While not yet confirmed by the company, multiple sources are reporting that Wizards of the Coast went through another round of layoffs today. Just in time for the holiday season, these dismissals continue to focus on WOTC’s digital ventures, though at the same time including prominent Dungeons & Dragons designers. Recognizing that there are not a lot of full-time professional opportunities in RPG publishing, one’s got to wonder how Wizards (and parent Hasbro) can expect to recruit and retain talented staff if they develop a reputation for letting people go once the big product launch is out the door.

(source, source)

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Word Blur is something like Password, but you don’t get to make up your own word clues. Instead, you have to find words from a pile of 900 words and form them into clues while everyone around you shouts guesses. And another team is doing the same thing for the same word at the same time.

Sounds neat enough, although hunting through the pile for the words you need could get old.

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Let’s Save Our Earth is, according to the creator, “an educational game rather than a competitive game.” Furthermore, the object of the game is to learn. Therefore, even though there are trivia questions on the cards, players are encouraged to simply read or hint at the answers rather than challenge another player to guess on his or her own.

The promotional video is as fun to watch as the game appears to be: not at all.

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Yes, that T-shirt slogan that some of us wish would just go away is still here, along with a new board game from Imagination Games.

“boys are stupid, throw rocks at them” appears to be part trivia, part roll-and-move, and part truth-or-dare.

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Northwest Arkansas’ Morning News printed a board game, complete with cards, in it’s Sunday Family section.

Well, it’s really a roll-and-move calendar of local events, but what did you expect? Agricola?

“Did you find those squares? Great. We will concede at this point that it’s a little mean to throw in the spaces and cards asking you to lose a turn or go back a space. But it’s all in keeping with the way board games work.”

Download the complete game and cards from the source.

(source)

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Margaret Maldonado’s game has arrived, and it’s called Fashion Rules!

It’s a trivia game. About supermodels. And costs $100. Oh joy.

(source)

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There’s a new board game that simulates how executives at Virgin Blue, the low cost Australian airline, make decisions. Only it’s not from Virgin Blue. It’s from a disgruntled ex-staffer.

Needless to say, the decision making process simulated by the game is less than ideal. The game plays something like Snakes and Ladders with cards, and the first to actually make a decision, which means reach the last square, is the winner. Apparently, this could take some time.

(source and download, hat tip)

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Play This Thing presents a tongue-way-in-cheek analysis of Candy Land, including its political, mathematical, and cultural attributes.

Cute, but been there, done that. Here’s a classic mathematical analysis of Candy Land, further mathematical analysis on the game, and a monte carlo simulation analysis. All fun reads, but none of which can escape the reality that Candy Land is not a game, it’s a slot machine.

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The Belize Family Life Association is something like Planned Parenthood for the country of Belize.

They’ve got a new board game called Thorns, an educational game about sexual and reproductive health. It was chosen from among 47 entries in a design competition.

Joan Burke, executive director, believes it is the first board game produced in Belize. Actually, the government of Belize released a board game about solid waste management called Scraps in 2001. (source)

(source)

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Over on The Stranger, there are competing reviews of metal band The Sword. Apparently, the difference in opinion is at least partially the result of varying levels of appreciation for Dungeons & Dragons references involving epic battles and ogres.

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