Your turn now, Alexa
'She asked how many players, and I said one. She then said Woohoo!'. BGG user Sara Bear has written a report on what happened when she tried to play Ticket to Ride with the Amazon Alexa device as both her assistant and opponent.
Days of Wonder, the publishing company of the Ticket to Ride series of games has recently partnered with Amazon to release an Alexa-compatible TTR program. So far this works with Ticket to Ride (USA) and Ticket to Ride Europe. Alexa can teach the rules, track score, and act as a player herself thus enabling solo play against her. She also provides music soundtracks and sound effects. Sara and other BGG users have mentioned a few glitches but nothing too serious.
The skills program for Alexa is available in English and French for the time being, but more language packs are going to come out in the future. Other companies may follow in Days of Wonder's steps: Portal Games had announced back in February that they were planning to integrate Alexa with two of their own games: Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game and Monolith Arena (the teaser video for Monolith Arena displays Alexa only as rules helper, not AI. But it is still in development, so this may change).
If you happen to own both a copy of TTR and Alexa, it's useful to know that when Alexa is stuck and doesn't exit setup, you need to be a bit brutal. Just do what Sara did, and yell 'Alexa, SHUT UP!' These are the words that will ensure you a smooth high tech gaming experience.
