A veritable tidal wave of diversionary activity!

So first up, some of you longtime Bumblers will remember me talking about a mobile game called “Ingress.”  Well those same folk have teamed up with Nintendo, and used the existing Ingress engine for Pokemon Go.

It released yesterday in the U.S, and the gaming world has completely caught fire over it.  Right now everyone is flinging Poké Balls at tiny monsters that are hidden all around us.

I’ve been playing it for a bit too.  I caught a Meowth in my garage, a Squirtle by the elevator at work, and a sneaky little Weedle was hiding in my comforter this morning.  (Mind out of the gutter, people.)

This is a Weedle.

Anyway, it’s adorable.  It’s free.  Your kids will love it.  And they will utterly destroy the battery on your phone in under an hour while playing it.  Enjoy.

On the analog gaming front, I need to pick up a couple games this weekend for research purposes.  Hmm…  You know, I’ve already signed an NDA for this stuff, and so I’m not sure what I am and am not allowed to talk about.

So I’ll just say that I’m attempting to do some freelance stuff and I need to pick up a couple games so I have a grounding in their IPs.

The first is Arkham Horror, which has absolutely nothing to do with Arkham Asylum.

From what I can tell, it’s a board game set in a 1920’s Massachusetts town that’s being overrun by some Lovecraftian undesirables.  Looks interesting.  And squamous.

The other is Android: Netrunner which is a living card game that has a Bladerunner meets Neuromancer/Snow Crash feel about it.

This one has a helluva lot more expansions and rules than the former, so it could take me a while to figure it out.

So what this means is that my poor wife will have to suffer through these games with me over the next few days while I get a handle on how each one plays.  All so I can perform the freelance work that I’ve agreed to undertake.

Yep.  It’s a nonstop haut monde adventure being married to such a glamorous man.  I’m quite certain you all envy her.  Although, soon enough it will be Daphne’s job to suffer through these things with her father, and Jen will be off the hook.

Okay, see you guys on Monday.

j.s.