Citizens for the Revitalization and Urban Success of Holyoke

Pronoblem's Fantabulous Sunday Game Event.

Event Details

Time: May 27, 2012 at 3pm to December 23, 2012 at 11:45pm
Location: Holyoke
Website or Map: http://www.pronoblem.com
Event Type: participatory, art, play, brain, candy, games
Organized By: pronoblem
Latest Activity: 17 hours ago

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Event Description

Every Sunday since 2004 pronoblem has hosted a game day. We play what are called Eurogames. These are games that are common in the European market and what they describe as "family games" (instead of watching television the families play games). These games are not like the typical American games (MB, Parker Bros, Hasbro, etc) like Life, Trivial Pursuit, Risk, and Monopoly with the "roll a die and do something" mechanic. Eurogames typically lack randomness and if they do have some random element it is mitigated by another mechanic to reduce the impact of randomness on the entire game. The games put thought, planning and strategy first.... Eurogames also lack what is called "player elimination" as a goal to winning. (remember waiting around for five hours after you were the first person out in Risk?). These games have less than 10 pages of rules and can be taught in 20 minutes in lieu of rules reading via an experienced player. These games are an exercise for the brain and a highly social experience.

It was around the time of Game Theory being applied to economics in the mid 1990's with Neumann and Morgenstern's Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944) and concepts from John Nash like the Nash Equilibrium started to challenge conventional economic theories that we saw many new games appear that actually were real games (rather than exercises in die rolling), many simulating markets or biological systems and today many of the great game designers from Europe being Ph.D economists.

Our group does explore beyond the Eurogame. We often play 18XX games, historical simulations (war games or civilization games), trick taking card games chess and other abstracts . Of the 20+ members of the group the number of games in the combined game collections surpasses 4,000. Some of our favorite games in the group:

Power Grid
Reef Encounter
1856
Tigris & Euphrates
Here I Stand (a masterpiece)
Imperial
Twilight Struggle
Through the Age
Dominion
Age of Steam
Combat Commander
Shogun
Small World
Crokinole
Acquire
Kremlin
Indonesia
Maria
Steel Driver
...

The group is male and female, ages 21 to 60 and from all walks of life.

Want to break your kid's television habit? Do you miss "play"? Are you having trouble concentrating? Do you need a non-isolating escape from this absurd reality we live in? Drop me a message here or email me ( pronoblem AT gmail DOT com ) if you'd like to participate or if you'd be interested in hosting your own gaming event. We will gladly come to you as well.

At its best, the playing of games is a participatory artform, often mistaken for child's play in the same way that haute couture is mistaken for clothing and cuisine is mistaken for dinner.

Those who design games are Artists of the Highest Order; the fruits of their labor are nothing less than divine magic in their ability to transport and transform the human soul.

When it all goes right, of course...

When it goes wrong it's like a pyroclastic shard of Hell lodged in your skull, searing the flesh of dreams into ragged curtains of smoking meat.

THE FINAL WORD IN GAMING

Fun. Games are supposed to be fun. They should blunt life's sharper corners and provide pleasure that just can't be had any other way. Period.

Every Sunday 3pm - ???

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Comment by pronoblem on April 11, 2012 at 11:55am: I will message you on FB with location.

Comment by Rob Henerey on April 11, 2012 at 11:12am: Oops, now I see I'm too old, over 60. And just where is this game event so I'll know where not to show up?

Comment by Rob Henerey on April 11, 2012 at 11:08am: I might come at THE BEGINNING on December 23rd. I've heard it's the BE ALL and END ALL.

Comment by pronoblem on September 26, 2011 at 7:50pm: Video review of Here I Stand:

Comment by pronoblem on January 12, 2011 at 1:01am: Last Sunday was an interesting Game Day. We had 13 guests and everyone wanted to play the new game hotness called Dominant Species. I was in on that and I must say, it was a brain burning gamer's game - I will own it soon when it is reprinted. For the benefit of those that still do not know what these types of games entail, here is a video review of Dominant Species:

Comment by pronoblem on January 8, 2011 at 11:55am: I will send you more info in a message. If you want to bring anything, snacks are good. So is drink. I usually cook and there is always extra food so there is no need to bring anything.

Comment by Octavia on January 4, 2011 at 12:33am: I think I want to try this. I need some fun and my mind needs a vacation, so it is time to play. Can I bring anything? Also, I have no clue at all on how to play, is that going to be a problem ( wow, I just re-read that - very sad that I have forgotten how to play....:) See you Sunday.

Comment by pronoblem on January 2, 2011 at 11:08am: I have brewed both beer and sake but not recently. Matt, a game day regular, brings a beer offering usually every other week.