Inside the recesses of my brain

A couple fun things in this month’s “random” edition of the newsletter (as opposed to the very focused Pursuit of Play which never pursues strange tangents ever):

• Playtesting a new project
• Some links, since I haven’t dropped any on you yet this year

Oldies But Goodies

Want a sneak peak at a project I’ve been working on? OK, let me tell you about Oldies But Goodies - the used bookstore scavenger hunt game.

The idea started to germinate last summer when I found myself stopping into a used bookstore in almost every city I visited. I’ve got nothing against non-used bookstores - I found myself popping into those too - but used bookstores are more distinct. They’re nearly all independent stores rather than chain stores, and as such they don’t tend to have a repeatable formula for their spaces. Of the three that immediately come to mind from last summer, one was massive, one was mysterious, and one had cats.

Going to a bookstore is also an exercise in serendipity that online bookbuying has never been able to totally recreate - the sensory experience of seeing all the different books and the thematic organization of them means that you see things you won’t expect. This is true in all bookstores, but it’s inherent to the model of used bookstores that you never know what you’re going to find; their inventory depends on what they can find on the secondhand market so it’s both less likely that you’ll find the latest bestseller and more likely that you’ll find something that’s been out of print for years. I found that I lost track of time while I was in these stores and had strong memories associated with the different books I was finding. I was separated from a good bit of my money every time, and - you know - no regrets.

And the wheels were turning on a game. What if you could go on that sensory, memorial experience with someone else? Would it be fun to find books together and talk about why those books were meaningful to you? I suspected that for people who enjoy the world of books, the answer would be a definitive yes.

After writing a quick sketch of the idea, I left it alone to see if it would stick in my brain and keep demanding attention…which it did, but mostly in a polite way that didn’t really ask too much of me. I started to write up some categories, came up with a few rules that would make it more game-like.

And then I realized that I might just have an opportunity to do a first playtest thanks to an extended layover in Toronto, home of my dear friend and fellow bookstore lover Tolu. So I messaged her and said, “hey, want to do this thing when I’m in town? And if so, do you think you can round up some friends?” And on both counts, she did!

So it was that this past weekend, we tested out Oldies But Goodies (working title…though my friend Mehdi came through with a solid recommendation to change the name to Read Me Like A Book). The main point of this first test was just: is it even fun? Is this a thing that people actually enjoy doing? Without saying too much, we passed the first test with flying colors. The testers had a bunch of great ideas for how to improve the game, but the core mechanic of the game is: draw cards that have categories of books you need to find, go with your partner to find them. All of the categories are subjective, to encourage discussion - so, rather than “find a book that was made into a movie or TV show” we have “find a book that was made into a movie or TV show, but shouldn’t have been.”

I’m going to keep tweaking OBG (or RMLAB?), but in the meantime if you’re curious about the game find the instructions and the card deck below. If you want, you could organize a playtest of the game yourself…and if you do, drop me a line to let me know! I’m eyeing up my next playtest which will introduce at least 1 new round of play into the game.

• Instructions
• Cards

A few links

• Personally, I’m not crazy about cozy games, but if a reputable news agency decides that the best way to write an explainer about cozy games is to create a cozy game and embed the story in it? Well, I’m all about that. Check out how Reuters did it.
• On the other hand, I do love a bit of clever nostalgia. DOOM: The Gallery Experience emphatically checks that box.
• On the other other hand, I was super ready for some nostalgia when I clicked through to the Flash Museum, and then I was disappointed, and then I realized that the reason I was disappointed was a good reason: it’s really difficult to find my old favorite games because there are just so many games in the Flash Museum because it was so easy to make games in Flash. I guess I’ll have to let that random Space Ghost game live in posterity.
  • Nvm. The Internet Archive comes through.
• The origin story of scratch off lottery tickets turns out to be a lot more interesting than you might have thought…and, at least for me, also a lot more recent. I file stories like this as “the dark side of play,” right up there with this current season of Against the Rules, ie when playful dynamics are used to manipulate our behavior in ways that cause us harm. Lotteries at least ostensibly provide some sort of public benefit from their proceeds - unlike sports betting apps - but it seems pretty clear that it’s a regressive tax.
• But don’t worry about organized crime - even as the legalization of some of their core business upends their model, they’ll find new opportunities. I think the organized crime aspect is a little overplayed here, but using scanners to find rare trading cards is going to mess with the legitimate business of collecting.

We’re headed to London next week for the European International Championships of the Pokemon TCG, so Pursuit of Play will be back soon. You all can anticipate that I’m going to play a bit of a weird deck, but Nerd Notes subscribers already know the specific brand of weird I’ll be working with. If you want to get the inside scoop as well as even more randomness from inside my brain, sign up for Nerd Notes.