Game Blotter - A roundup of crimes, legal cases, and when "the law" gets involved with gamesMERCS Miniatures was forced to change the logo for the company’s MYTH board game after receiving a cease and desist letter from Electronic Arts. The logo resembled the one for EA’s Mythic Entertainment subsidiary.

Someone is posting fake game projects to Indiegogo, copying them from Kickstarter. The flexible funding option allows them to collect money as it’s pledged, even if the project is later removed from the site.

Not that Kickstarter is immune. The owner of the Odin’s Ravens project has been unreachable since collecting $23,000 in March.

And Erik Chevalier of The Forking Path canceled his project for The Doom that Came to Atlantic City after collecting $123,000. He admits fault for not running the project well and says that he intends to eventually return all his backers’ money. In the meantime, the game’s designers are giving all backers a print-and-play version for free and Cryptozoic has stepped in to produce the game.

The India Ministry of Sports has ordered the Chess Association of India to stop using “India” or “Indian” in its name. The Association, though, has filed suit to stop the move. The question seems to be whether the group’s name improperly suggests support by the government or whether the government is favoring a monopoly by the All India Chess Federation.

The other owners of DragonCon were finally able to buy out Ed Kramer.

Borislav Ivanov, the Chess player suspected of cheating, has been suspended for 4 months by the Bulgarian Chess Federation because he refused to participate in a test of his skills or take a polygraph. Also to address Ivanov’s allegedly unfair winning streak, tournament organizers in Bulgaria recently instituted a rule denying players any prize won on the basis of three or more opponents refusing to play. Then, three of Ivanov’s opponents forfeited. Though he finished at the top of the standings, he was refused a trophy.

A Mahjong museum in Japan has decided to repatriate to China its collection of valuable and historically significant Mahjong sets. Among the sets being sent back is one that previously belonged to the last emperor of China. The museum is closing and had earlier planned to auction off its collection. Now it will be transferred to the World Mahjong Organization in Beijing.

The Women’s Team of the Israel Bridge Federation was excluded from the Venice Cup in Indonesia despite qualifying by finishing sixth in the European Championship. Technically, they withdrew, but only after Indonesian Bridge officials refused to respond to Israeli requests to discuss security arrangements. The Israel Bridge Federation had also offered to pay for flying Indonesian Bridge officials to a third country in order to facilitate visas for the Israeli players (Indonesia and Israel do not maintain diplomatic relations). No response was given to this offer, either. To make up for this incident, the World Bridge Federation is offering the Israeli team a bye in to the upcoming Third SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing.

True Office is turning corporate insider trading compliance in to a game. Not in the usual way, by trying to avoid it. Instead, using games for training.

Three men were shot, one of them killed, at a Dominoes game in Pompano Beach, Florida. The perpetrators are still at-large.

Another man was shot at a Dominoes game in Savannah, Georgia. So were three men playing Dominoes in Washington, D.C. I don’t know why. It seems that they don’t either.

Saginaw, Michigan dice players prefer knives to guns for their violence.

A 12-year-old player was expelled from the Grand Europe Chess tournament for cheating. He was caught with a mobile phone in his pocket and the position of his game on the screen.

During a Bellevue, Washington Chess game, one of the players threatened his opponent with a gun. The recipient of the threat was able to run from the house and call the police. However, the player with the gun held out against the responding SWAT team and their flash-bang grenades and tear-gas canisters for 8 hours before surrendering. Talk about counter-productive analysis paralysis!

On a group of homes in Zhaoxian county, China, house numbers are displayed using large Mahjong tiles. Some have complained that this encourages gambling.

Watch out for knockoff LEGO Ninjago on eBay.

A woman who stabbed a man twice at a backyard Dominoes game in the Cayman Islands was found guilty of wounding, despite having claimed self-defense.

In Mandeville, Louisiana an IRS agent was concerned about a briefcase left on his front porch. Police blasted it open with a remote water-cannon. Rather than a bomb, it was discovered to be a Chess set.

An illegal Mahjong gambling operation was busted in Singapore.

One of the ways in which a Shanghai con artist was able to extract money from his victims was convince them he was planning to open a Mahjong club. Because, y’know, that’s not shady at all.

A group of men held up an illegal dice game behind a car wash in Dallas. Then another guy stepped out of a nearby convenience store and started shooting at the fleeing robbers. But instead of hitting the robbers, he shot and killed a homeless veteran sitting on a bus-stop bench.

Among the valuables stolen from an elderly couple’s home in Ascot were a rosewood Edwardian Bridge table and an antique Mahjong set.