Winning the Human Race- ORIGINS Review Hot

Does this game deal with the "mopping up' of the pesky Homo Erectus remnants by our ancestors?

I'd wind up as the Yanomami as I stink at these games.

Geeze, when you said Origins, I thought you meant the con in Columbus and I was going to make the comment that picture does a pretty good job of capturing the likeness of your average Columbus resident....

Now I have to come up with somthing different. I mean, how epic is it to gather up some dirt and make something in your own image? :) :) :)

At first I felt flattered that they made a game about my life but somehow I feel insulted! And the slamming of Chapel was uncalled for!!! I am meeting him for a Latte later and we are going to have a pow wow on this issue, believe me!!

I mean, how epic is it to gather up some dirt and make something in your own image?

We'll never know. God is not featured as a character in ORIGINS. The game is based on facts. ;-)

Hey, I grew up in Cobb County, GA...where "evalooshun" isn't just wrong, it's ILLEGAL.

Weeks- be careful of meeting up with Chapel...if your latte tastes like bananas, he's probably slipped you something.

HA!! I really do need to take a trip to Austin and meet up with Chapel and do some gaming. I have seen his pictures of his gameroom and it is a cool setup!!!

I am not sure I could break through his "circle of protection" though!!! HA!

I was waiting for this review. I've played Origins a few times now and you hit most of the things we noticed in our games. PATIENCE and BRUTALITY. This game is tough, and fragile. You play even in the slightest bit inefficient you are toast. Here is a snippet that I wrote on BGG a while back:

But it is an intriguing game no doubt. I think the trick as I mentioned is more people to keep the cards moving quickly. LONG ass game, and we have the Era IV deck that we hardly touched before calling it a day.

I love the simulation feel to the game. And in all good simulation you either succeed, and dye out fast. Takes some tought.

It's not my Circle of Protection as much as my 10 inch +5 Singing Vorpal Blade...oh yeah, lady killa!

The card circulation in the game is really interesting...once somebody has a development, it can be "imitated", raided, or taught by another player. So really good cards (like the ones that give you Elders) get circulated around rather than just discarded.

Chap's strategy hints are right on the money...metallurgy will make you die. Advancing into Era II too soon is a mistake because you actually have a different set of actions that you take once your brain is completley developed and some options disappear.

Patience and brutality indeed!

"F:AT's very own monkeyboy MIKE CHAPEL" - Huh?!? I thought Mike sluts around all of the gaming websites.

Chapel is a veritable web whore.

At least he has good taste in beer...

Mike...is this the final avatar?

Oh Chap..Chap 'ole boy..

chappy

Chap Rocks...Hey avatars are meant to be replaced. Wait 'til you see me sporting Bogart.

I think i'm feeling this avatar. good fit.

Evil...goood!

Beer...Good!

What's not to like?

Thanks for the review. I'm intrigued. Unfortunately, 5 hour games are not going to happen with the people I play with.

Oh man, just yesterday I was telling my gamer friends that (once again) my game collection was complete and theres no reason for me to go out and buy anything new. I had just got in Arkham Horror and 2 Command and Colors Expansions that I ordered for myself for xmas.

But man, this game sounds awesome. When you said it has footnotes about the anthropological sources of the gameplay, I started drooling out of my mouth. I took several anthropology classes when I was in college, and have always had an amateur interest in human evolution. On top of that, many people I game with have a similar interest in this topic as well as civilization games. On the plus side, that might make it easy for me to convince them to buy a board game for once.

I also can't help but wonder what Tom Vasel's review of this game would look like. I remember a while back reading a review of his on "Wildlife", a simple euro about evolution and dominance of different animal groups. While he praised the gameplay as some of the best he had seen, he felt it necessary to add that he had a deep problem with the theme as he did not believe in evolution. However he successfully pushed out this horrible, anti-christian theme to successfully enjoy the game.

Sorry if I offend, but this is typical christian "morality" and why I find the religion so offensive. I bet you could pour through Vasel's hundreds of reviews and not find one digression on the morals of slaughtering millions in a war game, or enslaving people in a eurogame like Puerto Rico. Yet he felt the need to take an aside out of a review of a boardgame to mention "Hey, the game is cool, but I want to make a point that I dont believe in this evolution stuff".

A combination of reading drivel like that and seeing ATers start to go after Vasel helped to wake me out of the euro-pit I was sinking into and get back to games I actually liked, instead of games I was supposed to like. I do like Wildlife though as an aside.

Sorry for the rant great review, hopefully I can find someone with this game and check it out.

I wonder if Vasel has the same opinion of EVO? I still think his finest moment of morality was in his review for HEX HEX, where he claims that in his groups that they don't call it a hex that gets passed around but a "little bomb". So getting your face blown off by a "little bomb", something that's pretty real, is somehow more morally correct than a fictional spell?

But anyway, yeah, if you like the subject matter you'll really dig it...it's one of those rare games that's really interesting and not just from mechanics/gameplay position. I think it's interesting to get into Eklund's interpretations of things and see why he chose to depict certain things in certain ways and why it makes sense. Even coming up with variants is interesting because you find ways to tie them into facts.

But yeah- 4-5 hours seems to be a bare minimum.

I actually think that this is a 3 hour game with practice. That first play is gonna be brutal because the game is so very alien.

When are we playing again? Also....and I have the equally baffling and similar American Megafauna. Nothing like a game that covers 6 million years PER TURN to set your perspectives.

The concept of population and intelligence *IS* interesting and is the fundamental theme of the game. The core idea is that humans began to change from the idea of just multiplying as fast as possible, and began to spend more time nurturing each child. "Bigger Brained Babies" then gave the species more chances to advance technologically as well as expand brain use.

Personlally, I would kill for Phil to make a game based on Parasite Rex. (Check this puppy out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii)

Just comment from one Christian's perspective- not all Christians think evolution is complete hooey. Many, including myself, think it's quite possible that evolution is a means that God has used in His creation. It's the idea that evolution happened without any guiding intelligence that I don't agree with. I think a strong case can be made that belief in that positon takes just as much faith as belief in God does.

Evolution without God- ok, put a pile of dirt on the floor and wait for it to turn into a creature. Hmmmm. Gonna be waiting awhile. Not to mention the question of where did that dirt come from? Oh yeah, it just appeared...out of nothing...by itself. Like I said- atheism takes one huge leap of faith of its one.

Science helps us understand our world. Is the world billions of years old or just 10-15,000 or so. I very strongly lean towards the billions theory. But at the end of the day I don't really know, and neither does anybody else. And in the great scheme of things that's fine with me because the age of the earth doesn't really impact me.

I'd also like to point out that many Christians do not like every single game that comes out, write voluminous reviews that reprint the rules and spout a lot of gibberish without expresisng an actual opinion, or have a warehouse full of free games. Please do not paint all Christians with the Vasel brush.

What? Evolution doesn't address the origin of life - it addresses the origin of species.

Thanks for your comments Dan- nice to see your perspective on intelligent in a logical, sensible, and respectful way.

Didn't meant to tar you with the "Vasel Brush"!

Now PLEASE, let's not turn this into the debate it's threatening to...come on guys, the game features "Female Coyness"!

The Vasel Brush...didn't they use to have those at those Games Workshop stores?

Personlally, I would kill for Phil to make a game based on Parasite Rex. (Check this puppy out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii)

I've heard of this parasite....very insidious and amazing. It actually infects the brain and does a kind of mind control. I want to learn more....

Just comment from one Christian's perspective- not all Christians think evolution is complete hooey...Please do not paint all Christians with the Vasel brush.

Hey, I understand christians have their own personal beliefs and have different sects and what not with different sets of beliefs. I have christian friends and think most of them are decent people. It is a common thread I often see running through the majority of Christians, where they rally against things like homosexuality or evolution (each of which directly harm very few people) and are conspicuosly silent on chastizing things like the Iraq War, which has resulted in the actual death and killing of over a million people. And yes there are christians against the war, just like there are christians that are OK with homosexuality, but I'm talking about the general mobilization of outrage over issues that Christians in general unite against.

I have a lot of respect for unhypocritical christians who try and live by their code of beliefs...such as the amish and other "fringe" groups...but I still think a belief in God causes more harm than good in the world, and see religion as humanity's largest problem.

And leaving some dirt on the floor will do exactly that, you just have to wait a few billion years. No magic wand needed.

I wonder if Vasel has the same opinion of EVO?

Out of curiosity I read through the review, he does mention this:

And the theme is played out in such a ridiculous fashion that no matter what one thinks of evolution; they should enjoy the game.

Not as juicy of a tidbit as I was hoping for, but still he brought it up.

Actually, Origins does not really have much at all to do with evolution.

You do pretty much start as Cro-Magnon, Neanderthal, Hobbit, or one of those other two. The game assumes that those subspecies (maybe full species) are pretty much consolidated by interbreeding by the end of Age I.

The whole Big Brain Baby thing seriously implies that most of the changes are cultural as opposed to genetic--even though the rules reference a concept of "awakening parts of the brain."

Evolution discussions and fistfights are totally inappropriate for this game.

More likely, we should discuss how slavery actually seems to benefit the enslaved player, and is a somewhat desirable thing. I dare you to drop that one onto BGG.

We should probably stick to knife fights with monkeys.

They still do...of course now there $25 a pop.

Yeah, the slavery thing is kinda funky...but at least it's honest and doesn't try to say that you make the subjugated race "colonists" or something. Well, there is that whole "guest workers" thing.

The game really is more about cultural evolution, but anthropological succession is definitely a theme and a strong subtext. Why else could you "silverback" in era 1 but never again?

Evolution discussions and fistfights are totally inappropriate for this game.

I'd say that holds true for website posts illustrated with images of monkey-suited men wielding bananas as well. Well, maybe not the fistfights...

It is a common thread I often see running through the majority of Christians

Actually most Christians are Catholic, and Catholics do believe in evolution.

Great... I have yet to get this one on the table. Maybe tomorrow. Looks like a winner.