Ways to play a game

Today is the crunch week of the year. Terminal exams are arriving and, for me, the Edinburgh marathon looms next week. This weekend I need to finalise my coursework folders (a somewhat arduous, yet consequential, administration task that involves cross-referencing several documents) as well as the usual domestic chores. It is in that I have enjoyed playing an extraordinary amount of Total War, Mount and Blade, and Supreme Commander 2. Not to mention PES 2009. While I play these games, I wonder of the different ways of playing them. I rarely play a Total War game on a weekday. And I am yet to play Men of War for any length of time, not surprisingly seeing as I have encountered an especially complex mission and the game lacks anything like a...

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Memories of Champ Man '93

Memories of my A-level exams bring back memories of Championship Manager. How can what is essentially an interactive spreadsheet create such theatre? Have such memories? Be so brilliant?Right now I (as most teachers are across our fair and pleasant land) am focussed on the defining point of the young people I manage - their exams. It is a time that requires skills similar to that of a swotting student: perseverance, planning and plenty of pizza.However, my GCSEs were not taken at the time of the most recent (and well-designed) Football Manager franchise, but rather of the original quality spreadsheet gaming that was the glorious Championship Manager 1993. Like many things of the time, it was not polished; it must have taken between two and...

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