Convention Report: Essen 2008: October 24, 2008 – Day 2, Part 2
By W. Eric Martin
October 25, 2008
Items from the Spiel game convention in Essen, Germany:
• The Fairplay rating chart, which tracks how gamers are rating new titles, has been fluctuating rapidly as first impressions pour into the voting box. At 15:00 on Friday, Oct. 24, the second full day of Spiel, the chart read:
- Comuni
- Diamonds Club
- Machu Picchu
- Dominion
- Fauna
- Im Schutze der Burg
- Lungarno
- Borneo
- Flussfieber
- Pandemic
- Nefertiti
- Le Havre
- Powerboats
By 18:00, Diamonds Club had dropped to 6th place, with Cavum popping into 4th; Zack & Pack showed up in 11th, with Wind River, Ghost Stories and Planet Steam showing up on the “promising, but too few votes to really count” list. By the end of the day, Dominion was on top with Cavum and Machu Picchu in the place and show positions.
• Phalanx Games, Nexus’ German partner on War of the Ring, was displaying the ginormous box for the game’s deluxe edition, which is now scheduled for release sometime in 2009. The game should retail for somewhere around €200, and due to the intricate wood carrying case, the game will be mailed to people in order to keep it from being damaged.
• In other Phalanx Games news, Martin Wallace’s Rise of Empires is due out in March 2009, with Michael Palm’s Age of Piracy set for GenCon 2009.
• Vlaada Chvatil’s Space Alert from Czech Games Edition is being sold at the Heidelberger booth in Spiel, but no decision has been reached about which U.S. company might distribute the game. That said, the game will appear in the U.S. from someone.
• Michael Schacht has a new game coming from Abacusspiele in Nuremberg 2009 that could be recognized as a Schacht design by any long-term gamer due to its smooth play, interactive movement system (think Hansa) and connection elements. I’ll post a more detailed description later.
Posted by W. Eric Martin on Oct 25, 2008 at 03:00 AM in Special Features, Convention Reports, Convention Report: Spiel 2008 / 3619
Comments:
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Not much love for Le Havre, then? Posted by Doug Orleans on Oct 25, 2008 at 08:43 AM | #
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Doug, Le Harve had risen to ninth on the Fairplay list by the end of Friday. Needless to say, there’s a ton of new titles, so that’s hardly a disappointment. Frankly, given that it’s a long and deep game, I’m surprised it’s doing as well as that. Of course, both Agricola and Brass were near the top of the poll last year, so these folks must be good at projecting how these intricate games will play away from the Fair. Posted by Larry Levy on Oct 25, 2008 at 11:55 AM | #
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No Duck Dealer? Posted by Jon Theys on Oct 25, 2008 at 03:20 PM | #
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Only 200 copies of Duck Dealer meant nearly nobody actually played it - we all just bought and trusted. :) Larry, Agricola and Brass were outliers of sorts last year. More typically. the Fairplay lists are biased towards the shorter-playing, more family friendly games.
pk
Posted by Patrick Korner on Oct 25, 2008 at 05:37 PM | #
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Shorter maybe, Patrick, but they seem to be moving more toward heavier games. Last year’s top 10 included Tribune, Hamburgum, Cuba, Before the Wind, Year of the Dragon, and Amyitis, which are all pretty gamerly. The top 4 this year are Dominion, Cavum, Machu Pichu, and Comuni, none of which I would describe as family games. I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, the Fairplay poll is starting to track pretty well with my preferences and I find it worth following. Posted by Larry Levy on Oct 25, 2008 at 06:45 PM | #
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Unfortunately not many people could have got to the GenX booth in the middle of the LARP wear. Mercanisburg was a real hit with us. Sci-fi love child of Wallace (alternate victories, and influence placement) and Race for the Galaxy(card based with lots of icons). Hope this gets some wider recognition Posted by Tony Barrett on Oct 26, 2008 at 04:22 PM | #
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Tony, I saw many people wearing 2 de Mayo buttons, so the GenX booth was a destination for those in the know. The Hall 6 presence might have hurt chance discoveries by passers-by, but I did hear good things about both of the company’s games from many people, with only the price of Mecanisburgo holding some folks at bay. Eric Posted by W. Eric Martin on Oct 26, 2008 at 04:27 PM | #
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I was also at the booth of GenX and the price of Mechanisburgo hold me off, but it was sold out on
Switch - Secrets of the Temple was also sold out on Sunday and it was expensive, too. All those buyers must have a good job and no families. :-) ;-) Posted by Burkhard Hannig on Oct 27, 2008 at 02:47 AM | #
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It’s also possible that others are aware 2 de Mayo has some copies stateside already from Devir, so the US attendees bypassed the booth for other games. I was unable to goto Essen, but my copy of 2 de Mayo should be here today. Posted by Sean Brown on Oct 27, 2008 at 10:20 AM | #
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What struck me about 2 De Mayo was just how tiny the board was. Photos give the impression of something bigger. Posted by Nick Case on Oct 29, 2008 at 04:37 PM | #
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