I plan to write a series of articles about organizing a game conventions. Without false modesty – I am pretty good at this stuff. I am doing cons for my whole life. I created and run many conventions, big ones, and small ones. I also attend hell of cons every year. I know much about mistakes, I know much about cool ideas.

But before we move on to this, let me just make a shout out to… myself!

Tomorrow I go to miniPionek (miniPawn). This is con I created few years ago. It is held twice a year in Gliwice. It is con for 50-80 gamers. Most of them are my friends. I would invite them all to my house and play games, but my house is too small. So we have this small con. We meet in Cultural Centre in Gliwice. One huge room, 20 or so tables and 2 days of gaming with friends.

I packed my car with games. That will be an amazing weekend. Shout out to me. I invented this con. And that was one of many brilliant ideas I had 😉

I am huge sf fan. Which is a tricky thing these days. There is so many sf movies in cinema. Every damn month we have more new sf movies than we had per year when I was a kid. The problem is – well, at least from my perspective – that when I was a kid we had Blade Runner, E.T., Terminator, Alien, Abyss, Total Recall. Great stories with poor special effects.

Now we have the opposite – awesome special effects and no story at all.

That’s why a good sf movie deserves a post. That is why good sci fi makes me happy as a kid. That’s why once again this weekend I was proud to be sf fan.

Edge of Tomorrow, baby!

So we were playing Sail to India and even though I liked the game, I had these moments of lack of concentration – when Merry and Ralph were doing their turn, I was checking my Twitter and Instagram feeds. At some point Ralph poked me in the arm. „It’s your turn, man” he said. „Oh, sorry. What did you do?” I asked him.

In response he gave me that look. He looked at me with his eyes telling me: „You were not paying attention and you were twitting all the time and now you want me to kindly describe you what I did in my turn?”

That look.

So I shut up and I did my turn. And then I put away my Iphone. No more twitter feed during the game.

***

I am active user of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, I post photos of games I play, I banter about games on Twitter and I love the fact that I can discuss games with people from all over the world.

But…

At some point I might forgot that playing games is a social experience that involves real people sitting right in front of me. I might forgot that I should talk with them not with my Twitter feed. I might forgot that it is good – waiting for my turn – interact with them and have fun with them, not with my smartphone…

It’s cool to make a photo of the game and post it on Instagram. It is cool to post something interesting or funny about the game and share your thoughts with the world.

But it is not cool to sit with 4 friends at the table and stare at your Iphone all the time.

***

When I was at Gen Con I saw that sadly it was not only my problem. I saw that many geeks were distracted by their smartphones. I saw geeks who hold cards in one hand and their iphone in the other. I saw people checking their FB/Twitter/whatever every time they were done with their turn.

That sucks, people.

I say it loud and I say it honest – I was there too. I was social media freak too (well, I still am!). I was acting like jerk. But I am acting better now. Still, when I play board game, I take a photo at the beginning or at the end of the game. I post or tweet funny comment or my thoughts about the game after it is finished. But for the whole game I try to keep my smartphone in the pocket. I try to not get distracted. I try to be social… to people who sit with me at the table.

What can I say more. I poke you guys. It’s your turn to act.

For the past 30+ years I played football at least once a week. As a kid I played every day, in college I played twice a week, nowadays I play every Monday. I can’t say that about board games – every year there is a few weeks, when I take a break and I play no board games at all. There was no single week of break from football in my life.

I love board games, I am huge board games fan, but let me be honest with you – in my heart I am sport dude. If there is an offer on the table to play my beloved Mall of horror or to play football, I will choose football. Sorry to say that.

I also watch sport. I watch football (Premiere League) and I watch all mayor events in sports that involve team sports. That is why I was so excited and so freaking happy when Rob and his friends invited me this Gen con for a American Football match (Indiana Colts against NJ Giants). I believe they did not realize how huge it was for me and how happy I was that evening.

But let me tell you something. Let me tell you about yesterday evening.

Yesterday Polish volleyball team won World Championship. It is second gold medal in Polish history. We won it only once in 1974, two years before I was born. Yesterday we defeated Brasil, team that won 3 gold medals in a row and was World Champion for the past 12 years.

Watching our team reaching their highest skills, watching their determination and their will to defeat Brasil was something I will remember for years. Pure emotions. I was shouting, I was clapping, I was cursing, swearing, I was acting like a madman. And I was witnessing history – Poland won World Championship.

You sport freaks do understand me, huh? It was some about 20 hours ago. And I am still shaking…

What a feeling. What a night!

For the past 7 years September was a month of fear. Month of bad tension. Month of sleepless nights. Month before Essen. Month before the most important 4 days in the year.

We had very stressful events back then. First copy of Stronghold I ever saw? Essen 2009. It arrived to Essen right in time, day before fair. I had no chance to see it before fair. Pret-a-Porter? Arrived to Essen 9 AM Thursday, an hour before fair was open for public. I was never before terrified like that Thursday. First box of Robinson Crusoe I ever had in my hands? Once again – Essen.

It was all on the knife edge. One small mistake and Essen was ruined for me.

Last year we made a huge step forward. We printed all games few weeks before Essen. Everything was prepared in advance…

***

However… 'Will the game be ready?’ is not the only question that puts you awake in the night before the Essen fair. There is couple more questions. Will people like the game? Will be any interest in the game? Will gamers buy our game? Will we be able to compete with all those big fishes and sell the game to many gamers? What the reviews will be like? What gamers will say?

Every year there is a few hundreds games published at Essen.

Every year there is tens of great games published at Essen.

Will my game be one of those tens?

You wait for the Essen like for the execution. Days pass and all you see are announcements from other companies. Man, they have gorgeous cover. Man, they have cool bits. Man, they have a huge hype. Man, another Feld game…

You wait. You can’t sleep.

September sucks…

***

This year September does not suck. It’s sunny, warm and beautiful. Imperial Settlers was released at Gen Con. I had all those panic symptoms in July and August. I couldn’t sleep in the summer. I was terrified in summer. I was bundle of nerves in summer.

Now it is all gone.

It’s the first Essen I will visit with pure smile and fun. Total chill out. The game is released. The game have great feedback. I am ready to celebrate Essen. 4 days of games feast.