We puzzle over the practices and intentions of game designers this week as though we were archaeologists trying to divine the practices of ashen Pompeiians. Why did these authors insert this mechanism into their artifact? Was it a mating ritual? Was it an obeisance to some vengeful, long-dead god? Was it to shoehorn in player interaction? Or was it to placate a Kickstarter audience? Oh, sorry, that one is redundant with the obeisance to a god thing. Also the mating ritual thing, if you think about it.Games Played Last Week: -Wavelength 1m12s (Alex Hague, Justin Vickers, & Wolfgang Warsch, Palm Court, 2019)-Carcassonne: Gold Rush (Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, Hans im Gluck, 2014)-Unmatched: Battle of Legends 12m56s (Rob Daviau, JR Honeycutt, & Justin D. Jacobson, Restoration Games, 2019)-The Menace Among Us 15m41s (Jeff Gum, Smirk & Dagger, 2019)-Barenpark 19m19s (Phil Walker-Harding, Lookout Games, 2017)-Vindication 20m41s (Marc Neidlinger, Orange Nebula Productions, 2018)News (and why it doesn't matter):-Fallout: Shelter--from promotional money-sink to... ? 30m39s-Wiz-War NINTH 31m50s-Inis in SPAAACE 32m27s-Hansa Teutonica Big Box MIA at Spiel 33m43s-DEI: Divide et Impera 34m17s-Titan is, actually, kinda BIG 35m35s-All the best to Chad Jensen 36m53sFeature Game: Cloudspire 37m44s (Josh J. Carlson, Adam Carlson, & Josh Wielgus, Chip Theory Games, 2019)