Games - Lou Zocchi

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	Games - Lou Zocchi

Louis Zocchi, Sergeant, USAF (Retired), is a gaming hobbyist.

Although Zocchi has designed a few games (Alien Space, The Battle of Britain, Luftwaffe), he is better known for making dice, and inventing the Zocchihedron (100-sided) die. He is a well-known figure at gaming conventions like Gen Con and Origins International Game Expo, where he demonstrates the innate unfairness in most mass-produced gaming dice.

Most dice, according to Zocchi, do not roll accurately because of their flawed manufacturing processes. The dice favor certain numbers and are more likely to land on those numbers. Zocchi attributes the "superstitions" of many gamers who have certain dice to roll high and others to roll low to the fact that major dice manufacturers smooth out the straight edges of their dice in machines much like rock tumblers. The result is that plastic dice originally molded evenly are unevened and unbalanced, making them more likely to land on some numbers than on others.

Zocchi shows the unevenness of dice with statistical results of them being rolled and with photographs picturing stacks of dice not measuring adequately. His demonstrations are sales pitches for the unsmoothed and fair dice (often with razor sharp edges!) manufactured by his company, Gamescience. Unlike other gaming dice producers, Zocchi guarantees his dice to roll fairly and to never break. However, tests by White Dwarf magazine show that at least one of his dice designs, the Zocchihedron, had a significantly uneven number distribution.

Because of user complaints, the 4-sided die (or d4) produced by Gamescience has blunted points; it would otherwise be very difficult to handle comfortably.

Gamescience is still trading, and (as of 2005) Zocchi is still active in the gaming community.

Zocchi, Lou Zocci, Lou

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