It’s hot time. I mean it. It’s hot like in hell. Our office is quite a place, with mine cabinet, with our main office, with sales department office, with small warehouse, kitchen, with huge warehouse downstairs… And when I say it is hot time, I am basically saying that not all of these rooms have air conditioning. So you can imagine.

But of course, it’s not just about the temperature. It is a hot time in terms of production too. We’ve just published Ruins expansion for 51st State so there is lots of shipping to retailers and distributors. And lots of questions about The Ne Era (out of print) and Winter (out of print). Releasing Ruins was like awakening the beast. Now everybody is reminded about 51st State line.

We also released Mississippi expansion and we released it both as a 3.0 version and 2.0 version. All players who supported us for years won’t feel abandoned – we still support 2.0 version. So yes, now we have to explain to every damn retailer what’s going on and why there are two Mississippi products in our offer. We produced Polish, English and French edition. Quite a ride. There is lots of fun also because Mississippi is spelled MiSSiSSiPPi in English and MiSSiSiPi in Polish. So this is crazy when I produce marketing stuff for English and Polish markets and I have to remember about this small detail. I won’t lie. There was some misspelling these days.

Did I mention Origins this weekend? I am not there. Pitty. But I will be at Gen Con. And Gen Con is getting close. Oh yeah!

Gen Con operation. This is so much fun. It is going to be the adventure of the year. At this point I am no longer praying for wooden pieces for Imperial Settlers because they are ready. Now I am beginning to pray for safe shipping to US and for mercy at US customs. Customs may mess with our Gen Con release in so many ways. Just keep games for week or two and I am done.

But this is August issue. Now we are in June. In June we need to send files for Polish Resistance to print and answer all questions about reprint of Avalon. And reprint of Winter. And reprint of Convoy. And reprint of Robinson. And this one is huge. In March we announced that Polish new print will be available in late June. So since 8th of June we answer 10 phone calls per day about it. It seems that all retailers find 8th of June as a late June. And because we’ve just presented at our website that new print of Robinson has custom wood pieces and 7 scenarios and stickers for players pawns, and thick cardboard player characters sheets and basically looks fuckin’ gorgeous now we answer 20 phone calls per day from retailers. And you know, 11th of June is still not late June in my opinion.

Most retailers disagree with me on that point. Keep calling and calling.

Which is fun, because our sales dept guys, Mirek and Greg just shipped 500 copies of Boardgames That Tell Stories and are not in a mood to answer phone calls about Robinson every damn two minutes. But the best is coming. We just published Polish edition of Trait cards promo for Robinson and we will offer Beach expansion promo for Robinson next week. And today we put in offer whole line of new t-shirts for Neuroshima (8 different designs!). Yes, there is always something new to send to gamers! Our sales guys know no word 'vacation’

So, yes, it is hot and yes, we are busy, but this is just a glimpse of things that run here. We have new scenario for Robinson (it was supposed to be published today, but I decided to give it one more final round of testing), it will be published as a free PDF next Wednesday and believe me – you WILL love it. I am so proud of it. This was few months of work. Believe me. In the meantime we work on Polish Pixel Tactics and we work on Polish Imperial Settlers and additionally I just finished my old design of kids game (Land of Shadow) and we are at the stage of writing down final rules set. This is Sparta!

Did I mention video trailer for Imperial Settlers?

Did I mention that this week there is Pionek con – biggest board game con in South Poland and our company is very strong involved?

Did I mention Portalcon, con dedicated to Portal Games with keynotes and presentations of our new releases and lots of events for our dedicated fans? It will take place exactly in a month, on 12th of July.

Did I mention that in 2 weeks I go to Spain for a week to run workshops about designing games and such stuff?

And that Michal Oracz is nearly done with Theseus expansion?

There is so much going on. This is crazy. I could work 24/7 and still I would need to catch up.

But there is one more thing.

Tomorrow in Brasil World Cup begins.

So tomorrow I am taking 30 days off.

I have no idea what will happen without me at office. But I believe things will sort out. Somehow. Wish my team luck. Boss quits.

Boardgames That Tell Stories arrived to first bakers and made them happy! 🙂

I’m leaning all about game publishing from @trzewik 's new book! pic.twitter.com/U7j7eDTpdq

— Eve Beauvais (@EveBeauvais) June 6, 2014

Blightygamer proves he knows who rules at Trzewiczek’s

@everyonelistens @trzewik it’s very good! Merry is the power behind the throne 😉

— Mark Rivera (@blightygamer) June 4, 2014

Artem believes solo variant for Robinson is too easy and has some ideas…

@trzewik Event Card suggestion for Crusoe (for solo play) – make the dog have rabies and become unusable/attack players if not cured 🙂

— Artem Safarov (@ArtSafarov) June 4, 2014

and Rhiannon reveals her husband winning strategies…

@trzewik Cards! I swear my husband gives the kids extra sugar when we play games to distract me. „Mommy! Mommy! My turn! I help!”

— Rhiannon Ochs (@rhiochs) June 3, 2014

For 6 years I was organizing boardgames con called Pionek (Pawn). It was a great fun and a great lesson about gamers community. One of the events I held was a voting for the best game of the con. It had super simple rules – when you were leaving home, you were allowed to take a voting paper, write titles of 3 games you liked the most at con and leave the paper in a special voting box. From among all those who left papers with votes we randomly choose 3 people who win a free game. As you can imagine, voting was popular. Who doesn’t want a free game, right?

After the con I was the guy who open the box and count the votes. It was a hell of a lesson.

Let me show you some numbers before we move on – these are from three different edition of Pionek con:

One year 84 gamers voted for 65 different games.

Other year 104 gamers voted for 65 different games.

Other year 77 gamers voted for 81 different games.

You see that? There is no one ultimate best game. There is no one game that everybody likes. In a fact, the situation is exactly opposite. Every gamer has a different taste. Every gamer likes something different. Every damn gamer votes for different game. I run this voting for nearly 20 editions of Pionek con and it is always the same. The whole wide range of games that particular gamers find best. One loves Terra Mystica, the other loves Love letter. One loves Neuroshima Hex, the other loves Jenga. Look at those numbers. This is crazy.

Why I am telling you that? Why I am showing those numbers?

I try to show you that the game you love is not the best. And what is more important, the game you hate is not crap.

We gamers too often tend to go for a crusade. We often say that this or that game sucks and we give it 1 at BGG and we crash it in reviews, we go to the forums and we attack the game and gamers who like it. We can’t stand the fact that someone actually likes and plays the game we hate so much. So we fight. We make internet busy with our comments. We try to convince other players that they should immediately stop playing this shit.

Here is a deal.

I personally hate Terra Mystica. Worst game ever.  I don’t like Power Grid. I don’t like Trajan. I don’t like Summoner Wars…

So what?

Do I troll fans of those games on forums?

Do I publish negative reviews of those games?

Do I bully them on Twitter?

No. I simply don’t play them. That’s all.

I don’t like the game I don’t play it. I don’t bully people who like the game. I don’t visit their forums and tell them they are stupid. Please, act the same.

My message is: You don’t like some games so you don’t play them. That’s it.

Please, consider this mind blowing strategy.

Our hobby is developing in a great way. Year after year games are produced with better components, with better artwork, with better rulebooks and what is perhaps most important, with better rules. Games get better, year after year. 

If you take any game that was published 10 years ago (perhaps except Days of Wonder boxes) you will see how huge step our industry and our hobby made. The artwork of modern games is just phenomenal. The components amazing, with all these custom wooden pieces, plastic figures, huge boards and… You know all that. 

The games themselves? Amazing. Look at Doom and then look at Descent 2…

But!

Once a while I stumble upon a old gem. El Grande. Samurai. Tikal. Games that last. They were, they are and they will be brilliant.

This weekend I stumbled upon a game called Big City. Published in 1999 by Goldsieber Spiele (Rio Grande in US). Designed by Franz-Benno Delonge. This is one of these games. One of these that stay fresh, entertaining and simply brilliant even though published 15 years ago.

Best sim city type game I have ever played. Puts Suburbia and all other sim games in shadow and shines. Great, smart city building game. 

This weekend, when I was researching about the game and its designer I learned that Franz-Benno Delonge passed away in 2007. I learned that he designed Manila (what a cool bidding game!), TransAmerica (3 years before Ticket to Ride!), and many other great games.

Mr. Delonge, you put your mark on our hobby. I wish you are with us and design more great titles. Thank you for those you left us. Big City is a gem in my collection. I salute you.