I know what I can say about BANG 19 preparations. It's necessarily vague, in the name of seekricy, but it's heartfelt. Thank you you past Game Control folks who have shared advice, "war stories", and wisdom from past games. When we don't know what to do, often the path to a solution starts out with "Hey, didn't they already deal with this in the ______ Game?" And soon we have an answer. Thanks also to XX-Rated for leaving the Paparazzi Game waiver up online.
Hmm, that probably wasn't so interesting to read. Maybe it's time for a book report on Gaming the Vote
William Poundstone continues to write about ideas. This time, he writes about voting. Do you remember how you felt when you learned that a three-way election might be unfair--when you learned that there is no system of voting such that a three-way election is certain to reflect the will of the voters? When I learned that, I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. That was years ago. I figured that we were doomed to plurality voting, the two-party system. Doomed, doomed, doomed.
Poundstone writes about this, but... but he gets past it. If there are more than two candidates running, no election system is guaranteed to work all of the time. That said, most reasonable systems work most of the time. And some systems probably work better than others. This book is about past "unfair" elections, voting systems, and how to manipulate voting systems. If you've been discouraged by Condorcet cycles and are ready to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on, this would be a good book to read.