Henning Kröpke: A Report from three European Game Conventions

Finally, here is the first report from your correspondent from Germany. I know it is late but hopefully you will enjoy it nonetheless – a report about three European game conventions I attended in October and November 2005.

As a result of my recent change in to self-employment and working for different game companies I am visiting even more game conventions than I used to. I have to work instead of simply walking around, but luckily there is still enough time to get a good overview.

I will skip the report about Spiel 2005 from October 13.-16. in Essen, as there are already enough impressions and reports from other participants. I would like to give you an overview of Spellenspektakel in Eindhoven/Netherlands, Spielwiesn in Munich/Germany and Spielefest in Vienna/Austria.

I will start in reverse order: The 21st Spielefest (game festival) in Vienna/Austria took place at the Austria Center Vienna from November 18. - 20., and between 50.000 to 70.000 people came to play games. The major difference to other game conventions I have visited or read about – there is no retailers at the Spielefest! All publishers attending as well as the big open game area are only there to present the games. Attendees get a good impression of the new and classic games but should go to the shops to actually buy them after the show closed. An apparently successful way to organize a game convention – it is the 21st and there are numerous newspapers and TV reports on the convention.

On November 17., a day before the doors open for the public, a press conference and big gala for the Austrian game award „Spiel der Spiele“ are organized by Dagmar de Cassan and the Spiele Akademie. Games are honoured in several categories from the main prize „Spiel der Spiele“ (won by „Trans Europa“) to honorable mention for more than 10 games in categories such as „for gamers“ or „for families“.

Starting on Friday the doors were opened for the public. The conference center is divided in to several floors. On the first floor all the major game publishers in Austria were present – either with their own booths or organized by their main distributors. The second and third floor are filled with game tables for free gaming – the biggest room had as many as 400 – 600 tables. People are playing everywhere, even on the floor if all the tables are full. Every time I walked around I seemed to find more rooms I hadn’t noticed before.

On Friday many school classes attented the convention, followed by families and other gamers during the weekend. The atmosphere was very relaxed, without the need to find the cheapest bargain everyone simply enjoyed themselves playing good games. Another big difference to other game conventions – there are very few if any official rules explainers in the open game area. The Austrians simply sit down and read the rules themselves. While working at the Phalanx booth with 6 tables but only two explainers, most gamers did not wait but started to explain the rules themselves. When one of us hurried to them to help they were positively surprised to get a free explanation!

I am really looking forward to the next Spielefest in Vienna from November 24.-26. 2006!

The 14. Spielwiesn in Munich/Germany from November 11.-13. took place in one of the halls of the MOC – a big complex of halls in the north of Munich. After several years at the Deutsche Museum with very crowded halls, this year there was a lot of space. Most importantly: it was filled with gamers, so much so that on Saturday additional rooms needed to be opened on the roof of the hall to give space to the 15.000 – 25.000 gamers. Because of the new location it started a bit slowly on Friday, but the crowd was always very relaxed. The main focus of the Spielwiesn is again on free gaming. More than half of the space was reserved for the rows and rows of game tables which were filled with gamers playing everything from the newest releases to old classics. Around this area were the major German game companies as well as several game shops and a flea market with used games. Some small tournaments were organized, but more on a relaxed than a competitive level. Saturday was reserved for a very long day of gaming – starting at 10:00 am the doors were open until 11:00 pm – that is 13 hours of non-stop explaining for the participants, but also many happy faces…

The next Spielwiesn takes place from November 10.-12. 2006.

The Spellenspektakel in Eindhoven/Netherlands from October 28.-30. took place in a big hall next to the middle of the city. All major and smaller game companies and distributors from the Netherlands had booths at the show as well as numerous game stores, so it felt a bit like the little but more relaxed brother of Spiel in Essen/Germany. Besides the open gaming there was an additional big space for the many tournaments, not just for the usual boardgames but for a lot of different trading card games and table top games as well. I was not working this time and so had time to walk around and meet people. The most interesting part was observing all the sold games. Nearly everything from the German game market has a translated version in the Netherlands – from Settlers to the newest games from Spiel in Essen, you can find everything. Additionally the „strange“ games from America that are not always readily available in Germany are also present and find an interested gaming crowd.

The next Spellenspektakel will most likely take place on the last weekend in October 2006.

If I find the time, you can meet me at all of these conventions again, as I had really enjoyed all of them.

© 2005 Henning Kröpke

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Comments:

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Henning, if players aren’t buying games and there are hundreds of open gaming tables, do the players bring their own games with them?  Or do the borrow them from the publishers and take them to the open gaming areas and return them when they are done?  Or is there a game library where players check out games? It’s great to hear from you! Valerie Putman Posted by Valerie Putman on Dec 19, 2005 at 08:17 AM | #

Hi Valerie, in Vienna and Munich are big game libraries where the participants can check out games. I don´t know the exact numbers but something between 2.500 to 10.000 copies (the classics in mutliple copies) are there to play. The publishers only have copies for their own tables - plus some extra copies if game pieces are missing. Posted by Henning Kröpke on Dec 19, 2005 at 09:44 AM | #

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