Dan Conley

I know what you’re thinking:

Dan, you post too much!

I know, right? Well, because my activity on this site is so fast and furious, I thought I’d spread it out more. I’m now writing on two other sites. I never claimed to have good judgment…

Gaming Shenanigans is a new site being run by my future-brother-in-law-in-law Dave and me (the same due that’s been doing The Riot for over two years now). We’ve branched out and want to talk about all sorts of games. Board games, card games, video games, games of tag, you name it. As we’re just getting started, the site may be a little sparse, but bear with us. I think it’s got the potential to be a really cool place for obscure things… though I suppose that’s obvious. ‘This site sucks!’ isn’t really something I’d be thinking as I dedicated time to writing on it, would it?

Beer O Vision, on the other hand, has been around for quite time. Ethan knows a hell of a lot more about beer than I do, and is a much more experienced brewer, so collaborating with him will be a great learning experience. He’s also the mastermind doing the planning for the Buffalo Homebrewing Collective, which looks to be a very cool idea. I’m not altogether sure what I’ll be writing about for BOV, but that’s part of the challenge, isn’t it?

Now then, if tiny decided to throw another Blog War at me, I’d be thoroughly hosed.

(side note: I’m giving up and getting ecto; hopefully it will be the last you’ll have to hear about it)

Continue Reading

One thing that you should probably know about me is that I play video games. It’s just one of those ways that I relax, along with reading and poorly-played street hockey. My primary platform has become the Xbox 360, which has at its core the Xbox Live service that allows you to play over the internet with other people. These games can be “hardcore,” which is basically a way to say that they’re complex and a bunch of idiots take it too seriously, but they can also be easy and fun games. I play Halo, sure, but a good round of Marble Blast Ultra (if you played NES, it’s a lot like Marble Madness) is always appreciated.

The most recent (as far as I know) game to be released on Live Arcade (which tends toward the simpler, saner games) is UNO. Yes, you can just go out and buy the game if you want to play it with your family — this version doesn’t even have local multiplayer — but now it’s possible to play with people all over the world. If this doesn’t seem fun to you, then imagine continually playing the nasty cards on a British college student (Mark knows I love him): it’s the same evil pleasure, times the internet.

So, four of us are playing a game and discussing the gaming weekend we have planned in a month. A bunch of people, who mostly have never met in person, are going to be getting together at a resort outside of NYC for almost a week. We’re debating whether or not playing UNO will lead to physical violence, and trying to figure out how to play it if they don’t have internet access. We’ll have enough 360s, sure, but can we hook them up on a LAN?

My wife, who has been listening the entire time, suddenly bursts out, “Why don’t you just play with cards?” We all got silent, and felt very dumb. Ah, the internet…

Continue Reading