Despite the availability of free food and the opportunity to tempt fate in the Car Wars arena, the crowd at this month's event was a bit sparse, but we still had a blast. With only 18 people present (five of whom had never been to an event before!), the odds of winning a game were pretty good. The pizza, ice cream sundaes and delicious caramel or mint brownies (provided by Heather) were a huge hit, so we'll plan on doing the sundaes again next month (especially since there was ice cream and toppings leftover).

The sweet odds for the door prize drawing fell in Dani's favor and she picked up a copy of the latest Cranium party game. As mentioned in the previous post, we added Dominion this month, which we picked up at BattleZone Games. We'll stick a new party game into the Vault for next time.

Since Car Wars was well-received, but would be even better with more players, I'm planning to have another Death Match at the January 2011 event. That gives you plenty of time to block off your calendar and invite your friends! I'd also like to see the 40th event (June 2011) be another special event, with free food and stuff; I'll try to do better with preparation and promotion for that event (since it'll be planned further in advance), but at least now you've been warned so it won't be a surprise.

Finally, I'd like to announce a new way to get an extra entry in the door prize drawing: if you bring someone with you to an event that has never been to GAMES! before, you get to put your name in the drawing twice. We'll still just give away one game (except at special events, like the 40th maybe), but you'll have better odds of winning it. Since our events thrive on participation, this seemed like a good way to motivate word-of-mouth advertising.

Thanks for reading this unusually long post and we look forward to seeing you again at our next event, September 11th, from 3-9pm.

It's coming, this Saturday, and I hope you're as excited as I am. We've got special games planned (a Car Wars death match!) plus free food and fun people to game with.

I need to go buy it still, but we'll be adding Dominion to the Prize Vault this month, since it is one of the most popular requests on the entry slips. If you would like a chance to win it free, just show up and stick around until the drawing, that's all it takes.

I know that some of our regulars will be absent, and that another Cedar Rapids gaming group scheduled an event for the same day, but that leaves more room for you and all of your friends! Let's see if we can break the record attendance (39 people) on Saturday and set a new benchmark for our next special event (the 40th?). Don't miss it, this Saturday, August 14th from 3-9pm.

From what I was told, the event last Saturday was a good time and there was good participation. We gobbled up all of the pizza and played lots of fun games. There were 26 game players present and we went through 42 slices of pizza and 38 cans of pop/water. Since I wasn't able to stick around for the whole event, I didn't get any photos and wasn't able to make a mental list of which games got played, but the details aren't as important as the summary: GAMES! was, and usually is, a fun way to spend an afternoon/evening.

Dave won the door prize and grabbed the copy of Small World donated by BattleZone, so we'll be in touch with them to find something to fill the void. Your suggestions from the prize entry slips help guide our selection process, and this month will be no different; the new game will be something that has been requested multiple times by multiple people. As always, I'll let you know what it is before the next event.

Speaking of the next event, August will be our 30th GAMES! and we'd like to celebrate by doing something special. We've got some ideas already, but I'd like to hear your thoughts: what could we do different to make GAMES! even better? I know of one thing that YOU could do to make GAMES! better: tell somebody about it or just bring them with you. We've had 168 different people come to GAMES! during the first 29 events, wouldn't it be crazy if they all showed up at the same time for the 30th event, plus the people that you can invite? Right now, before you forget, go tell your friends, neighbors and coworkers to put August 14th on their calendar, because there will be free pizza and pop, free ice cream sundaes, and a Car Wars death match, plus the usual free game giveaway and lots of fun games to play (including ping pong, foosball and air hockey). You must not miss this one.

P.S. I'd also like to make a quick plug for another free food and fun opportunity: Blair Ridge is offering VBS for school-age kids in the evenings next week (6:00-8:30, M-F) and will be having a big festival/picnic on Friday night (6:00 pm) with free grilled burgers, hot dogs and fried fish. Anybody with kids is welcome to bring them for VBS but even if you don't have kids you can still come to the picnic on Friday, July 23rd at 6pm.