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Topic: Arimaa and Fritzleine's Book talked about online (Read 1207 times) |
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SpeedRazor
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Arimaa and Fritzleine's Book talked about online
« on: Sep 19th, 2009, 3:16pm » |
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Hello, everybody, I just finished listening to one of my favorite (audio) podcasts, and was amazed to hear them talking about Arimaa. Go here: http://www.funagain.com/control/viewblogpost?contentBlogPostId=28974& ;contentBlogId=TDT and it's episode #156, 25¼ minutes in.
Interesting to note that Tom Vasel hasn't been sent a physical review copy of the Z-Man Game, yet. Is Zev just waiting for Essen?
Sorry to bother everybody, just thought that you may be interested...
[Edit: spelling]
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| « Last Edit: Oct 4th, 2009, 3:43pm by SpeedRazor » |
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Fritzlein
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Re: Arimaa and Fritzleines' Book talked about onli
« Reply #1 on: Sep 19th, 2009, 4:19pm » |
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The Dice Tower? Of course we are interested! Woohoo! That's the biggest boardgame podcast out there, isn't it? I guess I sent out enough free copies of Beginning Arimaa to get one review. Not a terrible ratio, all things considered.
I listened to the whole program just to hear the segment about Arimaa. They were very kind in their review of the book; I was extremely flattered. As for their lukewarm review of Arimaa per se, their criticism was actually a compliment of sorts, i.e. that Arimaa sounds too serious for them. That's hilarious, given that a major motivation for me writing the book was to make sure people would take Arimaa seriously enough, like chess, like Go. I never imagined that it would be a disadvantage to be similar to the greatest abstracts of all time.
Considering the reasons these guys gave for not being excited about Arimaa, I'm actually quite pleased. Yes, the Board Game Geek crowd wants instant gratification. Yes, they want the game to be fun on the first play and second play, because they will never get to the hundredth play. There are too many games out there for them to be devoted to any one game. That's totally fair. But the millions of people who do devote themselves to chess or Go or bridge or some other single game dwarfs the Board Game Geek population. Millions of people want a lifestyle game that they can play over and over forever, rather than playing a new game every month.
In short, if Arimaa is going to get a lukewarm review, this is the perfect type of lukewarm review we want to get. If a lifestyle game addict listens to this review, it will actually sound like a warm recommendation.
Do you expect The Dice Tower to eventually do a video review of Arimaa, SpeedRazor? It would be awesome if they do, but what if they figure that the audio review covers it? Anyway, thanks so much for heads up about the podcast.
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| « Last Edit: Sep 19th, 2009, 4:27pm by Fritzlein » |
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qswanger
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Re: Arimaa and Fritzleines' Book talked about onli
« Reply #2 on: Sep 19th, 2009, 5:40pm » |
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For anyone who wants to jump right to it ... the section of the podcast that relates to Arimaa is from
25:15 to 33:38. I enjoyed the review, the commentary, and the banter. On the whole their treatment of Arimaa, I felt, was very fair and balanced. And their facts/descriptions were accurate, as I understand them from my newbie perspective, except perhaps their pronunciation of Karl's last name -- like "junk". Karl, can you straighten this out? My guess is that it is more like "joon-key". Their review of the game was actually better than I was expecting when I first heard it was going to be covered. Overall ... good publicity!
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| « Last Edit: Sep 19th, 2009, 5:44pm by qswanger » |
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Fritzlein
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Re: Arimaa and Fritzleines' Book talked about onli
« Reply #3 on: Sep 19th, 2009, 7:25pm » |
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on Sep 19th, 2009, 5:40pm, qswanger wrote:| except perhaps their pronunciation of Karl's last name -- like "junk". Karl, can you straighten this out? My guess is that it is more like "joon-key". |
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I pronounce my last name like "young-key", so that it rhymes with funky monkey.
I have to agree that the review was fair and accurate, and I did enjoy the whole production. I doubt, however, that I'll become a regular listener. I have no need to be introduced to three new games every week. To each his own breadth/depth balance. For now I have found one game that is by itself enough to keep me happy.  Well, OK, I admit I still play a little Puerto Rico and Pandemic on the side...
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| « Last Edit: Sep 19th, 2009, 7:34pm by Fritzlein » |
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omar
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Re: Arimaa and Fritzleines' Book talked about onli
« Reply #4 on: Sep 19th, 2009, 10:01pm » |
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Wow, sounds like they really enjoyed reading the book. Way to go Karl!!
That was a great review of Arimaa also, considering it is from gamers who rarely play abstract games. I was amazed to hear that they actually played a few games against ArimaaScoreP1
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Adanac
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Re: Arimaa and Fritzleines' Book talked about onli
« Reply #5 on: Sep 20th, 2009, 4:39am » |
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Outstanding! I listened to the entire audio clip and I got really, really excited when they brought up Arimaa  Great idea to send them free books Karl!
That's about the best possible review that Arimaa could have received from 2 guys who love games but aren't willing to devote too much time to any one particular game.
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Arimabuff
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Re: Arimaa and Fritzleines' Book talked about onli
« Reply #6 on: Sep 20th, 2009, 6:19am » |
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on Sep 19th, 2009, 7:25pm, Fritzlein wrote:
I pronounce my last name like "young-key", so that it rhymes with funky monkey.
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It's funny because ever since I know you I had the beginning right but thought that the ending was pronounced as in "danke" in German. It'll take me a while to get used to "young-key". 
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chessandgo
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Re: Arimaa and Fritzleines' Book talked about onli
« Reply #7 on: Sep 20th, 2009, 6:36am » |
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awesome they are spot on.
Ah, I fear I did mispronounce your name Fritz in my video 
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Fritzlein
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Re: Arimaa and Fritzleines' Book talked about onli
« Reply #8 on: Sep 20th, 2009, 6:40am » |
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on Sep 20th, 2009, 6:19am, Arimabuff wrote:
It's funny because ever since I know you I had the beginning right but thought that the ending was pronounced as in "danke" in German. It'll take me a while to get used to "young-key". |
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The German pronunciation of Juhnke does have the last syllable like danke, so you were on target. I'm named after my great-great-grandfather, who was German, so it's actually an honor if you pronounce my name like his. When names get borrowed between languages, you never know what will happen.
Anyway, I'm fine with any pronunciation, even "junk", as long at the word about Arimaa is getting out there. And, to their credit, they got "Fritz" right!
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| « Last Edit: Sep 20th, 2009, 6:42am by Fritzlein » |
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arimaa_master
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Re: Arimaa and Fritzleines' Book talked about onli
« Reply #9 on: Sep 20th, 2009, 6:56am » |
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on Sep 19th, 2009, 3:16pm, SpeedRazor wrote:Hello, everybody, I just finished listening to one of my favorite (audio) podcasts, and was amazed to hear them talking about Arimaa. Go here: http://www.funagain.com/control/viewblogpost?contentBlogPostId=28974& ;contentBlogId=TDT and it's episode #156, 25¼ minutes in.
Interesting stuff, but I wouldn't be expecting a video review from them - The Dice Tower - until sometime after Essen in Germany in October, as this is their busy season.
Interesting to note that Tom Vasel hasn't been sent a physical review copy of the Z-Man Game, yet. Is Zev just waiting for Essen's?
Sorry to bother everybody, just thought that you may be interested... |
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Thanks for the link. That was good review of arimaa - and they have got quite funny around 30th minute
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RonWeasley
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Re: Arimaa and Fritzleines' Book talked about onli
« Reply #10 on: Sep 20th, 2009, 3:20pm » |
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I just listened to the podcast and found the review to be pretty accurate. They like to get the intellectual payoff quickly. With arimaa, the payoff is slower but I find the payoffs keep happening as you get a deeper understanding. They acknowedged this. For me, this is different than many games, MTG for example, where I found that after gaining a threshhold of proficiency, the game stopped offering surprises.
One thing they didn't mention, maybe because they're muggles, is that arimaa is one of very few games where you can include your household pets. Sirius Black used to love pulling an pushing Crookshanks around. I have cats, a silver and a gold (partly) one, who always want in on a game. (I should post their pictures.) Hagrid can get animals for an entire board, with a few substitutions, and even walk away and let the animals play it themselves.
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RonWeasley
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Re: Arimaa and Fritzleines' Book talked about onli
« Reply #11 on: Sep 20th, 2009, 3:37pm » |
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on Sep 20th, 2009, 6:19am, Arimabuff wrote:
It's funny because ever since I know you I had the beginning right but thought that the ending was pronounced as in "danke" in German. It'll take me a while to get used to "young-key". |
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I thought the same thing. Also, I spent the first two years pronouncing arimaa wrong.
Are we pronouncing Adanac correctly? I figure you need to use an inflection like a tape recorder being played backwards.
And how about jdb? How do you pronounce that?
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