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Oh, the agony
Aug. 25th, 2008 06:40 amI have a bit of a problem. You see, I am a book-a-holic. I'm sure there are pretty, fancier, better names for this. I'm positive, in fact, it's just that I'm in no mood to pick one out and attach it to me at the moment. As a lazy book-fiend, I find it is my most sacred duty to share this love with my nephew. As in, "I will buy you books by the truckload and when we've filled up that bookcase, by God, I will buy you a new one!" Aside from the truckload, I mean that quite literally. Though maybe if it were an awfully small truck...
Point is, going back to school means one thing:new school supplies! Scholastic Book Club fliers! Oh, god, it's like finally kicking the habit to the point where you do not miss it at all and then suddenly your crack of choice literally falls in your lap. What are you to do?
Oh, that's right. You haul out your checkbook and immediately start plotting. There are two fliers. One I've already finished with. I trimmed my considerable list down to something manageble and wrote my check. God, I used to love writing checks. And then I was old enough to have a checkbook and that love died. Anyway, my problem is this:
Flier #2 has 4 Calvin & Hobbes books as a little set. I don't think this has ever come up, but I cried when that was retired. So I'm thinking, "YES!" It also has a Miss Nelson set. Thing is, I think I own one of the C&H books and I'm fairly certain that since my kindergarten teacher's name was Miss Nelson... I had those books. And so I'm torn. Do I buy both? Do I buy neither? Do I buy C&H because even if I do cave for the super-deluxe special love that's been out for ages, I'll still want stuff that won't break my legs when reading? Do I buy Miss Nelson because it is AWESOME?
Well, I realized that I could probably find either my copies of Miss Nelson, or find other people's, so... I went with C&H.
Other reasons to love the nephew: He sees the various shark books offered and shrieks, "Sharks!" and asks if he can have them. I say no, as his Grammy type isn't really big on sharks... and he promptly turns to Mumsy and asks, "Grammy, can I have the shark book? Please?" She mentions something about asking me [circles!] and then dooms us all by pointing out my summer of shark obsession. So... I add it to the list because sharks are amazing and scary and hell, it can't hurt any worse than seeing Jaws would. Except he's not seeing Jaws for awhile. Sharks. I remember that for quite awhile I could ID those suckers six ways to Sunday.
Okay, why has no one else had their head explode over the Clue revamp?
Each character — rounded out by Eleanor Peacock and Diane White — also now has a special power that could help players discover clues more quickly. New “intrigue” and “clock” cards add clues and can eliminate players in the latest version of the game.
Sure, they've done horrible things to the game before [I still prefer the Clue I had as a kid OR the one we found at the street that was probably closer to what my parents remembered as kids], but who. the. fuck. said. yes. to. this? I still have the musuem caper thing they did when I was a kid and you know, until Cass moved in, I think I played it five times because neither of my parents could stand it. Okay, fine, it sucked and I was awful at it and when I couldn't win I was not always pleasant, but still... Clue itself was still around. It's not like they just yanked that option away.
Game designer Rob Daviau says the changes make the game feel more contemporary and prevent kids from tuning out in between turns.
"Clue was invented during World War II in England, and it embodied a dinner party of the rich and famous. The cast of characters were all the people you wanted to hang out with, rub elbows with," Daviau says. [source]
I fucking want that guy's head on a platter and for this to fail. I'm sorry if you're looking forward to this as anything more than a car-crash, but I'm screaming myself silly here because it's just wrong. Tuning out between turns because the house is OLD? Just... NO.
Point is, going back to school means one thing:
Oh, that's right. You haul out your checkbook and immediately start plotting. There are two fliers. One I've already finished with. I trimmed my considerable list down to something manageble and wrote my check. God, I used to love writing checks. And then I was old enough to have a checkbook and that love died. Anyway, my problem is this:
Flier #2 has 4 Calvin & Hobbes books as a little set. I don't think this has ever come up, but I cried when that was retired. So I'm thinking, "YES!" It also has a Miss Nelson set. Thing is, I think I own one of the C&H books and I'm fairly certain that since my kindergarten teacher's name was Miss Nelson... I had those books. And so I'm torn. Do I buy both? Do I buy neither? Do I buy C&H because even if I do cave for the super-deluxe special love that's been out for ages, I'll still want stuff that won't break my legs when reading? Do I buy Miss Nelson because it is AWESOME?
Well, I realized that I could probably find either my copies of Miss Nelson, or find other people's, so... I went with C&H.
Other reasons to love the nephew: He sees the various shark books offered and shrieks, "Sharks!" and asks if he can have them. I say no, as his Grammy type isn't really big on sharks... and he promptly turns to Mumsy and asks, "Grammy, can I have the shark book? Please?" She mentions something about asking me [circles!] and then dooms us all by pointing out my summer of shark obsession. So... I add it to the list because sharks are amazing and scary and hell, it can't hurt any worse than seeing Jaws would. Except he's not seeing Jaws for awhile. Sharks. I remember that for quite awhile I could ID those suckers six ways to Sunday.
Okay, why has no one else had their head explode over the Clue revamp?
Each character — rounded out by Eleanor Peacock and Diane White — also now has a special power that could help players discover clues more quickly. New “intrigue” and “clock” cards add clues and can eliminate players in the latest version of the game.
Sure, they've done horrible things to the game before [I still prefer the Clue I had as a kid OR the one we found at the street that was probably closer to what my parents remembered as kids], but who. the. fuck. said. yes. to. this? I still have the musuem caper thing they did when I was a kid and you know, until Cass moved in, I think I played it five times because neither of my parents could stand it. Okay, fine, it sucked and I was awful at it and when I couldn't win I was not always pleasant, but still... Clue itself was still around. It's not like they just yanked that option away.
Game designer Rob Daviau says the changes make the game feel more contemporary and prevent kids from tuning out in between turns.
"Clue was invented during World War II in England, and it embodied a dinner party of the rich and famous. The cast of characters were all the people you wanted to hang out with, rub elbows with," Daviau says. [source]
I fucking want that guy's head on a platter and for this to fail. I'm sorry if you're looking forward to this as anything more than a car-crash, but I'm screaming myself silly here because it's just wrong. Tuning out between turns because the house is OLD? Just... NO.