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  Geekiness... (Catan) (Entered Jan. 22, 2006)     Random Musings...  
 

If you're a fan of board games then you've probably heard of 'Settlers of Catan'. Arriving on shelves sometime in the 90's in Germany, it was an instant hit and quickly found itself being played all over the world, notably by myself and some of my friends here in Japan. This being Japan, and houses being rather small for gatherings, we often played in cafes and sometimes even bars (really), making sure the world knew that some manly men weren't afraid to show their softer, geeky sides. It wasn't long before someone got the expansion pack (Cities and Knights) and after that, to play the normal version was like playing on an Atari 2600 when you had an Xbox sitting around, in other words, a waste of time. It's hard to describe the intensity and addiction of this game. Losing is frustrating and makes you want to play again, and again.... A normal game usually takes anywhere from 90 minutes to more than 2 hours. One session between me and the guys went from around 9pm to around 4 in the morning. We played only three games. Drinking while playing usually helps improve game play. Drunkeness helps a lot with another important aspect of game play, agressive verbal abuse of other players. Catan is the type of game where quite often, you have to screw over your opponents, so you'll most likely feel the need to let them know how much you hate them and how they're going to suffer when it's your turn.
Sometimes people are busy and no one is available for a game. What to do? Lucky for me I discovered that the game is available to play online (for free!) so I've been happily wasting time for the past couple of days playing against the computer and just today, my buddy Mike (from the UK) who was happy to join me (online) for a couple of sessions (he beat me both times, argh!). What a discovery though! Now it's no longer necessary for me to even set foot outside to meet my friends, we can all happily play in the comfort of our own homes!

   

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