by A.J. Coltrane
GNOIF #4 Recap — GNOIF: You Are My Density (Trying for a “Back To The Future” Theme. Note the Star Fluxx, Rocketville, Omega Virus, and Robo Rally… that was the big idea anyway..)
Games That Got Played: Agricola, Flash Duel, Star Fluxx, Magic The Gathering, The Omega Virus, Ticket to Ride Card Game, Ticket to Ride Europe.
Games That Didn’t Get Played: Caesar and Cleopatra, Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Lost Cities, Mr. Jack (pocket), Robo Rally, Rocketville.
We’re now getting to the point that people who learn games at one GNOIF can teach them to people at a future GNOIF, and as more people get more comfortable with more games it makes the games themselves go faster too. Ticket To Ride Europe required no introduction and wrapped up pretty quickly; even something as complicated as Agricola didn’t need host involvement to get going. Good progress!
Early in the evening I played a few games of Magic The Gathering. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy M:TG — I haven’t played it in ages, but we trotted out some of my decks from 1999 and had a good time. I could have played more.
Guests brought The Omega Virus, a “talking” electronic game from 1992. It’s a timed game, so it’s fast paced and kind of hectic, and we all had a good time. Ultimately JC was able to pull out a win at the last minute. (Which was much better than the “computer” winning…I’ve never been called “Human Scum” before, but now I think I’ve been insulted that way about fifty times.)
I’d be interested to hear what everyone thought of what they played. Thanks for playing all!
FlatbreadGarden 
As a first-timer at GNOIF (and an auditor, at that), I have to say that I really enjoyed the set-up for the evening. Games began, were joined, were mentored, and wrapped up in a very organic, ad hoc method. As my time was limited, I didn’t participate in any of the actual game sessions, but merely watched over shoulders.
The Omega Virus was just not my cuppa…I get plenty of abuse at work, without having a game berate me in my off-hours. Still, I saw that some folks were getting into the pressure-cooker its little AI brain was creating.
The game I enjoyed, even as a spectator, was Agricola, and I found the concept and execution intriguing enough to order a copy of my own, to bring to the other GNOIF I attend. Mostly, what impressed me was that it was easy for the first-timers to pick up and yet provided enough strategy to challenge those more familiar. I also like games that have layers of strategy and variations of play. Hopefully my other GNOIF will enjoy this, despite its distinctive “euro” feel.
Many thanks to our hosts for welcoming us, and to the company at large for their easy camaraderie.
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I forgot how much I enjoy playing Ticket to Ride the Card game. Since I love Agricola I tried to help with the folks playing Agricola so they saw opportunities they could take advantage of…. unfortunately the person who had played previously really did well
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