Shall we step back a few steps? Indeed.

M:tG is a long running collectable trading card game. I’ve been playing since the “unlimited” series of booster packs was available. Yes, I still feel the need to justify my interest in the game by refering to myself as someone who was playing “before it was cool.” I spent countless weekends driving to cons to play tournaments and was hoplessly mediocre in my ability to construct tournament competative decks. But, then again, I was fairly young and had not yet come to understand the core-mechanic of M:tG as constructing my own core-mechanic.

Which leads me to the overarching argument of this post. M:tG, despite being hopelessly geeky, is game design par excellence. The best decks combine a clear core mechanic: “deal damage quickly, eliminating a players’ smallest creatures and defenses,” or “plink away at a character while preventing them from dealing damage to you and rapidly raising your own life counter,” with a game narrative, “goblins are cool,” or “master of the hunt.” Constructing both an effective deck and a deck that makes narrative sense becomes quite difficult. Attempting to think through how a thusly constructed deck may be countered or played against. What are its achilles heels and what kind of sideboard ought to be constructed to optimially deal with those conditions, etc.

So while I could not appreciate it in my angst and hormone riddled teenage brain, I have come to appreciate M:tG in a new way because XBLA has forced me to return to my roots, and for this I thank it. 7.8 indeed. Now, while I recognize the shortcomings of the digital game for its handling of the M:tG timing nuances, shame on the 10 point system.

CKODonnell on XBLA

With all of the items on my to do list, what on earth am I doing? I’m futzing around with making images of my Xbox Live Arcade Avatar so that I can post them online. Because that is time well spent, right? I can say something about gamer/street cred and social networks, but the truth of the situation is that I’m goofing off when I have much better things to be doing.

To which, I will respond with the quote that springs from the lips of my avatar: “What bus?” The proper response to such a query of course is, “That bus that is about to crush you, simpleton.” However, if you feel so compelled to create/use your own XBLA avatar images, may I recommend:

• Xbox.com | Avatars
• Xbox Live Gamertag Gamercard

It likely has something to do with an internal impression that this is “summer” and I’m supposed to extract some element of relaxation from this time of the year. Instead things have been perhaps more frantic and significantly warmer. But this will only become more interesting as new additions to the family come this winter will further obliterate my growing task list.

The upside is that at the moment I am only about half-way through the summer “break” and have plenty of time in which to complete many of the projects before they take on much more life of their own. I guess that having too many things on the list is better than having nothing to say or think about. But, I’ve never been one to be at a loss for words.

CKODonnell Gamercard

Recent conversations with friends and colleagues has sent me down several possible rabbit holes that I have not yet investigated enough to be definitive, but work on Osy Osmosis continues as well as several other projects. As you can see from the link, I have recently purchased a domain name for that project in the hopes that Osy can soon find a more public home.

Enough blogging and playing with avatars, I must go earn my keep.