According to source, each of the 27,000 Gen Con attendees spent nearly $1000 in Indianapolis this year, a nice cash influx for the city. Last year’s attendance was a record of over 28,000. Another source says that Gen Con is not alone as a convention that boosts the local Indianapolis economy.

Origins attendance was “over 10,000″ but down 18%. (source)

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The Wall Street Journal pimps Eric Poses of All Things Equal, creator of Loaded Questions, The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Game, and others. The article describes his secret for getting shelf space at Toys R Us (befriend a former Toys R Us merchandise manager and land a meeting with a Toys R Us buyer). (source)

A league in Leamington, UK pimps Dominoes, claiming that it is urgent that new players attend their league in order that “the game of Dominoes not die.” Heh. If you don’t want Dominoes to die, try moving most of its players out of Jamaica and south Florida, where they tend to die at an alarming rate. Furthermore, I don’t think Dominoes is anywhere close to dying, what with all the Hollywood celebrities jumping on the bandwagon. Your league, however … (source) By the way, the reason the league is dying is due to UK’s new no smoking ban.

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San Fransisco’s Café Gratitude is more than just a vegan gluten-free restaurant; it’s a front for Landmark Education and its Abounding River board game, another in the genre of “games” that aim to set you on the path to a better life.

The cafe, organization, and game are elements to disseminate a philosophy called The Landmark Forum, an outgrowth of Erhard Seminar Training (est) that started in 1971. Erhard sold off the “technology” to Landmark Education in 1985. It’s a for profit venture, the seminars are intense, and let’s just say a bit controversial. Employees at the restaurant allegedly quit or get fired if they don’t actively pay for and participate in the seminars and bring others in. (source)

The game is out of stock; when it wasn’t, it cost $45. It’s a very pretty game.

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Weare, NH: 40 year old plays a drinking card game with daughters and their 18 year old friend and then has sex with the highly intoxicated friend. (source)

Lake Worth, FL: One player stabs another at a game of Dominoes after he feels “disrespected”. (source)

Jacksonville, FL: Man commits murder with a gun he stole at a card game. (source)

Liberty, SC: 18 arrested for gambling over poker. (source)

Chicago, IL: Man shot and killed over $10 in a dice game. (source) These events tend to occur in the South Side.

Cedar City, UT: Man attacks another man with a hammer over a Dungeons and Dragons game, jealousy over the other man’s successful game design, and over a woman. (source)

Holyoke, MA: Two men charged with murder over a dice game. (source)

Orem, UT: Man hits and threatens his nephew and nephew’s wife with a knife over a game of UNO. (source)

Lake Worth, FL: Man stabs friend with knife several times over a game of Dominoes. (source)

Newcastle, Australia: Court hears how priest used to use strip card games to lure kids so as to molest them. (source)

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I was given this one a while ago by SimplyFun, but it fits well in our impromptu mini-series on games of speed. TurtleMania comes with 136 heavy plastic tiles and plays with up to six people in a very rapid 10 minutes. The design was inspired by the pieces in the Chinese game of Mahjong. Here, though, the game has been boiled down to competitive pattern recognition, which when I put it that way doesn’t sound as lively as it usually turns out to be when you lift that cover off and start the dash for tiles.

So what’s the difference between TurtleMania and those numbered card games? Just that instead of throwing out cards in a certain order, you’ll be grabbing tiles in pairs of matching symbols. Again, the fun comes mostly from the hectic nature of play. However, SimplyFun has upgraded that basic approach with some very colorful, substantial, and attractive tiles. Seriously, I don’t think you’ll find a better game deal by weight.

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