This weekend, I went off to the MostWAM studio for a session with Sky. I had a great time, and I've also enjoyed re-living it via the video recording.
When I arrived there, I met Leon, Casey, and Sky, who were all really friendly and made me feel welcome. I brought the Pie Face game with me; I know that some people don't like it, but the pictures below show how messy it can get! Basically, each time the catapult went off, we followed it up with a full shaving foam pie.
Leon was filming, but we also had an opportunity to discuss the design features of the game. In particular, it would be useful to have some kind of rubber grips on the handles (similar to a bicycle), because after a while it was a challenge to turn them with slippery hands. Fortunately, there was a towel available for us to clean our hands when necessary.
Casey was primarily on pie-making duty. She also kept score and stepped in to provide a voiceover as the host. I hadn't arranged that in advance, but she was very accommodating.
The idea of the game is that you spin the dial, then choose how many times to click the handles (up to the number you spun): greater risk, greater reward. A lot of people just simplify it by doing whatever the dial says, but Sky definitely played to win (her infamous competitive streak), so she got tactical about choosing when to just click once and when to risk a longer run.
My original idea was to go up to 50 points, with the loser going in the tank. Sky took the lead early on, and was the first to 50. However, we had a lot of pies left, so we agreed to keep the going up to 100 points. I gradually caught up, and eventually won; Sky claimed (unconvincingly) that it was ok because she wanted to lose. However, as Leon said, by the end of the game it was basically two giant marshmallows pieing each other, so there wasn't much difference between winner and loser!
One thing I particularly liked is that Sky was an active participant rather than a passive recipient. For instance, at the end of the game, I was the last to get pied, so she made a huge pie (scraping some of the foam off herself) and put it on the table in front of me while she walked round. I was expecting her to pick it up, but instead I felt her hand on the back of my head as she gently pushed my face down into the pie. I wasn't expecting that, but it was a nice surprise.
After Sky had been gunged on her own, Leon refilled the tank, then Sky and I went in together. Leon then "swept" the gunge onto us, to make sure we were completely covered! Then it was time for the fire hose to get cleaned up; unlike a fire engine, they use warm water for this.
If anyone else has the opportunity to go to a MostWAM session, I highly recommend it. Keep an eye out for Lisa Moomin's posts, when she releases future dates.
peter405 said: Looks like a great session, what did Sky have on her feet?
We both went barefoot during the session, although Sky did comment that it looked as if she was wearing white slippers at the end!
Any more photos?
Lisa kindly gave me permission to share a couple of photos, and it was a struggle to whittle the choices down to these. However, I think I'd be taking advantage of MostWAM's generosity if I posted anymore (since they own the copyright), so I'll have to draw a discreet veil over the rest of the session.
Love you, too
