Essen season has come and is slowly fading. It’s a bit like the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament: a lot of people from all over poring over information as it comes out preparing for a big final weekend. In this case, though, there’s no competition beyond that of commerce. If you’re into board games, it’s a chance to see what the major—and minor—publishers are bringing out and to get a sense of where the industry is going, at least for another year.
Generally, the industry is going with deck-building, dice distribution, and worker placement games. And this his hardly surprising: these have had the most successful titles over the last few years. Dominion, Kingsburg, and Agricola received a lot of attention around 2007, though the fervor attending those titles has started to wane. The dice seem to be holding their own, though.
Of course, it’s hard to know what ‘successful’ means when it comes to this niche. Ah, but that brings us back around to Essen Spiel (official motto: Komm, Spiel Mitt!). The organizers expected around 180,000 people to attend over the four days of the convention. That’s a lot of game and toy buyers.
I have my eye on a couple of new games, and I’ve been intrigued by new game companies in China and Russia. Not because of their games, but because we haven’t seen new titles from these countries recently. Mostly, the games look pretty awful (The Enigma of Leonardo has promise), but the new industry suggests how these countries view themselves. With their long cultural histories, I’m pretty excited about what they’ll be developing in the next few years.
Here’s a quick hit on another trend to watch: higher player interaction (without fighting) in what are traditionally seen as Eurogames, and more resource management and worker placement in what are traditionally seen as Ameritrash games.
In the meantime, I’ll marvel at the pictures from the Internationale Spieltage. So many people who think it’s OK to play.... Marvelous.
7 Wonders is a good, new game. Shelly and I had a chance to play some of the new Russian games at Nukecon. Evolution was the standout.
Posted by: Bryan Gahagan | 10/27/2011 at 12:18 AM
I haven't had a chance to play 7 Wonders, yet, but a couple of folks up here have it, so it's just a matter of time. I've read the rules for Evolution. It looks interesting, but I'm not not a veteran of M:tG, so those kinds of card games aren't my default interest. Still, it did catch my attention as having some interesting gameplay.
And it's great to hear from you!
Posted by: James | 10/27/2011 at 12:38 AM
James, you should shoot me an email. We'd love to have you post from time to time over on The Gaming Gang. We miss you bud and, now that things have settled down a bit, this would be a great time to have you back in the fold.
Posted by: Jeff McAleer | 10/28/2011 at 12:17 AM