13 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2021
    1. Carcassonne just gets on my nerves because I just don't view selecting between so many placement options to be that interesting.

      Interesting that this has no meaningful choices for the exact opposite reason (too many options/decisions makes it boring/not meaningful) that Fjords had, which was that you are forced to go a certain direction (lack of options).

    2. Few real decisions to make....Not in my experience, either in tile placement or in disk placement. Of possible interest is the thread:Informal experiment: how easy to find "the optimal disk placement" in various positions?wherein we see that even in the second phase, which people often complain is "automatic" or "obvious", the decisions are not necessarily obvious.
    3. Incidentally, I like both these games more than Fjords because they offer up a wealth of decisions on each turn even if you have drawn an unlucky hand of cards.
    4. Luck is a major factor. As discussed above, sometimes the map seems to build itself and you draw tiles which you HAVE to place even though they are aiding your opponent.
    5. Otherwise, it plays out fairly predictably and very quickly. This is a shame because this is the point that it starts to feel like a real contest.
    6. Sometimes it feels like the map builds itself - there is often only one viable placement, so it starts to feel like a jigsaw, searching for that available position. Surely placing a single tile shouldn't be this difficult!
  2. Feb 2021
  3. Nov 2020
    1. I think a casual look at the game could be quick to take fault that some moves are scripted, and perhaps they are.  If play passes to you and there is a stock to be had for free…why _not_ take it? For me, it’s a distraction. The player before you likely considered the options and found the game state to be worth tempting you with that. Those free, or even cheap, stocks won’t gain you the influence in any companies that can make your personal cache more valuable.
  4. Jul 2020
    1. As designers, it is our decision to provide users with a clear, unambiguous choice, but we have no right to decide for users which choice they make.
  5. May 2020
    1. These options have almost deceptively similar wordings, with only subtle difference that is too hard to spot at a glance (takes detailed comparison, which is fatiguing for a user):

      1. can use your browser’s information for providing advertising services for this website and for their own purposes.
      2. cannot use your browser’s information for purposes other than providing advertising services for this website.

      If you rewrite them to use consistent, easy-to-compare wording, then you can see the difference a little easier:

      1. can use your browser’s information for providing advertising services for this website and for their own purposes.
      2. can use your browser’s information for providing advertising services for this website <del>and for their own purposes</del>.

      Standard Advertising Settings

      This means our ad partners can use your browser’s information for providing advertising services for this website and for their own purposes.

      Do Not Share My Information other than for ads on this website

      This means that our ad partners cannot use your browser’s information for purposes other than providing advertising services for this website.

  6. Mar 2020