Update 16

 Well, I seem to have let a lot of time slip by… been thinking about a lot of stuff… also doing some gaming…

For awhile the main game was go. I have read or reread a bunch of go books over the last few months. I finished “Get Strong at the Opening”, “The 1971 Honinbo Tournament”, then I reread “Final Summit” and “9-Dan Showdown”, then I read “Five Star Kita Fumiko”, and “Ogawa Doteki: Go Prodigy”. All of these I ready by playing over the moves on my physical board as I read the commentary. My next go book is that I decided I wanted to finish “Invincible” to the 100% degree mark. I have already played over all the commented games that make up the bulk of the book but there are a bunch of uncommented or very lightly commented games in the book also and I want to play over those. I did start “Get Strong at Joseki 1” but kind of stalled with it. I guess my main complaint is just that the positions seem very random and there doesn’t seem to be that much of a chance of me figuring out the correct answers. So, I have kind of shelved it although maybe I will go back to it. I also started on Robert Jasiek’s book “Joseki 1” I have actually skimmed through the whole book but I am trying to go back and reread more carefully now.

I have also continued to play my daily games on two go servers. I would like to say I was taking them super seriously but for the most part it has been fairly casual. I do feel I am learning though.

On the video game front I have kind of let Baldur’s Gate 3 slide. I was pretty into it but for some reason put it down and haven’t picked it back up again. I have been playing a good amount of Age of Wonders 4 though. This is a strategy game, similar in basic concept to the Civilization games but with many things that are different. I have been enjoying this game. I also have watched some Potato McWhiskey youtube vids about the game. He is primarily a Civilization creator but has gotten kind of hooked on Age of Wonders 4 and made some videos about it a couple of years back. They have really helped me get a handle on the complexity of the game. There is still a lot of stuff that I gloss over when playing but I am definitely making progress and improving with each playthrough.

Other than that I have kind of been getting interested in gettting back into chess. This was a result of some deep reflection where I realized that in a lot of ways even though I had been away from it a lot in the last few years that chess is still pretty much my number one game. It is the game I have really invested the most time, money, and effort into. I have really gone to a lot more effort to play chess seriously than any other game. So anyways. I started some daily games again on Game Knot and just joined a slow time control tournament organized through the Chess Dojo club. It’s online but is the best I can do for slow time control chess vs other real humans. I would like to get back to playing OTB but most of the OTB tournaments in Taiwan are rapid time controls.

As far as Magic goes I haven’t really played in a while but would like to get back to it. In some way I really see chess, go, and magic as the big three of games for me. These are the games I like the best and feel the most interest in and have the most desire to take seriously. There was a prerelease last weekend but although I was interested I decided to skip it for a variety of reasons. I guess one big issue is just the whole Universes Beyond thing. This is a developement that took place in which Magic’s parent company after decades of exploring its own lore decided to start licensing other IPs and making whole sets of cards themed on other IPs. It started with some Warhammer 40K commander decks or the Lord of the Rings set but it was just a huge hit money-wise so the company has just totally gone hogwild with it and now there are more Universes beyond sets than actual Magic the Gathering lore sets. In some ways I guess I am part of the problem because I did buy the Warhammer 40K commander decks and the Doctor Who commander decks. But in my opinion they have just gone way overboard with it and I feel I am losing interest in the game because it. That said there are a lot of things I still really like about magic and I definitely see myself playing more. I have stockpiled some resources on Arena so I can play there whenever I want but have in some ways like I mentioned I have been in a period of deep reflection and while I realized I really do value Magic I am trying to be cautious right now and not overextend.

Something else that I have been thinking about is the mental game. What I mean by this is the psychology of playing. I feel like there are two main issues here. One is somehow managing the competitive fire. I think competitive fire is really essential if you want to take games seriously but it can be really challenging to keep that fire at a good level. In some ways it is easy for me to kind of let it slow down and go out. Sometimes I just take a kind of long view of the game but then my desire to win gets too attenuated and I lose motivation. But on the other hand, if you let it get too high then you will take losses too seriously and basically will burn out. So, somehow this competitive fire needs to be managed and that is something I am not super good at. On the flip side is something that came up in some writing I was doing about leaving my ego and insecurities at the door. This is tough thing. In many ways I am able to do this but then somehow they will come back in. Basically I think it is necessary to leave that stuff at the door and be relaxed but attentive when you play. This is a tricky mentality to get into. Obviously this is really important for being able to play and have fun. However, in some ways it is a bit opposed to the competitive fire thing. So it is really tricky to navigate this dichotomy successfully. I feel like sometimes I am too good at leaving the ego and insecurities at the door and what happens is that I start to play like it doesn’t matter… and I make dumb mistakes because I am not taking it seriously enough. I also don’t want to actively work on my game when I am in those places. So, it is necessary to have a balance but I am unsure how exactly to find that balance.

I have also been thinking some more about philosophy and games. One idea I had was to analyze games from the point of view of Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms. I am unsure if I will ever get to this but it seemed like an interesting thread to follow up on.

Another thread that came up just today is going back to this idea of being the King of Value. This is a playing style of knowing the value of the pieces and moves you are making. I feel like it is much more multi-dimensional than just being an attacker or a control player or territorial or whatever style. I also feel like it really works as a life strategy also to focus on trying to get value out of your own experience and knowledge and basically the things I have invested in in life.