Catan

Having had really the first bit of free time since the start of daily evening rehearsals, I got to play some Catan today. If you've listened to the latest episode of cwKnightly, you'll have heard me talk about this a little bit.

Catan is the Xbox Live translation of the classic board game Settlers of Catan. Settlers of Catan is a game of resource trading and settlement construction; like a far more sophisticated and fun Monopoly. Unlike Monopoly, trading and player interaction is an integral part of the game, as opposed to a random space-landing occurrence.

I love that they're bringing board games to Xbox Live; as a gamer, I enjoy artificial constructs of competition within which I have goals and achievements to attain. I don't really care if those constructs are digital or analog; each has their unique advantages and disadvantages.

However, analog, tabletop games have what is, for me, a pretty big fucking disadvantage: they require like 4000 people to be at one place, at one time, all of whom enjoy the same fun-producing-construct.

It is nearly impossible for me to organize this mystical scenario.

By bringing these types of constructs to the digital realm, I don't have to worry about those anymore.

Xbox Live is the perfect place for this.

I can put on my microphone headset, jump on Xbox Live, search for a game, and instantly have a very similar experience to what was previously available only in the physical realm.

And that is sweeter to me than a thousand bowls of ice cream.