Gameblog

Category: Outside world

  • Essen

    Since two people have already asked: no, I’m not going to Essen this year. I won’t be going to Essen before I get a steady job, which at the moment seems to be quite far in the future. Even then, there’s my son to consider, and it’s likely I won’t go to Essen again until…

  • More celebration

    It’s official now: as of yesterday, it’s Mikko Saari, M. Soc. Sc.; that is, I’ve graduated from university. In States, that would probably be MA, MSIS (Master of Science in Information Studies) or MLIS (Master of Library and Information Studies) or something like that. In Finland, information studies is part of social sciences. Anyway, it’s…

  • The Apples Project

    Mark Jackson has resurrected The Apples Project for a new run after a four-year break (here’s the original Apples Project). The idea is to get a group of experienced gamers to list their favourite games in certain genres or by certain designers. That is, to compare apples to apples (as opposed to comparing wildly different…

  • Living with a baby

    I’m keeping my personal life out of this blog most of the time, but now I can’t help myself: it’s been fun living with a baby! Nooa is a sweet boy. He’s a month and a day old today, and already starting to smile at us and support his head all by himself. Soon he’ll…

  • I’m the Geek of the Week

    Doug Adams was rather kind and chose me as his successor for the coveted Geek of the Week title. This is your chance to ask me the question you’ve always wanted to ask. Just visit my Geek of the Week thread. Thanks Doug!

  • It’s a boy!

    My son was born today, just seven minutes past midnight. He’s small, cute and seems to enjoy sleeping quite a lot. I don’t know what to say, it was simply an amazing experience seeing the birth and the first few moments, my son and his mother together. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

  • Eurovision Song Contest: Lordi rules!

    39 years of being a loser, now it’s over! Lordi came, saw and conquered! A crushing defeat for everybody else! Lordi wins the song contest with the highest score ever! Finland goes crazy — I don’t think there’s ever been a single moment when this many Finnish blogs have been updated, for example. To understand…

  • Essence of Euro-style games

    Lewis Pulsipher’s article The Essence of Euro-style Games was published in The Game Journal. It describes what makes Euro games, particularly in opposition to war games. I don’t think the article is that great — there’s little new in it — but it had one interesting point: Euro games are very pacific. At PowWow04 Stephen…

  • Finnish reviews: Antike, Louis XIV, Around the World in 80 Days, In the Shadow of the Emperor

    I’ve written few reviews recently. These are all in Finnish, I’ll write the English reviews here at some point: Antike, Around the World in 80 Days, In the Shadow of the Emperor, Louis XIV. Has anybody who doesn’t understand Finnish actually checked any of my Finnish reviews? Like, could I just claim to write like…

  • Travian

    I’m somewhat hooked on Travian. It’s a German multi-user online game you can play using just a browser. Let’s see if it sounds familiar: players farm their hexagon-shaped fields, producing a variety of resources: wood, bricks, iron and wheat. These are used to build new buildings and improve the fields, but also to create units…