Happy Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. Pumpkin pie, turkey, cranberry sauce, and more pie… it’s wonderful. No cooking for days afterwards, and you get pumpkin pie. (I like pumpkin pie.)

On a more entertainment-centered note, this and the Super Bowl are the only two times I watch football. I’m rooting for the Seahawks in their game against the 49ers today.

Also on TV is A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I’m definitely recommending, if you haven’t ever watched it before (or even if you have!) that you watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. It’s cute, family friendly, and only thirty minutes long. I always love watching this. Plus, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like Charlie Brown.

Another option in our family is The Princess Bride. Why, I don’t know. It’s not especially Thanksgiving-ish. Of course, James Bond, Narnia, and Lord of the Rings have also made it onto the TV in years past. Depends on who’s hosting dinner.

Short post, I know. But I’m wanting to get back to football and pie. What Thanksgiving traditions do you have?

Video Game Wednesdays – Minecraft

Video Game Wednesdays criteria include a) being electronic in nature and b) being a game

I love Minecraft. I’ve won contests building stuff in Minecraft. And I’ve never written about it here on EftM.

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In a nutshell, Minecraft is a sandbox survival game that involves building, harvesting, fighting, and mining. Lots and lots of mining.

Top – Starting out. Bottom – after collecting a few basic supplies.
The player appearance is my custom skin. The default skin isn’t nearly as cool.

With each new game (PC/Mac version), you’re dumped somewhere in a gigantic world (and by gigantic I mean you’ll never find the edges in a survival world) and forced to… well, survive. You’ll punch some trees for wood, kill some nearby animals for food, build a workbench, make your first wooden pick… and get to mining for stone and coal. Later, you’ll look for iron, gold, redstone, emeralds, and DIAMONDS. Somewhere in here, you’ll build a house (probably more like a dirt shack at first) with a bed, chests, a workbench and furnaces. You’ll pen up some animals, settle down, begin farming. You’ll keep the zombies out of your house and away from any local villages. You’ll probably get blown up by a creeper at least once, maybe fall into a ravine, maybe starve to death. But that’s okay! You’ll respawn at either the bed you last slept in or your original world spawn if you don’t have a bed in the world. (Unless you’re on Hardcore mode… then you’re dead permanently.) If you’ve played a bunch of games, and have gotten a little bored, there’s always different map types to play. Superflat is my personal favorite. There, you have no hills, no mining, no trees… just you and a giant expanse of grass.

Meet your new not!friend – the Creeper.

Finding and protecting villages becomes the most important thing to do. Or if running for your life isn’t your thing, there’s always good ol’ creative mode. Every block in the game, instant mining, and flight… build whatever you want, out of whatever you want.

And for those of you with an Xbox, Playstation, or just a tablet or phone, there are versions of Minecraft for those too.

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In the end, Minecraft is one of my favorite games. It’s happy, fun, and customizable. If you don’t like your player skin, you can look at places such as Skindex for a skin to use. (Those with computer graphics skills may choose to create their own skin from the provided template on the Minecraft website, like I did.) If you don’t like the graphics, check out Minecraft Resource Packs. (Again, those with graphics ability may choose to make their own. I like the original graphics, personally.) If you get really bored with the game, you can always mod it! (Yes, the creators are totally okay with this, as games are individual or individually-owned servers!)

The only bad thing is there’s very little way to try the game before you pay $27 USD for the computer version. Other than that, it’s a fun game for families (if you buy a copy for each person) to play together. I’d recommend it for 6 and up. There’s no blood, no profanity (no dialogue at all, actually,) and it’s pretty easy to learn and play.

The only crummy parts come with servers… chat is open there, and people do use profanity. Of course, giant group servers are totally optional, and you can always turn chat off.

In conclusion, just two more links – the Minecraft Wiki and the official Minecraft site.

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Have fun gaming!

Friday Evenings – Fluxx (Card Game)

Friday Evenings criteria include a) play or watchability, and b) fun for all ages!

 

Fluxx is a card game created by Andrew Looney and published by Looney Labs. It’s called Fluxx because… well, the rules are constantly in flux throughout the game.

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However, this sounds far more complicated than it actually is. In Fluxx, there are five types of cards in the core game – New Rule, Action, Keeper, Creeper, and Goal cards. There’s also the Basic Rules card, which is placed in the center at the beginning of the game. Gameplay is simple – on your turn, you draw one card, and you play one card. Of course, the rules will start changing fairly quickly. However, gameplay is still fairly easy – generally, it’s just draw and play cards. Expansions and different versions will change the game in different ways, but the general idea is the same.

A quick overview of the card types and their usage:

New Rule cards are just that – they add a rule to the game. Some of these are Draw 3, Play All, Reverse Order… fairly typical stuff. However, a few of the new rules are a little wacky, especially in different versions. (I have Pirate Fluxx. One of the New Rule cards states that if you talk like a pirate, you get to draw one extra card. If you keep it up for two or more turns, you can draw two extra cards.)

Action cards allow one-time actions, such as removing a rule or stealing cards. Examples include Rules Reset (resetting the game back to the Basic Rules of draw one, play one,) and Draw 2 and use ’em.

Keeper cards are used to meet the end goal. Examples include Bread, Chocolate, Dreams, and Toaster.

Creeper cards prevent the player from winning unless the goal or a new rule states otherwise. (In Pirate Fluxx, Shackles is one of these.)

Goal cards state the current requirements to win. For example, the goal Squishy Chocolate requires a player to have both the Chocolate and The Sun keepers in front of them. Usually, only one goal is in play at once, unless the rule Double Agenda is in play – then two goals are active at once. Goals change just like the rules, so keep an open mind to changing strategies.

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There are multiple versions of Fluxx. There’s the original version (this one), Pirate Fluxx (which I have), Star Fluxx, Zombie Fluxx, Cthulhu Fluxx, Monty Python Fluxx… the list goes on. The best part? Some of the packs can be combined with the base game to create a “Mega-Fluxx” game, as the card backs are the same. That’s right, you can have a Pirate Zombie Monty Python Fluxx game.

I’d recommend Fluxx for ages 9 and up due to the ever-changing rules and goals requiring quite a bit of strategy. Games can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how the rules and goals play out.

Have fun this evening!