AlecbuggHype for this strokes album
April’s slate of album releases looked a lot different a month ago. Due to the myriad setbacks attributable to COVID-19, LPs from Lady Gaga, HAIM, and Hinds got pushed back, while Dua Lipa just went ahead and dropped Future Nostalgia a week early. No matter, there’s still plenty of good stuff arriving this month,…
AlecbuggYOOO JOE I wonder if the special is up on there too?? That was a fire movie
Adding to the abundance of streaming content currently available to viewers riding out the coronavirus quarantine, the Hasbro toy company has generously uploaded the first 15 episodes of the classic animated series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. Nothing will make you more inspired to do the right thing during this…
AlecbuggWant
Since its release in 2015, Pandemic Legacy has become regarded as one of the greatest board games ever made. It held Board Game Geek’s no. 1 spot for virtually all of 2016 and 2017, and is currently ranked no. 2. Other sites have heralded it as the “Greatest Board Game of All Time”—or at least “one of the best.”
Z-Man Games/Ringer illustration
A board game about disease may not seem like a natural activity to play during this strange time, but for some, it’s proved to be a welcome distraction
The sports and pop culture calendars have paused. The safest thing that you can do right now is stay inside. And millions of people are looking for creative ways to pass the time. The Ringer is here to help. We’re starting a series called the Social Distancing Diaries, with our staff’s ideas for finding comfort, joy, community, or distraction while doing your part to flatten the curve. In the coming weeks, we’ll be diving into what we’re passionate about and want others to discover—from bidets to buried treasure and everything in between.
I first realized the virus was going to be a problem when it reached the United States. It was mostly contained in Asia and Europe early in the year, but when it landed on America’s West Coast, things escalated quickly. As a CDC scientist, I needed to ramp up my efforts looking for a cure, while hoping the medics in the field could buy me some time.
So I reached for my beer, then drew a couple of cards from the deck … and flipped over an epidemic card. Damnit. Round over.
For the past couple of weeks, my girlfriend and I have been playing Pandemic Legacy, a cooperative board game in which players act as CDC employees who are tasked with stopping four infectious diseases from ravaging the globe. We purchased the game about a week before our real-life state, California, issued a shelter-in-place order due to the coronavirus pandemic. We knew we’d need something to keep us busy indoors—and this game felt like the perfect fit.
The goal of Pandemic Legacy is to save the world from a pandemic, so it couldn’t be more topical; it’s collaborative, so it’s perfect for two hyper-competitive people locked in an apartment together; and we were already familiar with Pandemic, which is the base game that predates Legacy. In Pandemic, two to four players move about a world map trying to contain and cure four diseases. There are characters with different powers, and enough random elements that each game feels unique. Players have to balance curing diseases with stopping the spread of infection. Focus too much on researching a treatment, and the diseases may cover the globe. Worry too much about containment, and time may run out before the diseases can be stopped for good. It’s not easy—though players work together, the game is tough enough that even seasoned veterans won’t always win. And if you screw up too badly, you can always reset the board and try to save the world again.
Legacy builds on all of that by introducing a narrative component. Legacy begins similarly to Pandemic, with players working to cure four diseases—until one mutates and everything gets thrown into flux. In this game, players go through an entire calendar year, with each month taking up a “round” of gameplay. New twists pop up every time the calendar flips, and in between rounds players can add upgrades or see their characters’ abilities diminish. Each domino hits another one, and there is absolutely no resetting. There are literally spoilers—in a board game.
Since its release in 2015, Pandemic Legacy has become regarded as one of the greatest board games ever made. It held Board Game Geek’s no. 1 spot for virtually all of 2016 and 2017, and is currently ranked no. 2. Other sites have heralded it as the “Greatest Board Game of All Time”—or at least “one of the best.” I hesitate to heap the same praise onto it (I mean, how could it be better than, like, chess?), but after spending a few weeks playing it, I can say that it delivers a board-game experience unlike any other I’ve had.
The first time the game instructs you to put a sticker on the board, the stakes still feel low. It’s just a sticker—surely you can peel it off if you mess things up too badly, right? But the first time the game instructs you to rip up a card—not put it aside, but actually physically destroy it—is tough. It went against every single instinct I have, and confirmed that in Pandemic Legacy, there are absolutely no do-overs. This game is made to be played only once, and it won’t let you get around that.
This is how Legacy games work. Unlike the vast majority of board games, Legacy games do not “reset” at the end of a round. Instead, the game delivers a narrative experience that functions a bit like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book, with decisions that have lasting effects from round to round. The first Legacy board game, Risk Legacy, was invented by game designer Rob Daviau in 2011. But it was Pandemic Legacy, which Daviau also worked on, that helped popularize the format.
“In a brainstorm for Clue we were talking, and I made the comment of, ‘I dunno why they keep inviting these people to dinner, they’re all mass murderers,’” Daviau said in 2016. “And it was this moment where I went ‘Oh yeah!’ The game kind of starts over like the movie Groundhog Day. But the players don’t start over.”
There are now dozens of these games, and they’ve increased in popularity throughout the 2010s. The current no. 1 game on Board Game Geek’s website, Gloomhaven, is another legacy-style game, released in 2017. There’s also a second “season” of Pandemic Legacy, as well as a number of other popular titles like Charterstone and SeaFall—and something called Ultimate Werewolf Legacy.
I’m not familiar with how those other games play, but Pandemic Legacy is hectic. It’s tense. It’s also a ton of fun.
The game includes plenty of aspects that you wouldn’t find in your everyday Candy Land. There is a deck of cards you don’t touch until you’re supposed to. There are dossiers with classified information. There are sealed boxes that have mysterious, game-altering pieces inside. There are stickers that you place everywhere—on the board, on player cards, and on the deck itself. There are scratch-off cards and cards you think are important but will later be instructed to tear into pieces.
There are upgrades—and downgrades. There is funding you’ll get from the government, which—much like in real life—decreases when public health seems more secure (this is the game’s balancing mechanism; win more rounds in a row and you’ll get less funding). There are military bases and roadblocks and quarantines and more characters than you can count—we named our medic after Florence Nightingale and our scientist is a great-great granddaughter of Marie Curie. There are new twists added with each round.
Regular Pandemic is already a fairly complex game, presenting players with plenty of options and strategies each go-around. That’s why it’s played with hands face up, so that the cooperating parties can work together in the hopes of defeating the diseases ravaging the world. Legacy takes those rules, adds a few, and then later adds a ton more. In any one month of gameplay, players could take dozens of different approaches. Maybe it makes sense to work on curing the disease one round, then take a military-first approach in the next. Maybe it makes sense to focus on putting cities under lockdown … or just letting the diseases run rampant as players race to finish some other objective.
Longer-term strategies come into play, too. Multiple times we have delayed winning by a few turns to try to accomplish more things on our board—though those decisions are not without risk. We’ve been burned once or twice by not following a straightforward path to victory. Just remember, whatever you do—whatever mistakes you make—the consequences are permanent.
Feel a bit overwhelmed? This is how I felt when our game got to May. January, February, March, and April weren’t too much trouble. The game threw us some curveballs, but with the right strategies and some old-fashioned luck of the draw, we were able to win all four months with only a few permanent negative effects. Then May happened. One of the diseases mutated again, and we got our asses absolutely handed to us.
Not only did we lose that round, but our board was littered with stickers—bad ones. It felt like we were heading toward disaster, and we still had seven months of the game left. Fortunately when June came, we played a nearly flawless round. Thanks to a couple of key upgrades, the right characters, and a bit of card luck, we even felt comfortable taking a few risks to try to improve our board. We were able to not only win June, but mitigate some looming catastrophes. These impossibly high stakes are what make Pandemic Legacy so fun. Whereas our defeat in May was absolutely demoralizing, our win in June was beyond exhilarating. We still haven’t finished the game yet, but I can’t wait to see what twists and turns await us in the final few months.
You’d think that playing Pandemic during a literal pandemic would only heighten the anxiety. For many, that’d surely be true. But for me it’s just the opposite—it’s a welcome distraction. It helps that the world outside my apartment window does not look like the one on my Pandemic board. COVID-19 has killed more than 30,000 people and infected hundreds of thousands—if not millions—more. I don’t want to give away the specifics of Pandemic Legacy, but I imagine the infections in that game leaving cities looking like London in Children of Men. If the world ever gets to that point, a board game like this will feel out of place. But right now it makes sense.
We still don’t know how many people COVID-19 will end up affecting, but right now we know the best thing most people can do is “flatten the curve” by staying indoors and limiting social contact, therefore buying health officials more time to address the crisis. For some lucky Americans, that means Zoom meetings and Slack chats. For others, it means unemployment and a far scarier future. For everyone, it means staying home. And one way to make that a little more fun, is, well, by playing board games.
AlecbuggWere these games good?
AlecbuggJared!You ever finish your blitz through bond movie marathon?
No Time to Die may be delayed until November, but that doesn’t mean your April should be James Bond-free. A ton of classic 007 titles—ranging from the second film in the franchise, From Russia With Love starring Sean Connery, to Pierce Brosnan’s final mission as the British spy, Die Another Day—are hitting Amazon…
AlecbuggJesus Christ, I am playing this game all wrong.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
These friends won’t reappear for a while, so grab ‘em while you can
Alecbugghooray!
AlecbuggFuck, yep it really is an ear worm
On March 4, or roughly 98 weeks ago in 2020 time, a 20-year-old musician named Curtis Roach uploaded the following video to TikTok. He was, we suspect, bored in the house and in the house bored. Oh, this sweet summer child. Little did he know what was coming.
AlecbuggHmmmm not a huge fan of this
Ahsoka Tano could be coming to The Mandalorian, according to new reports. Per SlashFilm, the Disney+ Star Wars series recently cast Rosario Dawson to appear as the beloved Jedi Padawan. This will be the first live-action appearance of the popular apprentice, who has only appeared in The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels…
AlecbuggThis is wonderful.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have teamed up for a parody of Shaun of the Dead in the time of social distancing and coronavirus.
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AlecbuggI wonder if you can stream this sans account
Taking Back Sunday will be doing an acoustic livestream on Instagram on Sunday March 22nd, at 2pm ET.
View this post on InstagramJoin us (from home) won’t you?
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AlecbuggI will absolutely watch this.
Getty Images/Ringer illustration
Basketball has been canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ice Cube’s three-on-three league has a plan to change that.
All the basketball is gone. March Madness is canceled. The NBA season is postponed. For a desperate minute, I became deeply invested in Australia’s National Basketball League, which was playing its championship series last week. But then Andrew Bogut and the Sydney Kings held a team meeting and decided that it would be irresponsible and unsafe to travel via plane to Game 4, and the series was called with Miles Plumlee and the Perth Wildcats leading 2-1. My online sportsbook prompted me to bet on Turkish basketball, but alas—that, too, has now been canceled.
Enter Ice Cube, who’s here to save the day with a concept so alarming that I’d probably be outraged by it if I weren’t completely starved for basketball. The Big 3, the three-on-three league composed primarily of retired NBA players, plans to launch a tournament/reality show/social experiment intended to give fans basketball while everyone is social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. A handful of Big 3 players who test negative for the coronavirus will reportedly move into a large house with a basketball court, and will be quarantined as their games—and apparently their entire lives—will be broadcast to the world. From the Yahoo report:
To assure the league is operating under safe conditions, players will be quarantined in a large home provided by the league, sources said. A basketball court/facility will be built on site. If a player breaks quarantine at any point during the tournament, he would be eliminated and removed from the premises, sources said.
The games and the players’ daily lives will be captured on camera for added drama and storylines. The production crew would be stationed nearby but offsite from the players.
Ice Cube summarized the concept to The Undefeated’s Marc Spears: “It’s Big Brother meets Big3.”
I’m a big Big 3 fan—watching Joe Johnson cruise to an MVP trophy and championship last summer was more entertaining than a lot of higher-level basketball I’ve seen. (Unfortunately, my description of how much better Johnson was than everybody else in the league ended up angering Ice Cube, spoiling my lifelong plan to avoid disappointing any members of N.W.A.) And in the Long, Sportsless Night caused by the pandemic, I’m willing to settle for basically any sports product. We’re all bunkering down to avoid spreading the virus; these players might bunker down together to play basketball for us to watch.
According to Yahoo, the tournament/reality show/experiment would feature 16-22 players, and include seven rounds of games. When a player records three losses, he is eliminated. Teams would be “reshuffled” throughout the event, and cash prizes will be doled out for first, second, and third place. “As long as we can protect the players, which we will do through proper testing and quarantine, Ice Cube and I feel we can give fans some safe, entertaining brand of basketball to get everyone through this pandemic,” league cofounder Jeff Kwatinetz told Yahoo.
Naturally, I have some questions about the Big 3 Quarantine League (a.k.a. the Q League). Let’s get to them.
1. What will the sleeping arrangements in the Big 3 house be like? Will there be bunk beds?
2. Do they make bunk beds large enough for 7-footers?
3. Is Glen “Big Baby” Davis going to have to sleep on the top bunk of a bed designed for children?
4. You know that scene in Step Brothers where the bunk bed collapses on top of Will Ferrell? Wouldn’t that potentially kill someone in real life, especially if the person in the top bunk was Glen “Big Baby” Davis?
5. Will there be alcohol in the house?
6. Can there please be alcohol in the house? I want to livestream footage of 20 drunk former NBA players more than I want to watch basketball.
7. The league specifies that players will reshuffle through teams during the tournament. Can the Big 3 please hire the people who make Love Island to film the recoupling process?
8. Will Joe Johnson, who made $220 million during his NBA career, be willing to leave whatever mansion he’s social-distancing in to live in a house (possibly with bunk beds?) with 15-21 other guys?
9. Is this tournament actually going to be played in whatever house Johnson bought with his $220 million in career NBA earnings?
10. Will the games be played according to the Big 3’s official rules, or will they just be pickup style?
11. If the games are played by the league’s official rules, does that mean there will be referees in the house?
12. How many refs will there be? And won’t those refs have to be quarantined inside the house too?
13. Can you imagine something worse than being a referee trapped inside a house with 16-22 retired NBA players whose games you have to officiate every day?
14. On March 11, the Big 3 announced that it planned to abandon its usual strategy of playing games in cities across the country during the summer, opting instead for a season played at a “non-arena venue.” Given this news, does it still plan to play a summer season? Will that be quarantined?
15. That March 11 announcement came before the NBA postponed its season and the NCAA canceled March Madness. A week later, the Big 3 has already come up with the premise for a Quarantine Basketball League. Do the people in charge of the Big 3 also need to be in charge of every other sport?
16. Was it really just a week ago that March Madness was canceled?
17. How did it take only a week for me to get to the point where I’m ready to fully buy into quarantine basketball?
18. What live sports will I be willing to watch in a month? What about two months?
19. Are they going to actually do this Big Brother–style and evict the losing teams from the house, until there’s just one team left that wins a prize?
20. Is it possible that teams might intentionally want to lose to escape from the quarantine basketball facility and return to their homes?
21. Is “Big 3rother” a thing?
22. My coworker and Big 3 aficionado Matt James heard about this tournament and immediately asked one question: “Are they picking a few existing teams, or creating new teams?”
23. How funny is it that Matt heard about a tournament of quarantined basketball players living in some sort of biodome during a global pandemic and instantly questioned the implications it’d have on the Big 3’s rosters?
24. Is this tournament just that Nike commercial from the 2002 World Cup, but for basketball?
25. Wait, did the Big 3 really say that it’s going to test all of the players involved before they enter the house?
26. WHERE IS THE BIG 3 GETTING SO MANY CORONAVIRUS TESTS?!?!?!
27. Are we all going to have to invent basketball leagues to have access to tests for the coronavirus?
28. Is the league going to have a big reveal show in which all of the players who have signed up for the tournament get their coronavirus tests back and find out whether they’re positive or eligible for quarantine basketball?
29. Will the basketball court in the house have the league’s signature four-point circle on it?
30. Can I bet on the Big 3 Quarantine League?
31. Can I please, please, please bet on this? I’ve previously taken to betting on Aussie rules football. I need this.
32. Can the players bet on this?
33. Am I going to wind up in jail after attempting to fix Big 3 Quarantine League games?
34. Is having 16-22 basketball players take tests for the coronavirus so that they can be quarantined in the same house together the only ethical way to play sports during a global pandemic?
35. Or is having a bunch of basketball players take tests for the coronavirus so that they can be quarantined in the same house together the least ethical move by a sports league I’ve ever heard of?
AlecbuggEh??
AlecbuggLIKE ME
Image: Nintendo
Retailer’s warehouses are prioritizing stocks of medical supplies and household staples
AlecbuggWelp, that hit all the feels
In these troubled times, it can take very little to push one over the edge from “hey, coping, wearing pants and using Zoom for this meeting” to “excuse me, be right back, gotta weep into a pillow.” But do the Chino Hills High School Chamber Singers care about that? Well apparently they do not because they just …
AlecbuggFun!
The coronavirus has more or less come to impact nearly every corner of our existence, from our livelihoods to our discourse to our politics, so it makes sense that it’s becoming interwoven with our humor, too. The truth, however, is that for many people the virus isn’t a reality so much as an anxiety—we’re cooped up…
AlecbuggI just love the headline
It’s a topsy-turvy time right now, as the human race attempts to get its collective shit together—never our strong suit, as a species—in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus. Beloved institutions are shuttering, jobs are being lost in unimaginable droves, and the whole world feels like it’s spinning ever more swiftly…
AlecbuggI'm not there yet, but I might pull up that Christmas day Bucks game eventually
Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
If you suddenly find yourselves with some free time
The last NBA games took place one week ago, and fans are jonesing for some basketball. While it’s not the same thing as seeing the regular season wind down to its regularly-scheduled conclusion, the league is offering free NBA League Pass through April 22, allowing you to watch full-length or condensed replays of this season’s games, in addition to classic games and content.
During the NBA Hiatus, Watch a Free Preview of NBA League Pass
— NBA (@NBA) March 18, 2020
>> https://t.co/Pqxh2ExSNm pic.twitter.com/0VLbibniN1
I can think of worse ways to spend times indoors in self-quarantine. You can go back and watch the Sixers’ 31 home games, where they went a league-best 29-2. It’s still weird that the NBA let Philadelphia get away with not playing any road games this season, but if all the other teams were OK with it, who am I to argue?
NBC Sports Philadelphia already replayed the season-opening win over the Celtics, which was a real hoot. You can rewatch the Sixers from their Christmas Day win over Milwaukee, beating the Lakers on the night LeBron passed Kobe on the all-time scoring list (which feels especially surreal now), or stomping the Heat by 27 points in Jimmy Butler’s initial return to Philadelphia.
Which game are you most looking forward to revisiting?
AlecbuggI only make, never received, but this is a fun read!
AlecbuggAnyone ever play Last Guardian? Ico and Colossus were both incredible but I feel like this never got the same buzz.
Image: SIE Japan Studio, GenDesign/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Not enough people got this far
AlecbuggThis continues to baffle/impress me
AlecbuggMIKEYS GOIN LEFT!
Of all the shows that made up Nickelodeon’s original early-90s programming block, perhaps none was more ambitious than Nick Arcade. Combining the elements of classic game shows with groundbreaking video technology, Nick Arcade offered contestants the chance to play inside a virtual world that, at the time, at least,…
AlecbuggSmart! Star Wars up next??
AlecbuggDon't worry everyone!! It only affects next season, not winners at war!
Reality continues to be annoyingly unprofitable for the reality TV business today, as Variety reports that CBS’s long-running competition series Survivor has postponed production due to worries that its title role might soon be, well, a thing of the past. In fact, Survivor is just the latest reality series to delay…
AlecbuggI haven't read this yet, but i will, because i hate myself. But not as much as this guy hated himself.
In 1923, renowned mountaineer George Mallory was asked by the New York Times why he felt the need to risk life and limb attempting to be among the first Westerners to scale Mount Everest. “Because it’s there,” Mallory famously replied, which, as far as answers go, is honestly pretty stoic and badass. Then again, it’s…
AlecbuggA fun, less intense Sekiro?? Oh Fuck Yes
Image: Sucker Punch Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Sucker Punch’s long-awaited samurai action game is coming soon
AlecbuggOne of the best games i've played
One dry October morning in 2019, my father came to my apartment, already in tears by the time I opened the door, to tell me a family secret.
AlecbuggJARED YOU CAN FLY BY THIS COMMENT IF YOU WANT
Anytime a movie needs a book to explain major plot points you KNOW it's a good flick
Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.
The ‘Expanded Edition’ novel, due March 17, is already shading Episode 9
AlecbuggThis is popping up everywhere, definitely on my radar.
[whispers to date] That’s the first cow. | Photo: Allyson Riggs/A24
Kelly Reichardt’s new film, released by A24, is a masterpiece
Nintendo/YouTube
Image: Valve Software
Image: 
Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
Walt Disney Animation Studios