h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What a good idea. A games for a rainy day page!

I'm not a gamer. My avoidance of conflict includes all sports and virtually every game known to man. OK, so maybe I do get off on autosports and will never say no to Scrabble, but that's it.

My point being that most computer games are alien to me. I tried 'pong' when it first came out in the early 80s but soon grew very bored. The controls were sloppy and imprecise and even if one mastered the subtleties the game itself was essentially plane geometry. Unlike real ping pong or tennis which have 3 dimensions video pong was as predicably two dimensional as pool or snooker which at least offer some tactile feedback, good company and usually a few beers.

So I can't really express an opinion on the links you have chosen and must assume, on the basis of your credibility, that they are a worthy selection. With that in mind I can make no criticism and only offer a further suggestion:

There are a few game threads here at h2g2 I have participated in from time to time, 'haiku challenge', the song titles thread (now called 'back again' on Orcus' page) and the Quiz That Is thread I started. There are a few others; so I'm thinking maybe a paragraph with links to some of these h2g2 game threads could be added.

But my real reaction to this is that it contains so much, so many links, that it'd be a real shame to blow it all in one shot. I'd rather you added a few of these links to each issue. Think of AggGag as a separate and independent magazine inserted in the Post. And think of your weekly input to AggGag being a column on games.

If you break this page up into six or seven shorter articles, each having several links, we can run it as a regularly featured part of each weeks issue. You are already six or seven weeks ahead.

Maybe we could start with one full 'games for a rainy day' issue, entirely by you, and featuring some of the links above. It would be a way to announce the ongoing feature of a few games every week.

~j~

Wow. I won't be able to finish that by my 4 AM deadline, but I like the idea. Makes more sense then a massive list of things. Too many links means people might ignore some or all of them.

I'll try to pick out the best few I've found so far and write intros for them. Those word games and quizzes on h2g2 are something I definitely wanted to spotlight also.

So I need to find:
1. Haiku Challenge
2. song something-or-other on Orcus' page
3. Quiz That Is

Any others you recall?

Re: computer games. None mentioned on the list so far. In fact, I thought about limiting this to board games, card games, word games, role-playing games -- no video games or computer games. I'm not sure why this restriction occurs to me, because there are some computer games I enjoy, but they get enough attention elsewhere, why shower more attention on them? However, when I posted a message on "Ask h2g2" for people to tell me about their game-related articles, I got a pretty good one about a computer game, so I don't really want to exclude him now.

I'll keep working on this, break it up into one full AGG/GAG and a list of future possibles.

Thanks for the suggestion!

To all Popeye-chucklers:
I played around with the "usual suspects" descriptions for this one. Please tell me if you have a better game-related description you'd like attached to this, or if you can think of a better description for your cohorts. (I'm especially proud of "THIRDGIRL took her ball and went home." Does that sound derogatory? It's not meant to be.)

YSL is Yves St. Laurent, who, if I remember correctly, just shut down his couture shop to retire...
A little Vogue humour...
for the Sloan Rangers...

>> A little Vogue humour...<< "Yves St Laurent retires"? That's why I laff whenever tonsil accuses anyone else of being obscure. Deidzoeb, I shoulda put in links for those h2g2 threads but I wasn't sure you'd want to follow up on them. Your page was already loaded with so many links it scared me off quite honestly. A link overdose. That's why I suggested spreading it out over the weeks. By now you've probably gone to the effort of searching but just in case here are: The Quiz That Is - http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F51431?thread=138209 Greebo's Daily Quiz - http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A416783 Back Again (the song titles thread)- http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F25868?thread=100636 Haiku Challenge - http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F55816?thread=93649 New Game Anyone (Limericks) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F28000?thread=100719 There is also a very clever 'Questions only' thread to which I am not subscribed and can't find at the moment, and of course the entire 'Ask the H2G2 Community' Forum is full of games and tricksters and knotty questions. I'll check out your page again shortly. Glad you like the idea of a weekly follow-up to the 'games for a rainy day' issue. You could write an intro for each week or just create a generic 'weekly' intro and we'll plug in a short list from your longer one. peace jwf

And yes the Thirdgirl joke is the funniest one!
Because it's true. Leave it in.
~j~

It was words like 'role playing' and 'Viper' and 'wargamer' and 'ship on the edge of...' that gave me the first, and now I understand, 'mistaken' impression these were all computer game links. My apologies. It was late in the day of a hot and smokey summer's eve and my brain was sliding by on autopilot. I did not look closely enough at what else you had gathered. And that I feared would be the reaction of others - too many choices leads to options paralysis.

It really is a tremendous and comprehensive effort on your part and bits of it look really interesting, places on h2g2 I haven't been before.
But it's still too long and too much for my tired old brain to handle at a single sitting. And my impulse is still to see it broken up into a weekly feature. One which, if grouped and chosen carefully will produce some regular readership. It's just a question of organising it into easy-to-understand categories and adding a few more links each week.

Or, better still maybe, you could maintain this whole thing as a separate page - the Games for a Rainy Day page - and just have a weekly link to it in the AggGag column with a mention of updates or new features and a promise that all the 'old stuff' is still there and accessible. Like a 'toy box' people can come back to.


~jwf~

"...you could maintain this whole thing as a separate page - the Games for a Rainy Day page - and just have a weekly link to it in the AggGag column with a mention of updates or new features and a promise that all the 'old stuff' is still there and accessible. Like a 'toy box' people can come back to."

This sounds good. Originally I started picking some entries because they were good, but adding some just to make a comprehensive list of games and gaming-related articles. This way I could give one really good one each week, then a link back to the AGG/GAG Games for a Rainy Day page to see more of those kinds of games.

There's already a "Game Room" on h2g2, but this consists of four or five links to games in h2g2, and several outside links to role-playing games. So this little games hub does not seem to be duplicating anyone else's effort.

>> ...does not seem to be duplicating anyone else's effort.<<

Be it ever so humble there is nothing more pleasing than a modest man. God bless 'ee my friend you deserve much credit and applause for what I call a damn clever idea and some hard researching and linking!

So are we agreed it should be a weekly feature?

Can you write me a bit for #31 then. Introduce the general idea of the 'rainy day page' and feature one of the links. If you want to write a few in advance or give me a generic one for future use or just pop in one link each week.

And we could ask the Post to run a second AggGag feature linking the complete 'rainy day page' as a special AggGag 'supplement' when it is ready. I think it needs to look special ..and different from our regular page. Try re-sizing the logo or adding other illustrations or something.. whatever. You design it and we'll feature a link to it every week along with your 'pick of the week'.

Good stuff.
~j~

Yep, weekly sounds good. I'll toy with a different layout for AGG/GAG Games for a Rainy Day page this weekend. Smaller Groucho logo, maybe some other generic game picture from the h2g2 galleries.

I guess I'd suggest this for AGG/GAG #31.

Mornington Crescent Appreciation Society

Intro: As far as I can tell, this "game" is just a parody of the way some games become so overdeveloped and refined, that people could sit around endlessly discussing which variation they ought to play, which variations were better, and how wonderful certain past games turned out, without ever actually getting to the game itself. But I could be wrong. I can't see why else there would be no explanation of the game on their page, no link to some other page explaining it, and even a rule stating, "You don't talk about Mornington Crescent. The rules are very complex and subject to addition at very little notice. If you try to give a quick run down, you're only going to confuse people."

In coming weeks, we'll feature more great links to original games, game areas on h2g2, role-playing or board games or card games or word games or, as a last resort, maybe computer games. Apparently Deidzoeb can't think of anything but games all day due to a six-sided die recently but permanently lodged in his nostril. It's the only topic we can get out of him. He's working on a comprehensive AGG/GAG Games for a Rainy Day page, but you'll have to watch and see how it pans out.

Game page is done! for this week.

I changed the page that you saw before, so it's now the "AGG/GAG Repository of Games for a Rainy Day", and I created a separate guide entry for use as a special issue AGG/GAG (A789267) highlighting 3 game entries. Let me know how the Repository of Games looks, whether it needs changes, and the same for that reserve rough-draft AGG/GAG special issue. I could copy either or both of those into new pages by the AGG/GAG username, if y'all would prefer.

Thanks!

Great work. Thanks. I'm asking Shazz to add your issue to next week's Post Front Page as an AggGag 'Special Supplement'. I'll also create a regular link to the 'respository' page for use in all our usual issue pages. Or do you still want to write a weekly teaser for each regular issue featuring one game link as well as a link to the whole 'respository' page. I am going to lift both your new pages to AggGag Entry versions. And I'll hide them by temporarily 'cancelling' them once they are set. I'd like to play around with the formatting a little bit, so be sure to save your original versions in case you don't like what I do to them. I'll notify you when I have reset them so you can have a look and give me your feedback. on another matter: If you have any ideas on how to format a GDML link to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutmusic/profiles/hildegard.shtml let TR and I know at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F80670?thread=173522&latest=1 thanks, peace, ~jwf~

Sounds good. Adjust format as you feel necessary. No need for an extra teaser each week about the Repository, but I'll keep trying to find game-related entries and I can just submit them to AGGGAG the usual way.

I looked at <./>GuideML-LINK</.> (the Help page that should describe this) and they give an example of linking to http://www.bbc.co.uk by using the code. But I saw your conversation on this earlier, and it sounded like that wasn't working. Maybe this is one to ask for help from a guru?

Another formatting detail. I started the Repository using a typical AGG/GAG issue as a template. I took out some of the typical things seen in AGG/GAG issues like the announcement of something coming next week, but left the list of Popeye chuckler names, just because I liked the play-related jokes. But is the list of names needed there?

No it is not absolutely needed. It's your page and I'll take it out if you like, but I think it's appropriate; you've made 'play' the theme so it is unique to the piece and 'fun'.

If you decide to keep the list, then we should add 'Catwoman' (plays with catnip? - furballs? - toy mice?). Your choice.

peace
~jwf~

Catwoman-expert at dust mote football...

Ho ho - I thought that was Deidzoeb's idea for Catwoman's descriptor and I dutifully entered it into the list on the Special Supplement Issue. A790193
Now I see it was TR's idea.
So I'll wait for Deidzoeb's suggestion to change it again.

The permanent games page should stay as Deidzoeb's entry A767081 so that he can more easily maintain and update it.
All the links in the Supplementary Issue (A790193 above))now go to Deidzoeb's Entry A767081
and although I have a copy at AGGGAG, it remains hidden and I can't really see any way to improve it.

peace
jwf

And the 'games' links on TR's issue #33 will go to the Supplement Special A790193 which in turn has similar links to the permanent game repository at A767081.
peace
jwf

I like tr's suggestion. And if you like the list of Popeye Chucklers, I'll leave that too.

It would be a little easier for me to update the games page if I use the one I started (so I wouldn't have to log out of deidzoeb and log in as AGGGAG). But if you'd prefer, we could all have access to modify and update it by using the AGG/GAG copy. Any preference?

Yes A767081 will remain as your Repository on your space, for you to manage on an ongoing basis.
I've put a link to it on our homepage U187783.
The Supplementary Issue is now an AggGag edited page and will also become a Post page number as well.
peace
jwf

Right then - I'll be linking to this from the archives as the 'games' category. Yeay, less work for me!

-Martin