Gaming News and Notes

Funagain Games is proud to announce the winners of our monthly game grants for June! All who are eligible are strongly encouraged to apply to keep the applicant pool filled. Instructions on how to apply can be found here.

The winners for June are:

School Grant Roberta Favant
Speech Therapist, New York

Community Grant Julie Moore
Counselor for the Board Game Club, Michigan

Funagain Games is proud to announce the winners of our monthly game grants for May! All who are eligible are strongly encouraged to apply to keep the applicant pool filled. Instructions on how to apply can be found here.

The winners for May are:

School/Library Grant Celeste Wilson
Library Teacher, New York

School/Library Grant Julie Moore
Curriculum Coordinator, Wisconsin

Funagain Games is proud to announce the winners of our monthly game grants for April! All who are eligible are strongly encouraged to apply to keep the applicant pool filled. Instructions on how to apply can be found here.

The winners for April are:

School Grant Josalynn Agnew
Monroe Elementary, Des Moines, Iowa

Library Grant Beatrice Kalajian
Autism Speaks

Funagain Games is proud to announce the winners of our monthly game grants for March! All who are eligible are strongly encouraged to apply to keep the applicant pool filled. Instructions on how to apply can be found here.

The winners for March are:

School Grant Mike Bidwell
Asst. Director Warren County Alternative School

Community Grant Shelley Peck
Recreation Coordinator at Ozark community Center

University/Community Grant Dr. T. Miller
Millersville University Math Club

Funagain Games is proud to announce the winners of our monthly game grants for February! All who are eligible are strongly encouraged to apply to keep the applicant pool filled. Instructions on how to apply can be found here.

The winners for February are:

School Grant Kathleen Gardner
Ladue Middle School, Missouri

Library/School Grant Steve Reed
Library Media Specialist, Wilmington High School, Ohio

The January installment of Mike Siggins' Gamer's Notebook has just been posted. After a long absence, Mike is back with his Sumo awards for 2009 and 2010 and much more.

Read the full article here!

Funagain Games is proud to announce the winners of our monthly game grants for January! All who are eligible are strongly encouraged to apply to keep the applicant pool filled. Instructions on how to apply can be found here.

The winners for January are:

School Grant Dee Mills-Cannon
Talent Elementary, Oregon

Library Grant Erin Llewellyn
Librarian, John R. Tibbott Elementary School, Illinois

Community Grant Jed Litwiller
Case Manager, Prairie View Community Mental Health Center, Kansas

Funagain Games is proud to announce the winners of our monthly game grants for December! All who are eligible are strongly encouraged to apply to keep the applicant pool filled. Instructions on how to apply can be found here.

The winners for December are:

Military Grant Major Ted Shinn
US Army Join Task Force Paladin, Afghanistan

School Grant Marjie Crosse
Resource Specialist, Yreka High School, California

Library Grant Aaron Brown
Project Designer, Metro Early College High School, Ohio

Funagain Games is proud to announce the winners of our monthly game grants for November! All who are eligible are strongly encouraged to apply to keep the applicant pool filled. Instructions on how to apply can be found here.

The winners for November are:

Military Grant Tom Hansen
MedWac Unite base in Afghanistan

School Grant Ned Leffingwell
Social Studies Teacher, Capt. Shreve High School

Alternative Community Public School Sheryl Cochran
Willow Wind Community Learning Center, Ashland, OR

University Games Library University of Arizona DiceCats Tabletop Gamers

Funagain Games is proud to announce the winners of our monthly game grants for October! All who are eligible are strongly encouraged to apply to keep the applicant pool filled. Instructions on how to apply can be found here.

The winners for October are:

Community Grant Bree Burrows
Director of Everett Boys & Girls Club, Everett, WA

Library Grant Chaplain Tanya Bindernagel
129th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion in 101st Airborne Division, Afghanistan

School Grant Sharmey Holloman
Special Instructor, Providence, RI

School Library Grant Jennifer Kelly
Library Media Specialist, Rochester City School District, NY

Yesterday, my wife and I hosted TSBSBSGD8. (What? The acronym? Ah... The Saturday Before Super Bowl Sunday Game Day 8.) The highlight -- as it is every year -- was an annual BattleBall tournament. A record 17 people took part in the tournament this year, with Mike Holmquist taking home the top honors by defeating his daughter Heather Spangenberg in the finals. (He defeated his other daughter in the second round. And, yes, the seedings are completely random.)

Sadly, I was once again eliminated in the first round -- this year, by the eventual champion. Something about an ill-advised long pass attempt to a wide receiver when my heavy tackle had the ball and could probably have marched in for the game-winning touchdown. (I won the tournament once, back in 2007, but I've fallen on hard times ever since.)

Of course, that early elimination gave me plenty of time to play other games, including Fauna, 7 Wonders, The Resistance (3x), Witch's Brew, Black Friday, Kung Fu Fighting, and Ice Flow. Fauna (designed by Friedemann Friese, published by FoxMind) was a standout. It's for 2 to 6 players, ages 8 and up, and it's a trivia game (sort of) about animals. In each round, an animal is randomly revealed and players bet (sort of) on where the animal lives, how much it weighs, and how long or tall it is.

I'll post a complete review of Fauna soon. For now, I'll just say that it's a remarkably fun game that I highly recommend for anyone fascinated by wildlife around the world.

Image courtesy of Hasbro

8th Annual BattleBall Tournament originally appeared on About.com Board / Card Games on Sunday, February 5th, 2012 at 11:52:44.

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At the upcoming Chicago Auto Show, professional drivers will introduce the public to Toyota’s latest hybrid vehicles by taking them on a ride through a 30,000 square-foot Monopoly-themed course that includes “S curves, a tight roundabout, a bridge crossing and the rugged train tracks of the Monopoly game’s Reading Railroad.”

Because everything makes more sense when based on Monopoly.

A painting of two men playing cards was purchased by the nation of Qatar for $250 million -- which, according to an article in Vanity Fair, is "the highest price ever paid for a work of art" and "more than doubles the current auction record for a work of art."

The painting, by post-impressionist Paul Cézanne, is known as The Card Players, and it is one of five Card Players known to exist. (Here's another, with three men playing cards.) I was not able to find any source indicating what card game is being played in the paintings. But for $250 million, Qatar could have bought 6,946,374 copies of Dominion from Funagain Games.

$250 Million for Two Guys Playing Cards originally appeared on About.com Board / Card Games on Friday, February 3rd, 2012 at 12:15:36.

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Details forthcoming…

Gyro-Botz are gyro-stabilized “zero-gravity warriors”. Ignore the science and the obvious green-screen effects. They bounce, spin on their heads, and compete in the Battle Arena. And of course, they’re collectible.

Gyro-Botz are available in the UK and France.

Nominations for the 2012 About.com Readers' Choice Awards -- where you get to pick the best games, the best game stores, and more -- have been pouring in. Thank you to everyone who has made nominations already!

The 2012 Board/Card Game Readers' Choice Awards feature 11 categories to recognize the best of the best from 2011. You can help choose the best strategy game, the best party game, and the best iOS or Android game, in addition to the best local game store, the best Twitter account, and the best Facebook page.

If you haven't already, go ahead and make your nominations now!

Image © About.com

2012 Readers' Choice Award Nominations Pouring In originally appeared on About.com Board / Card Games on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 16:18:50.

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The Wiggles, a wildly popular Australian children's music group, sued a small game distributor last year to prevent the board game Yikerz! from being sold in their home country. Do the Wiggles hate all board games, or just Yikerz!, a magnetic game in which players try to place their pieces on the board without attracting other pieces?

Neither, as it turns out. What got the Wiggles' attention was the pouch inside the box which held the magnetic pieces. On that pouch, the word "Wiggles" appears as part of a logo -- because the game's publisher is Wiggles 3D. According to an article in The Telegraph, the lawsuit was recently settled with the game distributor agreeing to repackage the game pieces.

Apparently, Yikerz! was sold in Australia without incident for three years -- about 7,500 copies per year -- before the Wiggles got worked up about it.

Image courtesy of Wiggles 3D

Do the Wiggles Hate Board Games? originally appeared on About.com Board / Card Games on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 12:02:13.

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Mark Zuckerberg, co-creator and CEO of the social network Facebook, is a big fan of the board game Risk, according to an article at SFGate.com. Writer Boonsri Dickinson says this isn't at all surprising: "Clearly, Facebook has done a good job at world domination, beating out the other social media websites."

Facebook recently filed for an initial public stock offering.

Image courtesy of Hasbro

Facebook CEO Loves Risk originally appeared on About.com Board / Card Games on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 09:56:47.

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Among the new figures from Dark Sword Miniatures are this serious female fighter, cute rabbit ranger, and majestic Westie warrior. The last of these was modeled on a recently passed-away dog that belonged to the Noes of Iron Wind Metals.

I’ve already taken a look at Hive on iOS, but the news fron Gen42 is that a completely new version is on the way.

Apparently a change in their developer account means they can’t update the previous iOS version, so a new app had to be created. Since this is the case, they’ll be releasing the new Hive app on February 9th for free. The game will remain free for 7 days so that previous owners of the game won’t have to pay twice, and new owners get a chance at a freebie.

I, for one, can’t wait. I play Hive on my iPhone all the time. If you haven’t picked up Hive for iOS yet then there’s no reason for you not to now.