Welcome to Purple Pawn, covering games played around the world by billions of people every day.

gamesworkshoplogo.jpgUnfortunately, this is not the first time we’ve felt it necessary to call attention to the way Games Workshop makes life tough for its biggest fans. In the latest incident, the company apparently sent one of its famous cease-and-desist letters to Board Game Geek, leading to the removal of a wide range of player-created material for GW games. Not surprisingly—to us at least—the move has created an uproar among the site’s membership, with many vowing never again to purchase Games Workshop products. Now, it’s not really within our expertise to judge the legal basis for each item removed, but from a PR perspective, the company is only working against its greater interest. The dedicated fans who produce these materials not only represent a major market for the company’s products, they are also responsible for significant word-of-mouth marketing (an extremely important factor for hobby games).

So let me ask you, Games Workshop, what’s the message you’re trying to send?

Logo Brand Awareness Game

logoI just recently covered Eye-dentity, a brand awareness game, so naturally here comes another one.

Logo, from Drumond Park, makers of the Britain’s Got Talent game, is a trivia game about product brands. The game comes with 400 questions.

Other new games from Drumond Park this year include Pig Goes Pop (same Goliath’s Pop the Pig) and The Colour of Money (based on the TV show of the same name).

Selah Psychology Board Game

selahSelah is a UK company, currently an sggc selling Selah Psychology, a question game designed to help drill you for, or assess you for, level A tests in psychology. They are supposedly working on a science version as well.

The game sells for £32.00.

Prime Card Game

primePrime, by JL Fletcher and Brett Pelham, published by sggc Mama Luke Playing Cards, is a quick card game.

The deck has prime numbers 2 – 17 and the letters P, R, I, M, and E. You start with 7 face down cards, of which you can look at 4 of them. Each round, pick a card, discard a card, and turn one card in your tableau face up. When all of your cards are face up, score for any non-duplicated cards. The letter cards are worth 0 in the basic game, and have special abilities in the advanced game.

WoW Scourgewar

World of Warcraft ScourgewarDemand outstripped supply at some of the sneak peak events last week but now the World of Warcraft TCG Scourgewar expansion set is available to everyone. Scourgewar draws on the dark mood of the Wrath of the Lich King MMO expansion, for example debuting Death Rattle as a new keyword. Another major theme of the set is making class matter. Or maybe all that matters is the included loot cards.

Greed, Incorporated

greedGreed Incorporated is another fascinating game from the minds of Splotter Games. Splotter’s games are legendary in the gaming industry as being highly original, fanciful, quality, epic, and expensive. Of the games that I’ve played, I’ve also felt that they were also flawed in some way or another, but flawed or not, the games are always interesting.

Greed fits this mold exactly. You play a workforce that tries to get your people into the executive board of companies as they form, build them into rich companies, and then crash them and make off with hefty severance bonus packages, which you then spend as leisure activities (victory points). Lather, rinse, and repeat.

The rules are dazzlingly intricate, but not at all daunting. Available soon for $114.