thinks the wolf headed east.

Skip. Skip! Skip!!! I already know that. Why don’t you give me a skip function? Why does Paimon repeat everything? Why doesn’t Paimon recap the parts of the story that I could’ve missed in timed events or the manga or some other media I haven’t seen? Hoyoverse’s team must’ve heard that no one can follow their plot, but they didn’t get the memo that their tossed salad method of storytelling could be the issue. It must be that the player wasn’t paying attention. Let’s repeat the same dialogue five times because the following happens way too often:

Random NPC: That’s right, Paimon! I believe the wolf headed east.

Paimon: Oh! (Random NPC) believes the wolf headed east.

Random NPC: That’s right, Paimon. You should head east in order to find the wolf. Paimon: Paimon thinks that Paimon and the traveler should head east in order to… Stop! Skip! Why?

 

User Interface: 7/10

Genshin Impact streamlined a lot. So many gachas have cluttered interfaces. Tower of Fantasy (ToF), which was released after Genshin, is a good example of a cluttered interface. I can’t follow half of what ToF is trying to show me. It has too many sub-sub-sub-sub categories. Send a search party.

Genshin does a good job of showing the most pertinent information. But it can be better. I can do with even fewer sub, subcategories. Even so, Genshin has done such a good job at minimizing clutter that Wuthering Waves copied Genshin Impact’s interface as much as Genshin Impact copied Breath of the Wild. That tends to happen when a game does something right. If something works, copy the homework.

Presentation: 9/10

Like I said, the graphics look good but they’re dated, and I could do without Genshin’s oversaturated color palette. But the music catapults this score. Hoyoverse sunk a ton of money into making each region and even specific locations within a region unique. It says something when you can close your eyes, listen to a track, and know exactly where the piece plays.

A high music score will be a common trend for Hoyoverse games. Hoyoverse knows the value of good music. They honed their skills in Honkai Impact 3rd. “Nightglow,” anyone?

Aggregated Score: 5.22

These new scoring metrics lowered Genshin Impact’s overall score. I still have a little hope that Hoyoverse will improve Genshin Impact, but several of the game’s improvements were first tested in Honkai: Star Rail, and it took over a year for those improvements to make their way from HSR to Genshin Impact. It’s the same company.

Hoyoverse has shifted assets and focus to HSR, Honkai Impact 3rd: Part 2, and Zenless Zone Zero. As I said in my review years ago, Hoyoverse may cut their losses and not give Genshin Impact the overhaul it needs. They don’t improve their profit margins if they upgrade the current Genshin Impact. It’s only a matter of time until Hoyoverse releases Genshin Impact 2nd: Give Us More Money. That’s all I have for now. Let me know your thoughts on Genshin Impact. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

The State of Video Game Reviews and Free-to-Play Games

Published on by Kyra2 Comments

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. I haven’t shared a video game review in quite a while. I started by covering a bunch of Gacha games and intended on including them all in this post, but I pared that down to one gacha Genshin Impact, which will post tomorrow. I found that most video game reviews aren’t effective when discussing free-to-play video games. So, let’s give video game reviews the enema it needs.

Video game reviews often cover things that are easy to spot. Visuals? You can see screenshots: unnecessary. Audio? I guess that’s helpful, but again there are video shorts, and one can get the feel of a game’s audio before purchasing. Gameplay might be the most useful and some sites will even include a video game’s replayability. But we’re living in a free-to-play video game world, and there are video game review categories that get overlooked.

Respectful of a Player's Time

Respecting a player’s time may be the biggest omission. Replayability is fine and all, but video gamers are getting older. So many of us are parents and grandparents and even the ones who don’t have kids have other real-world obligations.

Respecting a player’s time has become more important than replayability. I said it. Whenever I see a game boast that it has 100s of hours of replayability, I lose interest. I don’t need another part-time job playing a video game for certain unlockables or item upgrades. That’s good for someone whose job is video games or someone still in grade school. The rest of us have other things we could be doing or other things we need to do.

Video Game's True Cost

True cost. Free-to-play games need a true cost category. Can players effectively play a game without buying the battle pass every patch? Yes. Battle passes should also have their own category, because most free-to-play games include one. Heck! Several paid games include a battle pass in today’s climate.

But Gacha games, which have gained popularity in recent years because of their monetization system, find ways to price-gouge players with drop rates for characters and items. But Kyra, you could play 40 hours a week to—see respecting a player’s time. I guess this one could also be called respecting a player’s money.

Mechanisms

I’d take it further with splitting gameplay into mechanisms and gameplay loop. Mechanisms are what you’re mechanically doing in a game, but what one does in a game only matters if the game mechanisms are unique. And gameplay loop is how satisfying and engaging the mechanisms work together as a whole.

Gameplay combines the two ideas. I guess the combo works, but separate categories may attract different gamers. Some like playing a unique game even if the combination of elements gets clunky. Other gamers look for a cohesive whole.

Storytelling

I’d do a similar thing with story or narrative. Storytelling and a story are not the same thing. John Updike’s A&P has a simple premise, but Updike’s storytelling elevates the story into a classic. On the flip side, Genshin Impact has a great story if you can follow it, but Hoyoverse has done a piss pour job at storytelling. Oops! That may have spoiled the Genshin Impact review.

With all of that said, let’s see if we can pin down a good set of video game review criteria before covering the first of a few larger gacha games. But before we do that, we’ll need to discuss what makes a gacha game for the folks who may not know. For those of you who know what a gacha game is, feel free to scroll past this next section. I’ll try and keep it short.

Gacha Games

Gacha Games

Gacha games have been around for decades. One of the first, MapleStory released in 2003. Yikes! It has been decades. But the polish and larger budget and success of 2020’s Genshin Impact launched gacha games into mainstream popularity.

Gachas have always been popular, especially in eastern Asia, but Genshin’s blend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s gameplay and the gacha monetization system brought in new fans. Let’s be real. Genshin is a Breath of the Wild clone. So, the only new thing Genshin really introduced to that formula was the gacha system. So, let’s discuss what makes a Gacha game.

Gacha Machines

Gachas work like collectible card games or like the gacha machines the game type borrows the word. Gacha machines are the machines one can find at the front of a grocery store. Insert a coin (quarter) into the machine, turn the crank, and a plastic ball with a toy inside spits out from a spout. Gacha originates in Japan. The Japanese call it that because they believe that’s the sound a gacha machine makes as one turns the crank. Gacha. Gacha! Gacha!!!

In gacha games, players wish or warp or convene—each game has its own word for what you’re doing, so let’s come up with a universal term “turn”—or takes a turn on a banner. Each banner will feature a character.

Usually, but not always, players take a certain number of turns on the banner before they can receive the featured character (usually about 80-100 turns). I say “can receive” because gachas typically employ a percentage chance of gaining the featured character or item. Often, one needs to lose their percentage chance of gaining a featured item before receiving a guaranteed character/item.

As you can guess, this monetization system is how gacha games make most of their money. And they make a LOT of money. Despite most gacha games using a free-to-play model, one will often find gacha games at the top of the most money earned over any given month. This fact is also why gachas became popular. Video game companies like money.

With those new ways of earning—or syphoning—money from customers, we may need new video game review criteria. So, let’s pin down some free-to-play/gacha video game categories.

Mechanisms

Mechanisms

This will be a category for the folks who like interesting mechanisms in their game. Games that push what can be done with video games from a technical gameplay standpoint will earn good scores.

Gameplay Loop

Above image from GameDesigning.org

Gameplay Loop

This is how the mechanisms work together to make a cohesive product. A formulaic game can score a high Gameplay Loop score, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t anything unique.

Respectful of a Player's Time

Respecting Time

This applies more to free-to-play games, but I’ve seen plenty of other games waste a players time. Games that don’t waste a player’s time with busy work will score high in this category.

Genshin Impact Battle Pass

Battle Pass

If a game has a battle pass, it will receive a score in this category. Who are we kidding? Most, if not every, gacha game has a battle pass. Even some paid games boast battle passes. I’ll split this score between the necessity of buying the pass and what one gets for completing it, giving difference to the latter.

Video Game's True Cost

True Cost

How much does the game actually cost? Again, this is more a question for free-to-play games, but players can be asked to purchase add-ons. How much does everything cost?

Story or Narrative

Narrative

I mentioned this prior. This is the story, not the storytelling. Gachas have a nasty habit of chopping up their narratives and tossing them into the wind. I’ll be leaning on YouTubers and other people to help me piecemeal these stories together.

Storytelling

Storytelling

Again, this I mentioned this prior. How well does the game tell its story? These are two very different concepts, especially for gacha games.

Genshin Impact User Interface

User Interface

Gachas are also notorious for having difficult to manage menus. This wouldn’t be that big of an issue for most video games, but free-to-play games have a knack for hiding things within sub-sub-sub-sub menus so gamers can’t find them.

Genshin Impact's Graphics

Presentation

Yes. It’s obvious but still a necessary category. I’ll use this as a catch all for graphics and audio, giving an internal score for both within the segment.

Final Thoughts

And with that, I think we have a good set of parameters. I’ll see you tomorrow. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a nice day.

Top 5 Tabletop Games of the 1960s

Top 5 Tabletop Games from the Early 1960s

Published on by Kyra15 Comments

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. We’re bringing back an old series: Top 5 Tabletop Games. The lists prior to this one (the 30s and 40s-50s) had fewer titles to choose from during their time periods and served as the best board games of that decade instead of a year. But the 1960s produced so many popular and great games that we split it into two Top 5 lists. One for the beginning of the decade (1960-1964) and another for the end of the decade (1965-1969). We’ll publish the second list next week.

So much time has passed since our last Top 5 Tabletop Games that we may need to reiterate the ground rules before we get started.

1: Cultural relevance plays as much of a factor as overall quality. A game might make a list that doesn’t hold up to others of its type, but you must admit the game is everywhere.

2: Only one game from a franchise makes the list. This will become more of an issue the closer we get to games with expansions.

3: Longevity plays a role, too. A game doesn’t have to fly off the shelves today, but it had to have some widespread appeal for a decent time.

5: Hi Ho! Cherry-O (1960)

Woo! Hi Ho! Cherry-O just barely made this list. Perhaps I should run a survey and see which tabletop games were people’s first games. Hi Ho! Cherry-O may be near the top of that list.

Each player begins with an empty basket and 10 cherries on their tree. Players take turns spinning the spinner and performing the actions they spin. The first player to collect all the cherries from their tree and yell “Hi Ho! Cherry-O” wins. Simple premise. Easy rules to explain and understand.

And yet, mathematicians used a Markov chain to determine how long a game of Hi Ho! Cherry-O would last. Who knew that picking cherries could get so intense?

4: Focus (1963)

Focus is the first and not the last Sid Sackson game that will make these lists. It’s an abstract strategy game where players move stacks around a checkerboard with the three squares in each corner removed. Stacks may move as many spaces as there are pieces in the stack. Players may only move a stack if the topmost piece in the stack is one of their pieces. When a stack lands on another stack, the two stacks merge. Basically, one tries cornering their opponent(s) into no longer having moves.

Focus also happens to be an early recipient of the Spiel des Jahres, the German Game of the Year (1981). This award elevated the quality of board games that came from Germany after its inception. Sackson did the same for the board game industry prior to this award, which is why, in part, Focus earned this honor. That and Focus is a great game that has inspired countless tabletop game designers.

3: Mouse Trap (1963)

How many of you have built the Rube Goldberg-like mouse trap for this game and never played it? Show of hands. Mouse Trap has players building the least efficient trap to catch a mouse. But the game doesn’t play anything like it did back in 1963. The original Mouse Trap required an opponent to land on the “cheese” space by exact count and the player to land on the “turn crank” space by exact count for a chance that the clunky Mouse Trap might work and eliminate a player.

Fast forward 12 years and the game play surrounding the trap was retooled by Sid Sackson. Hey, there’s that name again. Sackson added the cheese-shaped tokens that allowed players to move themselves or other players or turn the crank of the machine. Sackson streamlined a game that could take several hours into one that can be played in under an hour.

Mouse Trap may lean heavily on a gimmick, but one can’t question its staying power.

2: TwixT (1961)

TwixT began as a paper and pencil game in 1957 by Alex Randolph. And in 1961 Randolph was commissioned along with Sid Sackson (Hey, there’s that name again) to start a games division. TwixT was one of Randolph’s first produced games. It was even short-listed for the first Spiel des Jahres (Hey, we know that award, too) in 1979.

Players take turns placing pegs of their color into a 24×24 square grid of holes. One tries to move from one end of the board to another, connecting one’s pegs by making knight moves (in Chess). You cannot cross two connected pegs, so it’s possible to block your opponent’s progression and that’s what you’ll want to do. TwixT has a bunch of strategy but is easy enough that young children can play. No wonder it was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design’s Hall of Fame along with Randolph.

1: Acquire (1964)

I wonder who designed Acquire. Wait! It’s Sid Sackson. Again. In Acquire, players attempt to earn the most money by developing and merging hotel chains. When a hotel chain that a player owns stock is acquired by a larger chain, players earn money based on the size of the acquired chain. Player will liquidate all their stock at the end of the game and whoever has the most money wins.

Acquire was also short-listed for the first Spiel des Jahres in 1979 and was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design’s Hall of Fame along with Sid Sackson. The tabletop gaming community owes a lot to both of these incredible game designers.

My aunt Erma had a copy of Acquire but lost the rulebook, so I made up my own rules to this game. So, Acquire holds a special place for me personally. I may be a little biased with this number 1.

But did we get the list right, for the most part? Let us know in the comments. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Check out the other lists from this series:
Top 5 Games prior to the 1930s
Top 5 Games from the 1930s
Top 5 Games from the 1940s-50s
Top 5 Games from the Late 1960s
Top 5 Games from the Early 1970s
Top 5 Games from the Late 1970s
Top 5 Games from 1980-1981
Top 5 Games from 1982-1983
Top 5 Games from 1984-1985
Top 5 Games from 1986-1987
Top 5 Games from 1988-1989
Top 5 Games from 1990-1991

3 Lists of 3: Anime Take 3

3 Lists of 3 Anime: Take 3

Published on by KyraLeave a comment

This is one of the last older posts that I haven’t yet published. Up to this point, we’ve been sprinkling in some newer stuff, but it may be mostly new stuff from this point forward. This is the third and possibly final 3 Lists of 3 for anime.

Just in case you’ve forgotten how these posts work, I’ll break down some of the more popular anime genres and list a few anime for new viewers to dip their toes into. This series differs from our typical starters writeups because we won’t spend too much time on each anime—usually—and it’ll function more as an “if you like this story, you may like this other one.” Let’s get started.

Mystery

When one hears mystery as a genre, one thinks about stories that feature detectives and gumshoes. The same holds for anime—for the most part—but there are some anime that go a little off that tried and true formula.

Detective Conan

We’ll start with the one that’s the most familiar for westerners. Detective Conan (also known as Case Closed) features a precocious teen detective Jimmy Kudo who solves the police’s most difficult cases. He gets poisoned by a secret organization, but the poison doesn’t kill him, it turns Jimmy into a short pants kid.

To keep his identity a secret, Jimmy adopts the alias Conan Edogawa (he names himself Conan after his favorite author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). Detective Conan continues to solve crimes, while unearthing who reversed his aging into a child. Detective Conan plays out a little like Inspector Gadget with Conan solving crimes for an inept adult detective, but while Detective Conan has its comedic moments, it’s a classic detective series.

Hyouka

Here comes another young gumshoe—or a group of gumshoes. The Hyouka anime is based on the manga, which was in turn based on the novel series Classic Literature Club by Honobu Yonezawa. It’s set in Kamiyama High School where the members of the Classic Literature Club help others out by solving crimes. If you liked series like the Hardy Boys or the Babysitters Club, you might want to give Hyouka a try.

Eden of the East

Eden of the East is the one anime on this list that journeys the furthest from a traditional detective story. This gets a little convoluted. Eden of the East behaves a little like the cloak and dagger elements of 100 Bullets, so there are plenty of twists and turns.

Essentially, the two main protagonists are given 8.2 billion yen that’s supposed to be used to “save” Japan in some way. They must use their money to pay a group named The Seleção, but if they use the money for selfish reasons, they fail, and Japan is destroyed. There’s a lot more to it than that—a lot more—but Eden of the East builds on a series of terrorist attacks and who’s behind them. It asks moral questions like if you could sell out your home country for a small fortune, would you?

Horror

As you can see, I’m going with more traditional subgenres with this list—for now. Horror anime ranges from ghosts and goblins to myths or just the plain creepy. Get ready for a few chills.

Another

We’ll start with a horror anime that could classify as a pseudo mystery. Another is set in a high school where a student died in 1972 and in the wake of that death, everyone denied that it happened. As a result, a curse befalls the school, and students, faculty, and their family members are at risk of gruesome deaths like the ones you might see in a Final Destination film.

We’re talking plenty of blood and gore. But there may be something or someone behind these murders and that’s where Another blends mystery and horror. Expect plenty of red herrings in this short, twelve-episode series. You may also want a change of pants.

When They Cry

When They Cry is adapted from the video game series of the same name. Set in June of 1983 and in a quiet rural village Hinamizawa, protagonist Keiichi Maebara leaves his hometown for Hinamizawa after a series of unfortunate events. He makes friends in this sleepy town, but soon finds out that there’s more to the town than he first believed. A series of murders and other gruesome events occur in Hinamizawa, and the friends Keiichi has made may not be all they seem. Who needs enemies when you have lunatics for friends?

Parasyte

I could’ve gone with Corpse Parade here—another great, short series—but it’s another spooky school anime and I wanted to branch out. Parasyte, based on a manga that ran from 1988-1995, has plenty of stunning visuals, gore for those of you who like gore-fests, and aliens. That’s right. Let’s give some aliens a little love. The titular aliens enter orifices and transform humans into monsters.

Main character Shinichi encounters such an alien, but the alien can’t overtake him and only manages to turn him into a human with one alien arm. Shinichi maintains control of the parts of him that aren’t an alien arm, but the alien arm has a mind of its own. Parasyte explores many issues of what it means to be human, and it’s a much watch for horror fans who like scares like Alien.

Josei

I’m venturing a little off the beaten path here with Josei, but just a little. Josei is more of a demographic than an anime genre. It targets female viewers around the ages 18-40 and depicts life and romance in a more mature light. Romance doesn’t have to factor into the story all the time; a Josei anime needs to cater to women of this age range (essentially not teens or children) and feature more grounded characters, instead of idealistic fantasies.

Princess Jellyfish

The crux of Princess Jellyfish rests with a group of otaku (geek) women who happen to be flat mates. They bond with each other and no men are allowed in their club. Protagonist Tsukimi, one of the otaku women, hopes to become an illustrator and loves jellyfish because they remind her of her mother who took her to the aquarium to see them.

Enter Kuranosuke, the illegitimate son of a politician, who cross-dresses to rebel against his father and feel closer to his mother. Tsukimi befriends Kuranosuke and allows Kuranosuke to join her band of otaku, hiding Kuranosuke’s gender from her flat mates. Princes Jellyfish addresses gender identity and challenges one’s preconceptions. It also makes for a non-conforming romantic-comedy as Kuranosuke develops feelings for Tsukimi.

Nana

Nana’s title derives from its two main characters, both of whom are named Nana. Nana Komatsu has a habit of falling in love at first site. The other Nana, Nana Osaki, is the lead vocalist of a band called Black Stones (BLAST for short). Osaki’s boyfriend, the band’s bassist, leaves BLAST for a better gig, but Osaki continues with BLAST. Nana centers on these two Nanas as Komatsu seeks love and happiness, and Osaki pursues fame and recognition. Neither Nana finds what they want at first and perhaps what they want isn’t what they need.

Whenever I get enough of the Nana manga, I may have to place eight of them on the shelf with a Batman graphic novel after them, that way anyone who looks at the books in my library will get the 1960s Batman theme stuck in their head. If you’ve heard the song, you have it in your head right now. Mwah-ha-ha!

Seriously, Nana is a great read.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

Shouwa Genroku is a shot of fresh air for anime. Set against the art form Rakugo, a traditional form of Japanese entertainment where a storyteller must sit and convey a tale with only a paper fan and small cloth, Shouwa Genroku unveils the story of two friends.

One begins his path as a Rakugo performer after being released from prison, the other takes a different path and both have disparate performance styles. Shouwa Genroku may be the most intimate of all the anime on these lists and one of the most character-driven stories.

Final Thoughts

I hope there are plenty of anime in these lists for you try out. I’m sure I got something wrong. Let me know in the comments.

And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Monthly Update: Whistlestop Pets Title Card

Monthly Check In

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Hey, hey, folks! Just checking in with another personal update. It’s been a month since the last update, and we’ve had weekly posts up until this point. I’ll have another post later today. Hopefully, that won’t be too many emails from me in a single day. 😊



I’m still waiting to hear back from the company who said they were interested in Spill the Beans. I discussed this game more in last month’s update. They had promised me that the contract would be finished by the end of August, and I haven’t received an official contract yet. I believe they had some issues with their upcoming Kickstarter; it was supposed to launch in June or July at the latest and hasn’t yet hit Kickstarter. Fingers crossed that everything is okay.



I won’t hear back from publishers for another couple of months for the other game I submitted Whistlestop Pets. From what I’ve seen and heard, it takes about three months or more for a game publisher to respond to an email query. There isn’t a standard, so it could be a longer wait.

Speaking of waits, I also heard back from a literary agent for my novel Crooked as a Dogwood last month. The agent asked for a full manuscript. Yay! But it will also take an additional couple of months for a response. It takes time to read a full novel and even longer to figure out if it’s something an agent would like to take on. Fingers crossed for some good news in a couple of months.

So, it looks like I’ll have to busy myself with projects, so I don’t dwell on all of that waiting. Eek!

As a result, I’ve pursued other projects. Let’s begin with tabletop games. There a few games that far away from discussing here, but one stands above the rest: Pick Your Poison.



The phrase “Pick Your Poison” comes from the Prohibition era. Not only did prohibition ban alcohol, they added literal poison (like thallium and strychnine) to household products like after shave and the like (this is also called denaturing alcohol) in order to dissuade people from switching to drinking those household products. So, when a bartender at a speakeasy would say, pick your poison, they knew they were serving their customers poison.

In the game Pick Your Poison, you play as a public figure in the final year of Prohibition, and you dictate how much poison is in those household products. For prohibition to succeed, one needs to kill enough citizens…but not too many or you’ll incur the public’s wrath. Players add or subtract marbles from test tubes that will show how many people die from denatured alcohol each round (which is every two months).



If your role card is face down, you win the game if Prohibition has a positive public opinion at the end of a year. If your role card faces up, you win the game if Prohibition has a negative public opinion. Pick Your Poison is a semi-cooperative game for 3-6 players.

I’m ironing out the details but intend to submit Pick Your Poison to next year’s Zenobia Award. It’s a contest for designers belonging to underrepresented groups. The games must be based on history. I think Pick Your Poison fits that bill.



In terms of writing (not related to Geekly), I continue to work on the unnamed novel that’s based in the same universe as Whistlestop Pets and two other games in the offing. I should have a working draft by the end of the year. NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) is in November, and I typically participate each year with the Omaha chapter. I encourage others to reach out to their local NaNoWriMo groups if they’d like to write a novel. You could make new friends. And I’ve noticed that my group holds people accountable. They’re focusing on getting people published.

And of course, Geekly has been another escape from remembering that I have multiple projects out for review. I appreciate everyone who has spent time and who does spend time reading these posts. Thank you!

That’s all I have for this month’s personal update. This may become a monthly thing. We’ll see.

I hope that wherever you are, you’re having a great day.

~ Kyra

Top Fantasy Creatures

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Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. I adapted this post from a scrapped video script. Who knows? This could still become a video at some point in the future. Let’s find out which fantasy creatures are the most common. Or another way of phrasing it, which fantasy creatures are the most popular?

By knowing the most common fantasy creatures, we can avoid using them or at least tweak them in interesting ways. I may even sprinkle in some trends that I’ve found along the way.

A short video a friend of mine shared on Facebook inspired this post. That would’ve been at least two years ago by now. I have a good idea of who posted the video, but I don’t want to get their identity wrong. Sorry about that. Anyway, he proposed that fantasy has been trapped in amber post Lord of the Rings. He argued that fantasy still uses Tolkien’s creatures, and I agreed with him.

As someone who has played plenty of Dungeons and Dragons (which ripped their character classes from Lord of the Rings and perpetuated the hierarchy of elves, dwarves, orcs, and even hobbits, modern D&D refers to them as halflings), why would I not? But then I wondered which creatures appear the most in fantasy?

Fantasy is a broad genre. A lot broader than I originally thought. I researched—as best I could—for fantasy novels and movies (and other media) and the kinds of creatures, monsters, and species they use. I’ll have to get a major disclaimer or two out of the way and show how I compiled the data before we get into the list.

But if you don’t care for the background info, feel free to scroll down to the creatures which will begin in reverse order from nine to one. There are a ton of ties and near ties that swell the list to a top twelve, but you’ll see in just a bit.

Disclaimers and Compilation

I searched for the top selling and rated fantasy novels and movies on various sites like Goodreads, Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon, and Penguin/Random House. Immediately, I found that epic fantasy, like the ones Tolkien wrote, may have been what my friend referenced. Perhaps epic fantasy uses most of Tolkien’s creatures.

The Twilight series is classified as fantasy. In my opinion vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and zombies or ghouls belong more to horror, but these creatures make up a large chunk of urban fantasy, which is fantasy set in a cityscape.

I can break down the various types of fantasy if anyone is interested (I still have the data) but for now, let’s stick with fantasy as an overall genre. As you can guess, I ended up with hundreds—if not tens of thousands—of books. I wasn’t going to read all of them, even if there were some interesting ones like the Meowing Medium Books that features a cat who solves crimes by communicating with ghosts. That sounds super cute. You can find that series on Amazon.

As a result, I narrowed my search to novels, movies, and series that had synopses. That still left me with over a hundred synopses and that’s still a lot of reading. I could have easily missed something. And we’ll quickly see that writers don’t classify or name their fantasy creatures or species consistently.

Finally, I didn’t include games. D&D alone has countless titles, and plenty of other video game and tabletop role playing game franchises borrow heavily from D&D—here’s looking at you, Elder Scrolls—so the data would become D&D skewed. Games also deserve their own post.

Needless to say, I got lost down several rabbit holes. Seriously, you may have to send a search party. I easily get lost.

9) Zombies/Ghouls

Zombies and ghouls are the only creatures that straddle the horror and fantasy genres that scored high enough to make the list. They’re tied with three other fantasy creatures; I classified ties as anything within a half of a percentage point.

Why zombies?

There’s a lot of zombie fiction and a lot of that can be classified as urban fantasy. Consider this a Walking Dead boost. Their inclusion isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that zombie/ghouls show up more in epic fantasy than non-epic fantasy, such as urban fantasy.

And before you say, Kyra, you misclassified some of these stories, which I undoubtedly did to some degree, remember that A Song of Ice and Fire has White Walkers. Technically, White Walkers aren’t zombies or ghouls, but they may as well be. So, there may also be a Game of Thrones bump for zombies, too.

9) Harpies

Harpies?

Did centaurs make the list? No. Did minotaurs? Nope.  Of all the half-animal, half-human fantasy species, I didn’t expect harpies to have the largest footprint. They show up slightly more often in epic fantasy than they do in non-epic fantasy and that makes sense.

Why harpies?

While centaurs and minotaurs can be viewed as good, evil or neutral, harpies tend to be antagonists and usually evil. And they also happen to look like women most of the time. Yeah. Fantasy has a type. We’ll see a lot more evil feminine types on this list.

But harpies? The only reason I can think why harpies are more prevalent than other half-human fantasy species is that flying beings dominate this list, especially when they’re cast as antagonists. We’ll see more flying creatures and beings soon enough.

If you have any other suggestions as to why harpies made the top ten, feel free to leave them in the comments.

9) Dwarves

Dwarves don’t surprise me. They aren’t as common as elves, so I would have guessed that they were tied for a few spots below elves. Spoiler alert, we’ll see elves on this list. But you already knew that. Don’t act like you didn’t scroll down to see the entire list.

Like harpies, dwarves show up more in epic fantasy than non-epic fantasy. That’s also to be expected. But the two fantasy types are closer than I would’ve thought. I didn’t know dwarves showed up that often in urban fantasy.

Why dwarves?

It’s the Tolkien/D&D boost. Did you need someone to gulp ale? Dwarf. Do you want to explore a cave? Dwarf. Do you want to try your hand at an Irish brogue or Scottish accent? Dwarf.

Yeah. Dwarves may be overdone, but fantasy fans may want to see dwarves in their fantasy. Sometimes one has to give the people what they want. By that logic, shouldn’t dwarves be higher on this list?

9) Angels

This is the last creature/being tied at the ninth spot. From what I’ve seen angels can be nerfed (or powered down) and recast as fairies. Another spoiler: fairies are on this list, too.

Because the line between angel and fairy or fae gets blurred, they show up at similar rates in epic and non-epic fantasies.

Why angels?

I expected angels to show up more in non-epic fantasy because of urban fantasy. Consider this the Neil Gaiman boost (American Gods and Good Omens). The ratio was a lot closer than I originally thought but again, that could be because stories can recast fairies as angels and vice versa.

The power sets between angels and fairies tend to overlap. Fairies can often heal. So can angels. Fairies often wield powerful balls of light. I may be showing my video gamer here, but that’s often classified as holy damage. And angels are holy beings.

The only physical difference between these two beings would be their wings. Angels have bird wings, while fairies have insect wings. But most fantasy stories that include angels and fairies don’t depict them with wings at all. So, without the distinction of wings, the only thing separating these two beings is one is a spiritual being (angel) while the other is a mythical being (fairy).

If you’re writing a spiritually or religiously based fantasy, you’ll often feature angels. If you’re not writing that type of fantasy, you’ll most likely use fairies. Context matters.

5) Elves

Wait. We jumped from 9 to 5. What happened? Yes. We have another four-way tie for the fifth spot. These creature types were within a few tenths or even hundredths of a percentage point from each other. I promised elves and here are the elves.

Elves, like their dwarf counterparts, show up more in epic fantasy than they do in non-epic fantasy.

Why Elves?

Again, this is the Tolkien/D&D boost. Many fantasy fans expect elves, so fantasy writers include them in their stories.

Before I dive deeper into why I believe elves made this list, I must include that Tolkien deserves credit for popularizing elves and dwarves and maybe a few more fantasy creatures/beings on this list. But Tolkien didn’t invent dwarves or elves. His interpretation of dwarves and elves is what matters in this context. Plenty of fantasy stories have taken elves and dwarves to their folklore roots and put their own spin on these beings. There’s nothing saying that a prospective fantasy writer can’t do that too.

Getting back to elves, they’re human enough for readers to see more of themselves within the characters, yet they aren’t human. But it goes a little deeper. Dwarves and elves can represent either bygone days of humanity or what humanity could’ve become had we taken another path. The two species are a fun way to speculate what humanity would look like if it developed underground or in a forest’s canopy.

That and pointy ears and magic.

5) Spiders

How many fantasy themed video games must one slay a giant spider or rat as their first opponent?

Fantasy movies, TV shows, and novels pit their protagonists against similar beasties in the early going. There have been plenty of prominent fantasy spiders: Aragog in Harry Potter, A Song of Ice and Fire’s Manticore which was described as a venomous species of spider, and Shelob from Lord of the Rings, who was also a demon, so that’s a two for one beast.

That’s another Tolkien sighting, but I don’t think Tolkien fans can claim that he defined spiders as fantasy antagonists because spiders have been folklore antagonists for centuries. Spiders appear in just over 21 percent of both epic and non-epic fantasy stories.

Why Spiders?

Simple: arachnophobia is one of the most common animal-based fears. Snakes are the only other creature that strikes a similar chord, and we will see a snake-like creature later in this list. Surprise!

If a character says that they have arachnophobia, you can bet the story will include spiders. A spider’s inclusion can be shorthand for a character overcoming a fear. We all need character growth.

5) Trolls

Goblins and Orcs and Trolls, oh my.

These three were difficult to differentiate. While the modern look of orcs can be attributed to Tolkien, he repopularized the term with The Lord of the Rings, goblins and trolls can vary in shape and size and appearance, and they don’t have a clear vision of what they look like, like orcs. You’re letting me down, Tolkien. You were supposed to define all three of these creatures. You gave fantasy writers work.

Anyway, I decided to take each writer at their word with these creatures. If a writer called something a goblin, I marked it down as a goblin. The same went with orcs and trolls.

As a result, the trolls came out on top. It wasn’t that close. It may be the troll’s versatility that makes them the clear winner of these three, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Trolls appear far more frequently in epic fantasy as opposed to non-epic fantasy and that isn’t a surprise.

Why Trolls?

Like I said, Trolls are versatile. While goblins and orcs are always grotesque (mostly varying in size: goblins shorter; orcs taller), trolls can look like humans. Just like those internet trolls who’ll make some snide comment below. You know who you are.

I’m kidding about internet trolls (kind of, be gentle), but internet trolls may be closer to the original Nordic myth of trolls than one might think. Several stories—including original Nordic myths—describe trolls as larger humans or humans with exaggerated features. So, much like elves and dwarves, trolls show up more often because readers/viewers can see more of themselves in trolls than they can in goblins and orcs.

Perhaps it’s because a troll looks more human that caused us to call them internet trolls and not internet orcs. One wouldn’t want to dehumanize someone too much, even if they’re being a goblin.

5) Unicorns

This must be the biggest shock of the bunch. I like unicorns a lot, but I didn’t realize that they showed up in this many fantasy stories. Unicorns appear far more often in epic fantasy than non-epic fantasy.

Why Unicorns?

Unicorns have seen a resurgence through themed food and drinks. Starbucks had a viral Unicorn Frappuccino in 2017. Since then, unicorns have shown up in countless edible and inedible products like cakes, bath bombs, and cereal. Anything rainbow could fall under the unicorn label. Some writers wanted to capitalize on the unicorn craze. I noticed an uptick in unicorn usage since 2017. What have you done, Starbucks?

Even with the upswing, unicorns have always been somewhat popular. That could be because of The Last Unicorn. That began my love of the mythical creature. It’s also one of the first books my wife and I gave to our kids. My Little Pony also features quite a few unicorns, and Friendship is Magic predates the Unicorn Frappuccino by seven years. Perhaps, Bronies pushed unicorns to the forefront.

But not exactly. Very few fantasy stories, epic or non-epic, cast unicorns as prominent characters. They’re typically part of a hunt or are hunted by a villain (like in the Harry Potter series) and as such, they tend to be used as a McGuffin. So, despite being present in a lot of stories, unicorns tend to get overused as narrative devices. I’d like to read more unicorn stories that don’t use them as plot devices. #FreeUnicorns

4) Gods and Demons


I considered making gods and demons separate entries, but let’s be real, they showed up in the same titles. If one has gods, one includes demons. I did a similar thing with another creature/character type later in the list. More on them in a few spots.

Gods and demons appear in just over 30 percent of all fantasy reviewed; they almost have an even split between epic and non-epic fantasies.

Why Gods and Demons?

It’s the Neil Gaiman effect for urban fantasy. American Gods, Good Omens, and the like have inspired a lot of writers. Mythological gods show up in other titles like the Percy Jackson series. Mythology itself has inspired countless storytellers. Even comic books have drawn inspiration from mythology. Thor, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, and Moon Knight all have origins based in mythology. They’d also be considered urban fantasy for the most part.

But epic fantasy isn’t devoid of its own gods. So much of Dungeons and Dragons is creating one’s own pantheon of gods. That may be one of the first things a dungeon master does. What new god or demon can I add to this world?

Like I said before, demons tend to follow gods. Sometimes demons take the form of a devil. They can also take the form of evil or fallen angels. Others can even be destructive gods. Like so many of the other terms on this list, the lines get blurred between gods and demons. For fantasy, it tends to be a matter of motivation or the being’s purpose.

3) Fairies

Yes! Finally, we’ve reached fairies. They show up in non-epic fantasy far more frequently than epic fantasy, but they still appear in epic fantasy often enough. That’s why they’re third on this list.

Why Fairies?

I mentioned before that sometimes in folklore, fairies can be demoted angels or demons. I’ll try not to repeat what I said in the Angels write-up here. Everything I said in the Angels write-up still applies.

Instead, let’s go a different route with fairies. I saw a small uptick in fairy usage after Pan’s Labyrinth, but that’s nowhere near as severe as unicorns after their Frappuccino release. No. Fae and fairies show up far more often in urban fantasies and other non-epic fantasies as sex symbols. In short, fae are hot.

Highlanders? They’re akin to fairies. The wildly popular erotic fantasy series A Court of Thorns and Roses has a faerie love interest and is set in the world of faerie. Even Sookie Stackhouse from The Southern Vampire Mysteries series is a half-human, half-fairy, and that series gets more than a little steamy.

If you want a little romance or erotica with your fantasy, you’re probably going to include fairies. And plenty of fantasy writers add a dash of erotica and romance. Romantasies are very popular.

Just Missed the List

I’m prolonging the reveal of the not-so-surprising top spots with honorable mentions. Quick! Comment which creatures/character types you think will be in the top two.

The following creatures or character types didn’t quite make the list. There was almost an eight-way tie for the ninth spot, but I had to cut off the list somewhere.

13) Gnomes
14) Werewolves
15) Vampires
16) Centaurs
17) Big Cats
18) Goblins
19) Basilisks
20) Giants
21) Chimeras
22) Sphinxes

I had to keep going until I reached the sphinx, because that’s the name of one of my daughter’s cats. Okay. I’ve delayed the inevitable. Here are the final two entries.

1) Wizards and Witches

We have another tie. This time for the top spot. Both creature/character types at the top of this list show up in 42% of all fantasy stories. 42 is the answer to everything.

Let’s begin with another two character types that are too difficult to differentiate: wizards and witches. It should come as no surprise that wizards and witches make the list. Wizards and witches show up far more in non-epic fantasy than they do in epic fantasy. The inverse will be true with the next entry, but first…

Why Wizards and Witches?

I’ve mentioned a few times before this entry that people like to see creatures and character types with which they can relate. People want to see themselves in the characters they read or watch. What’s more relatable than a human? Well, humans with magic.

Most writers—there are exceptions to everything—cast wizards and witches as similar character types, so I ended up lumping them together. These two character types are often treated as two sides of the same coin such as wizards are men, and witches are women. Or wizards are good, and witches are evil. Or what The Magicians series did and categorized wizards as college trained magic users, while hedge witches dropped out of school or never attended.

What did I say about fantasy writers and evil women? Fantasy writers may be expressing some unconscious sentiment by linking women with witches and then witches with evil or uneducated. Women tend to get thrown into the less flattering side of this dyad. I’m not going to dig too much deeper into this issue, that could be another post unto itself. But if you’re interested, you could argue in the comments.

Who wouldn’t want magical powers? It’s no wonder wizards and witches dominate fantasy stories. Stories with magical humans is a power fantasy. It’s the same draw with superhero fiction.

With a few exceptions where there were wizards and no witches and vice versa, the two were similar enough to include as a single entry, so they both can claim the tie at number one. But we have another number one, so this may be a tie within a tie.

1) Dragons

How many of you were waiting for dragons? How many of you would’ve fought me if dragons didn’t make the list? I should’ve said something else here and watched the deluge of angry comments.

Of course, dragons share the top spot with wizards and witches. Dragons dominate epic fantasy, but they’re less common in non-epic fantasy stories.

Why Dragons?

Dragons are the snake-like creature I mentioned earlier in the Spiders entry, but they’re more than just snakes. Multiple cultures have created their own version of dragons, and they did so separate from each other. Ancient civilizations didn’t share dragon notes, yet we can find dragons from Asian, Native American, and European traditions. Why is that?

A human’s first predators would’ve been serpents, big cats, and raptors. Dragons are an amalgam of all three. While several people have a fear of spiders, dragons are fear personified. They are one of the most powerful creatures a human can conjure. We can see that throughout history.

You can learn a lot about a culture or a writer by how they describe their dragons. Will you enhance the serpentine, feline, or avian features? Why did you choose that feature? Do you fear that animal the most? Would you like to experience what it’s like as that animal? Is that animal friend or foe?

Dragons will always pervade fantasy stories. So many fantasy readers expect to see dragons. Can a fantasy be called epic if it doesn’t contain a dragon? Apparently not. Dragons show up in 63% of epic fantasies. Yikes!

Final Thoughts

That’s the list. Phew! That was a lot. I could’ve included more—a lot more. But what does this tell us?

My friend might be right, epic fantasy may be trapped in Tolkien amber. Non-epic fantasy differs quite a bit, but they have their own preferences like hot fairies. Perhaps, aspiring fantasy writers should think about shaking up this hierarchy of characters and creatures. Don’t be afraid to take a creature type back to its folklore or mythological roots and take them in a different direction.

If you see a creature that you like that’s further down the list (or not on the list at all) and you’d like to see them climb up in popularity, write a story about them.

It might be time to end the wizard and witch binary. Or at least stop placing women in the less desirable side of a binary. That’s cliché.

Speaking of cliché, if you’re writing about unicorns, maybe you don’t make them a narrative device.

I hope you found something useful in this post. And I hope that wherever you are you’re having a great day.

~ Kyra

Deadpool Wallpaper

Deadpool and the Future of the MCU

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Hey, hey! Kyra here. I’m still figuring out what kind of content a rebooted JK Geekly should include. If you have any suggestions, let me know in the comments. I’m also working my through older content, but we’ll run out of that soon enough. Lastly, I’m late with a reaction to Deadpool and Wolverine. Instead of writing a review (I’d rather not get back into traditional reviews), I’m doing more of a reaction and what I think of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s future.

Deadpool 3 and Its Place in the MCU

I enjoyed Deadpool and Wolverine. Was it perfect? No. It dragged in parts and that’s something with which the MCU during the Multiverse Saga has struggled, but Deadpool and Wolverine did what a Deadpool movie was meant to do. It made fun of the MCU, particularly the maligned Multiverse Saga. Deadpool and Wolverine served as a good penultimate film for the Multiverse. The Multiverse isn’t yet finished but there aren’t that many movies/TV shows remaining before it wraps. So, I’m calling it a penultimate movie. Deadpool 3 also acted like a Monty Python’s “this is getting too silly” and signaled an abrupt turn that the MCU intends to make: the Mutant Saga.

Right. Before we get too much further, I’m going to try and avoid spoilers. But the nature of posts like this makes that impossible. Consider this a spoiler warning.

Wow! I took this long to say spoiler alert. I am rusty.

Not only was Deadpool and Wolverine the penultimate Multiverse Saga film, it also said farewell to the 20th Century Fox Era X-Men and the Fantastic Four (to a lesser extent). I’ll echo other critics and express concern about Disney/Marvel relying on nostalgia to make a quick buck. I dislike the idea of the MCU using nostalgia as much as it has lately. Disney has worn out their nostalgia button. Did anyone ask for live-action versions of every Disney animated classic?

It’s true that Spider-Man: No Way Home tapped into nostalgia big time, but not necessarily in a bad way. With its proximity to the latest Spider-Man film, one could view Deadpool and Wolverine as nostalgia porn. But Deadpool and Wolverine hits different.

Legally, Disney/Marvel cannot cast their own X-Men actors until 2025. Most of the X-Men, including Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) are under contract to play these characters until the end of 2024. It makes sense for Disney/Marvel to say “Bye, Bye, Bye” to these actors before the end of their contracts.

That said, I hope Disney/Marvel does something new with these characters. They had best cast their own actors for these roles after these contracts expire. I’d also like to see the MCU cover different X-Men stories. The world doesn’t need three Dark Phoenix Sagas in two decades. I’d love it if Disney/Marvel puts that storyline to rest for a good decade or more and concentrate on other great X-Men stories. It’s not like the X-Men have decades of great stories.

We’ll get into some of these potential storylines with the Wolverine montage. Oops! We’re heading into definite spoilers for Deadpool and Wolverine. Anyone who hasn’t yet watched the movie should turn away for the next section. You can pick back up in the MCU’s future section.

Wolverine Montage

The Wolverine montage at the beginning of Deadpool and Wolverine was not only fun but showcased the various worlds in which Wolverine/Logan existed. Most of the scenes depicted during this montage could make for a good movie or movie series. Let’s cover each one as quickly as possible and in the order in which they first appeared.

Short Wolvie
This is the 5′ 3″ Hugh Jackman Wolverine. There isn’t much to say except this Wolverine is the most accurate to the comics, and he was the most eager of the bunch to join Deadpool. Too bad Deadpool went in a different direction.

Brown And Tan Wolvie
Deadpool references John Byrne (X-Men artist during the late 70s and early 80s) and Wolverine’s classic brown and tan outfit that Byrne designed. The scene they chose for this one comes from Incredible Hulk #340 (drawn by Seth MacFarlane) where Wolverine and the Hulk throw down. There have been plenty of instances of this happening. In fact, Wolverine was first introduced in an Incredible Hulk comic (#180 in a cameo and #181 in full), where the two fought each other. This may not be the only time the MCU will depict this fight.

One-Handed Wolvie
The one-handed Wolverine in the dilapidated city comes from Age of Apocalypse. I don’t think the MCU will dive headfirst into this storyline but if they did choose to cover it, I’d like to see Marvel characters not mentioned in this world. The original Age of Apocalypse run mostly affected the X-Men. Other characters were mentioned and a few made appearances, but it could be fun watching alternate versions of The Avengers. But we’ve had enough of the Multiverse and this could be more of the same.

In case you’re wondering, this reality’s Cyclops severed Wolverine’s missing hand.

Old Man Logan
The Wolverine who looks like he’s cosplaying as Joe from the Dollars Trilogy comes from the Old Man Logan storyline. This is another post-apocalyptic story, and I doubt the MCU will go in this direction.

Oddly enough, Deadpool and Wolverine borrows a major set piece from Old Man Logan.  Giant Man’s skeletal remains–the ones in which Cassandra Nova has established a lair–makes an appearance in this comic book story. And technically, we’ve already seen a variation of the Old Man Logan story in the movie Logan.

Crucified Wolvie
The Uncanny X-Men #251’s famous comic book cover features Wolverine on an X-shaped crucifix. I don’t think the MCU will go in this direction, because the Siege Perilous (a crystal that opens doors to other dimensions) features heavily. The MCU won’t want to go back into the Multiverse too soon. However, this Siege Perilous could be one of the many ways the MCU could “fix” the Multiverse and catapult the MCU into the Mutant Saga.

I won’t go into too much detail because there’s a lot going on, but the people who placed Wolverine on the crucifix were the Reavers. The Reavers were the main antagonists in the movie Logan. Reavers have cybernetic implants but in this universe, most Reavers have them because Wolverine cut off their biological limbs. The Reavers hate all mutants, but especially Wolverine, which is why they placed Wolvie on a crucifix.

Patch
This one could easily happen, and there are two prominent storylines with Patch Wolverine. The above with Hulk’s alternate identity Joe Fixit pits Patch Wolverine as a casino bouncer. This could happen, but it might be a bit silly and would most likely be a cameo like we saw during Deadpool and Wolverine. If Patch Wolverine made an extended appearance in the MCU, the story they’d most likely use would come from the 2022 Patch Wolverine mini series.

This Patch is an alternate Wolverine who hides his mutant identity. He has a knack for gambling and espionage. He even teams up with Nick Fury; two patches for the price of one. This could be another way the MCU could bridge the current timeline with a mutant heavy one. They’d have to change a lot of the story, but that wouldn’t be the first time the MCU did so. Age of Ultron didn’t resemble its comic book counterpart.

The Cavillrine
One might think, this is just Henry Cavill as Wolverine, and one would be correct. It is just Henry Cavill as Wolverine, but let’s add a little context. Cavill portrayed Superman in the DC Extended Universe and Geralt in the Witcher Netflix series. Many comic fans love him. Cavill is the leading fan-casting for the next Wolverine, and many ardent fans of this casting insist that Cavill IS the Wolverine of Earth-199999, also known as Earth-616, which is the world in which the MCU takes place. Who knows? These fans could be right. Deadpool and Wolverine could’ve introduced the next actor to portray Wolverine.

The MCU’s Future

We’ve discussed some of the directions in which the X-Men could go or more specifically Wolverine. The above Wolverine Montage by no means covers all stories for Marvel’s mutants, but it’s a good start.

I’ll reiterate, wherever Disney/Marvel goes with these characters, I hope they go in a direction not yet explored. And they should cast their own actors in these roles. Channing Tatum as Gambit is fine; he never had the chance to portray Gambit in a full-length feature before his cameo, and he’s meme gold. Wesley Snipes as Blade might be fun, but he can’t play the character until he’s 90. Can he?

The next thing the MCU should do is contract the number of shows and movies they release; they’re already doing this to some extent, so that’s good. Additionally, they should reduce the number of characters in their active slate of characters. What do I mean? The Infinity Saga focused on the core six Avengers: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. It added a few here and there over time like Falcon, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, and Vision, but the core six were in most–if not all– the team-up films, and prominent members Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor received a trilogy of films in a short timeframe. Go back to that.

It’s difficult to grow attached to a character when you haven’t seen said character in half a decade. I’m looking at you, Shang-Chi (his first movie released in 2021 and 2026 may be the soonest he’ll get a follow-up–the soonest is 2026, yikes!). There have been issues outside the MCU’s control. The pandemic didn’t help. I still get choked up over Chadwick Bosman’s passing. Jonathan (Kang) Majors’ domestic assault and harassment case derailed the Multiverse’s story. And navigating the Spider-Man license and other licenses haven’t been easy.

A lot has happened outside Disney/Marvel’s control, but the MCU hasn’t helped itself by making some questionable choices. It concerns me that the two highest grossing films during the Multiverse Saga are the two (Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool and Wolverine) that lean heavily on nostalgia. It’s too easy to learn the wrong lesson.

Those two movies succeeded because one didn’t need to do as much homework (watching a gagillion hours of content before watching the movies) and both films were the third part of movie trilogies that took five years (for Spider-Man) and eight years (for Deadpool) to complete. These two factors may have done more for these movies’ success than nostalgia alone. But hey, hit the nostalgia button.

Okay. I’m done ranting about Disney’s overuse of nostalgia. For now. Let’s discuss some other developments, beginning with everyone’s favorite Marvel character trapped in license hell.

Spider-Man and His Villains

There’s a tentative agreement between Sony and Disney/Marvel for Peter Parker Spider-Man . The Spider-Verse films may prevent Disney/Marvel from using Miles Morales. I haven’t read the terms of the contract as it pertains to Sony animation, but another series of talks may need to be had for Miles entering the MCU. I’d imagine that will come to fruition. Eventually. It’s going to take a fleet of Brink’s truck cash.

Spider-Man Noir will not appear in the MCU because Nicholas Cage will portray him in a live-action TV series. I’m okay with that. I’ll be watching the show after it drops on Amazon Prime. Any Spider-Man character who receives a Sony-led live-action movie or TV series is ineligible to be included in the MCU. That’s why we’ve seen a Venom trilogy (that includes characters like Carnage and Rhino), Morbius, Madame Web (with at least a half dozen other Spider-Man characters), and the upcoming Kraven films. Sony is playing keep away from Disney/Marvel.

I don’t blame Sony too much. Disney/Marvel has countless intellectual properties and makes several movies annually. Sony produces far fewer movies and their largest IP is Spider-Man. Spidey and Spidey related films account for over half of Sony’s major film releases each year. They’re forced to make Spider-Man content, even if that content isn’t the best. And with the exception of the Spider-Verse franchise, Sony Spidey content hasn’t been good.

The Incredible Hulk

But Spidey isn’t the only character who’s had licensing issues. Universal’s deal with the Hulk concluded this year (2024 if you happen to be reading this after the new year; happy new year btw). According to the previous deal, the Hulk could be in MCU films but only as a supporting character. Thor: Ragnarok touched on Planet Hulk themes (namely Gladiator Hulk), and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law laid the ground work for a potential full-fledged Planet Hulk movie (Hulk traveled the cosmos and found his son Skaar). I don’t know if we’ll ever see another movie with Hulk as the title character, but it’s a possibility. I wouldn’t mind at least one with Mark Ruffalo.

Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom

Is this casting odd? Yes. But Downey Jr. as Doom could’ve been the plan from the beginning, but only as a cameo. The MCU could easily combine Earth-11029’s Doom (who mind swapped with Tony Stark) and the Doctor Doom from Secret Wars. The MCU was always headed toward Secret Wars, and toward the end of that story, Doom assumed the Beyonder’s powers and ruled Battleworld. The MCU probably intended an homage to the source material with a quick look at an alternate Doom (perhaps Downey), much like the alternate Reed Richards (John Krasinski) in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Kang was the original big bad for the MCU’s Secret Wars, but Majors’ legal troubles thrusted Doom to the forefront. Will it work? I’m unsure. We’ll have to wait and see. A Downey Doom would’ve worked better as a cameo or teaser for the next leg of the Fantastic Four’s story. But the MCU is trying to salvage what’s left of the Multiverse Saga. I guess it’s worth a shot, but this reeks of desperation and hitting the nostalgia button. Remember when RDJ was in Avengers movies? Here he is again. Wait. We haven’t had an Avengers movie without RDJ yet. He’s got to maintain his Avengers streak.

Fantastic Four and X-Men

The MCU is barreling toward the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. These two teams will feature heavily in the upcoming MCU. That’s a great thing and a bad thing. The MCU already has a bloated roster and now it’s adding two massive teams. These two teams could delay the third film of major MCU characters.

Going back to my point that the MCU should return to a tighter character roster, the three main Avengers during the Infinity Saga had a small window for their film trilogies. Cap’s original trilogy took five years in total. Iron Man’s also took five years. And Thor’s original trilogy took six years. Six years passed between Doctor Strange and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Strange continues to wait for the third movie in his trilogy. That’s way too long. There’s also the aforementioned Shang-Chi and his five year wait for a second film. And is Captain Marvel getting a third movie? Rewatching older films in a film series becomes part of an MCU movie’s homework.

What were talking about? Deadpool. Right.

Deadpool needed eight years to conclude its trilogy. That’s impressive considering that Fox was bought out between the second and third films. A tighter release window for movies in a series and a smaller cast of recurring characters are the lessons Disney/Marvel should take from Deadpool and Wolverine’s success. That and R rated films can rake in money. We’ll have to see which lessons the MCU takes to heart.

That’s all I have for now. Let me know your thoughts on what the MCU should do going forward. See you soon. Bye, bye, bye.

~ Kyra

 

Tile Placement Starter Games

Getting Started with Tile Placement Games

Published on by Kyra1 Comment

Hi, everybody. Kyra’s back with another older write-up that never got posted. This week’s post is a beginner tabletop games. I may add a game or two because there have been countless games that have been published in the six or so years since this write-up was written, but so many people cover newer games. Let’s stick with the older games.

Today we’ll cover tile placement games. A tile placement game is one where players lay or place tiles in groups or patterns to achieve various effects. Usually, but not always, where players lay their tiles will earn them victory points (or just points) needed to win the game.

Okay. The boring part’s over. Let’s get to the games.

Kingdomino

Kingdomino and not its sister game Queendomino makes this list because Kingdomino is more streamlined and easier to learn. It’s not that Queendomino is all that more difficult to play. If you know how to play Kingdomino, it’s easy to learn how to play Queendomino and progressing from King to Queendomino works with my idea of learning tabletop games with a scaffolding approach. One game that builds on another.

Anyway, in Kingdomino players take on the role of a lord or lady as they try to gain the most land—or the most value tracts of land—by collecting dominos. The dominos in question have numbers on their back denoting how valuable they are and two sections of landscapes on the front (that can be forests, deserts, mines, wastelands, or swamps). Dominos equal to the number of lords or ladies (the players pawns) are placed in number order with the lowest number on top and players take turns selecting dominos and placing them in their kingdom.

I won’t go into much more detail with how Kingdomino balances who picks first each turn, but it’s well done (as one can expect from designer Bruno Cathala). Instead, let’s focus on the tile placement aspect. Players start with a 1×1 tile, their castle tile. All the dominos are 2×1 tiles and when they’re claimed and added to a player’s kingdom, they must share a side with a section of land that shares their type (forests with forests, deserts with deserts and so on); castle tiles count as all land types. Players also can’t exceed a 5×5 kingdom, but their castle doesn’t have to be in their kingdom’s center.

This all makes for some interesting maneuvering, but the scoring mechanism further complicates tile placement. Players count their scores for each region they have in their kingdom. A region is every continuous area of the same land type and there can be more than one region for a land type. Someone could have a forest region of five and another forest region of three. For each of these regions multiply the number of spaces by the region’s number of crowns. Pictures of crowns show up, usually, in higher value tiles. If the forest region with five space has one crown, it’s worth five points, but if there are two crowns in the five-space forest region, it’s worth 10. A region with no crowns yields no points, no matter how big it is, so it’s ideal to get at least one crown in each region.

Kingdomino received the 2017 Spiel des Jahres; it deserved the game of the year.

Tsuro

I know I’ve included Tsuro in a previous starter games list (route/network building games), but Tsuro pulls double duty as a great starter tile placement game. Each player has a pawn and their pawns begin the game on the edge of the board (a 6×6 grid). On a player’s turn, they place a tile from their hand—these tiles will have paths on them—on the board continuing the path (or route) their pawn is taking. As soon as a new tile is placed, the player moves their pawn further on the path. The aim is to be the last player with their token on the board.

Players are not only building a route or network in Tsuro, they’re placing tiles to do so, and this simple, elegant game makes for a great introduction to both game mechanisms.

Patchwork

Patchwork remains one of my go to two-player only games to teach people. Sure, the designer Uwe Rosenberg has plenty of games the reimplement the same game mechanisms as Patchwork and other designers have followed suit, but the original Tetris-like tabletop competitive game about making a quilt retains its power.

On a turn, players may spend buttons to buy one of three available polyomino tiles (that are patches shaped like a Tetris piece) and add it to their quilt or pass. It takes time to stitch new patches into a quilt, so players will move their time token closer to the center and when a player’s time token reaches the center, they may take a final turn and the game ends.

There are a few more rules to Patchwork, but it’s a simple, streamlined game that works well with its theme. Who’d think that making a quilt would make a great game? Patchwork’s simplicity masks deep strategies. Do you go for larger patches for more points, but leaving you fewer options with which to place future tiles, or do you go for slow and steady points throughout the game, making sure you fill up as many spaces as possible? The options are endless.

I had to include a polyomino tile placement game on this list. Patchwork may not be as hot of a game as it once was and other games may have taken its place (Bärenpark and even Rosenberg’s own Cottage Garden and A Feast for Odin have even taken Patchwork’s place) for a lot of gamers, but it’s still a great starter tile placement game.

Azul

Azul is another game that I included in a previous list of great starter games (Card Drafting Games), but it works for tile laying as well. In fact, Azul’s theme is tile laying a Portuguese wall. Players draw tiles from a bag and four of them are placed on 7 cardboard discs that are accessible to each player. Then, players take turns claiming similar tiles on each disc and adding them to their player boards (that represent the walls the players are tiling). Each board has the same wall pattern and the player to finish a row of tiles initiates the game’s end.

Again, Azul can be classified as card (or tile) drafting and that’s a core ingredient to the game as well as set collection and chain effects, but the combination found is Azul is so unique for a tile placement game that I had to include it on this list.

Chomp

This is the newest game of the list and the only one I added to the original post. I played Chomp a week ago for the first time. Chomp refers to the 2023 Allplay title, not the 2000 food chain card game Chomp! from Gamewright. In Chomp (without the exclamation point), players build a dinosaur biome by laying tiles with dinos, plants, tar pits, and other things you may find in the age of the dinosaurs.

Players must build their land so that herbivores have plants to eat, and carnivores have herbivores their size that they can eat. Dinos of the same type that are placed adjacent to other dinos of their type form a herd. Players can chain as many of these dinos together as they can to form massive herds and potentially earn big points.

Any dinos placed next to tar pits automatically die at the end of nine rounds (I played with 3-players, there may be more or fewer rounds at different player counts), so be careful where you place tar pits. But you may want your dinos to perish. Each tile is double-sided. One side depicts the land you’re placing, while the other gives the player a scoring option. Each game, players must balance whether they want to play or score the tile they pick up that round. Such a great twist.

Final Thoughts

We had a couple more games in this starter board game list than usual, so I hope there’s something here you’ll enjoy.

Know of any other great beginner tile placement games? Are there any games on this list you disagree with? You can place your suggestions and complaints in the comments.

3 Lists of 3: Video Games as Art

Published on by Kyra2 Comments

This 3 Lists of 3 article was written years ago and never posted. I’m unsure why. I decided to edit it a bit before posting. There’s even a link to an old Flash game I included that I had to check and see if it still works. It does. Yay!

Younger Kyra may sound a little different than current day Kyra. Hopefully, this still holds up. If it doesn’t, new content is on its way. Take it away, younger Kyra.

The argument of video games as art has raged for a few decades now, and I’m not sure it’ll end any time soon. Many of you have your own opinion and can’t be swayed one way or another and a little writeup won’t change your mind. Others don’t care if video games are art. But it is something that’s found its way in higher courts of the United States because of video games’ status as freedom of speech, so maybe video games as art is a valid discussion.

I’m unsure. To be fair, I’m unsure of most things but let’s break down the argument against video games as art (to show a counter point) with the first list before going into the next two lists that’ll suggest video games are art. I’ll try to be as fair as I can, but I do stand with one side. Oh well, let’s get to the lists.


1) Arguments Against Video Games as Art


Roger Ebert

Bear with me, folks. This first one will be a long one. Video games as art never had a more adamant opponent than Roger Ebert. Ebert became an unlikely adversary and may never have voiced his opinions on the topic if he wasn’t asked about his thoughts on the video game Doom after he gave the film Doom one star. When asked if Doom received that low of a score because it was based on a video game, Ebert fired back.

“To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a (video) game worthy of comparison with the dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers. That a game can aspire to artistic importance as a visual experience, I accept. But for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized, and empathetic.”

The above statement by Ebert doesn’t make any specific points against video games as art. Essentially, it claims that video games aren’t art because they’re a waste of time. It’s telling that Ebert sandwiched filmmakers in the middle of his group of valid artists, so that the medium he dedicated most of his life to wouldn’t be put under the microscope again (there were plenty of people who pushed back against films as art), but Ebert did say once that “hardly any movies are art,” so his reluctance to add video games to art’s canon is consistent. Regardless, Ebert’s major point during a panel discussion a year later in 2006’s “An Epic Debate: Are Video Games an Art Form?” was salient.

Too Malleable to be Art

In a 2006 debate, Ebert claimed that video games were too malleable to be considered art. He posed the idea of a video game version of Romeo and Juliet where players could pick a happy ending. That would ruin the original artist’s vision. For art to exist, an artist’s vision must remain intact, so I’d agree with this. He made an obvious choice with Romeo and Juliet. A happy ending would be terrible. But there are a couple of issues with this point.

First, nothing prevents a movie company from making a Romeo and Juliet film with a happy ending; one may already exist. Second, changing a Shakespeare tragedy so that it has a happy ending is an extreme example and one based on a story that exists outside of video games. Video game stories provide options for players and there’s a case for any of those options as the original artist’s vision.

Like Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch, video game directors can create multiple endings, each as valid as the next (which may be debatable at times). Games have player choice, but many of the better ones have the illusion of choice like Life is Strange or Telltale’s The Walking Dead Season One. There are ways to eschew Ebert’s claim that video games can’t retain a director’s original vision. Still, it’s an interesting position and one with merit.

They’re Objective Based

Ebert’s next thought-provoking claim came in a 2010 essay. “One obvious difference between art and games is that you can win a game. It has rules, points, objectives, and an outcome.” This one is more difficult to call into question. Plenty of people in the video game industry reject the idea of video games as art because they’re objective based. The next year, Brian Moriarty (of “Wishbringer” and “Loom” fame) gave a lecture entitled “An Apology for Roger Ebert.” Moriarty agreed with Ebert and expanded Ebert’s argument with making video games an extension of traditional rule-based games and that there has been no call to declare games like Chess and Go to be art.

Phew! Again, that point is difficult to argue. There must be some objective that drive art, even if it’s subconscious. To paraphrase Ebert, art makes us more cultured, civilized, and empathetic. Perhaps one of these, specifically the one that fosters empathy or seeing the world from another’s perspective, is an objective.

There are even some video games that try and promote empathy, and not all video games have clearly defined objectives. Thatgamecompany, which will show up again, has produced a few games that fit in this category.

I’ll paraphrase Ebert once more and say that hardly any video games that I play are art; most of the games I play are just fun. But some of the following games might qualify as art.

2) Games

Braid

 It’s difficult to cover any of these games without getting into major spoilers, so consider this your first of many spoiler warnings.

Braid has been out for some time, so a few of you may already know what’s in the offing. Braid begins like a typical Super Mario Bros. game. The princess is captured by a monster, and you must rescue her, but Braid uses this trope to throw off gamers. Once you rescue the princess, you realize that she’s been running away from you the entire game and that you were the monster. Braid does a great job of showing that perspective is everything. A villain never believes they’re in the wrong. Everyone is the hero of their own story, but others may not view you as heroic.

Shadow of the Colossus could’ve taken this spot for similar reasons, but so many people include Shadow of the Colossus on lists like this, and I wanted to be different. How long do you think it took me to realize that I just included it on this list anyway? Drat. Everyone thinks they’re the hero of their own writeup.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Shock: more spoilers. Huge spoilers!

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons centers on two brothers. Players control the younger brother with the left analog stick and the older brother with the right analog stick. That distinction comes in handy when at some point the older brother dies. Players have spent plenty of time using both analog sticks and suddenly the right one does nothing. It’s gone.

Just like the younger brother losing his sibling, the physical reminder that the right analog stick doesn’t work haunts gamers. There are plenty of moments when gamers want to use the right stick but can’t. It’s a visceral feeling of loss, but that changes when the younger brother encounters a flooding river. The younger brother can’t swim and then he hears the voice of his older brother urging him to try. At this point, the right stick becomes active again and the younger brother can continue. It’s a beautiful moment, and I’m sorry if I ruined it for you by spoiling it, but I said spoilers twice. I’ll take partial blame.

Loneliness

This next one, Loneliness, is short—really short, like five minutes to play the entire thing short—and you can play it right now because it’s a web game.

https://www.necessarygames.com/my-games/loneliness/flash

I’ll wait for you to play it, because I know some of you just skipped right over the link. Here’s the link again. It’s well worth the less than five minutes to play. Trust me.

https://www.necessarygames.com/my-games/loneliness/flash

Alright. That’s long enough. Loneliness does an excellent job of portraying its namesake. It reveals as much about the player as it does the subject matter. Some players will move their square toward the other ones entering the screen. Others like me will move their square away from the other ones, thinking they’ll harm them. At some point, I began moving my square toward the others just to see what might happen if the squares touch. It doesn’t take long to see that the other squares will move away and disappear from the player’s square, leaving them alone. Isolated.

Older Kyra here. This is the Flash game I mentioned at the beginning of this write-up. Years ago (circa 2017 or so), the designer left players who finished the game with the following statement:

“Children and adolescents in Korea are the least satisfied with their lives among 26 member countries of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). Many report loneliness as a major factor. I taught those kids for a year. This notgame was made for them. And for anyone who has ever felt lonely.”

The squares are inanimate objects and the game simple, but few who play this game will leave it without a sense of loneliness. Loneliness is one of many empathy games, and the empathy video game subgenre is a great argument for video games as art.

 3) Game Companies

Thatgamecompany

Kellee Santiago challenged Roger Ebert’s 2010 essay on multiple occasions and for good reason. Her company, Thatgamecompany, has several games that could be viewed as art. Each one grows on the ideas set by the previous one. Gameplay and creative vision leap from Flow to Flower to Journey. We’re headed for major spoilers for all three games, especially Journey. You’ve been warned.

Flow has players guide a small, multi-segmented worm through an aquatic environment. The game doesn’t have menus. As soon as you load the game, it goes straight to a top-down world where multiple planes are stacked atop each other. The player may choose to have their worm-like creature eat other organisms to go down a plane, but it isn’t necessary. Most creatures one’s worm encounters are non-confrontational, so like Loneliness, the way a player chooses to play Flow reveals something about them.

Flower does something similar with flower petals. Each of Flower’s six main levels focuses on one of the flower’s dream. The player controls the wind as it sends the petals off a city apartment windowsill and across the countryside. There are no enemies, hit points, or time limits. Flower plays like a video game version of Fantasia, where the music and visuals tell a story with speaking no words. It does what designer Jenova Chen intended: create a game that’s intended to arouse positive emotions.

Journey is the perfect name for Thatgamecompany’s third outing. It’s a journey of sound (with its brilliant score). It’s a journey of discovery. It’s a journey of emotions. Players begin the game by flying with their magical scarves until they land abruptly. The gamer may believe they’ve done something wrong. The game doesn’t take you by the hand and tell you what to do, but that’s the way the designer intended the story to go. The world turns dark, then cold, until your magic scarf shrivels. You’re alone, but you’re not alone. Others are there if you need them and that uplifting message—again, without saying much of anything—leads Journey toward the empathy game subgenre and on several critic’s lists for greatest video games of all time.

Giant Sparrow

Giant Sparrow hasn’t been around as long as Thatgamecompany, but their two major releases are just as worthy for inclusion on this list: The Unfinished Swan and What Remains of Edith Finch. Again, there will be spoilers.

The Unfinished Swan centers on a young boy Monroe whose mother has recently died. Monroe’s mother was a painter who was known for never finishing a painting and having over 300 incomplete works. Monroe’s orphanage tells him he can only keep one of his mother’s paintings; he chooses her favorite, a painting of a swan missing its neck. One night, the swan escapes its painting, and Monroe chases it across a mysterious painted world. The Unfinished Swan deals with acceptance. Monroe chases the memory of his mother until he sees his mother in himself and knows that she carries on through him. Eventually, Monroe earns his mother’s magical silver paintbrush and he finishes his mother’s painting and adds a pair of baby swans.

What Remains of Edith Finch also deals with loss and acceptance of that loss, but it tackles the subject in a very different manner. In the present, the player-character, which (spoilers) turns out to be Christopher Finch who is Edith Finch’s son, takes a ferry to Orcas Island off the coast of Washington state with the journal of Edith Finch in tow. The journal reveals that the Finch family is under a curse going back at least five generations with all but one child of each generation dying from unusual causes, leaving a sole child to continue the family. The Finch homestead never repurposes any one room. When a family member dies, their bedroom becomes a shrine. Each room builds or plays off the other in an anthology of remembered catastrophes, resulting in a tale that’s equal parts Twilight Zone and One Hundred Years of Solitude and neither at the same time. What Remains of Edith Finch, like many other games on these lists, isn’t long, but the images and story last much longer than its playtime.

Dontnod

Dontnod—or Don’t Nod or even DONTИOD—owes its inclusion on this list for its Life is Strange series of games. It’s yet to be seen if they’ll build more franchises off the success of this title, but Life is Strange is a great character-driven game that does multiple endings well.

Life is Strange is set in the fictional town of Arcadia Bay, Oregon and follows Maxine “Max” Caulfield as she navigates the twelfth grade at Blackwell Academy (an art-centric high school). The town of Arcadia Bay is doomed to experience a tornado in the future, which Max catches a glimpse of in photography class, but Max can use her newly developed ability of rewinding time to change the future. Life is Strange delves into bullying, abuse, memory, and identity. Unlike many other triple A video games, the bulk of Life is Strange’s budget went toward writing and voice actors, and it shows.

There are only two possible endings and the best way to describe them is choosing the least objectionable option of the two, but like most things in life, that choice is subjective and whichever one the player chooses reveals something about the player. Both end-game choices are valid and stay true to the designer’s vision.

Conclusion?


Older Kyra is here again. While revisiting this article, I may have unearthed the three reasons why I never posted this 3 Lists of 3 several years ago. One, it’s a long post. Two, young Kyra even said that this article wouldn’t change people’s perspectives; you’re in one camp or the other. Three, some could say that it paints Roger Ebert in a bad light. Perhaps. I have a lot of respect for Ebert. Was he perfect? No. No one is. I’m sure many of you spotted plenty of flaws in my arguments and the occasional typo or three or nine thousand. They’re over nine thousand!

Ultimately, art is subjective. Art changes over time. Some of these games weren’t available during Ebert’s lifetime. Others were ones Ebert wouldn’t have known. I’m still tickled that he placed “filmmakers” in the middle of his “real artists” list. I see what you did there, Ebert. Tee hee!


I’m sure I missed more than a few things, or you’ll see things differently. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.