Okay, so I’ve been messing around with this thing called VASSAL lately, and let me tell you, it’s been a ride. I heard about it from some folks online who said it was a cool way to play board games with people all over the place. Sounded neat, so I figured, why not give it a shot?
First off, I had to get this thing onto my computer. I went to their website, found the download link, and clicked it. Easy peasy, right? Well, kind of. The installation was a bit more involved than I expected. I had to pick a spot on my computer to put all the files, and then follow a bunch of prompts. I fumbled through it, clicking “next” a bunch of times, and hoping I didn’t mess anything up.
Once it was installed, I launched VASSAL. I was greeted with a screen that looked like it was designed by someone who really, really loved the early 2000s. Not exactly what I expected, but hey, I was here to play games, not judge a book by its cover.
Now, I needed a game to play. These are called “modules,” apparently. I found a website that had a bunch of them and downloaded one for a game I’ve always wanted to try. It was a war game, which seemed like a good fit for VASSAL, since I heard it’s popular for that.
Getting the module into VASSAL was another adventure. I had to open some menus, browse through my files, and select the module I downloaded. Finally, it showed up! Then, double-clicking it opened a new window, with more options and buttons than I knew what to do with.
I spent a good chunk of time just clicking around, trying to figure out how to set up the game. There were maps, and pieces, and all sorts of little icons. I think I accidentally deleted a few things, but thankfully there was an “undo” button. I fumbled my way through setting up a basic scenario, just trying to get a feel for the controls.
Moving pieces was a drag-and-drop affair, which was simple enough. But then there were all these other menus for rolling dice, checking rules, and who knows what else. I poked around, trying to make sense of it all. It was definitely not intuitive.
- First I downloaded it.
- Then I installed it.
- Then I downloaded a module.
- Then I learned how to use it.
I managed to play a few turns against myself, just to see how it worked. It was clunky, and I kept forgetting which button did what. I can see why some people like this, though. It’s got a lot of flexibility, and you can pretty much recreate any board game you want. But for me, it was a bit much.
I’m not sure if I’ll keep using VASSAL. It’s powerful, I’ll give it that, and it’s clear that a lot of work went into making it. But it’s just not very user-friendly. Maybe I’ll give it another try sometime, but for now, I think I’ll stick to playing games in person. Or maybe I’ll try to find something a little less complicated online.
If any of you have tried VASSAL, let me know what you think. Did you have an easier time with it than I did? Or did you throw your computer out the window in frustration? I’m curious to hear your experiences!
