Water Water Everywhere

A prediction of what will be underwater when the sea rises two metres. Water Water Everywhere I helped run this session as part of the CLWG design conference; CLWG being the Chestnut Lodge Wargaming Group. I believe the organisation is around forty years old, and is much more focused on the design of new games rather than playing existing ones. Well, I say “helped run” the session, I mainly took notes while my co-designer, Terry Martin, asked the questions. ...

April 17, 2024 · 6 min · 1132 words · Nick Drage

"Leading the Rebellion": not what I was expecting.

A review of the book “Leading the Rebellion” by Jason Kingsley.

August 31, 2023 · 15 min · 2988 words · Nick Drage

Using randomness to enhance your life

Suggestions on when you should use randomness in your life.

August 22, 2023 · 4 min · 797 words · Nick Drage

I skipped half of this book, but you should definitely buy a copy.

A review of the book “Billion Dollar Lessons” by Carroll and Mui.

August 21, 2023 · 12 min · 2457 words · Nick Drage

Alternative operating systems for your phone

A summary of URLs for figuring out if your old mobile phone is supported by an alternative operating system.

August 17, 2023 · 2 min · 293 words · Nick Drage

My experience of DAZN

Seahawks versus Vikings, and what it was like to watch it on DAZN as an NFL GamePass subscriber

August 12, 2023 · 6 min · 1144 words · Nick Drage

Time travel, contrasts, insights, and all the sports documentaries.

A thoughtful listicle of the wide variety of things I read or watched this week, from March to August, from time-travel to sports.

August 8, 2023 · 33 min · 6925 words · Nick Drage

Getting around a Discord problem

Problem Discord I have sound issues on Discord, an occasional background humming or similar noise - that I can’t hear, and that doesn’t manifest when I’m using Discord’s “mic check”. But others have notified me about it, and then I notice my picture in meetings showing a green border, as though I’m talking, when I’m clearly not saying anything. So that means I’m making an online meeting just a little bit harder for everyone else. ...

August 3, 2023 · 3 min · 438 words · Nick Drage

Why use dice in serious games?

I was working through The Handbook of Cyber Wargames, that I co-wrote with John Curry, and came across this section on why dice should be used in professional games: From the book. “The use of dice here represents the influence of many unknown variables on the success or failure of a particular attack. In the real world, sometimes it is just chance that allows an attack to succeed or get stopped. For example, did the phishing attack target a particularly susceptible member of staff who was having a ‘bad day’, did the attackers choose the one server the System Administrators were troubleshooting, and they immediately noticed the unusual activity? This will help illustrate to the players that cyber security is risk-based, and that they must account for the different possible outcomes from an attack. Dice are a simple way of modelling the role of chance in cyber security.” ...

August 2, 2023 · 1 min · 171 words · Nick Drage

A week of fun spread over months.

Playing. These are the weeknotes1 on the games I’ve played2 purely for fun3 in the last few months. There’s very few listed below, which is very disappointing to look back on… I can’t help thinking I’ve missed a couple. But I do have a “new” Xbox360, and I’ve been tidying up some space, so maybe that will change. It kind of needs to change, considering how much time I spend thinking about games and game design. ...

July 6, 2023 · 7 min · 1433 words · Nick Drage