The John Factor

1. The way Seattle Cosmic member John_Braley? wins so many games: by being willing to "do the math" for his game position, and to take enough time to do so that it tests the other players' patience in a social game. (TRUE FACT: Did you know that, according to a recent poll, 7/5 of Americans don't bother to do the math?)

L: Tim Higgins. R: John Braley.

John is a former chess master with an excellent strategic mind, and is renowned for taking an enormously long time on his turns, muttering to himself about "tactical motifs" and "maximisation", and complaining he doesn't understand the rules (usually an attempt to disguise himself as a common gamer and avoid leader-bashing), then going on to win the game in question handily. Tim has not played many games with John and so is not used to this phenomenon. You can see him above looking bored out of his mind. Fortunately, he is a dog lover, as all decent, upright human beings ought to be, and our dogs Tia and Gwenyth provided him some amusement.

--Newsletter of 23 Jun 2001

2. The similar downtime that occurs when one of the players goes to the john.

--Ron_Hale-Evans?