Weird Ebay reseller

This is weird. Somebody is selling two "new" copies of my game on Ebay, for $6 over new list price. They can't really be new, because the only new copies are in my basement and in the Amazon warehouse. Only two people have bought more than one copy at a time, and they're not ebay marketers - I know them personally. I also know where all the single copies that exist got sent to. So, a puzzle.

I'm not sure if they have used or promotional copies somehow, or if they're planning on fulfilling through Amazon or through me (although neither Amazon nor me offers two day shipping, which the Ebay seller promises). I guess it's possible they bought from Amazon and are repackaging, trying to make an extra $6 from markup. Or maybe it's that they're some kind of game store upselling trade-ins. Their other items for sale are all board games. If so, it would be hard for them to have gotten two copies already, and they wouldn't be new.

Obviously this doesn't really compete with me, because they are selling above my price, but it's weird. If people want to sell the game in game stores, I'm totally happy offering a discount for distribution.

Two tech tools

Both from PurplePawn.com.

Not cool:  Yoyn - There is nothing in this demo that shows me how a game can be played better on this platform than with cardboard pieces.  Rolling the die to roll a virtual die is strangely cool, but also pointless.  There has to be a better way to use all this technology.  And the background music for the video is maddening.

Cool: Lego Robot Chess - ironically, still mostly pointless, but makes up for it in style points.  The pathfinding algorithms must have been a bear to write.  My favorite parts:  1) The pieces going diagonal and backing out of the way to allow a piece to move diagonally through them; 2) the reveal, midway through, of the scale of the board, and 3) the animated parts of the mega-pieces, like the knight's rearing horse with animated forelegs, and the queen thumping her checkmate challenge at the end.

Both of these have an insanely low effort-to-utility ratio, but the lego chess is cool on a number of levels, maybe even for this low ratio.

Chess boxing

Via BoardGameNews comes this item on chess boxing, where rounds of chess alternate with rounds of boxing. What an odd concept - deep brain exercise alternating with brain damage, both of them involving a passionate contest of will and ego.  I've been struggling to think up a comparable combination sport like this, and I don't think there is one - both chess and boxing are terribly personal, visceral pastimes.

Two things I know, though.  First, if you had to win only one side of this competition, pick boxing - I imagine it would be deeply satisfying to thrash the guy beating you in chess. Second,  it would totally suck to get the pulp pounded out of you by a guy who can also beat you in chess.

My financial future is secure!

Well, that's a relief:

Gamers of ill repute

Via Penny Arcade I learned of a new service called GameCrush, where interested game players can connect with opponents for online gaming of both the traditional computer and console variety and also for implemented boardgames (they have an image of a game of Battleship on their website, seen here).

That sounds tame enough. Who doesn't want to find a willing opponent to play with? But it's not quite so tame. If you sign up for this service, you are actually using it to hire an opponent. Weird, but still not skeezy, right? Some folks might really want to play, and be challenged in the friend department.

But wait - the opponent you hire is called a PlayDate, so there's the idea that you're actually paying for somebody of your desired gender to have a semi-romantic interlude with you. So, it's essentially an escort service. The PlayDates get rated (I can't imagine there's not going to be a PlayDate of the Month, right?), and can command bigger fees if they, uh, perform well. And you get the choice of choosing a "flirty" or "dirty" opponent. Depends on how badly you want to go from player to playa, I guess.

It's a little hard to imagine this working as a business model, although I suppose those toll numbers they advertise on late night TV must attract some kind of customer base. I kind of think you're trying to scratch too many itches at once here. When I try to imagine how pathetic you'd be staring at a monitor, wearing a headset microphone, and playing some weird kind of dirty Battleship with a person you're paying $6.60 per ten minutes to "date," I really can't even get my head around it.

And that says something, because believe me, I know pathetic - pathetic and I go way back.