Arby's, the fast-food franchise best known for its roast beef sandwiches, will include a children's version of Zobmondo!! in its kids' meals beginning in early 2009, according to a report in Playthings Magazine. The game will be branded as Zobmondo!!: You Gotta Be Kidding! and is designed for ages 7 and up. Questions in the game will include, "Would you rather be able to fly or be able to become invisible?" and "Would you rather run across a hungry alligator’s back or run underneath an angry elephant?" There are more than 3,700 Arby's restaurants in the United States.

Game designer Randy Horn published the first edition of Zobmondo!! in 1998. An interview with Horn I conducted in May 1999 explains the game's origins.

The board games Acquire and Vegas Showdown can now be played on the social networking site Facebook, as GameTable Online has released beta versions of both games. The card game Guillotine also is available.

GTO games on Facebook can be played either live or asynchronously (similar to play by email). Players can switch back and forth within the same game. An email to GTO users said, "Since this is an open beta test, we expect that there will be some issues that may need to be resolved." If you're on Facebook, feel free to challenge me to a game.

On Saturday, October 25, I will speak at at the Toy and Game Designers' Workshop 2008 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The one-day event is designed to help aspiring game designers and toy inventors understand the process of generating ideas, creating prototypes, and breaking into the industry. It is sponsored by the El Pomar Institute for Innovation and Commercialization at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and it will be hosted by Michael Larson, co-founder of Innovention Toys and co-creator of Khet: the Laser Game.

In addition to Larson and me, the other scheduled speakers include Tim Chamillard of Peak Game Studios, Michael Marra of Marra Design Associates, Jesse McClure of MIND Studios, Michael Martensen of the law firm Hogan and Hartson, and marketing professor Peggy Knock of the University of Colorado.

Agricola and 1960: The Making of the President have won the 2008 International Gamers Awards for General Strategy Games, Multi-Player Category, and General Strategy Games, Two-Player Category, respectively.

Agricola, designed by Uwe Rosenberg and published by Z-Man Games and Lookout Games, is the #1 rated game of all time at BoardGameGeek.com and my pick as the #3 board game of 2007. At the start of the game, each player has a spouse, a shack and not much else. From there, everyone tries to build a successful farm through the game's 14 turns and six harvests.

1960: The Making of the President was my pick as the #1 board game of 2007. The 1960 U.S. presidential election was a contest between two dramatically different personalities: John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. Kennedy won the real-life election, but this brilliant game allows players to recreate the contest.

The other finalists for the 2008 IGAs included many excellent games. The winners were chosen by a 19-member committee of gamers from around the world.