I have been told that Ken Tidwell passed away (Matt Leacock has apparently posted a note on Facebook)¹. Many of my readers will have at least know-of Ken …. because he founded The Game Cabinet, which was the go-to site for European games and (I believe) inspired Aldie to make BGG. Ken was also an entrepreneur who founded multiple startups, and at various times in my career I asked him for advice and/or commiserated with him. I got some good stories (and hopefully told a few as well).

My condolences to his family and especially his wife Jocelyn.

1. Searching revealed that there are a number of Ken Tidwells with Obituaries, but none of them are the one I know. Also, not using facebook, I wouldn’t know how to find that. ︎

Oh, right.

Day One’s entry is For Sale …. um, ok. It’s a fine game and all that; but I have no idea why it is a game that “made meaningful contributions to the board game hobby in the areas of innovation, artistry, and impact.”

Day Two is Puerto Rico … OK, this is the “We didn’t put this in the initial class for the reasons you expect, but we are putting it in” day.

Day Three is Memoir ’44 … I prefer Battle Cry, but I understand honoring the much bigger seller.

Day Four is Love Letter … I like Love Letter and I think it’s a good game. I think it’s a bit wild that a small game from 15 years ago is in before …. lots of other games.

I’ll update this post as I notice the games this week (assuming I do).

I’ve been informed that Bill Cleary (BGG User Puffinge) passed away this morning. (I don’t use facebook, but if you do here’s the link).

I met Bill Cleary after he allowed a local gamer to bring me and Mrs. Tao as a “plus two” (sight unseen) for a weekend of gaming at his place (‘BillCon’) which occurred 2-3 times a year. A dozen-ish gamers would descend on Casa de Cleary. One perk of showing up as a married couple was that Bill magnanimously declared we’d get a guest bed and not have to sleep on the floor.

I met Alan Moon at BillCon and that’s how we got invited to the Gathering. Alan has just posted a note saying that the Gathering literally would not exist except for Bill (who prodded him into doing it), which means that not only do I directly owe my introduction to hundreds of gamers to Bill, but a good chunk of the gaming world was introduced to each other (indirectly) by Bill’s actions.

I’ve seen Bill almost every year since then … as the convention got larger I’d spend less time with him each year, but still chatting at least a few minutes here and there. But it was a far cry from the early years where we’d play together for days. Board games, party games, card games, video games (Bomberman!). Anything.

At one BillCon (they blur together in my mind) Bill played Celebrities partnered with a young man (possibly a college freshman?) and together they shared exactly zero common knowledge. Bill was a pop culture obsessive with an extensive Rock/Pop/Motown CD collection. The kid (Nate) had grown up without a TV and listened to classical music. Needless to say, their score was disastrous, but their team was dubbed “Geezer and the Fetus.” I remember thinking “Bill’s not that old, probably less than two decades older than us….” but it was funny, one of those jokes that might have been memes, if memes had been a thing.

20 years is a much bigger gap as the years go on, at least physically. But when I saw him earlier this year, he didn’t look great, but …. I didn’t think it would be the last time I’d see him, either.

I honestly don’t remember what we talked about.

RIP Bill.

Update — Created a BGG Geeklist in his memory.

But it is at least just a restructuring bankruptcy, according to the article “The company will continue.”

Haba is/was an excellent company. Sure, all their games were for (very) young children, but my kids learned to count playing Monster Speziale, and it wasn’t just a roll and move. You could roll and move either clockwise or counterclockwise, which is more decisions than Monopoly, but a number that a kid could handle. Roll die (which I think was 1-2-3 only) and then tap the spaces one direction … does that work? No …. tap the spaces the other direction …. does that work? (You’d also have to determine if you wanted to add or lose the number of slices of pizza on the landing space).

Similarly, Highly Suspect is like a mini-Ricochet Robots, a spatial puzzle where you tilt the board and all the pawns slide to the end of the row (of the little maze like city) and you are trying to get the cop to catch the robbers, but you only get one or two tilts to move them. So, a great idea pared down to something small children can handle.

I remember my mother commenting that Candyland (etc) drove her crazy when I was a child, so any game a 3-5 year old likes that you can tolerate is a win. One that actually inspires kids to learn how to do some math (or thinking about what a board position will be after a move) is a blessing.