Gamer Adventures offers cruises designed around different gamers and game types.

Forthcoming cruises include:

• February Gulf of Mexico cruise for Magic: the Gathering players
• March Caribbean cruise for Settlers of Catan players

Previous cruises were also offered for LARPers, and more are planned.

(source)

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Six guys in British Columbia will attempt to break the world record for longest continuous playing of the same board game. Game of choice: Cities and Knights of Catan. The attempt is set to start on Friday morning at 9 am and go for 50 hours.

6-player Cities and Knights? Feh. The game takes too long. Oh, wait a minute …

The previous record is held by four Germans who played Carcassonne for 42 hours and 48 minutes.

They have a web site, and are asking people to support them by donating to Canadian research into cancer.

(source)

Update: They succeeded. (source)

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Loteria is a popular game in Mexico, similar to Bingo but with pictures instead of numbers on its 54 cards. The pictures are traditional, dating back to the 19th century, and the announcer calls out special riddles or humorous quips when drawing a card, rather than simply stating the name of the card. Each player plays on a random 4×4 grid. You win by forming a square, line, or all four corners.

San Antonio jewelry designer Carolyn Dublin has a new line of jewelry products entirely based on the traditional pictures from Loteria.

All well and good, but three of the traditional pictures have been know to cause arched eyebrows in certain quarters, namely the Drunk, the Negro, and the Native American. I note that Carolyn hasn’t got those onto her jewelry, yet.

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A recent commercial by Dominoes Pizza has both pleased and frustrated American Go players by depicting Go as a game for intelligent people. The nerve.

AGA President Allan Abramson thanked Dominoes for showing the game in their commercial, but suggested that they change it: “Reverse the roles, and have the boy make a move and the man sweep the stones off the board. The message now would be that you do not have to be the world’s smartest man to win at Go, and that a young boy can beat an adult. This would be much closer to the truth, and do a great deal to promote Go among the young in America.”

(source, discussion)

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On January 17-18, the Cempaka Schools in Malaysia will be hosting Thinkcon-1, the country’s first convention to showcase the use of tabletop games in education. Faculty at all grade levels in the Cempaka group are using games to teach critical thinking, resource management, and negotiation skills. The convention will feature workshops for educators and events for parents and students, including demonstrations of the board game Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective and WWII miniatures game Flames of War.

(source)

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Or rather crates.

Titan Games of Battle Creek, Michigan is clearing out old stock and offering a package deal of 50 cases of assorted games for $10 a case. They have about 5 or 6 lots available and each is said to contain more than $8,000 worth of assorted RPGs, miniatures, board games, and card games.

Alternatively, if you’re willing to take a chance on getting even more for your dollar, Titan’s eBay auction guarantees a minimum of $10,000 in games and is currently at the same $500.

In either case, though, be prepared for some heavy lifting. The deal being offered does not include shipping. You’ll have to go and pick it up yourself.

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