Conventions tend to have a lot of people. This one has a lot, lot, lot of people. I realized I do not like being around a lot of people, despite being a textbook extrovert. This year, I just kind of went around the halls like a chicken with my head cut off and didn’t try out much. In the past, I would demo for a company, so I’ll do my mornings wandering around the faire, then afternoons in one spot teaching games. Future conventions, I’ll stick with what works for me. My final haul, most of which I picked up via the BGG No-Ship Essen Auction Geeklist started by Carsten S/ Panagaeus. It had 435 pages of games and promos and ended up with 10,855 items! I do believe there is a special level of hell for certain people where you are forced to play Candyland over and over.. People that individually sell a gazillion promos listing each as a separate item instead of batching them together like the rules ask…I think my wife is going to start knitting one of these for me now that I snapped a picture of this lady’s stylish hat!My game room says, “Yes!” but my wallet says, “No!”Traci noticed how the hiking/ parks theme has caught on.We saw this on Friday and I wanted to try it out, but could not find it again, wandering all over the halls on Saturday. I wasn’t intelligent enough to download the app prior to arriving at the faire. :( I also wanted to check out the 2nd Edition of Waggle Dance, but it also eluded me.I took a bunch of photos of games. I sadly did not demo a bunch of games. Apparently, this convention, I was off my game.If you notice the masks, Europe is still requiring them in certain countries for certain events. As we entered the center on Friday, I said, “Welcome to the super-spreader event!” A young guy next to me mentioned he and his partner had gone to Gen Con and there was a major COVID outbreak there, following that convention. Looking forward to seeing what happens with the numbers here (and did the masks help?). Before he was an artist, M.C. Escher made ladders.Damn Straight.I’ve never really been “Cult of the New” and you can see that in my purchases in the photo towards the top of the article. However, I do like to try new games and see how mechanics are changed and implemented, even if there really is nothing new under the Sun. Bezier makes some great games, but this T-shirt is around a decade old and still in great shape. It has outlasted any t-shirts from any other gaming company I’ve worked with.
If you attended Essen and have some random thoughts/ musings, let us at OPG know!
Truth in advertising! The article was just a bunch of photos and musings. Gotta find part 1.