Trenton, NJ: man shot and killed during a dice game. (source)

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Gleemax, the social experiment from Wizards of the Coast, has finally opened their Avalon Hill board games up to the public. They’re in alpha and free for a limited time.

So while you can, try out games like:

• Robo Rally
• Axis and Allies
• Acquire
• Guillotine
• Vegas Showdown

as well as

• Magic Online (a limited version)
• Desktop Tower Defense (a popular computer game)

(link)

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The Restoration Ministries in Harvey outside of Chicago is running a chess club to help drug addicted children and adults make a recovery.

Says one player:

When I get real mad, I play chess. It makes me calm down a little. I don’t really care if I win or not. It’s just for the love of the game.

(source)

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The Tierney Labs blog of the New York Times ran a three-part article and multi-media series on fool’s bets, including a Flash version of the Monty Hall problem and similar problems.

The math and psychology are worth checking out.

(article)

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As reported here, on Board Game News, and many other places, Mattel’s profits sunk last quarter owing to product recalls and falling licensing sales.

Nevertheless, Mattel’s CEO, Robert Eckert, still pulled in a compensation package of $12.2 million, a net 68 percent increase from the previous year.

(source)

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Boston dominoes players are moving to private homes to play their games as the local clubs disappear.

(source)

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The Kennebec Journal recently published an article on Warhammer 40K players gathering in Maine’s War Games Zone. It should be no surprise that the article focused on the cost and time involved in developing an army of miniatures.

(article)

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The latest offering from war games publisher Victory Point Games covers the first Arab-Israeli war. Israeli Independence is a solitaire card-driven-game playable in about 15 minutes.

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I’m a fan of pirate stories and pirate games. I very much enjoy GMT Games‘ last pirate game, the Euro-styled Winds of Plunder. But I’m particularly interested in the true history of the golden age of piracy, so the newest offering from GMT has got me very excited. The company is now shipping Blackbeard by veteran designer Richard Berg. GMT’s edition of Blackbeard is a redesign of Berg’s original game for publisher Avalon Hill. This new version is said to be a significant improvement, simulating the real lives of actual pirates while providing a streamlined play experience with significant interaction between players.

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