I remember the book Feed by Mira Grant having an opening scene that 100% full throttle right away. I looked it up just now. It's not quite how I remember it, but it's good and it was a great book, so I'm commenting with the quote here.

It’s amazing what you can use for a ramp, given the right motivation. Someone’s collapsed fence was blocking half the road, jutting up at an angle, and I hit it at about fifty miles an hour. The handlebars shuddered in my hands like the horns of a mechanical bull, and the shocks weren’t doing much better. I didn’t even have to check the road in front of us because the moaning started as soon as we came into view. They’d blocked our exit fairly well while Shaun played with his little friend, and mindless plague carriers or not, they had a better grasp of the local geography than we did. We still had one advantage: Zombies aren’t good at predicting suicide charges. And if there’s a better term for driving up the side of a hill at fifty miles an hour with the goal of actually achieving flight when you run out of “up,” I don’t think I want to hear it.

Wow. Yeah, absolutely. I had forgotten about that game until you mentioned it. Thank you for reminding me. It's entirely unique and deserves to be remembered. But yeah, I don't think I have it in me to replay it.

I think the important difference in this case is like the difference between a human enjoying a song that they hear being performed vs a company recording a song that someone is performing and then replaying that song on demand for paying customers.

I actually laughed out loud for a bit. This one really got me.

I suppose it depends on how good of a writer you are.

Some writers can say things we all know so well that it's like we're finally understanding it for the first time. Some writers have a knack for delivering facts or prose with the perfect dose of humor; it's not what they say, but how they say it that is valuable.

I suppose the question of what merits a book has is more complicated than just "does this book push the envelope of human knowledge", huh?

Thanks for this. It's been on my list of games to play for a long time.

If you feel like partner is the right word, then I'd back you up on that.

Love seeing Concept being suggested! It's one of my favorite games for getting a group of people communicating together.

I totally get that the joycons are really different than what you're used to. I'd like to urge you to give them a decent shot though. There is something indescribably comfortable about lounging on your couch with your arms in any position you want while playing games. It just feels luxurious. Sometimes I'm leaning back with one arm behind my head, sometimes I've got one hand on my lap and my other resting on my dog nearby. It just feels good.

I'm okay with a bot providing extra context. It's easy to block for those who don't want it.

I do hope that people will get into the habit of making game titles bold. It makes it so much easier to scan a ton of comments to see if a particular game is being talked about.

I haven't seen Skull mentioned yet.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/92415/skull

Plays well at a variety of player counts. Easy to teach. The game has a nice tension to it.

There is the problem of players being eliminated. Some people just really hate that. I've found that the game is short enough and interesting enough that it never feels bad to be eliminated, but your crew might not agree.

I really enjoyed my time with this game a couple of years ago. I should play again.