Its been a while since I’ve said something nice about Games Workshop, but the giveaway they’re currently running warrants a serious “attaboy!” Right now, if you register at the Games Workshop US site, you’ll be entered into two separate competitions (raffles really)!

• In Every Hobby Center in the US: One registrant will be selected in each store to receive a Battleforce or Battalion box of their choice
• Globally:
• • One first place winner will receive a trip for two to visit GW’s HQ, The Studio and Warhammer World – all expenses paid
  • One second place winner will receive every new product GW releases for the next 12 months!
  • One third place winner will receive a 5,000 point Warhammer or Warhammer 40,000 army of their choice

The contest ends on August 31st, so get over there and register for an account (its free!).

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The other four members of the board of the US Chess Federation voted to kick Susan Polgar and her husband Paul Truong off the board, continuing a two year high-profile battle that has cost the federation some $400,000. (source)

The ABC series “Wife Swap” is looking for a family that plays Chess. (source)

An Iranian GM is looking to set the world record for number of simultaneous games of F2F Chess: 500. The current record is 360. Bear in mind that this requires walking 40 km and playing for 24 hours. (source) Update: He succeeded with 397 wins and 90 draws. (source)

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Job Search: A Game of Frustration is a roll and move game about looking for work. It was inspired by Candyland:

Yet one day, while playing Candyland, I thought about how looking for work was simply a game. Get a call, move forward; get rejected, go back … fate, circumstances, chance, destiny – call it what you will – are all playing with you. And, for better or worse, it oftentimes feels as if they are rolling the dice, and you are simply a peg on the board waiting to be moved a little closer to that final square.

To summarize: The designer took the uncontrollable, unenjoyable, and incredibly frustrating experience of looking for work and decided that this would make a good board game.

(source)

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Indie Boards and Cards, by Travis Worthington, bills itself as a publisher that doesn’t publish. Instead, it notes that all the tools anyone needs to self-publish already exist, but “too many of these games suffer from poor playtesting, have confusing & incomplete rules or just aren’t that good.”

Which would make one think that they help designers in the development process by playtesting works in progress, help write rules, and provide design advice to help you create better games. Unfortunately, none of this is the case.

While couched within a complicated procedure that they promise will take months, what they appear to do is ensure that your game was liked by some fellow BGGs, put a stamp of approval on your game if they like it, and then list it on their site. Thus assuring a quality product.

The first game on the site is Triumvirate, which is designed by … Travis Worthington.

(source)

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Unsurprisingly, 4Kids reported enormous losses, at least on the balance sheets. Q2 revenue was down to $4.4 million, compared to $16.5 million last year. Net loss $13.8 million, compared to a net loss of $5.5 million last year.

$7.25 million of that loss was due to auction rate securities, a risky investment instrument, whose entire industry collapsed in February, 2008. And although $2.6 million worth of Chaotic cards were sold, they are unable to claim most of the revenue from that, because they can only list final sales to consumers, not to distributors, on the balance sheets. (source)

Leapfrog lost $12.2 million, compared to $20.6 million last year, which is an improvement, I suppose. Revenue was down 28 percent to $41.6 million. They’re expecting good third and fourth quarters, however. (source) Leapfrog sells popular educational games.

RC2 actually had profits of $3.3 million, compared to losses of $6.4 million last year’s Q2. Most of that was cost-cutting, however. Revenue fell slightly to $87 million. (source) Thomas the Tank and Bob the Builder games and toys, among other items.

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The Game of Networking is a roll and and move game, where you have to be lucky to land exactly on what you need in each particular stage, or you just keep rolling. You gain resources (if you’re lucky) and get to ask questions (if you’re lucky) of other players to determine what resources they hold or want, so that you can try to negotiate with them (if you’re lucky). You can’t force anyone to negotiate, however.

First to reach their goal wins. If ever a game cried out for multiple winners, or cooperative play, this would be it.

It’s $150, and even the shipping is more expensive than most games ($25 shipping within North America).

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