Edwin Wong: The Season For Writing?

I’ve been wondering how to best classify myself, in terms of a “Columnist”.

I’m certainly not a regular contributor, nor an occasional one; in fact, I’m hopefully not a non-contributing one… and then it struck me. The magic words that got me logging onto bgn’s admin site, a site I haven’t visited for such a long time, I forgot my password! Some people would have given up by now, I mean, the hassle of going through the motions of finding one’s “lost password” - but not me!

So here I am. Again. Around THAT time of the year. Oh, and the magic word was, “Essen”!!!

I LOVE ESSEN!!!

Just thinking of it makes me want to play games. And wonder why I don’t play them for long stretches of time AFTER Essen.

Well, the matter of fact is that like Christmas, I find myself the seasonal gamer ;-) And the season for me seems to be around August - November. That also makes me a seasonal writer here, which is really strange as I write the games column ("THINK") every week for the national press!

Anyway, the season has started! So let’s begin with the basics.
1. Yes, I will be at Essen for the 4th time in a row.
2. Yes, I will be staying at Movenpick Hotel again. Do say hello if you are there!
3. Yes, I will be taking my family with me again, and spending our vacation before/after the convention.
4. Yes, I will be baby-sitting our representative for the Carcassonne International Finals. Sadly, the Settlers FInals was held in Gen-Con this year.
5. And yes, I will be covering the growing Asian presence at the fair.

A quick re-cap of last year’s Spiel.
1. The highlight must have surely been our Triona Leo’s 4th placing at the Settlers FInals, and the only female ever to reach the last 4 to boot! Well done girl! “Malaysia Boleh” as they say over here ("Boleh" = can).
2. Strong showing by Japanese & Korean game designers/companies. Some of their games already being picked up by US publishers (eg. Fairy Tale by Z-Man, etc), while others are gems waiting to be discovered (my favorite being “Make You Gunfighter” by Bouken).
3. First showing of Chinese game manufacturing companies, proudly showing you their track record of games produced for some US/European publishers.
4. I think the best Asian buffet is at Yellow River, in downtown Essen. EUR14 for a delicious spread, including Haagen Daz ice-cream!
5. I met Eric!!! Yay!!!

Things that have kept me occupied since Spiel.
1. Euro game retreat. This is the big event once I get home, where we take gamers up to a hill-top resort and let them try up to 24 new games released at Essen! 2 days & 1 night of Essen games for those who couldn’t make the trip, including some coming all the way from Singapore to join in!
2. Implementing designer games into curriculum for the largest group of private schools in the country, as a means to develop critical thinking among students. This milestone effort is aptly called “THINK”!
3. Writing the weekly game column ("THINK") for the national press.
4. Getting hooked on Flames of War, and starting up communities in Malaysia, Singapore Hong Kong and Tokyo! Yes, this was my serious distraction, and continues to be.
5. My real job ;-)

The last 5 games I’ve played.
1. Flames of War (a lot!).
2. Call of Cthulhu RPG.
3. Make You Gunfighter.
4. Agricola (German edition).
5. Blokus Classic.

Sadly, I haven’t played many new releases since the last Euro Game Retreat. Then, I played Arkadia, Darjeeling, King of Siam, Container, Agricola, Neuroshima Hex, Duel in the Dark, Uptown, 24/7, etc - all in 2 days and 1 night, thus probably causing a serious burn-out!!!

Fortunately, the gaming scene lives on, and even continued to thrive after my recent addiction to 15mm WW2 figures, with more young working adults discovering the joys of our wonderful hobby!

However, upon seeing the word “ESSEN” pop up again here, I mysteriously felt the itch to play board games again, and write!!!

Stay tuned for more…

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