Stewart Woods is a lecturer at Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia, as well as a member of the West Australian Boardgaming Association.

He’s written a number of excellent academic articles on gaming, including this recent one about player elimination in games such as Risk, contrasted with video games and modern Euro games. The abstract:

This paper draws upon elements of contemporary board game design with a view to establishing ways in which crosspollination between game media may foster innovative interpersonal mechanics. The ways in which loss is implemented in board game design are discussed and contrasted with the lack of genuine losing conditions in the majority of contemporary videogames. Examples are drawn of tabletop game mechanics which place a particular emphasis upon the interaction of players in order to bring about conflicts which highlight the antisocial nature of play as it occurs within the confines of Huizinga’s magic circle. Finally, it is argued that the combination of social negotiation and elimination commonly seen in board game design is one that holds particular potential for digital implementation, suggesting that virtual environments laden with a greater degree of social risk might invigorate the field of videogame design.

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The Color Dwarfs from Haba just won “Best Board Game” at the Middle East Toy Fair.

Aimed at the same age group as Candyland, it looks like a better game. Each card has two or more colors in a picture, and you have to say one of the colors to move to that square (which means you get a choice). You win the game by collecting gifts from the various houses.

The game comes with various rules for making it harder or easier, as well as cooperative play.

And it’s not about candy; it’s about dwarfs.

(source)

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In this day when financial institutions are falling like dominoes, political factions fall like dominoes, and military objectives fall like dominoes, how comforting it is to know that dominoes still fall like dominoes, without any sort of metaphor.

Just kidding, of course. Germany, in remembrance of the fall of the Berlin wall, has decided to set up a two kilometer chain of giant dominoes, which they will knock over so that they can “knock the wall over once again”. Once just wasn’t enough.

(source, source, image by AP)

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Want a free Magic: the Gathering Plainswalker deck?

Click here to get a thirty card deck, in exchange for some personal info and the rights to tell you about upcoming events and products. You have until April 3.

Offer available in North America, parts of Europe and elsewhere.

(source)

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At the recent GDC, Jason Rohrer opens fire on single player games, and their lack of challenge, art, and infinite replayability. It’s a subject that’e been around for a long time, most notably covered by Raph Koster three years ago when he called single player games an aberration.

This time, Jason compares video games to the deep re-playability of board games such as Go an German board games. I’d agree that Go is art, but I’m not sure re-playability = art; I don’t think that’s what he was saying, but still. Works of art don’t assume that they have to be purchased, or experienced more than once. And that’s the difference between art and entertainment.

(source)

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Come Out And Play 2009 is scheduled for June 12-14 in NYC.

The event is outdoor play on a grand scale. Several of the games include life-sized or alternate-reality versions of board and card games, with the players playing the pieces or cards within the game.

The event is still in planning, so get your ideas in soon.

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Hasbro has finally introduced something to give its Facebook Scrabble application a much-needed kick: you can now connect the mobile version to the Facebook version, so a friend on Facebook can play you while you’re on your mobile phone.

Huh. And I thought Hasbro could only offer Scrabble to the North American market, since Mattel has the license for the overseas market. I wonder if you’re restricted as to where you can use your mobile phone while playing this app.

(source)

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Hedged! is a free print and play board game about hedge funds and other shenanigans of the current economic turmoil. Players play America, Great Britain, Russia, or Japan and try to increase the value of their own companies commodities or end with the most cash.

By sggc Huckbolt Games. The game is in beta.

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