Wizards of the Coast is allowing players to download a demo version of the new D&D Character Builder – even if you don’t have a subscription to D&D Insider. The demo version only supports characters from levels 1 to 3, but otherwise seems complete (except for the Windows-only part…).

• 1 Comment

College Humor imagines the headline if board games were real.

• 0 Comments

James Lowder follows up on his 2007 book Hobby Games: The 100 Best with his forthcoming Family Games: The 100 Best. They are both from Green Ronin Press, which has more information on each book.

Like the last book, James has assembled a vast array of top game designers to contribute their favorites and articles. There is no indication as to what the difference is between the two, although I suspect the games in this book will be of a lighter variety. Will Monopoly and Chess make it in, after having been left out of the previous book?

(source)

• 0 Comments

Following on the heels of Playdate and Nerds @ Heart come more dating services aimed at board game geeks.

• Game Night Out started in NYC and still mainly serves the NorthEast, but is planning meetings in Chicago and Los Angeles.
• Geek 2 Geek serves all types of geeks, and has a track for board gamers. The top ten games in their members profiles include both old and new games.

• 0 Comments

I was just at a conference where one of the lecturers told us that you can tell something about the personality of a player by watching his style when he plays Go. The audience responded that people often play games in order to exhibit personality traits that they can’t safely exhibit in real life. I thought that both points had merit.

Along comes this paper from two researchers at Birbeck College with a mathematical look at how to tell a player from his style of play in Chess.

It’s still rough work, but the results could not only be used to determine who a player is from the game transcript, but to program computers to play in a style similar to famous players.

(source)

• 0 Comments

Tuesday at noon Eastern Time, EdWeek.org is sponsoring an online chat on “Evaluating Games as Instructional Tools.” Richard N. Van Eck, an associate professor in the instructional design and technology program at the University of North Dakota, cautions against ill-considered adoption of digital simulations and games. Discussion will focus on “when games should be explored as instructional tools, what advantages games bring to the classroom, and how to overcome obstacles that make game integration difficult.”

• 0 Comments