Valerie Putman:  Spiel des Jahres 2009 award ceremony

I’m…nearly speechless.  Hopefully you’ve already read Dale’s report of the SdJ press conference that we attended in Berlin.  I haven’t read it yet—I wanted to get my own thoughts down before I was influenced by his perception of the trip.  He tends to be more detail oriented than I am, so I suspect I won’t duplicate his report exactly.

I had fairly high hopes back in May that Dominion would be nominated for the SdJ—or at least be awarded a special prize.  It’s a great game that has been very well received in many countries by gamers and non-gamers alike.  But once we made the nominated list and the critics and industry insiders started to blog about our chances, they had me completely convinced that “Dominion is a great game but it can’t win because ______________” (fill in the blank with any of a dozen reasons).  I did hear a few opinions that it couldn’t lose for another dozen reasons, but those seemed far less convincing.  So I headed off to Berlin last week happy to be nominated and honored to have the chance to see the awarding of the most important prize in boardgaming.  I very much liked all of the nominated games and some of my closest friends in boardgaming were involved with one of them, so I was ready to enjoy the experience no matter what happened. 

I had several days of sightseeing in Berlin before the big day and I learned a lot about this important city—once divided and now so completely whole 20 years later.  Sunday, the day before the press conference, Dale and I met up with Jay Tummelson and learned that Donald (the designer) had missed his flight and wouldn’t be making it to the press conference.  I knew there would be a lot of disappointed journalists, jury members, and publishers—all excited to meet the mysterious Donald X.  He has every intention of making it to Essen, so hopefully the public can wait that long to meet him.  Dale, Jay and I met up with Bernd Brunhofer and the rest of the Hans im Gluck team along with the team from Schmidt Spiele for dinner on Sunday and had a chance to ask questions about what to expect the next day.  After dinner, we attended a welcome party hosted by the SdJ jury members.

At previous Essens I have met Tom Werneck and Stefan Ducksch, members of the jury.  I was disappointed to see that Stefan wasn’t in attendance, but I had the chance to renew my acquaintance with Tom.  I also got to know Kathrin Nos—chatting for at least an hour about a little bit of everything—and I can’t wait to see her again in Essen.  It was a little nerve wracking interacting with the jury members the night before the big prize, but they had already voted at that point.  One thing that I think is often misunderstood is that the jury members vote separately—there is no group think about who can or should win.  While we may speculate that the “jury” is looking for X, Y, and Z, the truth is that one jury member might value X and Y, another Y and Z, and still another might be looking for A, B, and C in the winning game.  At the time of the welcome party the head of the jury had looked at the votes to insure that there was in fact a winner and not a tie, and then he remains the only one to know the outcome until the unveiling the next day.

I hardly slept Sunday night and Monday morning I was a nervous wreck.  As they walked us through a rehearsal I told myself over and over “it’s an honor to be nominated.” But the truth is, I really wanted to win.  Duh.  When we reconvened an hour later for the real deal, I thought my armpits were going to be declared a flood zone.  I was in a daze as they invited each of the Kinderspiel nominees up to the stage and showed videos of their games being played.  When it was time to announce the Kinderspiel winner, they slowly removed a cloth cover from a large cardboard standup poppel and there attached to the front of the poppel was the winner, the Magic Labyrinth.  Axel Kaldenhoven, the publisher (Schmidt Spiele), jumped in the air and hooted like a good old American game show contestant who just found out that he was the next contestant on the Price Is Right.  It was kind of a relief to know that whatever my reaction might be—it wouldn’t be considered too enthusiastic.  The cameras started flashing and it was difficult not to be caught up in the sheer joy radiating from the stage.

The awarding of the special awards (best party game for Gift Trap and best new game world for Space Alert) was a little less dramatic because the winners were already known.  Those of us nominated for the final prize squirmed in our seats.  Finally, the nominees were each called to the stage while a video of their game was played.  It was at this moment that I was sure we couldn’t win.  Our video showed two guys shuffling.  And shuffling some more.  Then they shuffled again.  Our game looked completely un-fun compared to the laughing kids guessing what country animals come from (Fauna).  Dominion is a great game but it can’t win because…..  But then, the time came to lift the cloth and they revealed…Dominion!!!!

I was shocked.  Stunned.  Definitely speechless.  Jay and Bernd motioned for Dale and I to come with them and I followed them, dumstruck, up on stage.  We hugged—actually, we clutched at each other as all four of us wore the biggest grins.  I wished Donald could have been there.  Then I was blinded by thousands of camera flashes for what seemed like an eternity.

Once we stumbled down from the stage (yes, my legs were shaking so bad they could hardly hold me up), the first person to come up and congratulate me was my good friend Henning Kropke.  He gave me a big hug and whispered in my ear, “your Dad would be proud.” OMG, I lost it.  I completely burst into tears—it was such a nice thing to say.  Since no one else heard him, the incoming crowd must have just thought that I’m a crier when I’m happy.  And so be it.  I was soooo happy.  We spent the next hour hugging and smiling and pinching ourselves that this really happened.  The German TV crews wanted nothing to do with Dale and I once they realized they couldn’t use our English soundbites and I’m not really sure if I could have said anything coherent anyway.  It was a moment of my life that I am going to remember forever.

Thanks so much to Dale, Jay, Donald, Bernd, and everyone else who made this happen.

I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman

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