November 2009

GoldToken's Monthly News

Mecir added five new games for your playing pleasure, Camelot and five of it's variants, Cam, Camette, Chivalry, Four-Handed Chivalry, and the team game Grand Camelot! New to Camelot, I have personally found these games easier than chess or checkers, but with just as much strategy and intrigue. Try them, you will not be disappointed!

Thanks to our new tournament team, October was full of HTH, club and new site tournaments! I am thrilled at the new system and hope you are too. If you have any tournament suggestions, the team will be listening on the Tournaments discussion board.

Are you wondering about the new Banneros? They are closely related to Golderos but can only be spent on banners. They are a way for GoldToken administrators to show our appreciation to players for their support, assistance to others on the discussion boards and just for being you, part of the GoldToken family. If you receive a few, we hope you have fun and are able put them to good use!

I wish to commend FixitDave for his providing an incredibly adventuresome photo contest on the Photozone discussion board. If you haven't looked yet, please take the time to check out in on the wonderful photography captured by players that post there. You will be amazed at their diverse talent!

Not to be outdone, firefly has set up new dice goldies. They can be used for club games and other such things. To set them up, use the traditional goldie code with the word DICE. Like this: ; ;DICE; ; = Code as many as you like next to each other, and each dice will roll entirely on it's own and be completely random in code on it's own. An incredible mark of achievement for both Mecir and firefly! to both of you, from all of GoldToken, for the wonderful addition!

Happy Gaming!

--Badger

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In this month's newsletter, we have:

• Birthdays & Special Announcements
• Player Appreciation
• The World Camelot Federation
• Testimonials Of The Month
• Tournament News

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Birthdays & Special Announcements

Birthday Wishes:

-- Happy Birthday to greggyw on November 1st!
-- Happy Birthday to Oolong on November 3rd!
-- Happy Birthday to Sea Dreams on November 4th!
-- Happy Birthday to birddog on November 4th! - From { Club }
-- Happy Birthday to Matt on November 5th! - From all your friends on GoldToken! We luvs ya!!
-- Happy Birthday to Chris on November 6th! - From The MasterClass Club and The Backgammon Tournament Club
-- Happy Birthday to Thomas Canty on November 7th!
-- Happy Birthday to venne on November 7th! - From The MasterClass Club
-- Happy Birthday to Reversi Queen on November 7th! - From { Club }, { Club } and THE CHADster
-- Happy Birthday to katluvon on November 8th!
-- Happy Birthday to ChrisC on November 10th!
-- Happy Birthday to Budgie on November 10th! - From sallyp and all your friends who miss you!
-- Happy Birthday to Sir Legend50 of the GoldTable on November 11th! - From { Club }
-- Happy Birthday to CATCHER211 on November 11th! - From { Club }
-- Happy Birthday to cmacker on November 12th! - From The Backgammon Tournament Club
-- Happy Birthday to Ranga on November 14th!
-- Happy Birthday to willy on November 14th! - From { Club } and { Club }
-- Happy Birthday to kansaschic on November 15th!
-- Happy Birthday to numptieheid on November 17th! - From { Club }
-- Happy Birthday to GeorgiasGrandad's wife Margaret on November 17th!
-- Happy Birthday to Momsie on November 18! - From The Backgammon Tournament Club and { Club }
-- Happy Birthday to Mumsie on November 18!
-- Happy Birthday to Brown_Velvet on November 18th! - From { Club }
-- Happy Birthday to gamecrazy on November 19th!
-- Happy Birthday to KeronaJane on November 19th!
-- Happy Birthday to Scooter on November 20th!
-- Happy Birthday to wakefield on November 20th! - From { Club }
-- Happy Birthday to Aphrodite on November 21st! - From The Backgammon Tournament Club
-- Happy Birthday to DINGEROO on November 21st! - From { Club }, { Club } and { Club }
-- Happy Birthday to GeorgiasGrandad on November 21st!
-- Happy Birthday to Miranda on November 21st!
-- Happy Birthday to BillRogers on November 21st!
-- Happy Birthday to bubbly on November 26th!
-- Happy Birthday to Catmane on November 28th!
-- Happy Birthday to teawoman on November 28th! - From { Club }
-- Happy Birthday to THE CHADster on November 29th! - From { Club }
-- Happy Birthday to Kran on November 30th!
-- Happy Birthday to Radio on November 30th!
-- Happy Birthday to GrannyPatty on November 30th! - From { Club }, The Backgammon Tournament Club and { Club }


Anniversary & Other Wishes:

-- Happy Wedding Anniversary goes out to sweeteyes and her husband on November 13th!

-- Happy Wedding Anniversary goes out to sharkbite and his wife on November 18th!

-- Happy Wedding Anniversary goes out to Beckie B and her husband on November 26th!

* If you would like to announce any birthdays, anniversaries or other special events coming up for next month, please send GoldToken Support a message before the 25th of this month, so we can give them a shout out in next month's newsletter! (Please keep all announcements upcoming and not belated. Announcements submitted after the newsletter is published, can not be put in after the fact, we're sorry!)

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**Player* Appreciation*

superkaempe the gentle giant

I have been playing here since January 2001 when my first ever opponent in any turn based game on the internet introduced me to GoldToken. We both came from IYT, but she disappeared from game sites in spring 2006.

I have never been married. I have no favourite games, but there are a few games that I don't play. This is the only site I have ever payed to play, and I don't expect there to be others.

In summer 2006 I made a trip to the USA where I stayed in New York (NYC), Ohio, Colorado, Idaho and California. To list all by name I met would be too much, but I did meet a lot. In New York it was nylady41, Autumn, yayamom and Karen Q and relatives to some of them. In Ohio I met with RubyJoy, blondie, fatdaddy and TruthCry. In Colorado I met with lady of amber and her family, and in Idaho I met with Chad and Taylor who founded GoldToken and all their brothers and sisters, their parents with whom I stayed, and a lot of children, it is a large family. In California I stayed with Badger and met of course her family, and later I met Catmane and his wife. On my last day before leaving home I met Nargada.

Here are a couple of pictures from my trip.

This is me at Niagara Falls...
{ Image: farm3.static.flickr.com/2726/4065707457_d3e719c85f.jpg }

And this is from Bruneau Canyon in Idaho, an astonishing place in the middle of nowhere.
{ Image: farm3.static.flickr.com/2659/4065707633_317ecc62dc.jpg }

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The World Camelot Federation

Brought to you by: MrWCF

Let me introduce myself — my name is Michael Nolan (MrWCF here at GoldToken). I’ve played all sorts of games, both seriously and casually, for nearly 60 years. I’m a Bridge Life Master and a Class A tournament Chess Player. I’ve played tournament Checkers, tournament Othello, and tournament Backgammon. I’ve written books on Cribbage and Chess. However, after having played just about every game you can think of, I have to admit to you that my favorite game of all is Camelot, one of the finest games ever invented. I hope that you will make it one of your favorites, too!

Although I purchased my first Camelot set in 1959, it sat largely unused for 40 years due to the scarcity of playing partners. Then in 1999, a few games of Camelot by email with an opponent who lived thousands of miles away reawakened my interest and made me realize that there were others, like me, who loved the game. That year, I formed the World Camelot Federation, an international non-profit organization, created the WCF website, and made Camelot my primary avocation, dedicating myself to its preservation and popularization.

Camelot is an abstract strategy board game for two players, like Chess, Go, Checkers, and Mancala. (An abstract strategy game involves no chance, hidden information, or random elements.) Camelot can be roughly described as a cross between American Checkers (British Draughts) and Halma (Chinese Checkers). It is played on a board with 160 squares. Each player has 14 pieces, four Knights and ten Men. The pieces move in three different ways: Plain Move, Canter, or Jump. Knights can combine Canter and Jump in one move (the Knight’s Charge). The object is either to capture all of the opponent’s pieces, or to move two pieces into the opponent’s Castle (two special squares on the opponent’s side of the board).

Camelot, like checkers, is quite easy to learn to play. Although it is a challenge to play Camelot at an advanced level, expert play is not a requirement for full enjoyment of the game. Far from it, Camelot is a wonderful choice for the novice since, for him, it is far more fun to play than either chess or checkers, and is much quicker to play to conclusion than those games. A typical game of Camelot entails each player making an average of twenty moves. Games between players of medium skill level usually take from five minutes to thirty minutes to complete. Games lasting longer than that are the exception. If you want to play a simpler version of Camelot, you can play Cam, or an even smaller version, Camette. If you want to play a partnership version of Camelot, try Grand Camelot, a game for four players (two teams of two).

Camelot has a long history. In 1882, George S. Parker began work on an abstract strategy board game named Chivalry. His goal was to invent a game not as difficult as Chess, but considerably more varied than Checkers. Parker created a game that was a tactically complex, but easily learned and quickly played. When finally published by Geo. S. Parker & Co. in 1887 (and then by Parker Brothers in 1888), Chivalry won the raves of Chess and Checkers experts, but the game that Parker called "the best game in 2,000 years" did not catch on quickly with the general public. Parker never lost his enthusiasm for the game, though, and in 1930, he made a few changes to the game, and Parker Brothers published the game under the name of Camelot. Camelot enjoyed its greatest popularity in the 1930s. There were over 50 different editions of Camelot sets issued, including a gold-stamped leather edition and a mahogany cabinet edition. There were tournament editions, regular editions, and low-cost editions. There were different game variants, too. Point Camelot, a tournament variant that counted and scored points, was released in 1931. Grand Camelot was released in 1932. Cam, a miniature variant, was released in 1949. Camelot players included such famous individuals as Jose Raul Capablanca, World Chess Champion from 1921 to 1927, and Frank Marshall, U.S. Chess Champion from 1907 to 1936. Sidney Lenz and Milton Work, two world famous bridge players, also played the game. John F. Kennedy, thirty-fifth President of the United States is known to have played Camelot as a boy. After enjoying substantial popularity in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, Camelot was eventually discontinued in 1968, then reissued as Inside Moves in 1985, and finally discontinued again in 1986.

To receive a free WCF membership, you can send an email to me at michael@worldcamelotfederation.com or a message to me (MrWCF) at GoldToken. Over two hundred individuals, living in many different countries, have shown their interest in Camelot by joining the WCF during its ten-year history. Even if you never play a single game of Camelot, you are welcome to join. All that’s required is that you have some type of interest in the game--any type of interest is encouraged! You can spend as much or as little time as you wish with your free membership. The only thing that will happen if you become a member is that you will receive an occasional informational email from me. The rest is completely up to you!

Be sure to visit the World Camelot Federation website at http://www.worldcamelotfederation.com. The site has 135 webpages of information, including over one thousand photographs, diagrams, tables, graphs, maps, and downloadable documents. I think that you will find that it provides everything that you could ever want to know about the fascinating, challenging, exciting, and thoroughly wonderful family of Camelot games.

My special thanks are gratefully given to GoldToken and its owner (Badger). GoldToken is one of the first game portal websites to offer Camelot and Cam, and the very first site to offer Grand Camelot, Camette, Chivalry, and Four-Handed Chivalry. GoldToken has its own page on the WCF website at http://www.worldcamelotfederation.com/GoldToken.htm. For many years, it has been very difficult to enjoy playing these games. Now, thanks to GoldToken, you can enjoy them whenever you wish.

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Testimonials Of The Month

Brought to you by: *GoldToken* Players

bill2448

I've read the thread on the General Chat Discussion Board about another player recruiting players from other sites to come play here. As usual with these type of threads, other players have replied with their own praises for this site. I could reply to the thread too, I guess, but I've wanted to blog about this subject for a while, so now is as good of a time as any to post my thoughts here.

Gold Token is, without a doubt in my mind, the best game site on the internet.

You take a great selection of games, a gaming community that's by and large friendly, add to that great customer service and you have a great site to play games and make new friends.

Now why would players from other sites shy away from GT? Maybe some of them do have loyalty to the game sites they play at. Maybe some of them are afraid of the competition here. I don't know. I know some players at those other sites think the competition level here is weak. They obviously have never played some of the top players here.

The strict rules excuse is a little weak. All sites have a set of rules players must abide by. Whether or not a game site enforces their rules is another subject. The rules here are not that difficult to follow. I'd rather play at a game site where the staff take the time to ensure that players can play games and talk about various topics in a friendly manner.

I've had a great time here over the last 5 years. I've met a lot of wonderful people that I'm happy to call my friends. There isn't a whole lot I would change, except adding more gammon variants and a Battleboats Plus type game. Other than that, I'm proud to be a member here at Gold Token.

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TYTHEGUY

As far as playing games on computer there are two sites that I use. I started off by playing chess. As far as I knew, there were two sites that offered chess, but this site is the most innovative one yet. Let's say I have been an online member more than 20 years. Out of all the games I dreamed of playing online you guys have topped them all. Spades and hearts, you guys just keep on making this site worth coming to. Thanks for allowing me to share with others about the great work you guys are doing. Keep it up!

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Momsie

I would like to just say a few words about this wonderful site and the wonderful people that run it. I didn't just come upon GoldToken, but rather a dear friend DINGEROO asked if I would like to join and play a few games with her. That's all it took, once I saw how many great games were available I was hooked. I've been here nearly 5 years now, and I quit for about a month at the end of last year because I felt that the site was taking too much of my time. The problem was I didn't manage my games very well. I had gotten into too many clubs and involved myself in EVERY challenge available. Moderation in GT as in life is good.

I couldn't stand to be away from all my many wonderful friends and I missed it terribly. So, here I am again, but this time I've kept the number of clubs and challenges manageable. I give my appreciation to the wonderful folks that keep this site up and running, making changes to give us even more great games, and are always there to help when there's a question/problem. There have been times when the site needed to be taken down for improvements, and we need to understand that "patience is a virtue". Thanks to all my wonderful friends and site administrators.

Momsie

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Tournament News

Brought to you by: The Tournament Team

• See the tournament sign up page here: http://www.goldtoken.com/games/tournaments?toc=F
• Be sure to join our sponsorship tournaments!
• When playing in tournaments, make sure you read our Tournament and Ladder Rules and Provisions Page for all pertinent rules concerning tournament play.

GoldToken would like to send a big *CONGRATULATIONS out to all our recent tournament winners!!!*

As you may have noticed, tournament are now being posted on player game sheets. We owe our thanks to { Player: mecirt } for this wonderful site improvement. A big "thank you" also goes to those who suggested this new feature, and to all who have welcomed it with open arms. It is GoldToken's intention to congratulate all tournament winners for their efforts and successes and there is no better way than this (other than to send winners $$$ ). Soon, you will be able to send your personal congrats to your friends you see posted in the winners announcements. Watch the site news for more details.

Thank you for participating in our site tournaments!

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Wanted

• Do you have a special story, poem or testimonial you would like to share? How about some club news, announcements or any other special events? Then don't delay, send GoldToken Support your submissions today! We look forward to hearing from you!

** (Please note: All submissions are added on a first come first serve basis.) **