ONLINE GAME



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90 thoughts on “ONLINE GAME”

  1. Mary’s last goal doesn’t make sense: What sort of HOA President wouldn’t want to live next to a park?!?

    1. That’s a good point! But this particular HOA President has lived in the neighborhood a long time, is nervous about change and uncomfortable with the new diversity of Solano Heights. She sees parks as possible gathering places for “trouble-makers” — like gangs and drugs and vandals (folks that others might recognize simply as “kids” and “teenagers”). So she doesn’t want to live next to a park…

      1. If you could relocate the park like you can with the factory, this game would be much easier to make everyone happy with.

        Also, Consuelo’s demand for *14* A-housing units is ridiculous, but could be achieved more easily if the A-housing also counted as height-controlled.

          1. Hi Megan: you can’t relocate the factory, but if you turn it into a green factory it will change its relationship to the things around it.

    2. Game is accurate. In my seven year planning parks I cam to realize that everyone wants a park and no one wants it next door – unless is restricted to the immediate residents. It seems our belief in private property and history of suburbanization of all elements of our environment has left us unable to value and use well public spaces. Many homeowners believe that only the morally dubious (druggies, prostitutes, apartment dwellers, teenagers, and homeless) have need for or would use public spaces. The good folk would obviously use their spacious yards, community clubs, carbon fiber bicycles, fitness clubs, or at the very least trader joe’s, to recreate.

      1. Appreciate your comment — hopefully we can help generate some conversations that lead to alternative scenarios…

  2. You’re, of course, welcome and free to create creative and entertaining games like this one. I’m offended, however, that you apparently use government funds to help pay for it. Your game is based on a pure collectivist perspective without mention of other view points. I believe this method of land-use planning minimizes low-cost housing and business resources. Although certainly not perfect, there were fewer major problems before group-zoning was strictly enforced.

    Please consider the ethics of accepting funding from an organization (the Feds) that is increasing our debt to pay for such programs.

    1. Thanks for your comment. And please be assured that very little funds of any kind, government or otherwise, went into this small experiment.

    2. Jim, calm down. It’s the Fed’s job to ration the soup and close the door when it runs out, not our job to yell at the hobos to stop standing in line ….

      (I couldn’t think of a good car analogy).

    3. I actually played the game for “balance”, which prioritizes affordable housing and business. At least I thought it did. The game is pretty open, and this definitely educated me a little bit, so I’m not offended if any money at all went into the game.

  3. Nice little game. I do wish there was an additional level where you had access to all of the zoning possibilities, and the goal of ‘Make everyone happy’. I was kinda disappointed that in my playthrough I never had the chance to resolve the conflict about the park, and that doing another playthrough aiming for that would lock out one of the other conflict resolutions instead.

    1. Its a Single family home in a dense city area, next to an apartment building. They will never be happy. And if you look at the icon for her she is elderly, part of the last generation and has lived in that house for a long time. An apartment building is always changing its something that bothers that person. I would say.

    2. I won the game and still made the home owner happy. I was trying to test myself. You just have to pick a different goal – the village – instead of sustainability or balance.

        1. I was thinking I needed to change the goal, too. Is there a way to change it in the game, or do you have to totally restart?

      1. I have a few questions about the rules for the Blocks and Lots board game:

        1) At the beginning of a game, should players assume that there is no existing zoning on any lot, or should that assume that there is zoning in place that corresponds to the apparent uses depicted on the blocks?

        2) In the rules for “Icebreaker” gameplay, paragraph 4 on page 10 says the second round should be 5 minutes long, just like the first round, but in paragraphs 6 and 8 on page 11, the Facilitator’s Script seems to say that the second round should only be 3 minutes long. Can you help resolve this apparent contradiction?

        3) If during his/her turn, a player relocates some of their own zone tokens played in a previous turn, do those relocated tokens count toward the numbers specified in the “Play X Zone Token” spaces?

        4) On pg 5, in “What you will need to play” item #5 says there are “eight (8) game cards.” The term “game card” does not appear anywhere else in the instructions, but the term “strategy card” appears on pages 5, 6, & 8. Does “game card” = “strategy card”?

        5) It appears that there are actually 16 cards that correspond to “game card” / “strategy card” rather than just 8. Or are there supposed to be 8 of each, and if so, which is which, and how do they relate to each other in the game rules?

        That’s all I have at the moment. As part of our department’s celebration of National Community Planning Month, we are hoping to have open play of Blocks and Lots at a local coffee shop that hosts a board game night on Friday evenings. Any help you can provide with these questions will make the experience much smoother and enjoyable for participants!

        Thank you,

        Jeff Sovich, AICP
        Neighborhood Planning Coordinator
        Planning Department
        City of Greensboro
        300 West Washington Street
        P.O. Box 3136, Greensboro, NC 27402-3136
        Phone: 336-433-7264 Fax: 336-412-6315
        http://www.greensboro-nc.gov

        1. Hi Jeff

          Thanks for writing, sorry for the delay, and it looks like we need to edit our instructions!

          Here are some responses:

          1. You can assume there is no zoning. The game play and players are creating the zoning.

          2. It isn’t a hard and fast rule. The goal is for the ice breaker or “lightning round” to be very fast, even a bit chaotic.
          See which one works best for you, maybe starting with 5-minute rounds.

          3. If I understand you correctly — No, these are separate actions, separate turns.

          4. They are really just game cards. It seems that strategy card is not such a useful nuance. There are actually 16. (answer to question 5) Some of the cards you have to use right away, which is indicated on the card “do this immediately.” Others you can hold on to and use when you want on your turn, as indicated by “Hold on to this card. You can use it any time” (hence, strategy)

  4. I do wish there was an additional level where you had access to all of the zoning possibilities, and the goal of ‘Make everyone happy’. In addition,I really like this game, share it with you

  5. Dear Game,
    I am so in like with Block and Lots, trying to rebuild a 3D game inspired from it.

    My question is about the number of cells (to be colored due to land use)provided by the game. Based on what did you decide this number? Is there a specific logic taht decides the number of use cells and so lead to a puzzle type problem?Or is it just specified randomly?

    Thank you

    1. Hi
      Glad you like the game.
      The game is basically driven by story and characters, so the number of cells has to do with that, and yes, it is a puzzle type problem.
      gilda

  6. helllo, i rlealy liek this dame , but i have one iuggestiogn , pls make mary jones not there , maybe she too old and die or soemthing

  7. This Game is terrible i hate it i cant beat it its to hard for me im sure its a great game but it is to hard for me and i am in 1st grade and its to hard i hate it!!!

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