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If you're interested in small, imaginative companies that publish small, imaginative games, then you'd be well-served to check out wonderfully named Cheapass Games.

Don't let the name -- or the packaging -- fool you. It is their very simplicity that makes Cheapass Games so enjoyable. The concepts are ludicrous, the artwork often hilarious, and the game fun due in no small part to a handful of simple rules.

Some offerings of note:

• Kill Doctor Lucky : the logical inverse of Clue.
• Before I Kill You, Mr Bond... : Capture the master spy, take him to your secret lair, and taunt him.
• Give Me The Brain : If you work in fast food service, you'll appreciate this game.
• Escape from Elba : You're Napoleon, and so is everyone else.
• The Very Clever Pipe Game: Sadly, no longer in print.

Really good stuff.

Schwab

If you're interested in small, imaginative companies that publish small, imaginative games, then you'd be well-served to check out wonderfully named Cheapass Games.

Don't let the name -- or the packaging -- fool you. It is their very simplicity that makes Cheapass Games so enjoyable. The concepts are ludicrous, the artwork often hilarious, and the game fun due in no small part to a handful of simple rules.

Some offerings of note:

• Kill Doctor Lucky : the logical inverse of Clue.
• Before I Kill You, Mr Bond... : Capture the master spy, take him to your secret lair, and taunt him.
• Give Me The Brain : If you work in fast food service, you'll appreciate this game.
• Escape from Elba : You're Napoleon, and so is everyone else.
• The Very Clever Pipe Game: Sadly, no longer in print.

Really good stuff.

Schwab

If you're interested in small, imaginative companies that publish small, imaginative games, then you'd be well-served to check out wonderfully named Cheapass Games.

Don't let the name -- or the packaging -- fool you. It is their very simplicity that makes Cheapass Games so enjoyable. The concepts are ludicrous, the artwork often hilarious, and the game fun due in no small part to a handful of simple rules.

Some offerings of note:

• Kill Doctor Lucky : the logical inverse of Clue.
• Before I Kill You, Mr Bond... : Capture the master spy, take him to your secret lair, and taunt him.
• Give Me The Brain : If you work in fast food service, you'll appreciate this game.
• Escape from Elba : You're Napoleon, and so is everyone else.
• The Very Clever Pipe Game: Sadly, no longer in print.

Really good stuff.

Schwab

If you're interested in small, imaginative companies that publish small, imaginative games, then you'd be well-served to check out wonderfully named Cheapass Games.

Don't let the name -- or the packaging -- fool you. It is their very simplicity that makes Cheapass Games so enjoyable. The concepts are ludicrous, the artwork often hilarious, and the game fun due in no small part to a handful of simple rules.

Some offerings of note:

• Kill Doctor Lucky : the logical inverse of Clue.
• Before I Kill You, Mr Bond... : Capture the master spy, take him to your secret lair, and taunt him.
• Give Me The Brain : If you work in fast food service, you'll appreciate this game.
• Escape from Elba : You're Napoleon, and so is everyone else.
• The Very Clever Pipe Game: Sadly, no longer in print.

Really good stuff.

Schwab

electronics make fine gifts, but the above reads more like a list of cool concepts than a list of things people would actually want to get. i mean, i love the empeg and drool over the idea of a personal beowulf, but for a christmas gift i would much rather get some cool games, no matter whether or not they're computer-based.

speaking of games, i can't believe nobody mentioned companies like cheapass games, who make really cool and relatively inexpensive card, board, and dice games. make sure to check out 'brawl' and 'button men' - i'd take those over a thinkgeek gift in an eyeblink. :)

another good place for gifts is mayfair games, publishers of such fine products as settlers of catan or the original edition of cosmic encounter. and if you're into small/indie game makers, there's also the wizard's attic, who sell such twisted little games as black death, in which you play the plague trying to wipe out europe, or the non-verbal role-playing game the land of og.

is anybody else on slashdot a fan of non-computer games? if so, post your favorites! the more gift ideas, the better... :)

First let me criticize a few suggestions I've seen over the past few days:

(1) Launching a DDOS attack against movie companies' websites: Bad idea. This will only reinforce their accusations that we are all criminals, and turn the general public against us. The decision is frustrating, but we don't need to give them justification for what they've done.

(2) Burning DVD's in mass quantities. Are you going to loot video stores to get them? (see above) Otherwise, the movie industry already has your money, and that's the bottom line. I really don't think anyone would care aside from the protesters themselves, and maybe some neighbors who get annoyed by the smell of burning plastic.

There are other forms of entertainment than movies. Gaming, for example.
I'm discussing mainly (but not exclusively--see the end of my post) roleplaying games.

Gaming is cheaper. A typical rulebook for an RPG is $20-$30, cheaper than movie tickets for for the 4-6 people in a typical gaming group. Extra sourcebooks for a gaming system are usually only $10-15.

Gaming is more interesting. Even if you only have one rulebook, you can have a nearly endless variety of scenarios. Your best-case scenario with movies is renting, where you might be able to get 20 movies or so. This leads right into my third point...

Gaming is easier to schedule. Regardless of how much or how little time you have available, a movie (with few exceptions) takes roughly two hours to watch. The length of an RPG session can be controlled by adjusting the complexity of the storyline. I've seen games as short as 2 hours or as long as several days.
With less time available, you might want to consider a card game or board game (maybe monopoly, but I was thinking along the lines of Settlers of Catan)

Not to ramble on too much, I thought I'd post links to a few of my favorite gaming companies:
Steve Jackson Games
White Wolf Game Studio
Cheapass Games (Typically only $5 a game, I recommend Give me the Brain for a fun, short card game.