The Yahtzee Manifesto

Big news in the board game community as Monopoly officially changes its lineup of playing tokens with a kitty cat replacing the iron. The removal of the iron token, long considered a symbol of female subordination, has been hailed as a step in the right direction. This is not the first, and will certainly not be the last, time that that a board game has shuffled its playing piece selection. Clue, for example, has updated its repertoire of weapon pieces over the years. Generally, such moves are gimmicky marketing ploys to drive game sales. With interest temporarily fixated on a new playing piece, public attention is pulled away from the fact that these games are simply base representations of greed and murder. But in this day and age, when board games are controlled by international conglomerates, profit is the sole driving force in the decision-making process. Rest assured, fellow Yahtzeeists, Yahtzee will never mix up its playing pieces. While its current corporate overlords would und...

Today, millions of American Yahtzee fans will celebrate the harvest holiday of Thanksgiving with one-too-many helpings of turkey and a lot of hot dice action. It’s a time of coming together with family and friends to show appreciation for the blessings in our lives. It can also, however, result in a rehashing of past familial arguments or other types of uncomfortable conflict. What could go wrong when your overstuffed, perhaps tipsy, extended family members sit down to a competitive Yahtzee game? But before we get to the drama-fueled dessert, let’s dig into the main dish and take a look at some fun dice games that you can enjoy this Thanksgiving. Turkey Dice Games A good ol’ Yahtzee party is a terrific way to celebrate Thanksgiving. The idea of the Yahtzee party originated with the E.S. Lowe Company in the 1950s as a way to popularize their new dice game . It was an instant success. The formula was simple - people invited their friends over for dinner and Yahtzee , resu...

Dear Yahtzee Manifesto, I was playing Yahtzee last week with my son and the ended up as a tie – 234 to 234! There is nothing in the instruction book that covers this type of situation. What the proper way to determine the winner? Thank you for your time. Jim Jakowski Kanata, Ontario Dear Jim,  There is no “proper” way to determine the winner in the case of a draw. It all depends on the circumstances of the game in question and, most importantly, the “house rules” that the players have agreed upon prior to the start of play. Of course there is no answer to be found in the corporate instruction booklet – you need to look beyond the walls that are blocking your view of the truth. In most cases if the game ends in a draw, no winner is declared and you settle for the tie. Remember, Yahtzee is not only about conquering your opponents in an eruption of points. If that is your only conception of the game, then there is much more you have yet to discover. If, however, the sister-kissing gam...

My Dear Readers,  As many of you may know, the World Yahtzee Institute is well-known for its longstanding practice of granting each of its employees a 30 day sabbatical every calendar year. The WYI encourages that the time be used in retreat from the modern world, allowing a state of seclusion to stimulate your Yahtzee unconscious. In June, I began my 2012 sabbatical in the lowlands of Ecuador. Years ago I made a promise to a shaman that I would celebrate my birthday with him and his tribe, and this was the year. My hosts took every effort to make sure that my birthday was wonderful. It turns out my spirit animal is an armadillo. But a few days after the festivities I began to develop sores on my arms and legs. I didn’t think much of it at first, but they soon became excruciating. I was forced to leave the tribal village and my friends. Their healing waters were good, but I needed access to more modern forms of medicine. The diagnosis by a doctor in Quito – Hansen’s disease, better...

One of the world’s most enduring mysteries has taken a major step closer to being resolved. Amelia Earhart disappeared 75 years ago in an attempt to fly around the globe at its equator, never to be heard from again. Now, researchers believe they’ve discovered artifacts that belonged to the famous aviator on a far-flung island in the Pacific Ocean, suggesting that Airhart was able to land her plane on the deserted isle. Serendipitously, a team of scientists from the World Yahtzee Institute had been conducting a study on the Yahtzee habits of Pacific Islanders when the artifacts were unearthed on Nikumaroro Island. The team was more than willing to lend a hand at the dig site. Their assistance helped lead to the major discovery of the expedition – a jar that presumably contained a freckle-remover cream favored by Earhart.  But Steve Janson, the WYI team’s lead researcher, believes that the jar has been misidentified. “Clearly this was no jar of freckle cream. As an expert in the are...

** Reporting live from Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival ** Day 3 at Coachella is officially a wrap, and the star of the show has been dead for 15 years! Tupac Shakur appeared onstage as an Obi-Wan-esque glowing hologram from beyond the grave. The unanticipated set made waves as the holographic rapper performed alongside Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg to a rapt audience. The spectacle caused such a commotion that the World Yahtzee Institute was forced to postpone its popular workshop, “The Hidden Harmonics of Yahtzee”. Apologies to our readers who were expecting a write-up of the workshop results in tonight’s blog post. It seems like Tupac has released a new album each year since his death – it was just a matter of time until he got on stage again. We’re just sorry that the timing has wreaked havoc on our full schedule of programming at Coachella this year. The workshop will be held at the same location next Friday, April 20th at 9:00.

It’s the second week of April – Spring is in the air, birds are chirping, and electronic metal arms are raising their clenched fists into the air. That’s right, this is National Robotics Week! Yahtzee has long been intimately intertwined with cutting-edge technology. From Henry Ford’s custom-made “Yahtzee Stimulator” of the 1920′s to today’s electronic handhelds and computer versions, Yahtzeeists of all stripes love to incorporate technological wonders into the simple old-fashionedness of the game. But a new marvel has outdone them all. A fully-functional Yahtzee-playing robot is making its debut this weekend at the Robotics Challenge 2012 in Las Vegas. The cleverly named “Yahtzee-Bot” is a humanoid robot from the waist up with super-dexterous hands that are equipped with double opposable thumbs. The extra thumbs allow the machine to generate extremely high levels of dice action, resulting in magnificently precise rolls. The robot has been undergoing intense testing for the past five m...