Update: Major slowdown; posts will be infrequent

No long speeches ... just a notice that maintaining a low-key gaming blog has been forced way, way, way down my priority list due to Real Life concerns.

I do not know when — or, frankly, if — this blog will be updated again. For now, I will leave it open for searching and archive purposes.

(Update 3/5/10: The blog, generally, is still a low priority, but I'm going to post interesting items if the seem worthy. For now, I'd guess that will mean no more than two or three posts per month. So, it's not "dead" ... just "slow.")

No one is dying or anything dramatic like that; it's just priorities.

May your Viruses always multiply by 4.

— Duke

Cosmic Encounter: the fifth game you MUST own

Seriously. It says so right here in this list of "The 10 Games Everyone Should Own."

The highlight:

It’s ripe for expansion, it’s rarely longer than 90 minutes, and the shifting, conditional alliances always make for some exciting table talk and good laughs. It’s everything a hobby game should be — fun, imaginative, challenging, and interactive.

The Dune boardgame also gets a shout-out as the "... best game ever published ..." (yikes!) but author Michael Barnes rightly doesn't include it in his list, which is focussed on games that are either still in print or else attainable with a minimum amount of effort.