they created maybe the best board game ever. now, putin is making it relevant again. - best smart board

On a recent Monday afternoon, 47-year-old Jason Matthews walked into the maze. and-card-
Game Store on Capitol Hill.
He was wearing a fashionable suit coat without a tie, a beautiful goat and a well.
Comb your hair.
Normally, the store closes on Monday at this time of year, but he and the owner, Catherine Donahue, specially arranged to meet me here.
Matthews is an anti-corruption lobbyists. child-
Human trafficking organizations living in Alexandria. He's also co-
Creator of Twilight Struggle
Perhaps the greatest board game ever.
He agreed to play against me today.
You may or may not have heard about it, and we live in what many critics think is the "golden age of board games ".
According to ICv2,
Hobby news website-
In the gaming industry, board game sales grew from $100 million in 2013 to $0. 305 billion in 2016.
Maybe this is the result of a rebound in our screen.
Swallow it, no. of-human-
The interaction of modern existence.
Or, this is simply because the product itself becomes better, attractive and keen gameplay, which is quite different from the typical monopoly behavior. BoardGameGeek.
Hobby's most famous news center and discussion forum com keeps a database of 100,000 games and provides a master list of the best games for crowdsourcing.
Twilight, released in 2005, spent five years at the No.
1 point, longer than any game before or after, save one.
Since then, it has been replaced by something that is updated, glittered, flavoredof-the-
But still comfortably hovering around fifth place.
"I 've played thousands of games and most of them have been forgotten," said Tom Wassell, a longtime host. running board-
Game podcasts and video series called Dice Tower.
"They were fun for a while, but then they left.
There are only a few games that go beyond that, and Twilight is one of them. ”The game —
His name is taken from a phrase by President John F.
Kennedy inaugural address-is a two-
Simulation of the Cold War player battle, one player plays the United States, another player plays the United StatesS. S. R.
On the map of the world, the two superpowers are trying to control and maintain many countries that are in conflict.
Players do this by using cards that represent random processing of actual Cold War events: play a card called "Fidel" and the Soviet Union will control Cuba;
According to Ronald Reagan's "tear this wall down" speech, play a cardS.
Influence in East Germany has increased.
Along the way, there is paranoia, fringe policy, and the overall feeling of living through an alternate life --
Realistic version of history
After a poor performance in the Yom Kippur War, Israel may become a communist state, or Iran is still in the United StatesS.
The crisis of influence and hostage was avoided.
Of course, in phase 2018 of Twilightwith its re-
Create a world where America and Russia fight each other
Closer to describing the current reality than at any time since release.
Ananda Gupta, 41, said: "It feels absolutely relevant now . " He invented the game with Matthews.
"All you need to do is add a few more cards and you can extend it to today. . . .
If I have a heart, I believe we can do a Cold War game based on what is happening right now.
"In fact, in various online forums, fans of the game have begun to invent their own contemporary cards, such as a card about President Trump abandoning our European allies to show Putin;
This card eliminates the blue color of the game. colored U. S.
The European influence sign provides a start for the Russian red sign.
Anonymous fans who made the card called it "the art of trading ".
Matthews used to work in politics.
He is the chief of staff of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La. )—
Before becoming a lobbyistsHe and Gupta —
He used to live in Washington, D. C. C.
But living in Los Angeles now-met at a board-
In 1998, a game group was set up at George Washington University, although none of the students there were.
Their enthusiasm for the war was brought together.
Game, a board game that recreates the Battle of Waterloo or Gettysburg.
The core war game was very complicated and at that time it became more mysterious.
Matthews recalled a war game about the guerrilla uprising in Central America, asking players to read 3 inch-
Thick rules book
Another notorious war game, the Battle of North Africa, to 10-foot-
The map is very long and is said to take 1,500 hours to complete.
Its level of detail is actually hilarious and the "macaroni rule" forces players representing Italy to reserve extra water so the troops can cook pasta rations. “War-
"The game destroyed himself," Matthews said, watching his beloved hobby confuse the complexity of historical accuracy and scare away potential new players.
Eventually, he went all out with Gupta.
Time to work, start building a family, no longer have time to do typical 12-
Hours War Game, 1,500 less-
Hours of epic, or energy to memorize long-winded rules Books.
By then, Gupta had done a side-show test board game for a publisher in California called GMT games.
Matthews often helps Gupta with game testing, and soon he gets it: "play some games and we think we can do better.
So the couple started creating a new type of war game that fits their schedule.
"We want to make a game where two people who know the rules can play at night," Gupta said . ".
"Some people who no longer go to college can have free time to play games with a reasonable frequency.
"They are interested in a scenario that can simulate the political aspects of war, not just the military.
Eventually, they solved the Cold War-Gupta’s idea —
After many iterations, they built a prototype map in Kinko's and printed the activity card.
Matthews carved a stake to make red and blue marks that represent superpower influence in any given country.
In the summer of 2000, they went to the world gaming championships-
That year was held in Timonium, Maryland. —
Trying to get the attention of players and publishers.
Their preferred publisher is GMT.
"Physically, this is not an impressive prototype," said Gene Billingsley.
The founder of GMT, who watched the demo of Matthews and Gupta that day.
Still, it took him less than 10 minutes to decide to publish it.
He remembered a colleague asking him why he was so sure.
"This time, I didn't say anything about the game," Billingsley said . ".
"I said it brought me to childhood.
When the Cold War was hot
When the children have to sit under the table for training.
This game can immerse you in its theme.
"But GMT is not sure if this will be hit.
"They thought it was good, but they didn't see the appeal," Gupta recalled.
They see cold war games as a bit of a failure in audience appeal.
GMT puts the game on the list of "items 500 --
A Kickstarter before Kickstarter, allows fans to vote with their wallets to decide that the GMT game should go public.
Once a game has 500 orders, it will start making.
"The rise in the twilight struggle on the priority list is very slow," Gupta said . ".
"It hung up at the age of a few hundred, but in the end it did climb there.
The game finally debuted in December 2005.
Matthews remembers that it got a good review and made progress on the top ranking of BoardGameGeek.
But there are still some shortcomings in sales figures. War-
Players "don't know what to do," says Billingsley ".
This game is very different from their previous games.
Streamlined and not complicated.
That spring, at a friend's party in Ohio, there was a turning point in a small invitation --
Activities that contain boards only-
Gamers, designers and publishers, all hosted by board member Alan Moon
Game Icons and multi-production designers.
The gathering of friends is not only for war games, but also for European games --
The German traditional fast and simple board game emphasizes the intelligent mechanism while sacrificing most of the themes of war and historical loyalty --gamers prized.
By chance, the battle of Twilight seems to meet in these opposing styles.
Matthews recalled: "I went to the party and everyone was stopping me and they would say, 'Alan Moon did nothing but play your game all weekend. '.
Billingsley remembers receiving a call from a colleague at the party who told Moon that it was the best game he had ever played.
"I said, 'Could you ask Alan if we can use this sentence?
Said Billingsley.
"When I sent that email, I went to the boardgame Geek and Alan has posted something very similar.
Suddenly, our phone rang.
"In the three months of Moon's friends gathering, the original print of Twilight was sold out.
"It's fun to be a geek," Matthews said . ".
"It's just the famous level, right?
No one really knows who I am.
I can walk anywhere, completely anonymous.
But when I go to the meeting people ask me to sign and they take pictures with me and that's all.
My children are strangely proud of this.
"It's now possible to fight Twilight with friends or strangers on computers and mobile devices.
There was also a competition around it, the board-
The game conventions that Matthews is talking about sometimes hold a player Championship for the Twilight battle.
Matthews and Gupta shared the success of Twilight in a different way.
Gupta watched the video.
The game route, and works in some of the major studios of well-received games.
While retaining his PhD, Matthews has created several new historical Board gamesC. day jobs.
But what the two designers didn't do is develop a new board game together. until now.
A few years ago, Gupta was freed from the terms of the contract claiming any intellectual property he developed and worked with Matthews for a long timeProspective Brewingsequel.
Their idea is to translate their representative works into No. 18.
The century colonial competition between Britain and France.
They call it the imperial struggle.
It is scheduled to be released next year.
Pre-order number in thousands.
However, this afternoon, Matthews focused on the struggle of Twilight --
Beat me in his own game.
He explained that he had not played for at least a year or two, although he could still redraw every inch of the board from memory if he wanted.
As an American, Matthews has locked most parts of Europe and Asia for most of the game. As the U. S. S. R.
I maintain tight control over the Middle East and the Soviet side tends to do so.
At the same time, Africa has proved to be a tugboat. of-war.
About 2 hours after the start of the game, when destruction stared at my face, I won by playing a card called "war game", "This is an adventure strategy, it includes lowering the status of the world defense system until nuclear war.
"Why are we making this card!
Matthews shouted when he put his card on the table in his defeat.
He has been a skilled garbage during the whole game-talker, well-
Experienced the mental game necessary to unbalanced your opponent.
But he was generous with his loss.
The two of us started packing the board and the pieces.
DoNews organized a group of event cards, and he mentioned that his game became popular in the former Eastern European countries, with translations from Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic
Special country
Specific cards are added for each.
He said GMT might write him some new Soviet writing.
Key cards are fast.
The next version is the Russian version. Michael J.
Geithner is a writer in Washington.