Writing the First Game of the Year: Introduction

The first game of the year is in many ways the easiest. There are absolutely no restrictions on what sources I can use, other than not to repeat any in the game itself. I always do the year that is fifty years before, so this will be 1961. I actually remember 1961 pretty well. I remember my mom mooning over JFK during his news conferences, for instance. I remember the first space shots. If you're going to be four and five during a year (my birthday neatly bisects the year), there aren't a lot of years more memorable than 1961. 

The challenge, and the reason it's taken me so goddamn long to get around to writing this year, is the strategy involved not in writing this game, but in writing this game recognizing all the other games I'll have to write during the year.  One thing to remember is that most games I write in a year will end in either the last digit of the year or that digit plus five, viz., 1961 or 1966.  I will cover almost undoubtedly cover all the years that end in 1 or 6 from 1901 to 2006 (I will break the taboo on games on 2001 later this year at the tenth anniversary of 9/11, I suspect; it's time).  Then I'll have to find some years in earlier centuries, which may or may not end in 1 or 6.   

Let me classify sources in four categories in connection with 1961, a concept that will apply pretty well throughout:

A.  Sources that are devoted solely to 1961.  I own nearly the entire Facts on File Yearbook series starting in 1943 (I got most of them for $20 + shipping on eBay from a military library that was closing; they wrote me and said "the shipping is going to be $100"--I told them yahoo!).  All of those books cover exactly a single year.  There are a few others like that, and we'll encounter one this year in fact.  Obviously, if you have a source devoted solely to your year, you're going to use it when you write a game on that year.

B.  Sources that are centered on the year in some ways.  The first source we're going to encounter is a brand new book called, "JFK Day by Day", which chronicles his presidency day by day (published in honor of the 50th anniversary of his inauguration, obviously).  Since there will likely be no other game this year during JFK's presidency (which wasn't exactly long), this one is obviously going to be used.  Similarly, there are a number of sources I have devoted to the Sixties, the Civil Rights era, Martin Luther King, Jr., Marilyn Monroe and a few others whose careers were in high swing in 1961.  To the extent some would also have been active in 1956 or 1966, I keep some of them in reserve, but make sure a number are used this year.  Then you have some where this year isn't the really relevant one.  "Main Events of the Eisenhower Presidency" ends in 1961, but it covers exactly 20 days of the year.  I'll save that for 1956. 

C.  Sources that are centered in the applicable century or era but not particularly devoted to the year.  Here, you want to use up a number of them but keep in mind that there will be 25 games at least on this particular century.  Not just "Chronicle of the 20th Century", but "One Hundred Years of Cinema" and "100 Years of Ford."  

D.  Really general sources.  Not just "Timeline History of the World", but "A Chronology of Luxembourg."  Here, it's pick and choose to an extent.  Sometimes I'll keep Luxembourg in reserve because I have an idea that another year will be one where there's something great going on in Luxembourg (yes, there was).  Sometimes I'll say to myself, "I have no freaking clue what happened in Luxembourg in 1961.  Let's find out."  As you'll see, that's my Luxembourgeois attitude right now.

The goal is to maximize the (currently) 2151 sources, of which 1397 are available for 1961.  By a simple filter in Access, I can make sure I don't duplicate any sources until I've reached the point in the year when I can't write a full game without repetition.  In 2010, I used all but 72 of the sources, which includes about 30 that are lost or were thrown out after the cat pissed on them.  Nearly all of the rest weren't used because they dealt solely with years I didn't write last year.  Even though I'll probably add another hundred sources this year (I already have them, but I keep buying more--I know, I'm rather insane), I would like to get that number lower than 72 this year.  Who knows if I will.