my game diary:- I loved this game....Loop! The Ada character is very cute with her huge blue eyes. Also, it's nice that you proceed the next chapter when you catch enough butterflies. In the beginning, it's easy to loop butterflies which have the same color. However, the higher chapter you are, the more bufferflies you have with different paterns. When I looped more butterfies than I need, Ada gave 100 bonus for each butterfly :) I think after 5th level, butterflies begin to carry some extre points and some creatures appeared on the screen. when I looped them by mistake, I got minus points. When I failed to loop enough butterflies, I have no other chance to continue to play same chapter. I have to start from chapter 1. this made me play more carefully because it was more fun when I played higher chapters. When I caught big butterflies, they made Ada sleep, and I looped butterflies until moon moon disappeared. I think this was like bonus because I got more points at night. I hadn't realized that...

my game diary:- "What am I gonna do now?" I guess I repeated asking that question at least 20 times when I was trying to play Pikmin. I didn't have any idea what Pikmin are. The main character Captain Olimar must rebuild his spaceship with Pikmin's help. However, I couldn't even figure out how to find these Pikmins. Even though I hate reading manuals or instructions before playing games, I desperately searched for a manual for Pikmin, but couldn't find. I all found was some short descriptions such as I will repair Captain's ship and kill enemies, etc. I wandered around for a while until I found the red onion. I walked throuh it, and it was activated. After a while, I Pluck the Red Pikmin from the ground by standing next to it and pressing the A Button. The controls are given in the game, so I don't need to worry about which button I will use to do things. There are various things such as flowers and boxes. Before I plucked the Red Pikmin, I couldn't do anything with them. I guess the...

my game diary:- All night with vampires….

my game diary:- The second try on my expertise game....

my game diary:- Some Thoughts on the First Game Designs....

my game diary:-

my game diary:- As long as I'm determined to learn this game, no one can make me annoyed!( This is something I repeat while I was playing Vampire) Once again I was ousted at Vampire! I just do NOT understand what I'm doing wrong! May be I should play with beginners some time as well as expert players. So, I may have win sometimes.

my game diary:- Well...A new beginning...

my game diary:- Well...The End...

my game diary:- Hello All,

my game diary:- This week I played plenty of card games :) I love card games. Last night I played Set with more experienced people, so didn't have many chances to pick Sets. Generally my attempt was " Ssssseee...No! I was going to take it!". But it was fun. Also, we all agree that Fluxx is a great game. Its unpredictibility is very good. When you don't know what the rules will be when your turn comes, you just hope to have good keepers match with the rules or steal another player's card. Anyway, it's a good game experience. The most lasting game of night was Lunch Money because it's very simple and very fun, but the most I liked was the spontaneous narratives... People don't just play cards, but make stories on their own, such as when you play the humiliation you have to describe how you humiliate. Since the game had a nice dynamic, everybody was playing cards with some narratives even though the card doesn't require it. It was really fun.

my game diary:- Game-play and cognition

my game diary:- I've participated to design two games so far. I enjoyed every step of design from the brainstorming to the finalize-even though I think a game can keep being evolved. And I also realized more that when you design, create something, you learn better about it. I think one of the reasons for this is because the product will be 'your' product, you want to make it as perfect as possible, and this, of course, need more careful study of every component of the design.

my game diary:- I think it's time to look back and think, again, how fast time has passed...How have my play experiences changed me? Good question!

my game diary:- Time!Time!NeVeR have enough time! my biggest boundary...When I consider my expertese game, it seems to have many boundaries such as cards, some friends to play with, a space to lay cards, card decks( a few if you want to make a good deck of cards). However, the reality is not the physical objects determine my boundaries for game. As long as I can think, there are no boundaries for games! If a person can think and imagine little bit, I believe, s/he can play games anywhere if s/he really wants. I don't know how that happens but most of the time I find myself playing games on my mind without thinking about playing games. May be it's because of my non-stop working brain or/and my interest in games. Sometimes my mental game-play is not approved by myself because I feel mentally tired after a while.

MSTU 5510.005:- Well, a friend of ours, Nick, is no longer adventuring with us. We put time and energy into training him through a trial basis, but then the time came to buy the actual game. We were under the impression that all he had to do was buy an account, and he could use my CD key. This proved not to be the case. And as he is in an interesting financial/time situation, purchasing the game plus paying to play it plus paying a huge opportunity cost in time added to my suggestion that he should not game anymore.

MSTU 5510.005:- Today will be a short entry (I know some of you are thinking: Thank god! Finally, a short entry), because I have to prepare for a trip... and because I have been playing less these last two weeks.

MSTU 5510.005:- Greetings and salutations, MSTU5510!

MSTU 5510.005:- One of the successes of WoW is the community.

MSTU 5510.005:- Let me clarify for a couple of people who have e-mailed me about how I communicate with friends through WoW. Now, WoW should have known that people would want to talk with one-and-other, and built in a chat program (possibly even working with Skype for such a thing) so that people could talk to each other. However, this is not the case. So my friends and I set a certain time and date (all of us have crazy schedules, but Wednesday is a really good time), we get on Skype, chat for a second, and then try to get online. Luckily WoW doesn't use a heck of a lot of computing or graphic power, so you can do this easily. Then we chat about life while we wait in the queue.

MSTU 5510.005:- Well, I'm F'ed. WoW has been giving me a great deal of problems as of late, coinciding with difficulties of my router.

MSTU 5510.005:- My problems with connecting to the internet were all about the router. It seems that WoW requires an almost-streamless connection to the computer, or else it thinks that something is amiss, so will disconnect you. My router is causing the problems in that it is slowing down the stream of information. This has caused a great deal of frustration with me and my room mates. I find that I have very little problems plugging my computer directly into the cable box, but as soon as I take it into the router, and try to VoIP, trouble arises. This does not makign gaming a happy thing. And so I suggest to WoW to ease it up a bit. People will questionable connections should not have to suffer - it's not like I'm doing 56k here people!

MSTU 5510.005:- So, my not-so-captive audience, let me explain a little something I like to call Holy WoW! Here's the deal. A friend of mine, who I believe this blog is linked to, though if that's not the case I will make it so, who is now in Maryland doing his graduate work in theatre-whosits discovered a game called World of WarCraft. Now Paul isn't a big game player because he likes to get a taste of a game, but will soon lose interest. So he was playing this one game, League of Heroes or something like that, and somehow he gets turned onto World of WarCraft. Perhaps someone in his guild said something, I don't know. The point is that he starts playing WoW and is bowled over by it. He keeps talking about it like it's gods gift to video games.

MSTU 5510.005:- I realize that I am posting a week before this is due because I may have posted on a week I wasn't required to post. And that's cooooooooool with me. As I found myself sitting at a computer with a bit of free time, I said to myself, "Let's knock this out of the box while I have a chance." As you all know, May is around the corner, and it gets crazy up in this piece in May.

MSTU 5510.005:- The pressure was too much for Nick... he bought the game and quickly got up to our level. In fact, for a while, he surpassed it, which was shocking and upsetting. Now, however, as if the game universe knew of this, Paul has been playing a lot less than usual. That leaves Nick to do as much as we can to bring him up to speed (although he was a high level, he didn't complete a lot of the quests Paul and I did).

replayable:- Don't forget: the 24-hour Mobile Game Jam is March 11th and 12th. Interested? Commenting here would be a great way to say so. :)

replayable:- Hi all -

Playtime:- I volunteered to be the class expert on the computer game "Lemmings." I had played Lemmings a few times, many years ago, on my cousins' computer, but I hadn't played it since. After reading some comments about the various sequels on wikipedia, I bought "Lemmings Revolution" from Amazon.com.

Playtime:- The past two weekends, I've had the opportunity to play a great board game called "Puerto Rico." I've been busy, and I haven't gotten a chance to blog about the experiences until now, but the ideas have been percolating in my mind over that time.

Playtime:- I've gotten into the habit of asking friends what their favorite games are. I had five friends over for lunch on Saturday, and one of them, Ilana Pister, mentioned that she had recently enjoyed playing charades. Since the game that Elyse and I were designing takes a mechanic from charades, I thought it would be a good idea to play this classic that I haven't played in years. My guests were up for it, and we had a very entertaining afternoon.

Playtime:- I returned early this morning from a trip to San Diego, where I enjoyed the sun with my immediate and extended family. After a long nap, I went to pick up a sketch book for my final class at TC. What better way to end off my MA degree in Fun than with a Drawing class? After many courses on theory of cognition and applications of technology, I was ready for an elective that takes me in a very different, hands-on, creative direction.

Playtime:- I started this blog as part of a course on games- playing, analyzing, and designing games, which was great. Now that the semester is over, I'd like to keep the blog alive and expand the scope. I won't make any promises about how frequent updates will be, but check back here in the near future for thoughts on playing this game we call Life.

Playtime:- As promised... (I know you have been holding your breath)

Playtime:- A week ago, walking in Central Park, I discovered an outdoor ice skating rink very close to where I live that I hadn't known about. Yesterday was the last day they were open this season, and I decided to go check it out. It was a very warm, sunny day, and the ice was literally melting under our feet.

Playtime:- Scrabble is not one of my favorite games. I tend to prefer non-linguistic games over word/letter-based ones. (e.g. Set or Go over Scrabble or Boggle.) I like the universality of games that don't rely on a particular language or vocabulary/spelling knowledge. Perhaps it has something to do with my being less good at linguistic games, but it is unclear which causes which. (Do you like games that you are good at, or become good at games that you like? Probably both.) It had been a while since I'd last played Srabble, and it is a classic game that I figure any game expert should be familiar with, so when two of my friends started up a game today, I joined in.

Playtime:- I've been at a few undergrad events recently that have, among other tables, a Dance Dance Revolution station. Tonight there was one at Relay for Life, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Two control pads were connected to a TV, so two people could play at the same time. I've only ever played a handful of times, so I still stink at it, but I think I'm starting to improve.

Playtime:- This is a picture of my Mom (of blessed memory) and me. It was taken at my cousin's Bar Mitzvah a few months before she died. I was 16 years old. I have another picture of the two of us that looks more posed, but I like this one better. In this picture we are genuinely happy. You can see the close comfort that we had with each other.

Playtime:- I played several games of Go over the past few days. I hadn't played for a while before that, and I lost that first game to my brother Louis. I went on to defeat my sister, Rachel, (we played half a board) and then my father. The final game, against my step-brother Moshe, we actually tied exactly - 60 to 60. That was quite surprising.

Playtime:-

Playtime:-

Playtime:- It's been almost 3 months since my last post, and apparently I have at least one interested reader (see comment on last post), so I think I'm overdue for an update. I recently imported my blogposts onto my Facebook profile. You can't view the pictures directly on facebook, but at least you can see when I've posted something new and view it on the original blog. That should keep the facebook stalkers among you informed about me. [Update: Actually, now you can see the pictures too, but I still recommend viewing the original blog.]

Playtime:- After two weeks with my family in Columbus, I'm back in Manhattan. I got rid of some things I don't need: old school notebooks, stuffed animals, wisdom teeth. I also kept some important things. I feel lighter, ready for a fresh start. Moving from one apartment to another, I felt very weighed down by my material possessions. For this week I am a nomad, staying with friends until I can start living in my new place. I'm looking forward to getting settled in a new neighborhood, where many of my friends live already. I also have some exciting job opportunities. Here's to new beginnings!

Playtime:- My trip to Israel was wonderful. I made plans as I went along; visited with friends, walked all over, learned Torah. I had some good discussions with people who think deeply about how their Judaism and Torah learning influences their lives, people that I really respect. They had tips for staying motivated and keeping the learning relevant. I plan to be more proactive this year, asking questions that examine the broader implications and impact of what I'm learning, and also working on a personal project.

Playtime:- I wrote "Progressive Orthodox Jewish" on my facebook profile under "religious views," and a friend asked me what I meant by that. All of my formal education has been from an Orthodox perspective, and that is the strongest part of my Jewish identity. I live in an Othodox community and live a Halachically observant lifestyle. The question is, what do I mean by Progressive? Here's what I answered, and it's a relatively good reflection of what I believe right now. However, this is an area of my life that I am actively exploring, and I expect to change my views as I encounter more information and persuasive arguments. (So check the date of this post and don't assume that I still believe the same thing a month later!) I'm very interested to hear your thoughts on this, so please comment.

Playtime:- I will be leaving soon for a 3 week trip to Israel. It has been 3 years since my last trip there, for an archaeology course. My plans are very flexible. It is my first time coming by myself without some sort of structured program. I'm looking forward to visits with friends who have been living there and wandering around exploring Jerusalem.

Playtime:- MigdalOr, a growing progressive minyan in Washington Heights, has a beautiful new website.

Playtime:- I just spent the day at the JOFA conference. I got up early and volunteered from 7:30-9:30 am. Then I could spend the rest of the day going to sessions. It was an intense, packed day that left me with a lot to think about. Let me discuss some points that affected me:

Playtime:- When a blogger doesn't post for a while, it could be for a number of reasons, some good, some bad. Currently, I am very busy with several great, productive activities, which is making me very happy. But that does not mean that I am not writing. One of my goals for this year is not only to learn Torah, but also to share the learning and my thoughts on it with others through writing and teaching.

Playtime:- A little over a week ago, I spent Shabbat at a JACS retreat. JACS is an organization led by volunteers that connects Jewish alcoholics, chemically dependent persons, and their significant others to each other and to resources, so that they can help support each other through the ongoing process of recovery in a nurturing Jewish environment. Part of that is also sharing knowledge about alcoholism and addiction with the wider Jewish community. Unfortunately, denial that alcoholism exists in the Jewish community is still fairly common.

Playtime:- I graduated! In the Fall I start a new job. I'm finally transitioning from full-time student to full-time teacher. I'll get to see what the classroom looks like from the other side. I hope I'm ready. Or at least that I will be by then.