Game Blotter

While a Washington state court was busy entering a default judgement against the no-show owners of an allegedly fraudulent playing-cards Kickstarter project and ordering them to pay $55,000 in restitution, legal fees, and penalties, those owners were busy delivering the promised product.

Police in Zillah, Washington were concerned that a package left outside a post office and labeled “take me” might have been a bomb. Army personnel they called in for assistance x-rayed the package and found a deck of cards and a board game. I wonder which it was?

A judge in Wisconsin agreed that Poker is mostly a game of skill. Nevertheless, citing a 1964 case that specifically found Poker to be gambling, he ruled against those who sought to have it declared legal in the state.

In the ongoing dispute over rights to the Villains & Vigilantes RPG, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed both the lower court’s decision to side with the creators on their copyright claim and its decision to side with Fantasy Games Unlimited on claims of defamation and commercial disparagement. The Appeals Court, however, sent the case back to the District Court to address the matter of damages on the copyright claim.

A roleplaying game supplement, Tournament of Rapists, posted on DriveThruRPG was found by a number of people online to be offensive. Though products are not screened before they are posted, and the item was eventually removed from the store, statements by the CEO of OneBookshelf were such that some have called for other companies to remove their products in protest.

Hasbro is sponsoring a program in Pawtucket, Rhode Island (home of the company’s headquarters) that aims to prevent bullying in all 17 local public schools.

A cybersecurity specialist has found some risks with the way FIDE’s website stores passwords and other personal information.

An actual security breach at DriveThruRPG affects only those who made credit card purchases during a recent 1 month period.

A man who would set up a table a play cards at various spots around Newburgh, New York was shot and killed while being robbed at one of his games.

Gunmen got out of two cars in Pittsburgh and shot up a street dice game. One player was killed, three injured.

Someone got out of a car to interrupt a man playing Dominoes in front of his home in Pompano Beach, Florida. Apparently the discussion that ensued did not go well because the first man went back to his car, took out a gun, and returned to shoot and kill the one playing Dominoes.

It was one of the players at a dice game in Peoria, Illinois that shot and killed another.

Two teens, one 19 years old and a known gang-member, were playing dice on the street in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago when they were shot and killed.

Two people were shot, one of them dead, during a dice game in Memphis. It’s unclear who shot them.