Looney Labs Geeks Mailing list Archive

Re: [Geeks] geek testimonials

  • FromAllen Firstenberg <prisoner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • DateFri, 02 Feb 2007 13:16:11 -0500
(My apologies in advance if this is disjoint.  Feel free to use
any of this in whatever fashon makes more sense.)

I was introduced to Fluxx at a Hacker's convention (the non-pejorative
version of that term) while eating lunch.  Someone came over, asked if
a group of us wanted to play this game called Fluxx, and began
playing.  I missed most of the rest of the conference that day.

Looney Labs games appeal to some very basic geek instincts - Fluxx has
a very "software" feel to it - you're changing variables, trying to
match changing conditions, and those conditions are almost all boolean
conditions.  Try to program Fluxx (and so many have!) and you realize
how much like a program the game mechanics are.

And what Geek hasn't wanted to travel through time?  Chrononauts gives
you a time machine and a timeline to play with!  The "programmer"
influence there is obvious as well - rules for changing the timeline
are boolean operators.

Not only are the pyramids visually "futuristic", but their games
tap into many of the same themes that geeks fall into: RAM-bots is
programming with pyramids, while Zendo is a deep game of logic couched
in mystical terms.

And then it comes as no surprise that all these spring from someone
who is a geek himself.  Everything about Andy screams "geek".  Who but
a geek would create a room in his house wallpapered with maps?  Who
but a geek would install a model train running through multiple rooms
in their house?  Populate the rooms with pinball and videogames,
including a videogame he wrote?  Assemble his storm-trooper action
figures into a kick-line?  While there are many geeks that are
programmers, and many geeks that are involved in the space program,
who but a geek would become a programmer for NASA?

On Fri, Feb 02, 2007 at 11:11:10AM -0500, Kristin Looney wrote:
> I just started pitching our games to thinkgeek.com, and I
> have been telling the buyer that geeks love our games.  We
> were guests of honor a a Linux conference once, and Fluxx
> and pyramid games are common at such geeky conventions!
> 
> so I thought I would put a call out to this list for a
> few geek specific testimonials to send them - to help
> convince them that our games would be a good fit for
> their web site.  Anyone want to take a crack at telling
> me what it is that makes our games good geek gifts?
> 
> Thanks for helping us get more geeks access to our games!
> 
> -Kristin (who finally moved the 4 foot plotter print of
> the first high speed gate-array chip she designed up above
> her desk at the new office - just in time for Andy's
> filming at said office that will go up on YouTube soon.)
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