Headed For The East Coast Man

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Popularity of Board Game Designers

Designer board games are one type of entertainment which is gaining a lot of notoriety in the gaming world. By taking the much beloved format of board games and approaching the project from a new angle, designers of these board games have almost entirely reinvented the enterprise in a new and exciting way. Specialty designer board games generally offer their players simple rules, themed play, and a good deal of thought and planning, which is required to do well in the game. Because of these components, which are not usually all to be found in traditional board games, these designer board games have become quite the trend in the gaming world.

Additionally, many of the people responsible for designing these board games have become quite popular for their creations. Many of them have had multiple games produced, each one a success. Any game which prominently features a designer's name on the box can usually be considered to be of the calibur of a specialty designer board game. Many different designers exist, however, and their games are usually vastly different.

One of these board game designers, Reiner Knizia, has experienced so much success in the world of designer board games, that over 200 of his games have been published by various manufacturers. Knizia, who hold a PhD in Mathematics, has been designing board games since the age of 6. Since 1997, Dr. Knizia has worked as a full-time board game designer, and his resume clearly shows the success that he has experienced. 7 of his games can be found on the Games 100 list, while 14 of his games are to be discovered on Board Game Geek's Top 100 games list. On top of this, several different of the top gaming conventions all host "Kniziathons," which are tournaments in which solely Reiner Knizia games are played. Many of his games have won different prestige awards, such as Taj Mahal, which won both the 2000 Essen Feather Award and the Deutscher Spiele Preis Award in the same year. His game based on the popular Lord of the Rings books was granted a Spiel des Jahres 2001 special prize and can be considered the most popular of his board games, with publication in 17 different languages and over 1 million copies sold.

Andreas Seyfarth is another immensely popular designer of board games, with Puerto Rico being considered to be his crowning achievement. The game places players in the role of governors on the island of Puerto Rico during the era of the Caribbean ascendancy. Their goal is to earn the most victory points through various means, such as constructing new buildings or the shipment of goods from the ports. Seyfarth's games all have been ranked very highly by various board game enthusiast companies, with Puerto Rico often placed at the number one spot on many top board game lists. A number of his other games have all been granted very prestigious awards over the years that they were produced and any game with his name on it can be considered a high-quality game worth any player's time.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for board games, chess boards, and dungeons and dragons miniatures. You will find all these things and more if you visit board games designers, chess boards.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, center, leaves his home through a back alley Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008, a day after he was arrested on federal corruption charges. (AP Photo/Mark Carlson)AP - His career in shreds, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich clung defiantly to power Wednesday, ignoring a call to step down from President-elect Barack Obama and a warning that Senate Democrats will not let him appoint a new senator from the state.

XBox Ring of Death - How to Fix the XBox Ring of Death

One issue that surely makes the blood run cold for any Xbox 360 owner is the sight of the dreaded "xbox ring of death". More appropriately, the red ring of light on the front of an Xbox 360 that flashes red, indicating some major trouble is about to go down.

Since its initial launch, the Xbox 360 on the hardware side has taken somewhat of a bad rap- by some in the media - as a console that constantly overheats and poorly manufactured. These issues are just a couple of the reasons people have experienced when the dreaded flashing red lights illuminate on their beloved Xbox console.

Whatever the reason for seeing the 'xbox ring of death' it is never a welcome sight. You may have read about the plights of Xbox owners who've had to go through the process of getting a new Xbox 360 when they've succumbed to the red ring of death, and no doubt in turn heard the many problems experienced with trying to receive a replacement system.

Flashing red lights on the front of the Xbox 360's normally green light ring is a bad sign, no matter how you look at it, but all red lights do not necessarily mean a visit to the Microsoft repair site in Texas.

The large majority of xbox ring of death issues can be resolved from the comfort of your own home. The Xbox 360's ring is divided into four separate quadrants. Each division turning red indicates a separate problem, all with a different way of resolving the issue.

There are now guides online and tutorials on exactly how to fix your Xbox red light ring of death from the comfort of you living room within an hour or two - Guaranteed.

The best of the available guides offers both training videos and real live customer support to guide you through the process as needed. A good guide also requires zero level of technical experience and is simply a matter of following the tutorials and using items found commonly around the house. Hence no expensive electrical equipment or technical knowledge is required.

For a detailed listing of Xbox Red Light Services check out: xbox red light services

In <a href=>this</a> photo released on Monday, Dec. 8, 2008 by the French Defense ministry, a French Navy officer from the EPE, an embedded protection team, is seen aboard the French luxury yacht 'Le Ponant' checking the horizon using binoculars while a Lynx helicopter is about to land on French anti-submarine frigate 'Jean de Vienne', as part of the 'Atalante' protection mission of ships in the gulf of Aden, off Somalia's coasts, in this photo taken Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008 . About 50 cargo ships travel daily through the Gulf of Aden, a strategic <a href=http://wpines1.com/hunting>waterway</a> that links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea. (AP Photo/Ecpad/French Defense Ministry/HO)AP - Ahmed Dahir Suleyman is cagey as he talks about the global network that funds and supports piracy off the coast of Somalia.