The printer didn't have any formal procedures for paid vacations, so we bought 100% of the factory's capacity and paid them to produce nothing for a week, giving the people who make Cards Against Humanity an unexpected chance to visit family or do whatever they pleased.
(While not holiday related, CAH's Max Temkin has also sent a small gift to the militia group occupying the wildlife refuge in Oregon: a 55-gallon drum of lubricant.)
• Seven employees of television station WTOL in Toledo, Ohio also find themselves with time on their hands courtesy of Cards Against Humanity, but that's because they were fired for playing CAH "while at the station on New Year's weekend". As for why they were fired:
"WTOL takes seriously its employment policies and our obligation to provide an environment in which all employees are treated with respect and dignity. As a result, WTOL had to take personnel actions this week related to several employees. Due to personnel matters being involved, we cannot comment further."
• Designer Evan Derrick has joined Van Ryder Games in the role of Vice President and Creative Director. Derrick has already overseen the graphic design of two 2016 releases from Van Ryder — Salvation Road and Saloon Tycoon — and his next design will be announced by Van Ryder later in 2016.
• Dice & Mystics — a board game group in Bochum, Germany (next to Essen) that has a BGG guild — plans to open its gaming room in Bochum on Saturday, October 15, 2016 for those who want dedicated space to play since Spiel is more of a looking convention than a playing convention. Says Alexander Urbanek, "We can provide 18 tables with 8 seats per table. There are delivery services and takeaways and a kiosk nearby." Space is free, but appointments should be made given the limited space available. Details are in the "more information" section of the BGG guild. Start planning for Spiel 2016 now!
• Dagmar and Ferdinand de Cassan, editors of WIN The Games Journal, have released issue 485 — its October 2015 issue covering all the games of Spiel 2015 — and this 164-page beast contains "1338 new games by 929 designers from 448 publishers, illustrated with 1308 pictures"! This PDF from the Austrian Games Museum is free for all. (Ferdinand de Cassan has been ill, so the editors have been playing catch up with WIN for some time. I have no such excuse.)
• If you attended BGG.CON 2015, note that Hyatt has now disclosed that approximately 250 of its properties were infected with malware, and "[t]he investigation identified signs of unauthorized access to payment card data from cards used onsite at certain Hyatt-managed locations, primarily at restaurants, between August 13, 2015 and December 8, 2015". The Hyatt Regency at the DFW International Airport, where BGG.CON takes place, is one of the hotels affected by the malware. Check your credit card statements!
• The Toronto Star highlights the city's role as "king of board-game café culture in North America". An excerpt:
Designers such as Stephen Sauer and Daryl Andrews workshop their products in bull sessions that have helped yield two games now on the market, The Walled City and Caffeine Rush. The duo expects the release of half a dozen more in the next couple of years.
"You're seeing a lot more Canadian-designed games on shelves," says Sauer, who lives around the corner with his partner and two children.
More than anything, it's Toronto's cafés — none more than six years old — that incubate fresh ideas, sow innovation and feed the creativity mill for board-game designers, says designer Sen Foong-Lim.
"There's this critical mass of hardcore gamers, casual players and designers there, and now they have all these dynamic venues," says Foong-Lim, who is based in London, Ont., but is a frequent TO gamer.