War on Terror at the Secret garden Party, UK

It's that time of year again, well, it's July in the year of 2010. So it's about time we had a War on Terror outing. We're going to come out of our bunker, blink in the sunlight, stretch our legs and then jolly well take War on Terror on the road.

Well, we're sending Tom out at any rate, it's too risky for the rest of us right now - we're working on Edition 2. And we only really trust Tom on his own to go as far as Huntingdon, so he will be appearing at the Secret Garden Party, in the depths of the Cambridgeshire countryside all alone. Make sure he doesn't get lost if you see him.

If you're passing, come to the Explorer Tent between 8pm and midnight this Thursday 22nd July. There will be War on Terror set up and ready to play. Tom will be on hand to answer any questions you might have concerning the games rules, cunning techniques on how to lose or just gawp as the chaos inevitably unravels throughout the evening under Tom's masterful hand. Either way, enjoy yourselves.

An Auction for Infamy

Who hasn't dreamt of seeing their face on a bank note? Well, like the Internet gods we are, we can make that dream come true, right now. And we don't mean just making a bank note out of a mirror. Think we speak of witchery? Read on:

On Friday 9 July we'll be auctioning off a rare prize: the ability to get your ugly mug on the money in the ALL NEW edition of War on Terror. Like this:

This is terribly exciting for two reasons.
(1) We're finally actually making edition two! Holy game development!
(2) You can be as infamous as the game itself, with your face appearing on the money of at least 5,000 War on Terrors being printed this summer

And if this weren't like all your Christmases/Hanukkahs/Eids/Kwanzaas/Winter Soltices/National Science Weeks (delete as appropriate) come at once, we're also giving 50% of everything we raise to Amnesty. So both you and we can feel good about narcissism. Where's the other 50% going, we hear you cry? Well, the whole reason we're doing this is to raise some cash to go towards producing our NEXT game. That's almost a better cause than Amnesty. It's win-win all the way...

Full details of this very special event are on this page: http://www.terrorbullgames.co.uk/moneyauction

Please, please, please help us spread the word around. Tell everyone who makes the mistake of coming within talking-distance of you. If no one comes within talking distance of you*, please buy a megaphone, or learn semaphore. If you must go down the semaphore route, please ensure the people you're signalling to also know semaphore .... so you may need to run a few free semaphore workshops in your local area before broadcasting your semaphore message. In which case, you may as well just tell those people face-to-face when they come in for the workshop. Easy.

* You might want to try showering too

Print-and-play: 'Operation BP: Bullshit Plug'

The standards that any game idea has to reach are pretty high before we'll even consider it for publication. It has to be right in so many ways that, invariably, many smaller ideas are left on the cutting room floor. But it seems a shame to leave them there, gathering dust, so we thought we should make quick, downloadable games and give them away. This would solve our problem.

So here it is Operation BP: Bullshit Plug: our first print-and-play game. You need nothing else but a printer, some card, some scissors and two pieces to serve as counters - pennies do nicely.

View full game page

This game is for two players. Each player takes a role - either 'BP' or 'The Public' and each player has two cards that represent two possible strategies. BP is trying to shore up its dwindling share price, while the public just want the leak plugged. Both players pick a strategy and play it face down, simultaneously. These are then revealed and the effects on the share price and the leak are worked out. This action is then repeated until the game ends. It's very simple, takes just a few minutes to play, but is also quite devilish and deceiving.

For the game-design/psychology geeks among you, Operation BP: Bullshit Plug is (as you probably know if you're a game-design/psychology geek) actually a variant of the classic Prisoner's Dilemma. In fact, it's a re-iterative prisoner's dilemma with a non-finite amount of iterations (although the iterations can safely be presumed to be fairly low in number). This makes co-operation in the game rather difficult.

Things to look out for: The game is best played without speaking. Let your actions communicate for you. In this way, co-operating and defecting can be used as both encouragement and punishment respectively. Also be aware for any patterns of tit-for-tat behaviour: these can either spiral out of control or lead to a calm compromise, depending on what behaviour is being mirrored. Above all, watch out for any possible penultimate moves in the game and think carefully about what the other player will likely play in this situation before stating your strategy.

Incidentally, there can be no greater satirical comment on this crisis than browsing the "In pictures: a response" section of the BP website. You can almost hear the grinding of marketing teeth each time they feel they have to stay on just the right side of the reality divide and include a shot of an oiled animal or soiled beach. Even those photos look remarkably clean and not much to worry about. The most incredible thing though is how everything reflects an air of calm, clean, professional control. No animals suffocating in oil, no ruined marshes, not, literally, a cloud in the sky. Now compare these.

Feel free to leave any feedback - we'll certainly do more if this turns out to be a good use for our 'reject' ideas.

This game is released under

Israel scores another defining victory in the War on Terror. Unfortunately it's an own goal.

Israel appears to have crossed the Rubicon from 'rogue state' to 'utterly bat-shit insane' state. Monday's attack on the 'freedom flotilla' - sorry, Jihadi terrorists - is almost impossible to balance with the idea that Israel is an ally and a friend; one of the 'good guys'. Clearly, if the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had boarded an aid flotilla of unarmed civilians, in international waters, in the middle of the night, shooting 10 Americans dead, we would now be commenting on the outbreak of World War III.

As the Telegraph's foreign editor, Con Coughlin, puts it, "Israel has developed a worrying habit of conducting itself in a way that even its friends find hard to defend" (and he should know). But while this tragedy is causing even Israel's staunchest supporters some difficulty, it's hard to see that any real measures will be taken against them. The illegal blockade (actually, shouldn't this be called a "seige"?) will remain. The settlements will remain (you mean, increase - Ed.). Our flow of support, aid and arms will all, sadly, remain. Why is this? Why can no one reign Israel in?

As long as Israel has US backing, no one will be able to. Persistent US endorsement of Israel's actions has established a narrative of a close ally and victim that is besieged on all sides but does what it must to defend itself. This narrative has permeated well beyond Israeli borders and Zionist discourse; it is a mainstream view.

So we witness, even in the darkest hours of Monday's killings, that the harshest words are regretful comments over the damage this has done to "Israel's PR" (imagine any news outlet phrasing 9/11 as a "PR disaster" for Al Qaeda). On top of this, Israeli spokespeople got virtually 100% of 'opinion' air time during the first 24 hours thanks to an effective news blackout caused by everyone else involved being detained in isolation. This allows a mixture of confusion and lies to permeate accounts and successfully derails the discussion from the most important facts: 1) the blockade is illegal 2) peaceful civilians were killed.

Ah, but they weren't peaceful, they had weapons and they beat the soldiers who clearly just wanted to make friends with them. And the passengers have links with Jihadi networks like Al Qaeda. Of course they do. This was a hallmark Al Qaeda operation by all measures, down to the Nobel Laureate, the best-selling author, the women and pensioners on board. Classic terror brigade. And as for those claims of being unarmed - could have fooled me. I saw them wielding deck chairs. The bastards! Fighting for their lives with improvised weaponry... it beggars belief!

Hang on, what's that amongst the weapons? Oh, not again ....

As Mark Steel observed, this haul was what "the naive might think you'd expect to find on any ship, but the more astute will recognise as exactly what you'd carry if you were planning to defeat the Israeli army".

Also noteworthy is the absence of 'celebrity' comment. While the Twitterati were all over the Iranian protests, they are now conspicuously silent. Stephen Fry, who last year 'tweeted', "Iranian govt should at least know we're watching & we care", is rather mute on the flotilla. Instead, he has been holding some kind of virtual anniversary party on his Twitter page. And Demi Moore, who not so long ago moved us all with this 'tweet': "My heart aches but I am inspired by the courage and strength of the Iranian people in the face of such opposition and adversity!" is now talking about her husband's new film. Rather bizarrely (and apparently irony-free) she has 're-tweeted' someone else's post, without comment; a quote from Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor:

"Let us remember: what hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander."

Quite.

The election hasn't completely escaped us ...

It's the eve of our general election and ... well, we are terribly excited, we just can't begin to describe. Democracy is the shit, let me tell you that. Tomorrow, we get to choose which flavour of inept repression we'd most like for the next 5 years. You can have any flavour, as long as it's "self-serving".

Most likely, you'll be voting for someone you don't give a fig about, just because you don't want the Tories/Labour/LibDems getting in. Ahh, glorious democracy, how can we celebrate thee? (except for putting an 'x' in a box every 5 years)

Well, luckily, our resident illustrator extraordinaire has come to the rescue and given us a visual representation of the past few weeks. It's a beautiful tribute to a beautiful act, we hope you agree:

Cynical? Us?