The Opinionated Gamers

Each Essen, I like following the standings of the games on the Fairplay poll, based on the votes of the attendees at the Messe.  This year, I haven’t seen one mention of it, which is unusual.  So I googled it myself and figured I’d let you know what the top games are.  Here are the games with the best average ratings (keeping in mind that this is based on a 1-6 scale, with 1 being the best).  The number of votes is given in parentheses.

1. Concordia – 1.53 (15)
2. Russian Railroads – 2.00 (20)
2. Kashgar – 2.00 (17)
2. UGO – 2.00 (13)
5. Glass Road – 2.10 (21)
6. Spyrium – 2.12 (26)
7. Madeira – 2.24 (17)
8. Bruxelles 1893 – 2.26 (19)
9. Love Letter – 2.28 (32)
10. Coal Baron – 2.33 (15)
11. Sanssouci – 2.39 (18)
12. Amerigo – 2.45 (31)
13. Nauticus – 2.50 (14)

Some of those were unfamiliar to me, so let me give a little more information about those.  Kashgar is a 45 minute design from Kosmos described as a “open deck-building game”.  UGO is the climbing card game co-designed by Ronald Hoekstra; I think Eric Martin talked about that before the fair.  And Sanssouci is a tile-laying game from Ravensburger and Michael Kiesling; it looks like a family game.

No huge surprises, although the excellent rating for Concordia is certainly good news for fans of Mac Gerdts.  I’ll try to follow up with the updated ratings each day as the festivities at Essen continue.

Today was my third day (second official) of experiencing the SPIEL fair in Essen.  It was a very different day than the last two.  There was little shopping left – I picked up Caverna, Yunnan, and 2-F’s Folder set.  And there was actually much less playing and demoing than I expected as well (don’t worry, there was still some).  Why were things so different, you ask?

Lesson 9: Things Will Go Wrong.  It’s inevitable.  You plan.  You prepare.  You map out your routes through the halls.  You pack two outfits for each day.  You bring medicine for diseases that were eradicated last century.  Still, something will find a way to throw a wrench into your plans.

She looks so innocent, right?

This is Kookaburra.  She’s a veteran traveler.  She’s flown cross-country on numerous occasions, made herself at home in more hotel rooms than I can count, and greatly enjoyed her recent trip to Norway, during which we stayed in a rustic cabin in the middle of nowhere.  Naturally, Kookaburra joined my wife and I for our trip to Essen.  There’s only one problem.  Kookaburra hates Germany.

Continue reading →

If you plan to travel with a 12 years daughter there are things you have to know: the first one is that most of the Essen booth usually passing under your radar probably have one ore more interesting things for her, including the ones in the Forgotten Land of Hall 2. Last year Caterina started to play Pathfinder RPG so now dice and other RPG staff booth are for her of some interest.

Anyway, we can start the report of our second day of Messe.

The first game played was Coal Baron at Eggertspiele booth. A really good design. The 4 player game was nice and thense.I’m quire sure the playing experience will improve with a second game. Caterina also liked the game but the downtime was to her a bit high and so she can’t give the game a real thumb up. I indeed liked it a lot but, of course I’ll need more sessions to have a real idea.

Finished the game we met Viki, Elena and Ginevra and continued the visit togther

Continue reading →

Very busy day of new games, meeting old friends, playtesting games, having meetings, etc.  I’ve played more games than usual this year – but interestingly, I can’t talk about any of them because they are all unpublished prototypes that will hopefully see the light of day in the next year or so.  Eric Martin and I have already written a bit about Time Stories (See his BGG blog for more details).  Today, I played yet another cooperative game which was a blast.  Perhaps my views on cooperative games are changing?!

I’m pretty neutral on the new hall layout – it definitely feels bigger, the aisles are wider. All the reports say that the total square footage is more, but I wonder if rented square feet is more due to the wide aisles.  The old layout was very cramped, especially halls 4, 5, and 9.  Everything here is nicely spaced.  I honestly can’t get a good feel for whether or not it’s crowded or not since I don’t have any other experience to compare it too.  Everywhere I look, I’m surrounded by gamers, but it’s not the same Tokyo subway sensation trudging through the tight halls of Hall 9 in past years.  Many of the companies that I have talked to say that business is brisk, but certainly not the “best day evar” either.  The other interesting aspect of the wider halls is that there wasn’t the same sensation of lines everywhere that you usually get on Thusrday. There were always people at Lookout, for instance, but it didn’t clog up the whole pathway, so it wasn’t as obtrusive.  Also, there were plenty of designer/artist signings (Piero, Antoine Bauza, Marie Cardouat, etc) – and the lines for this also seemed shorter, or at least more controlled.

The only downside, for me, is that the new hall layout has added about 800m onto my walk each way to the Messe.  There is no shortcut into the hall now, and while it’s no big deal in the morning – walking back to the hotel with two IKEA bags stuffed full of games… it’s about enough to separate both shoulders!  Thursday’s total is 25,500 steps = 12 or 13 miles. Lots of walking inside the halls as usual, so only about an extra 3,000 steps from the 3 trips back and forth to the halls today.

All of the vendors appear to still be in the Messe, though in different locations.  Sadly, the Bratwurst at the Snackpoint is more expensive, now a precious 2,60EUR instead of 2,50.

Nice “surprise” retirement party for Mike Gray.  Lots of folks on hand to celebrate his long service to the industry, most recently with Hasbro.

(He’s the guy who doesn’t look like Dr Knizia)

Not much time to write more today. Thursday (and Friday) are for meetings, picking up games, etc.  I’ll do more later in the weekend. I also have to figure out what’s wrong with my camera so I can post pictures up.

Time to start the first test pack to see if I even have any more space to bring games home.

The long day for a father start early in the morning trying to convince Caterina that is much more better to be in the Halls at 9 instaed of having a relaxed breakfast and a holiday-like wake up.

I’m been good in that becasue we were able to reach the Entrance not too late and play more than 10 games. I will don’t say anything about the new halls organization until saturday.

Caterina top 3 of days are

Rokoko
Garden Dice
Tash-kalhar

My top 3 are

Garden Dice
Mini-krokinole
Rokoko

So, our game of the day has been Garden Dice

Continue reading →

So…I wasn’t prepared for that.  Yes, it’s officially the first day of the SPIEL fair in Essen, and what a difference a day makes.  As always, let’s start this off with a few life lessons:

Lesson 5: It Gets Crowded.  Quickly.  This seems like it should be obvious to anyone reading this blog, but it is amazing to see first-hand just how dramatically the once-cavernous Messe halls transform into a teeming mass of people.  This is a shot near one of the entrances shortly after the halls opened this morning:

It’s people all the way down.

I spent my first few minutes this morning fending off an angry mob seeking one of the 50 English-language copies of Patchistory, an it really was a mob scene.  As soon as the box of games arrived at the table, people were nearly throwing their money forward in the hopes of securing a copy for themselves.  (I got mine.)

Continue reading →