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Cosmic Encounter: My Philanthropist's analysis

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24 Feb 2018 13:32 #263946 by Erik Twice
I wrote an an article analyzing the Philanthropist from Cosmic Encounter. I don't know a group that likes Cosmic as much as you do and I know you liked my brief stuff on the What are you playing thread, so I thought you might like it:

Cosmic Encounter: Philanthropist, or the gamebreaking power of giving
The following user(s) said Thank You: Gary Sax, Sagrilarus, Not Sure, hotseatgames, Colorcrayons, drewcula, stoic

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24 Feb 2018 14:31 #263953 by Not Sure
I love the Philanthropist and always have.

When I first got into the game my group considered a shit power. It was normally only seen if we played single-deal and then basically treated as "I'm sorry". The jig was up when I started actually picking it deliberately.

"I'm being attacked? Oh look, I get a new hand." subtext: "Because you guys are holding all the wrong cards."

Very solid article, thanks for posting it.
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25 Feb 2018 10:33 #263977 by Erik Twice
Thanks Not Sure. Really glad you enjoyed it.

I actually heard about it being good way, way back when I first tried the game and thought it was fun but nothing special. So when finally got my own copy and my friends, who thought every single alien was broken, dimissed the Philantropist, well, I knew which power I had to pick!

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25 Feb 2018 15:47 #263983 by Gary Sax
btw, I adore blog posts and strategy stuff that is legit about one faction, element of a game, or mechanic. I feel like this hobby is fucking *drowning* in analyses that try to take on an entire game or genre but never become specific---no disrespect to the people around here who review professionally.
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25 Feb 2018 20:36 #263993 by Erik Twice

Gary Sax wrote: btw, I adore blog posts and strategy stuff that is legit about one faction, element of a game, or mechanic. I feel like this hobby is fucking *drowning* in analyses that try to take on an entire game or genre but never become specific---no disrespect to the people around here who review professionally.

I feel like that too.

It makes me a bit sad because, while I like these kind of top-down analysis, I feel they often miss the mark of what the games actually are. I think there's a real danger of writing about what is interesting or easier to write about instead of what the game actually is or how you actually play them. For example, it's easier to analyze the story of a game or what it tries to do than its actual gameplay or level design.

I feel this hurts many games who may not be easy to describe or talk about in an interesting manner but which are actually great to play. It's hard to explain why auctions, card management or negotiation are interesting, for example. And I think it unfairly pushes story or an interesting premise over what it's actually unique about the medium.

It's actually one of my writing goals to try to avoid this, though it's very hard. I try to find an angle for all the games I cover and find a balance between what we could call "high-level analysis" and more specific, low-level one. So in this article I tried to cover a bit of the concept of using giving as a power and also try to explain how it impacts hand management and the game in practice.
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