Should be a pretty good weekend. Got a Civ IV mp game with Tuna and West. There's some Europa Universalis IV in the works, too.
Christmas shopping.
VASSAL work.
Catching up with Jason in DC3.
Drawing to a close with SDR in Wing Leader.
Heroes of Normandie PBEM with Cyrano.
Man I wish I had the time to join yer Civ IV game.... but I've only got one more week of work then I'm off until Jan. 4 when I fly to California for a week. So it'll be catch up and get ahead on gaming for two solid weeks.
Great music choice MD....! Gaming for the weekend? Not sure yet. I've been watching the daily 'Operation Glacier' WitP:AE AAR and the game is whispering 'buy me'....on sale for $39.99.
More testing of Victory & Glory. Probably some Final Fantasy XIII as well. And for some strange reason I woke up with the urge to play Six Gun Saga, so I went back through 4 years of emails until I found my serial and reinstalled it.
I might, for the first time, create a mission or set of missions in DCS 2. Make some training missions for weapon employment
None. Zero. Ziltch for gaming for the next week or so. :(
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 11, 2015, 08:54:31 AM
I might, for the first time, create a mission or set of missions in DCS 2. Make some training missions for weapon employment
That sounds fun. I've been making simple missions in DCS for a while and they are usually pretty fun.
So maybe that. Maybe some VASSAL and definitely some Armored Warfare. I finally blew somebody up in PVP! So my ratio is
something like 1 kill for getting killed oh 100 plus times. But my side usually wins so I must be doing something useful (shooting a lot,
dodging return fire, sneaking around, spotting etc. etc.)
Your lack of gaming disturbs me Bison.
Continuing on with Assassin's Creed Syndicate...really enjoying it, may be my favorite of the entire series. I also want to play some Ultimate General Gettysburg and maybe even some Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai.
Of course, the shininess of Attila TW Charlemagne beckons, but I am not ready for it yet.
WitP PBEM with KyzBP - he tasks me
HoN PBEM with Cyrano
Setting up a CMBS PBEM with Con
finishing a CMBS PBEM with JD, when he accepts hes beaten!
and EU IV after maybe a 2 paragraph AAR made me want to play it again
and some Mordheim with the Grog crew
Quote from: undercovergeek on December 11, 2015, 09:25:04 AM
WitP PBEM with KyzBP - he tasks me
HoN PBEM with Cyrano
Setting up a CMBS PBEM with Con
finishing a CMBS PBEM with JD, when he accepts hes beaten!
and EU IV after maybe a 2 paragraph AAR made me want to play it again
and some Mordheim with the Grog crew
lol - just one more wee trick. Admittedly it's a white wash - but I just want to make you pay for all the armour you destroyed!
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 11, 2015, 09:27:33 AM
Quote from: undercovergeek on December 11, 2015, 09:25:04 AM
WitP PBEM with KyzBP - he tasks me
HoN PBEM with Cyrano
Setting up a CMBS PBEM with Con
finishing a CMBS PBEM with JD, when he accepts hes beaten!
and EU IV after maybe a 2 paragraph AAR made me want to play it again
and some Mordheim with the Grog crew
lol - just one more wee trick. Admittedly it's a white wash - but I just want to make you pay for all the armour you destroyed!
what with?!?!?!?!? >:D
I have to work on a wheelchair for one of our dogs (a Sheltie with still a lot of gumption but just not the "back end," to get her where she wants to go), so with my horrible construction skills, Lord knows how long this is going to take.
Other than that, I've got plenty of East Front on my plate; from WitE to the flipping huge Graviteam bundle still sitting waiting to be downloaded to me giving a good, long look at either Heroes of Stalingrad or maybe the Cross of Iron Close Combat game to get my squad/company level freak on - any advice or suggestions are certainly welcome as far as that goes too.
p.s. Cross of Iron won out due to me stumbling across all the mods that one can throw at said game - Stalingrad campaign, here I come!
Put Xmas tree up.
Some Graviteam Tactics, CMx2, WOFF, DC:B and what ever else might take my fancy.
Quote from: Barthheart on December 11, 2015, 08:05:48 AM
Man I wish I had the time to join yer Civ IV game.... but I've only got one more week of work then I'm off until Jan. 4 when I fly to California for a week. So it'll be catch up and get ahead on gaming for two solid weeks.
Any time you've got time. You are always welcome.
Quote from: Rayfer on December 11, 2015, 08:25:26 AM
Great music choice MD....!
Thank you, sir!
Quote from: Bison on December 11, 2015, 09:09:36 AM
None. Zero. Ziltch for gaming for the next week or so. :(
Yeah, but the payoff is going to be GREAT!!
Civil War II: The New Mexico Campaign--- fighting Confederate Partisans and Irregular Indians while trying to build a decent supply line from Colorado or California. Once I get it up and running, maybe we can get some fiber to those Indians so they'll settle down. El Paso seems as far away as China right now though.
1) Great song and sad / scary that it's 20 yrs old. That (awesome) album came out in when I was in HS.
2) If there's a spot, and depending on the timing, I might be up for some Civ4 action. Are there any house rules and what mods / expansions do you guys play with? Apologies, didn't realize this was a game in progress.
Beyond that, and besides the usual family stuff, being that I'm off work in a little bit I think I'm going to enjoy some Pillars action and some Paradox goodness (for the life of me I wish I can figure out HOI3, the OOB stuff tends to go over my head).
Quote from: MetalDog on December 11, 2015, 11:13:46 AM
Quote from: Barthheart on December 11, 2015, 08:05:48 AM
Man I wish I had the time to join yer Civ IV game.... but I've only got one more week of work then I'm off until Jan. 4 when I fly to California for a week. So it'll be catch up and get ahead on gaming for two solid weeks.
Any time you've got time. You are always welcome.
If Barth is on and you want to restart, I'm cool..I'm a total noob in our current game!
Quote from: Tuna on December 11, 2015, 01:27:11 PM
Quote from: MetalDog on December 11, 2015, 11:13:46 AM
Quote from: Barthheart on December 11, 2015, 08:05:48 AM
Man I wish I had the time to join yer Civ IV game.... but I've only got one more week of work then I'm off until Jan. 4 when I fly to California for a week. So it'll be catch up and get ahead on gaming for two solid weeks.
Any time you've got time. You are always welcome.
If Barth is on and you want to restart, I'm cool..I'm a total noob in our current game!
No, No! Don't restart fer me. I'm too busy until the end of next week.
Quote from: Rayfer on December 11, 2015, 08:25:26 AM
Great music choice MD....!
2nded!
I'm kinda waffling about with no true gaming purpose. Wasting a little time in some MMORPGs; like a mouse sniffing out the cheese in the maze.
Rift,
Warhammer: RoR (if the latency isn't killing me again),
Marvel Heroes, and maybe some
Wildstar. Just touring at leisure.
Will probably do some boardgaming and/or paint some minis this weekend. Change it up, mix it about, aw yeahh.
If I just want to straight-up shoot other people's digital steeds without any pre-planning, I'll do some Steel Ocean, WoWships, or War Thunder flyin per usual.
Decisive campaigns: Barbarossa
Graviteam tactics: sholovo (for the tactical itch)
Probably finishing my galactic domination in Gal Civ 3
No gaming today (unless I get to do some with the nieces tonight -- I started teaching the youngest the basic Alhambra card game rules back on Thanksgiving, so I may be able to try that again with both of them).
Tomorrow, I expect Bartheart to continue destroying my Saturday for a couple more turns of DC3: Barbarossa. And possibly for Asid to start destroying my Saturday in Campaigns on the Danube.
I completely didn't expect to spend most of my non-strategy time last week playing the Hand of Fate, but I shouldn't have been surprised I guess: the few times I fired it up before, I loved it like cake. :smitten: We'll see if that continues.
This weekend's fun will consist of much World of Warships, as I try to build up my Fuso's combat strength, and learn how to properly play her. Also on tap is some more Ageod's Civil War II, some initial exploration of Ageod's Wars of Napoleon, and finally some good old World of Tanks after I've had a few too many.
World of Warships is really coming along nicely, and it is a dreadnought enthusiast's wet dream. Still waiting for the British line to appear, however. I won't be satisfied until I can captain an Iron Duke class dreadnought.
Streaming Flashpoint Campaigns - Germany Reforged tomorrow on my twitch stream. Rest of the weekend will be Elite and CMANO scenario work, with maybe some Fallout 4, Diablo 3 or Starcraft 2 thrown in.
@jamus34, Barthheart and Tuna: If you gents can all agree on a time, I'd be glad to play a Civ IV game. I am used to having several running at the same time and always looking for more. Try to come to some kind of consensus on map type, number of AI, size, Victory Conditions, etc.
@jamus34: because I am too lazy to look, I don't remember seeing you on my Steam Friends list. Gamespy no longer has a Civ server, so, it has to be played through Steam. So if you want to play, look me up on Steam. I am stophro there. You'll also have to have a Steam copy of Civ IV to play.
I have the full version of civ 4 on Steam (Civ 4 and all the expansions) but I only have vanilla installed right now.
I also just sent a friend invite.
I'm typically around 8-11 PM EST if that helps.
Quote from: Gusington on December 11, 2015, 09:21:53 AM
Your lack of gaming disturbs me Bison.
Continuing on with Assassin's Creed Syndicate...really enjoying it, may be my favorite of the entire series. I also want to play some Ultimate General Gettysburg and maybe even some Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai.
Of course, the shininess of Attila TW Charlemagne beckons, but I am not ready for it yet.
What happened to Verdun? Are we already quitting on this?
Hmmmm.... My CiV IV is not steam... Can I still activate it? If not then carry on with out me.
Unless of course you want to get schooled in CiV V. ^-^
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 11, 2015, 08:47:08 PM
Quote from: Gusington on December 11, 2015, 09:21:53 AM
Your lack of gaming disturbs me Bison.
Continuing on with Assassin's Creed Syndicate...really enjoying it, may be my favorite of the entire series. I also want to play some Ultimate General Gettysburg and maybe even some Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai.
Of course, the shininess of Attila TW Charlemagne beckons, but I am not ready for it yet.
What happened to Verdun? Are we already quitting on this?
No, no. We're going over the top this Sunday.
Edited for too many quotes within quotes.
Quote from: Barthheart on December 11, 2015, 09:19:49 PM
Hmmmm.... My CiV IV is not steam... Can I still activate it? If not then carry on with out me.
Unless of course you want to get schooled in CiV V. ^-^
Didn't we play with you before? With Bismark and maybe w8t?.. That had to be Steam.. Gamespy has been gone for a long time!
No, Tuna. It was Gamespy.
No chance on Civ V Barth. You can prolly get it cheap in the Steam Winter sale.
jamus, think I made a big mistake. Are you Floppy Donkey so on?
Quote from: IronX on December 11, 2015, 09:26:52 PM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 11, 2015, 08:47:08 PM
Quote from: Gusington on December 11, 2015, 09:21:53 AM
Your lack of gaming disturbs me Bison.
Continuing on with Assassin's Creed Syndicate...really enjoying it, may be my favorite of the entire series. I also want to play some Ultimate General Gettysburg and maybe even some Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai.
Of course, the shininess of Attila TW Charlemagne beckons, but I am not ready for it yet.
Man, I'm just not feelin' the luv on Verdun like I was the first few matches.
I can't seem to figure out how to create my own squad, and then have that squad populate a decent part of the battlefield. Also, squads are only 4 people and there seems to be a persistence to them, in that your perks are earned within the same squad only.
I feel like I'm fighting the game a lot. I gave up on it after a half hour tonight of trying to figure out how to be just a plain rifle guy, and went to Rising Storm instead. RS has a much more intuitive system; I kind of wish Verdun would stop trying to be clever and just get on board.
As it is, it's not a bad game, but it is not intuitive to make it do what I want, which is to make a Grogheads squad that can play on a very populated server.
What happened to Verdun? Are we already quitting on this?
No, no. We're going over the top this Sunday.
Edited for too many quotes within quotes.
Quote from: MetalDog on December 11, 2015, 10:23:05 PM
No, Tuna. It was Gamespy.
No chance on Civ V Barth. You can prolly get it cheap in the Steam Winter sale.
jamus, think I made a big mistake. Are you Floppy Donkey so on?
Yeah that's me...Probably should change that since most people don't get the reference anymore.
Ok it's the same as my forum name now.
I may play one of the followings:
- Civ V
- Grand Ages: Rome
- Sins of a Solar Empire
Not sure yet.
I don't think there's much question that my gaming time this weekend will be dominated by Attila TW: Charlemagne. I will forge the Kingdom of England a century before that pantywaist Alfred did. 8)
Any time left over will be spent on either Cities: Skylines and/or beta-testing.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 11, 2015, 08:47:08 PM
What happened to Verdun? Are we already quitting on this?
Couldn't find a Verdun thread, so am hijacking this. I have a problem with this game in that I cannot remap the controls to my accustomed FPS layout because it picks up my various controllers instead of the keyboard. Anyone know a work-around (I don't want to unplug stick/pedals/throttle just to play this)?
I had the same issue. I dialed mouse sensitivity down to zero, rebooted the PC, and I was able to remap the keys without the game picking up my HOTAS. (Then I sat there confused for a good 30 seconds when I started playing because moving the mouse wouldn't change the POV. I R smrt!)
I have a problem with Verdun in that I suck at it. Forgot to include it in the above post for Sunday, as IronX posted.
Martok post impressions of Charlemagne!
Rise of Flight
IL-2 1946
Just purchased Airport Madness: World Edition and having a blast with this little game. Very addictive.
Quote from: Sir Slash on December 11, 2015, 11:20:15 AM
Civil War II: The New Mexico Campaign--- fighting Confederate Partisans and Irregular Indians while trying to build a decent supply line from Colorado or California. Once I get it up and running, maybe we can get some fiber to those Indians so they'll settle down. El Paso seems as far away as China right now though.
I'm holding the line solidly around the Washington D.C. area as well as Ohio and Kentucky. I am however getting absolutely smashed to pieces in New Mexico and Missouri. Can't seem to get enough troops out there to stop the Rebs while they've got two 1000+ power stacks roaming around out there. I hear you though on running the war out there.
Man I love this game!
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 12, 2015, 02:48:45 PM
I had the same issue. I dialed mouse sensitivity down to zero, rebooted the PC, and I was able to remap the keys without the game picking up my HOTAS.
THx - will give that a go
Damn, W8taminute. That's a lot of rebs to deal with. I got no problem in my game getting troops. There's more than I need in Colorado and California. I just can't get them to New Mexico where I need them without them dying of hunger and thirst. And I totally never expected the damned Indians to be a problem. You're right though, great game.
So, my ongoing Civ mp with West is 450 turns or so in. I've been angling for a Cultural Victory all game long. I am 2 turns from completing everything I need to meet the Victory Condition. However, my opponent has taken it upon himself to go to war with China, Korea and the Holy Roman Empire. To his credit, he's holding his own and even advancing.
The problem is, his turn times are 10+ minutes long! And I don't dare tell him that I am 2 turns away from winning because I want to surprise him. So, I have to suffer through all this crap in silence! What's worse, we were just playing and he tells me his GF is on her way. And wouldn't you know it, he had to go. TWO TURNS!! LET'S GO MAN!!!!!
Quote from: MetalDog on December 13, 2015, 03:02:15 PM
So, my ongoing Civ mp with West is 450 turns or so in. I've been angling for a Cultural Victory all game long. I am 2 turns from completing everything I need to meet the Victory Condition. However, my opponent has taken it upon himself to go to war with China, Korea and the Holy Roman Empire. To his credit, he's holding his own and even advancing.
The problem is, his turn times are 10+ minutes long! And I don't dare tell him that I am 2 turns away from winning because I want to surprise him. So, I have to suffer through all this crap in silence! What's worse, we were just playing and he tells me his GF is on her way. And wouldn't you know it, he had to go. TWO TURNS!! LET'S GO MAN!!!!!
LOL O0
Thank you for laughing at my pain :P Yours is coming, too, the longer you play with us. ;)
got my ass kicked in BFBC2 - the age of the game and the nature of the players means most servers are mainly populated by Rank 50 guys in teams that own everything, you know the kind, hand grenade you from god knows where, shoot you before you can get a shot off, appear from the corner of your eye with a knife - and whole teams of them, changed server and had a better game but this server was just a pile of people throwing grenades and firing 40mm grenades, resupplying themselves and doing it all over again :uglystupid2: :uglystupid2: still, its fun when as a new guy you sneak round the back and shoot them in the head and they get angry
after that got the EUIV bug, played a fair while into my original England game but was just going through the motions, not really enjoying it - started again, and decided to roleplay the country as if i was leader, taking the national decisions that seem right with me as opposed to playing the game and picking the most beneficial to the nation, gives me a closer tie to the land and the armies. Won the war of the roses and sat my own leader on the crown - Phillip 1 of York, have a decent heir, vassalised Leinster and took Ulster, i have claims on Scotland but they are guaranteed by France, so i need the big blue fellas to get tied up with a big land war with Burgundy and then ill get Scotland. Best friends with Castille, Austria and Portugal so my ass is covered in any incoming war - loving the game again, renamed the armies so they feel like mine and its a proper gut wrench to send them into battle
Some Mordheim before bed with the Grog crew, i have two games - the original one in the AAR based on the Warhammer Regiments of Renown, the Swords of Ulric, and i have also recreated the Fireloques of Farsland where everyone is armed with a gun - which sounds like a riot but ill carry on the Ulric one for now
Haven't gotten a stitch of mp done this weekend, but did discover Rake, a $5 UnityAss shooter which is the tensest little cheap shooter that may currently exist on the planet. I may be setting up my first VAR on it soon...
In AssCreed Syndicate I passed several places in the Strand that were still there when The Wife and I were in London in 2003. Eerie but fantastic.
Got in a little Verdun today and died more times than Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow (and without learning how not to die). Still, a couple of satisfactory long-range kills ensured I stuck with it for a bit before eventually rage-quiting. :D
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi76.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fj26%2Fpzpjs%2FGrogheads%2F33964908-9375-4874-ab59-10789b6f2199_zpsbwkqrdn9.png&hash=4ea0f27ff68fcb22cae2f11e321dc3d9c07beb34) (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/pzpjs/media/Grogheads/33964908-9375-4874-ab59-10789b6f2199_zpsbwkqrdn9.png.html)
Rage quit eh :(
So we're not doing Verdun tonight then?
I missed IronX's time online playing. Maybe we can find a time to meet up this week.
Quote from: Sir Slash on December 12, 2015, 10:51:09 PM
Damn, W8taminute. That's a lot of rebs to deal with. I got no problem in my game getting troops. There's more than I need in Colorado and California. I just can't get them to New Mexico where I need them without them dying of hunger and thirst. And I totally never expected the damned Indians to be a problem. You're right though, great game.
I think I figured out what I'm doing wrong. I should have enacted the 'Print more money' policy earlier and used the money to get more troops and ships. I don't have a manpower shortage, I have issues keeping enough money coming in turn to turn so that I can fund the war. I'm just worried about the inflation consequences of printing money.
Interestingly the Indians are giving me a head ache as well in both New Mexico and Minnesota.
Had a really lame Christmas party from the company this past weekend. I'm grateful they threw it, but afterwards I wondered why they even bothered. The wife and I spent nearly 200 dollars on a hotel room there at the resort that hosted it because we thought we'd be too f'd up to drive home (even though it's not far from home).
I'm just going to first world vent, here...
In past Christmas parties, they always had gift bags for everyone in attendance, which had a variety of gift cards in it. I always appreciated this as it was nice even to get a $20 gift card...sometimes if you were lucky you'd grab a bag with $100 worth of gift cards. It was a very cool touch, but they didn't do that this year.
Also in past parties, they had a plethora (say ten or so) big-screen TVs and other big-ticket prizes that they gave away. Everyone got a ticket and then they'd have the drawing near the end of the night. Bonus because you'd be good and drunk by then and if you didn't win, oh well! They didn't have anything like that this year.
Last year they had a band called the Spazmatics (http://www.thespazmatics.net/), a GREAT group that did a bunch of 80s cover songs. This year they had a DJ that played lame Christmas music for the first half and then finally decent music, though it was mostly hip hop so I was pretty meh...though I was fairly in the tank by then.
Speaking of in the tank, the last two party years they had open bar all night long. This year they had open bar until 9pm when it became cash bar. Once word of that spread around everyone flocked to the bars and ordered 2-4 drinks each, so our table was covered with full glasses of straight liquor and mixed drinks. Coincidentally (but probably not), the place cleared out a little after 9pm.
There were only about 50 people there at the party. I work in one building and there's another one close by with more people; combined we're about 200 employees, and this party was for both our offices. My team and I were the only ones present from our office. I didn't see any of the managers (except mine, and one of the sales managers I know). None of the big bosses, none of the other employees.
That was a rather disheartening and disappointing party. We did have a decent time but I'm more worried about WTF my company was thinking throwing something like that when it would not come close to comparing with others. I think they could have given everyone a $50 gift card and not bothered with a Christmas party, saving a butt-ton of money (let alone their huge savings from all the extras they cut this year).
I don't even want to know how the other party went - Pearland, on the other side of town, is home to one of our large service centers. They have a party down in Galveston for them. I think people would be good and pissed if they found out they kept all the extras...you know, as these things tend to go in offices.
I know this all sounded petty, and we did end up having a decent enough time, but now my wife's telling me I need to get my resume together because she thinks this doesn't bode well for the company. I'm hoping to talk to the admin assistant that coordinated everything, to find out what the heck that was all about.
And in honesty, this wasn't the best year. We went through a reorg and lost one of our team members, though that was more that position being not needed than anything else. We just had a quarterly call a week ago and our numbers looked good, so I don't know WTH is up. :-\
I'm glad I still have a job after everything that happened this year so it's not that I'm ungrateful about this party, just disappointed more than anything since expectations were from past experiences and there was zero warning that we'd have any reason to think otherwise. And also more than a little worried, now.
Sorry to hear you have to have that concern in the back of your mind now. I would be thinking the same thing in your shoes. It could be nothing though. Maybe someone just dropped the ball? Maybe they had someone new plan the party who didn't know how it had been done in past years? It is possible that it's not a financial decision, or maybe it is and they didn't think the expense was worth it, even though the company is in no financial distress?
My firm holiday party is always pretty disappointing. It's more of a lunch than a dinner and its firm staff only, no spouses or family. People just want to eat, have a few drinks and then go home early. When I worked at a big city firm, the parties were wild...too wild.
My wife's hospital anesthesia group, on the other hand, now they know how to throw a kickass party. From the second the doors open the music is pumping and people are moving on the dance floor. Work hard, play hard, I guess.
Anyway, don't dwell too much on the lackluster party. I'm sure it's nothing and I wouldn't read into it too much.
Played a couple of scenarios of Hell this weekend, and some World of Warcraft.. For Hell, I beat Chapter 8, but couldn't pull off Chapter 9 even on Normal difficulty. The AI is pretty competent in this game, but man do they give the AI too many units. If you treat your troop like cannon fodder, you can't stop the masses. Unfortunately, this game doesn't seem to have a active following, so finding hints from people is hit or miss. Unfortunate, because I think it's a great use of the Battle Academy engine. I think Blizzard could make a *great* Warcraft turned based game using this engine as a starting point, and adding a campaign engine.
I have my group holiday party lunch today. It is always lame. And my new hawt boss looks busted today. I think she forgot we have the lunch today. We have two more parties this week that she can te gussied up for.
And after a three month medical leave my buddy who works next to me returns today. He is very much looking forward to meeting New Hot Boss, especailly after suffering under the other wench along with me.
My company did away with the holiday party 3 or so years ago. No additional benefits to the employees, just no more holiday parties.
I'm somewhat neutral about it. Recent ones weren't that good and the amount I would need to pay a babysitter for wife and I to attend really isn't worth it.
That said it is another employee benefit taken away that just adds to lining the fat cat's wallets. While I may not enjoy it personally other (younger) employees might so it does suck.
At least when you have a company party its in essence a day off. I think cancelling the holiday party altogether is a real drain on staff morale and not a wise management decision.
My wife works at a local bank and for many years their X-mas party was THE place to be. But as the staff have aged the parties have gone downhill in fun and the last couple of years, most people are already leaving by 8pm. This year she didn't even get an invitation because she's out of her office so much. But I didn't miss it a bit.
Appreciate the feedback. I'm glad they had a get-together for us and the spouses, but a friendly heads-up that this was going to be more subdued would have gone many miles in my book, as opposed to the whole let-it-dawn-on-them-when-they-get-here approach.
I was honestly shocked at the first holiday party I had here after coming on board, two years ago. TVs everywhere, gift bags, all kinds of stuff going on. It was huge because they had it with the Pearland people, and this was down in Galveston. I think they split us into two parties because those of us working way up here on the north side of Houston didn't want to have to drive home for 2 hours after it ended. Last year's was the same, tons of free stuff including booze and music. I've NEVER been to company shindigs anything close to these levels.
Had I been a first year employee coming to this party this past weekend, I would have thought it was great. I'll have to manage my expectations for next year, though.
I honestly thought this was one of those "mandatory voluntary" things that corporations like to do. You know, the official line is, "You don't HAVE to come," but if you don't show, it will be noted for future reference. Most everybody not coming was a real downer and very telling.
We went to a local pub, had a "school dinner" Christmas meal, and then headed off for beers/dancing in the city. We organised it and paid for it.