Settlers

Been playing Settlers of Catan online for the past 2 weeks ever since mi played that 3vil game at Settlers cafe a few weeks back. Had watched some of mi frens play during CNY but din really play it miself until the bball gathering at the Holland V Settlers cafe there.

First impression (CNY): it's just another resource gathering/building stuff/trading board game for kids n childish adults.

Second impression (Settlers): it's a Game of the Year resource gathering/building stuff/trading board game for kids n childish adults. hmm.. seems well thought out enough .. the designers deserve some kudos (at least there's no broken rules or loopholes that mi 3vil l33t twin could exploit). maybe it's cos it's mi first time playing, or that xp was pouncing on mi 455 the whole evening for dropping the robber on her turf, mi still didn't have a good impression of the game. the feeling is the same as playing monopoly or risk: you can have the best plan, the most ideal strategy, but if the dice dun fall your way, you're screwed over n over and someone else beats you to the good spot even though they may have no idea what their game plan is. simply put, it's a game of chance. and mi dun like games of chance.

third impression (online): Settlers is a great game, totally deserving of it's game of the year title. mi felt that mi have matured quite abit more as a player and person just by playing the game over and over. (xp as well too, since we play together quite often. she's really growing as a player. proud of ya dear!)

The reason why it's such a good game? cos it teaches you politics. yup, mi didn't type wrongly. it's the single most important skill a person needs to have in order to live well and survive in this world. no other skill or ability comes even close to second. every action that you choose to make in the game, affects the political relationship between the players. From where you place your initial settlements and roads to the subsequent trading of resources and expansion of your territories or armies, your decisions will affect other players' attitudes towards you. To mi, the most important political gamepiece on the board is the robber. This game is good, it gives everyone the chance to be the bad guy. By moving the robber, you can choose who you wanna sabo and also steal their resources. Of cos, whoever that owns the hex where the robber visits will be damn pissed with you. This game really mirrors real life quite well in general.

Wrote a whole lot more, but deleted the stuff. Felt like mi was rambling liao so decided to stop. (It also gets abit boring to be staring at your own blog entry for 3 hours. heh). nuff said! ;p