Scott Tepper: More and Less

The end of September is approaching.  Days are getting shorter.  Short sleeve shirts are going on sale at department stores, and young (and old!) lovers’ minds start turning to…that’s right, Essen.  Ok, so not EVERYONE is thinking about Essen, but certainly at least 150,000 people are.  That’s approximately how many people will be attending Spiel this year. 

This will be my 4th year attending with Rio Grande Games as a demoer, and I’m finally settling into a little bit of a routine.  My pre-trip list of things to do (remember to bring throat lozenges, preprinted address labels for post cards, power converter, etc…) is exactly the same as last year, although the characteristics that define the years for me: the games I’ll be teaching, and the games I’ll be bringing back, are notably different this year.

That first category, the games I’ll be teaching, has me excited for a reason that probably wouldn’t be obvious to non-demoers.  The games that Rio Grande will be showing this year are a little more focused in quantity this year, and the cornerstone of this year’s games, Dominion, is for me, a demoer’s dream. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not talking about how the game will be received.  I never tell people “You’ll like this game” unless I have an idea of their tastes.  That would be like me saying, “you’re going to love the new ice cream flavor I’ve just invented: pistachio-pomegranate.” Really.  Everyone has different tastes, and you never really know if you’ll like something for sure until you actually taste it.  No game is going to please everyone, so for me, there is no point to hyping a game.  My goal as a demoer, which includes when I’m teaching friends and family new games as well, is to match people up with games that will bring them joy. 

The few times people have approached me at trade shows with specific requests that Rio Grande couldn’t meet(luckily, this is very rare), I always revert to the Kris Kringle’s tactic while working at Macy’s in A Miracle on 34th Street:  I have referred them to a game from another publisher.  I would honestly have trouble sleeping at night if I ever pushed someone to purchase a game that they would later regret.  That’s one of the reasons I enjoy demoing for Rio Grande at trade shows (and, in case you didn’t know it, I am not an employee.  I receive no financial recompense.); with such a wide selection of games, Jay Tummelson confidently believes in allowing people to play his games before they make a purchase, which increases the odds that the consumer will not be buying a game that they won’t enjoy.  Not all game publishers are as magnanimous, nor have to ability to do this with their resources.  Instead, they put out a display table where the customers can only receive a shortened overview of the game.

For me, being a demoer means helping people find games that they will play and enjoy repeatedly; in short, a good value for their gaming dollar.  It delights me when someone comes up to me and says, “You taught me games X, Y, and Z last year.  We ended up getting game Y and have played it over and over.  Can you recommend something else?” It surprises me that people actually remember learning to play a game, let alone that it was me who taught it to them.  But the more that I attend trade shows, the more that this sort of thing happens.

Whoo.  That was a little detour from the first point I was trying to make: Dominion is a relatively quick and easy game to teach, as well as to play.  “Big deal”, you say.  But it is a big deal.  If you are someone who derives pleasure from teaching people how to play good games, and let’s say that statistically, about 70% of the people who you teach a game to will enjoy it, then you get a larger feeling of accomplishment from being able to teach a game like Dominion(5-10 minute teaching time plus 30-60 minute playing time) vs. a game like Caylus (30 minute teaching time plus 90-150 minute playing time) because logistically, more people will get the chance to actually try out the game. 

What inevitably happens, at trade shows, when Rio Grande is showing “meatier” games, is that I start a group on a game that takes a half hour to teach, and someone will come up and ask, “when you’re done over here can you please help us at that table over there?” Then, 5 minutes later, I’ll receive a similar request from someone else, who I have to tell that I’m already in queue with another table.  That’s very frustrating for me, because I want to be able to help everyone at the same time.  So I’m excited about the prospect, in only a few weeks time, of being able to teach Dominion to a lot of people over the course of 4 days.

The other reason that this Essen is going to be different than previous years for me is related to me as a consumer.  As a game playing customer, at trade shows, I never have time to play a new game before making a purchase, so it’s generally an educated crap shoot as to whether or not I or my group will enjoy the game.  In this respect, Eric’s annual Spiel Preview is an incredible boon.  Since I only have a very limited amount of time to do my personal shopping in the hour before the Messe opens to the general public each morning of the show, it’s important that I don’t waste time at booths of games that I won’t end up buying.

As I was going through the Spiel Preview and transferring the games and publishers to an Excel spreadsheet to sort them by booth number and interest level, I noticed that on this preliminary conveyance of data, I already had 17 Yes’s, 17 Maybe+’s, 35 Maybe’s, and 33 Possible’s.  Even though there is no way I’d be buying all of them, I was considering purchasing over 100 games!

This year has to be different.  With the economy in such a state, it would be fiscally irresponsible of me to purchase even half that many games.  Looking back at Essen 2007, I think I came home with about 30 new games.  But now, a year later, only a handful of them like Race For The Galaxy, Gipsy King, and Agricola are still being played on a regular basis.  I would consider these and a few other games from that year as excellent values for my money.

Now that the American dollar is worth even less compared to the Euro, I will not be able to bring as many games home with me this year.  But cost isn’t the only impetus.  I already own over 700 games.  The games on my shelves should be able to satisfy the hunger of any gamer’s tastes, at least for a while.  Why do I need any more? 

While the answer to that question is probably best answered by a psychologist, I do have a few personal insights.  I have always had a collector’s sensibility, first starting with comic books, Christmas Ornaments, and then Magic: The Gathering Cards.  My ingress into boardgames came at a time in my life immediately following a turbulent upheaval, and I began to associate boardgames with friendship and positive socialization.  I read somewhere that collectors tend to be happy people because they always have something to look forward to.

I’m certainly not alone in my predisposition to acquire objects.  A simple scan of Ebay reveals hundreds of different items that people collect, like salt & pepper shakers, Hummel figurines, and Chinese binding shoes.  Unlike, those inactive objects, though, boardgames are made not just to be looked at, but to be played.  Games are inherently designed to promote social, or at least, recreational interaction. 

I have finally been confronted with the realization that I don’t need more games.  My friends already have a hard enough time deciding what to play at my house as it is.  Recognizing this milestone in my life, I have started to pare down my collection.  This isn’t to say that I won’t be acquiring any more games, but there is no reason that I can’t start honing my Essen game buying skills so that I won’t have to purchase 30 games to find 5 great ones.  Necessity, and, in this case, limited and overflowing bookcases, are the mother of invention.

Less really is more.

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