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.

Let’s face it. Sometimes we all get a little bit too excited with new releases. It’s not our fault, obviously. This is totally fault of publishers and their marketing teams. They attack us by surprise (I am talking about you FFG and your Imperial Assault), they attack us by having great license (Alien Legendary? How can anybody resist that?!), they attack us by super combo of great components, great author and great brand reputation (Days of Wonder pay attention, I am talking about your Five Tribes now). They even use crazy approach like having blog about games written by a dude who can’t speak English (Portal Games your strategy is super unique!). Back to topic!

So we get excited. We buy the game. It looks gorgeous. We set it up, we begin to play and…

And it is great. It is damn good. Exactly as we dreamed of. Exactly as those cunning marketers told us. It’s hard to believe but it is really that good.

We feel excitement, we feel freaking joy. We feel like in heaven.

Round after round we feel growing tension and – I know this is crazy but before even we finish the first game, we dream about rematch, about playing it again and then again. Man, what a feeling!

We finish the game, we win, we look at our beloved wife to share this pure joy that we feel now and to ask her how she liked it.

'I didn’t like it. It’s boring. Sell it. I won’t play it again.’ she says…

***

It’s like getting hit with a shovel. Huge one shovel. Right in your face.

I had it with Dungeon Twister.

I had it with Railways of the World.

I had it with Doomtown: Reloaded.

I had it so many times. And I bet you had it too.

You wife or your husband hit you with shovel right in your face.

Any dreadful stories to share? 🙂

This weekend I played game called Conquest of the Fallen Lands. Published in 2005 by small publisher Assa Games it was quite successful – it had pretty good rating at BGG, it had many votes at BGG and in a fact it nearly made it to the top 1000 in BGG ranking. That’s good.

Unfortunately it was not picked up by bigger publisher, it had no foreign editions and right now it looks like pretty dead title. It’s a pity. This weekend I had a good time with it and I believe this game doesn’t deserve to be dead.

If only there is Kickstarter in 2005…

With Kickstarter this game might have a much bigger success. If published in 2014 with Kickstarter:

1. It would have much better artwork, because these days you have to have great artwork,

2. It would have cardboard tiles and good quality cards, not these thin one it has now,

3. It would have fancy markers instead of these Ikea glass markers,

With successful Kickstarter campaign designer and publisher would have much more money to produce this game. That would lead them to have better production quality. That would lead to better reception of the game. That would lead to bigger chance for bigger success.

Conquest of the Fallen Lands deserves bigger or smaller success. Rules are simple and let players engage in the game. Game play is very quick. Theme is cool. The only problem – it can’t hold against today’s production quality. Because – let’s face it – games published these days look freaking awesome. Titles from 2005 look like antique. So does Conquest of the Fallen Lands…

DISCLAIMER: NONE OF YOU HAS EVER TROLLED ME. THIS POST IS NOT ABOUT TROLLING ME BUT ABOUT TROLLING IN GENERAL, IN OUR LIFE AND IN GENERAL OVER BOARD GAMES FORUMS. I AM SUPER LUCKY THAT PROBLEMS I DESCRIBE HERE DO NOT TOUCH ME IN THE ENGLISH INTERNET. THEY, HOWEVER, TOUCHED ME VERY HARD IN POLAND. THAT’S WHY I DECIDED TO WRITE THIS SERIOUS POST.

WELL, ONCE A YEAR I AM NOT THIS FUNNY DUDE FROM POLAND. THAT WOULD BE TODAY.

English speaking geeks treat me super kind. With one or two minor exceptions, I did not meet any English speaking trolls and haters so far. I am like living in a dream where every person in the Internet is kind and nice. I know this is not true picture, I know that Internet sometimes is not a nice place, I know there are trolls and haters but well… I didn’t meet them. It’s like living in a fairytale.

What’s interesting, it is exactly opposite here in Poland. In Polish board games forum I am the most hated person. If you remember what was the reaction of people when they heard that Ben Affleck will be new Batman – that’s exact kind of reaction I get here in Poland each time I release new game. And you know, I am not exaggerating. Really, it’s super nasty here.

Last week I withdrew from Polish board games forum. I asked admin to remove my account. After nearly 10 years on the forum, I withdrew. Trolls and haters had their victory.

***

When you were a kid and saw one kid bullying other, you probably did stay in defense of bullied kid. When you see some jerk acting bad you of course act. When we see inappropriate behavior in real life, it is our natural reaction to act and defend person in need. To help people who need help is obvious and natural reaction.

It’s not a case in the Internet though. When we see troll bullying other person in the Internet, we rarely act. We think: 'Oh, it’s just troll, just ignore him.’

Let me tell you – this ignore policy doesn’t help bullied person. It doesn’t stop troll or hater. It only makes him stronger. It let him think that he can do and write whatever he wants to and no one will stand against him. Bullied person in the Internet is alone. You face trolls and haters alone because others just ignore troll.

For the past few years, from the moment I published Stronghold I was bullied in Polish Internet with tremendous strength. Every week there were attacks, nasty comments and hate all over me, sometimes including even my family. I was fighting back, I was trying to defend, but for the most time I was alone.

There was me, haters and ignore troll policy. For years. Last week I gave up.

***

Board games industry is an amazing industry – there is no wall or something like that between customer and producer. We gamers can easily interact with many publishers and with many designers. They are active on game forums, they are active at conventions, they are within our reach. You can have Antoine Bauza sign your copy of his game, you can have cow sketch in one of Portal Games box, you can tweet to Eric M. Lang, you go to the pub and have a great time with Stephan Buonocore from Stronghold Games… This is one big family and I find it truly amazing. I love all people who work here. This is great crazy family.

Family that can very easily be attacked by trolls. We are so open to gamers, that some asshols just can’t wait to take advantage of that. So here is my honest request – when you see troll attacking our family, fight him back. He is trolling us just like bullying someone in real life. You wouldn’t turn your back in real life, wouldn’t you?

Don’t turn your back in the Internet too. Protect our family.

Don’t let haters win. Like they just did here in Poland.