Edwin Wong: Spiel’08, Chapter 1 - The Growing Asian Presence

Although Spiel’08 was a good 2 weeks ago, I only just got back to Kuala Lumpur this morning after taking in the sights of some neighboring cities, the highlight being Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” at the Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan - something I have not been able to do for the last 5 years due to ticket unavailability!

Once again, it was great to meet all the people behind the games & news, including Eric, which for me, is where the heart and soul of Spiel really is, without which it would be just a giant “pasar malam” of games (aka cheap sale market, as we refer to in our local language)!

This time around, I’ll be reporting according to the following chapters:
1. The Growing Asian Presence.
2. My Spiel’08 Experience.
3. Consumer Demand for Games in Asia After Spiel.

Enjoy!!!

Chapter 1
The Growing Asian Presence.

This year saw a growing Asian presence at Spiel, signifying the increasing popularity, and diminishing language barriers, of this wonderful hobby. Let me share some thoughts of this, including some trends for the future.

Manufacturers
This year, chinese board game manufacturers were present for the second time, but taking up a much more visible space - surely a lesson learnt after last year when at least one of them was placed in the children’s play area outside Hall 5.

Although they were targeting American/EU publishers looking to lower their cost of production, it was indeed ironical to see many Asian publishers still manufacturing in their own country - something which surely must give you food for thought. Kandou-San from Bouken still insists on publishing his card games in Japan, while Gemblo and other new Korean releases are still made locally. This year even saw a new release, Switch, being manufactured in Malaysia!

This brings me to the point of why publishers have not considered other Asian countries outside of China in producing their games? Malaysia, for example, has been a hub for multinational book publishing, plastics & electronic giants for years; Korea & Japan have an unbeatable tradition of exquisite paper products, while Thailand & Indonesia have already been supplying the world with their fine wood products! Game-wise, outside the realm of publishers choosing to manufacture in their own country out of convenience and patriotic reasons, the real case for manufacturing outside China lies in two publishers - Pintoy (makers of award winning line of wooden games like “Fire & Ice") & Battlefront Miniatures (makers of the hugely popular 15mm WW2 historical miniature game, Flames of War).

Pintoy’s manufacturing plant is in Thailand, and produces not only games, but also toys & furniture using rubber wood from latex plantations since 1987. The trees are cut for replanting when they no longer produce enough latex, then the wood is recovered as a by-product, and studies show that rubber plantations can be as efficient as natural forest in removing carbon-dioxide from the air, by converting it into rubber latex, soil and wood - making rubberwood an environmentally friendly choice.

Battlefront shifted its manufacturing plant to Malaysia last year, and now produces all the 15mm miniatures there. Although they also considered China & Vietnam, including outsourcing, they eventually selected Malaysia for the strength of its copyright laws (since its legal system, like most Commonwealth countries, follows British Law) and low cost of operations.

As it should be the responsibility of every publisher to constantly find ways to lower costs without compromising on quality and time-to-market (where language and shipping costs come into play), they should now be exploring business opportunities in these other, proven, manufacturing bases. In time to come, I will not be surprised if publishers start to shift away from China to Malaysia, Thailand or other countries.

Publishers
The huge pavilion taken out by the Korean publishers certainly caught many people’s attention. This was no simple “pay for space” by the various publishers, but rather one where the huge space was fully sponsored by the Korean Government as part of its initiative to promote & develop the hobby, in a country where online gaming is what reality TV is to the United States - huge! As if that wasn’t enough, the government also organized a game design competition where the winning games were showcased in the pavilion!

Apart from the Korean’s significantly bigger presence, the Japanese were represented both by independents such as Bouken, and their usual consortium of designers. There was also a rare publisher from Malaysia, Outplay Games, with its first release, Switch.

Another aspect of publishing which had a not so visible presence (simply because they had no “booth") were distributors from the larger Asian markets, who were in active negotiations on publishing “localized” versions of popular games. For example, while Korean versions of “Halli Galli” have been appearing for years, active discussions were taking place for Taiwanese & other versions.

Theme
My single biggest observation about the theme of games released by Asian publishers is that they have not yet capitalized on the wealth of culture, heritage and history of their own country/region!!!

So I find it amusing when, for example, an Italian designer produces a game about the Great Wall of China, and tries to sell it to the Chinese. Of course, I am referring to “Chang Cheng” by Tenki Games, last year. But since then, while there has been an undeniable slew of Asian theme games (Okko, Senji, Great Wall, Samurai, etc), sadly, not many really deliver anything other than a cosmetic treatment. What is even sadder is the fact that Asian publishers are choosing not to put out Asian themes, leaving it instead to Germans, Italians and other commercially savvy game designers.

Take “Swtich” for example. While it is set in 16th century Japan, the fact that you have to collect items, treasures and battle monsters does little to articulate what richness feudal Japan has to offer the world! “Make You Gunfighters” (Bouken), adorable as it may be, is about cowboys; “Giza” (Fun Factory), which appeared some years ago from Singapore, is about building pyramids in Egypt; Although the high rise buildings & stock markets in Gra-Gra Company (Grimpeur/Japon Brand) are synonymous with modern Japan, it brings nothing to the table other than a dexterity like game.

Like most things, people usually have a fascination for things unknown. Its mysterious, exotic, thrilling even. And to be able to immerse in an experience that a board game can offer (that is, of course, if the designer actually tries, instead of just plastering an exotic sounding theme on a game), but without the complexity of rocket science, would be a truly wonderful thing wouldn’t it? I would like to see Asian designers deliver rich experiences (about Asia), not just “Euro quality/theme” games.

Gamers
With only the Carcassonne World Championship held at Spiel this year, it predictably saw a huge increase in countries, with 22 participants from 21 countries - the largest ever turnout.

Although Asia has traditionally been well represented and fairly strong contenders in the Settlers World Championship, with Malaysia placing 4th last year, some of them were not present for the Carcassonne Championship - most notably Japan, Korea & Singapore. What was notable was the age of the 2 Asian participants: 12-year old Peixin Chen from Taiwan and 14-year old Wong Qi-Shaun from Malaysia. Against a field of adults, and a few veterans (like 2 time champion and 3 time finalist Ralph Querfurth from Germany), these juniors did Asia proud, with Qi-Shaun just missing out on a top 10 spot with his joint-11th placing.

Despite feedback from the large German publishers such as Amigo Spiele, Zoch, etc, reporting significant reduction in export sales of games to Asia (especially Korea) over the last year, other feedback seems to indicate that this is largely a factor of the high Euro currency (over the last year), rather than decline in demand for games, as sales of games from other countries, primarily the US, has been consistent and even growing.

Stay tuned for Chapter 2!

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