February 2010
1 post
8 tags
You're in Facebook jail!
It’s not the first time that I’ve seen events like this - the Geocities shutdown was just last year, after all. Nobody cares about their data any more. Just stick it up in “the cloud” and forget it. And it’s getting worse, not better - 40% of the traffic goes to the largest 10 internet domains. That means that when you get pissed off with Facebook or MySpace,...
January 2010
1 post
7 tags
The Weasel guide to Settlers of Catan, part three...
In which I describe the late game of Settlers, some winning tactics and a few nasty tricks.
In the last installment, I covered the set up and starting game; how to get a good start and avoid throwing it away. In this final episode, we’ll look at how to get into a winning position in the middle game, and maneuver for the win in the final game.
The middle game
The critical question for most...
December 2009
1 post
6 tags
The Weasel guide to Settlers of Catan, part two -...
In which I describe the initial game of Settlers, set up and starting strategies.
In the last installment, I gave an overview of the various Settlers strategies around, and how to play them. This time, we’re going to look a bit harder at some of the tactics that you can use to make your opponents’ lives harder. Since there are quite a few tricks, I’ve broken it up into the first...
November 2009
2 posts
5 tags
The Weasel guide to Settlers of Catan part one -...
In which I describe the various types of Settlers strategies, and their strong and weak points.
This guide was first written in late 2002/early 2003, while I was playing Settlers semi-regularly with friends in Perth. It’s tempting to try and change it, but I haven’t played much Settlers of late, so I’m somewhat rusty and it’s hard to know which bits are right and seem...
5 tags
"Cheating" and game design
Like a lot of people on Facebook, I tend to play silly web games. Unlike most people though, I have a very low tolerance for the mind numbing tedium involved, and tend to overanalyse things. Plus, I can program.
I’ll use Farmville as an example, but any other popular competitive web-based game can stand in it’s place.
If you take a look at the Zynga terms of service, you’ll...