Table card game – Player bets on to how much the cards being dealt to him will add up.

Systems and methods for playing a card match game – Some kind of pattern-matching Bingo-like game, where the cards have a few symbols and your player board has a grid of symbols.

Strategic pattern building board game with ejecting feature – A design patent for Connect 4×4’s frame.

Poker game with blind bet and player selectable play wager – Poker against the dealer with a “blind wager”, which compares both the player’s and dealer’s hands to a third pre-determined value.

Fencing card game – As it says.

Biased card deal – A method of dealing each player a hand that is of similar strength as every other player, I assume for a video poker system of some sort. This is supposed to make the game more exciting and less random. It seems to me that the game will be less exciting and more random.

Method of conducting wagering dice games – Some kind of poker dice game, where four of the five dice are first roller, and after more betting the last die is rolled.

System and method for facilitating casino team play – A method of tracking members of a group playing in casinos, specifically for slot machines. The method is intended to encourage groups with enhanced rewards for group activity.

The patent is by Walker Digital, who are trying to rethink casinos and the social experience. Might be an interesting company to watch.

Blackjack tournaments with rules encouraging card counting and broadcasts thereof – Card counting on a single or double deck of cards famously changes the odds in favor of the player, instead of the house. Rather than fight this (multiple decks of cards, frequent reshuffling, etc.), the idea here is to encourage card counting as a sport, and make up the difference from entry fees, sponsorship, and so on.

Inclined surface feature for game assembly – Near as I can tell, Hasbro has just patented the idea of a game board that is tilted toward the player, thus making it easier to play upon. The illustrative example is a version of Battleship.

Suits and ladders game – A betting game. Flip a card and see if you won. If you won, you can push your luck by betting higher up the ladder.

Roulette game apparatus with side bet game – An additional ten bets for roulette: betting on whether a particular digit (either in the tens or ones place) will win.

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Atlantean Democracy looks like some kind of game, but after watching the explanatory video (below) and reading the “rules“, I still have no idea what the developer, Jonathan Gee, is talking about.

Do look at the comment, and his response, about his book, and take a look at his website, for more delightful confusion. Oh yes: 9/11. UFOs. Peace, and far out. etc.

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Teens in Towanda, PA were treated to an exclusive game night at the Towanda Public Library on Dec 29th. This was the first, of hopefully many, nights just like it.  From 4pm to 8pm teens could come and play such games as Sorry, Monopoly, and Scrabble.

While the idea is great, it’d be even better if some more hobby games where donated into the mix.

6 teens attended the event, and it was hailed a success.

(source)

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BRY (blue, red, yellow) is a 2 or 3 player abstract game which looks kind of complicated, but probably plays fairly smoothly once you get started. The game is by Tim McNee of sggc Krifen Games.

Each of your pieces can capture or stun one of the shapes of your opponents’ pieces, and pieces can jump or swap in and out of two out-of-play zones.

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THQ and Jakks have come to an agreement over the future of the WWE license. THQ will pay Jakks $20 million over the course of the next four years, and Jakks bows out of the picture. (source)

Amazon’s bestselling games this holiday season were Scrabble Slam, The Settlers of Catan, and Scene It? Twilight Deluxe Edition. (source)

Winning Moves will be a game licensee for the 2012 Olympics, and will be producing “London 2012 branded Top Trumps card games, the new Top Trumps Tournament boxed game version, playing cards, trivia card and board games.” (source)

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And you thought all the woes went away with Scrabulous.

Casual Facebook Scrabble players are complaining about Mattel’s inclusion of utterly ridiculous words in their online dictionary. Meanwhile, serious Facebook Scrabble players are complaining about Mattel’s lack of enough utterly ridiculous words in their online dictionary.

Well, duh, guys: Let players select what dictionary they want to use.

Mattel’s version of Scrabble on Facebook was implemented by Gamehouse, and is available only to Facebook users playing outside of North America.

(source)

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Hasbro has had a wee problem with the server handling the in-game text messaging for their game Clue: Secrets and Spies.

As a result, the messages didn’t arrive during the game, and then hundreds of messages deluged players several days later. Many people may now be facing high phone charges for incoming messages, depending on their service plan.

Not to mention a $25 waste of cardboard.

(source)

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The Stuhr Museum pimps classic games from your grandparents’ time, including Dominoes, Pick-Up Sticks, Chinese Checkers, etc. (source)

The New York Times pimps Mindflex, while asking whether it will simply be a fad. (source)

The New Zealand Herald pimps Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray, designers of Endeavor. (source) Shoutouts to BGG, Z-Man Games, and some other Eurogames.

The BBC Guide pimps making your own board games. (source) Links to the print-and-play section of BGG.

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What’s this? Another holiday article?

Yup, that’s right. Can you tell I’m trying to get you guys to interact with us more?

Desperate? Never!

Anyway.  What games will you be playing on New Years Day/Eve?

We got a bunch of new games over the holidays, so we’ll be playing: SORRY! Sliders, Gulo Gulo, Kids of Carcassonne, Bakugan, Heroscape and a bunch more.

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Melissa & Doug Plush Monster Bowling

Awwwwww…..

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