Essen 2007
As a board game devotee, I accomplish a yearly pilgrimage to the Internationale Spieltage SPIEL which most people simply call “Essen” from the name of the German city where it takes place. As the world’s biggest “paper” game convention, it is to board games what E3 was to video games. But, unlike E3, I always enjoy myself at Essen. No booth babes but thousands of gamers and families playing everywhere - even on the floor when there are no tables left. Helpful demonstrators, accessible game designers and a game fever the video gaming industry seems to have lost.
Essen has a homely feel, it’s a friendly place for the geeks as well as the casual, family gamers and not everything is trying to look cool and shiny. Of course, the fact that so many boutique publishers sell their wares at Essen contributes to this indy, amateur feeling. Because the cost of making a small run of a boardgame is so low (compared to the cost of making a video game), many passionate gamers take the jump and self-fund their creations. They know it’s likely they’ll never recoup their investment but they do it anyway. Out of passion, out of love. And it generates a vitality and a diversity I can only hope the video gaming world will match one day. I mean, just this year, I brought back over 40 games including one about gypsies fighting for the best camping spot and one about taking part in a stag rut on a Scottish island, competing for food and females…
I can’t tell you if the games are good yet, but I’m already left wondering: when will we see that kind of diversity in computer gaming?
