Essen 2006 - A series of articles
Since I don't have the time to write the full Essen report at once, I have decided to create smaller chunks. I am currently on a business trip in Chicago so I can make good use of jet lag problems and post something about our Essen experiences. It has been a great, great, great experience and I still have that many new games awaiting to be played. I wish I could do this right now, but apparently it will have to wait.
This year I had taken off two days at work to visit on Thursday and Friday as well. Raven and Shelak were also able to make the time. They arrived on Wednesday evening and we started off our Annual pre-Essen gaming sessions with a couple of older Essen 2005 games.
Since we finished rather late on Wednesday night we had a short breakfast on Thursday morning and left for Essen at 9:45. We entered the exhibition hall 12 at about 10:30. This seemed to be a good time as their was almost no crowd at the entrance. We bought a full 4 day-pass (Dauerkarte) which helps a lot in passing the lines on Friday, and especially Saturday and Sunday. On Friday we arrived pretty early, trying to conquer a Kosmos table. But since this was not very successful at first, we decided to take our time and rather play a couple of games during the (late) evenings...
While the impressions are still fresh: I am impressed with the quality of the games we have seen. The small publishers are getting closer and closer to the industry leaders. Although Thursday and Friday are great to play some games, we decided to walk through the main exhibit halls first, before starting to play any games. The idea was to get some sense of the atmosphere and get the bigger picture before diving into the fun already.
Here is the list of stuff I am planning to write, but it might certainly take a little while to get this all online...
Essen 2006 reports
- Essen 2006 - Wednesday pre-gaming sessions
- Essen 2006 - The Big Publishers
- Essen 2006 - Geheimtipps - The Small Publishers
- Essen 2006 - Photoshow, Part 1
- Essen 2006 - Photoshow, Part 2
- Essen 2006 - Hot Games
- Essen 2006 - The State of the Board Gaming Industry
- Essen 2006 - Games Played and Games Acquired