Dice: Is “higher = better” better?

In games involving dice, do people expect higher rolls to be better than lower rolls? Do they find a game odd if that isn’t the case?

Higher isn’t necessarily better in Craps. In Backgammon, higher numbers get you closer to your goal, but a lower numbers are often better tactically. In Yahtzee, although there is some value in higher numbers, it is generally more about the pokeresque combinations. In Monopoly what is a good or bad roll depends entirely on what square your piece is currently on. In Magic Realm, as I recall, you always wanted to roll low. Higher isn’t better in Bunco.

Of course, I can think of some games where rolling higher is always better. e.g. Risk. It seems common enough that higher rolls are not necessarily better, though.

The 100 best hobby games

Matt Tarbit assembled pictures of the games from Hobby Games: The 100 Best. (Which is on my wish list.)

How many of them have you played?

I’ve scored a pitiful 15%.

1. Axis & Allies
2. Cosmic Wimpout
3. Diplomacy
4. Dungeons & Dragons
5. Illuminati
6. Kingmaker
7. Lord of the Rings
8. Magic: The Gathering
9. Marvel Super Heroes
10. Shadowrun
11. Squad Leader
12. Star Fleet Battles
13. Talisman
14. Toon
15. Traveller

I may have played Champions. I’ve definitely played it’s offspring, Fantasy Hero. I have played Ark of the Covenant, which is a Carcassonne variant. I played a computer version of Ogre. I own Ars Magica and Pendragon though I haven’t played either.

I haven’t played Formula Dé, but I have a hard time believing it is better than Formula 1. It seems a shame that neither Magic Realm or Source of the Nile made the list.

App Store update

Since I ranted about iPhone App Store rejections, here’s an update. It seems Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, has stepped in. He’s been personally contacting app developers to resolve some of the issues. It is looking like Apple is getting serious about fixing the problems.

It’s sad that it took lawsuits and attention from the FCC for this to happen, but late is better than never.

Noggin getting Nick’d

According to idsgn

The decision to streamline the network identities came after they started putting all of the channels’ logos on the same business card—and decided that it looked like a mess

Noggin and The N both seem like good brands with good logos. Rebranding them as Nick Jr. and TeenNick seems like losing more than is gained. I’m not sure that putting all those logos—whether the new ones or the old ones—on each business card makes sense, but I do think the “mess” of the old logos is going to end up looking better than the homogeneity of the new ones.

Apple App Store rejections

I’m embarrassed to be an Apple customer right now.

I don’t use Google Voice, so the current brouhaha with Google Voice apps doesn’t affect me. It’s another point in the trend, though. Apple insists that iPhone app developers partner with them through the App Store, but they aren’t being a good partner. They should be open and honest about the criteria used to reject apps. They should be clear about the reasons an app is rejected and how the app can be modified to pass. If they yank an app after approving it, they should pay the refunds to the customer.

Furthermore, they should not be rejecting apps for many of the reasons that they are giving. Off the top of my head, I can only think of these reasons that seem legitimate to me:

• The app compromises the stability of the device (an unstable app is fine as long as it doesn’t compromise the device as a whole)
• Resource abuse (and I have uneasy feelings about that one)
• Security issues
• Privacy issues

No doubt there are others, but the point is that they should be few and used as little as possible.

I have a hard time not seeing some of the reasons that have been given as bogus.

I will say that, looking at some of the lists being compiled, I think many of the rejections have been defensible. Even with those, however, the problem is that developers are left to discover the rules of the game by experiment. Expensive experiments.

This honestly has delayed my plans to upgrade my iPhone. As much as I like their products—which do work besides just looking good—I don’t like doing business with dishonorable companies, and there is a threshold at which bad behavior matters enough for me to choose to do business elsewhere.

Besides, I want a selection of good apps for my iPhone. I don’t want Apple driving developers out of the iPhone app business. I don’t want Apple rejecting apps before I get to decide whether they’re worth my money.

(I’d also like to see Apple allow people—as an option—to install any app from any source with the appropriate caveat utens†. The truth is, though, that I wouldn’t do that with my iPhone.)

† I’m not sure if this is right. Participles of deponent verbs always confuse me. ^_^

Input

Can you touch type? Do you remember how long it took to learn? All those hours of AAAA SSSS DDDD FFFF. Was it worth it?

It’s funny to me how so many people seem so quick to disregard a new input device after less than a day of use. Efficient input requires not only a good device design but also practice by the user. Heck, even voice recognition systems can take some practice to learn to use well.

I used to always tell people that, if they tried using a trackball instead of a mouse, they really needed to try it for a few weeks before they could be sure that they didn’t like it.

When you first try Grafitti, you’re likely to be frustrated. After a few weeks, however, it’s fine. It’s certainly better than any attempt at full handwriting recognition would have been on the Pilot.

The iPhone’s software keyboard may not seem like a great alternative to a hardware palmtop keyboard. After a few weeks, however, most people will be fine with it. The advantages of the software keyboard are numerous.

I don’t know that our laptop and desktop keyboards will be replaced by dynamic, multi-touch surfaces á la Star Trek The Next Generation anytime soon. I do think, however, that palmtop hardware keyboards will soon be in decline.

I really would like a fold-up Dvorak keyboard that would work with my iPhone, though.

On/off switches

What ever happened to plain, simple on/off switches.

I’ve got (at least) two kitchen appliances (a Foreman grill and an Xpress 101) that are on when plugged in and can only be turned off by unplugging them. I actually found myself wondering if I could get a power strip with separate on/off switches for each plug.

An on/off switch shouldn’t be an accessory.

Now, I do understand that these kind of direct marketing products have to cut a lot of costs, but...really? No on/off switch?

My Digitech RP350 guitar processor doesn’t have an on/off switch either. I actually do use a power strip’s on/off switch for it. sigh All the technology packed inside that box, but an on/off switch was too much.

Some guitar effects, however, have the on/off switch combined with the input jack. If you plug an input into it, it is on. To turn it off, you have to unplug the input. So, it combines the cost and risk of mechanical failure of an on/off switch with inconvenient operation. Brilliant!

Then there are the “soft” power switches. It used to be the on/off switch physically connected and disconnected power to the device. That was too simple and effective I guess. Just the other day I had to pull the power cord on the Wii because the power switch and reset button where unresponsive.

My favorite on/off silliness, however, might be my Yahama acoustic guitar. It’s preamp has a switch labelled “mute” and “off”. “Off” means “not muted” which means “on”. So if I leave it “off”, the battery runs down.

sigh