Good evening everyone,
Here is a little debriefing from a not that so interesting afternoon. Don't hesitate to talk about your own experience, from your own countries, to share it.
I just came back from an important event here in Paris this year : the kind of equivalent to GenCon, but, actually, maybe more with an amatorish look : it was the Game Salon 2009. There was a stand (do you say stand ? a front, you know... tables and all... an office ?... an exhibition place...bah, whatever) a place here, for Edge Entertainment, the french cooperative editor of FFG, which owns the publishing rights for their games in France to sell them (it is more a partnership, actually, as I was told). So obviously, I went there, since although I love games, I'm not a games geek, not owning tons of games from every edition house, but just some, and almost only from FFG. Anyway, I ran over their place, and I grabed one of the guys : say say say, you got an Arkham point ? The guy was like "er... whaddya mean ?... oh, "Horreur à Arkham" (lame way of french translated title for AH), you mean ? Nah, we don't".
I was so disappointed. I mean, I could even have helped people, to teach them, to make them understand this game is great. I mean, I tested some other games over there, from other editors, gee, I'm beginning to think AH is the best boardgame I ever played ! Some games I was told and invited to play, like Jungle Speed, DiceTown, SmallWorld, and so on, I mean, it was interesting, but after some games, you so don't wanna play again. AH seems to have something really rare and precious in its contents, I feel so glad owning it with all its expansions, it is an exception, a pearl in this boardgames world I'd say ! Bah, anyway, it felt sad.
One of FFG' other great game was there, though, Descent, but no table for it, only boxes to buy. Sad. I love it too, I own all its expansions except the tiny sets (called boosters, I think ?) I like it, I love to play the GM and put sooo many monsters here.
Runedbound too was buyable there, (I always had the feeling it might be an interesting game, though I never tried and always restrained myself from buying it, being doubtful it might be more a fool's-money-devouring-con-game... ok, i'm exagerating). Could someone improve the vision I made myself of this game, which might probably be wrong ?
Dracula ? nah, not a single box. Gee, I love that game too.
Well, in the end, all there was in this FFG/Edge location was :
Conan (know absolutely nothing about it, just a few 50 years old guys were playing it, silently),
Galactica (heard it is good, cooperative like AH, but I kind of dislike the board and my relatives ain't that interested in sci-fi so I might always play alone to that game, which, well, sucks, obviously). Could people who know this game talk about it ?
and... Talisman, pfew, at least, a game I know, a game I own... a game I love ! People were passing by, asking outloud "what is that ?" and me teaching them quickly, they seemed interested. Obviously, I wasn't going to play the proud and pretentious moron, talking about the forecoming Dungeon expansion... because french people won't see it before ages, even if I'll have my own original (english) version before that too !
Except that, nothing about other FFG games I always wanted to try to be sure I could buy them. Nothing ! No Cosmic Encounter (does anyone know it ? is it good ? my fiancee would like it, and I always wanted to try), nor Starcraft (I played it a few times... well, at least I'm fond of the videogame), nor Twilight Imperium (I don't want to buy it because I know I won't find any friends to play a so colossal game ; though I'd like to try) nor Androids (is that good ? I love K **** and Blade Runner, I love the idea, but I have no idea what it worth), nor Warrior Knights (I head it was not really good, but I wanted to try...). And, oh yeah, a place for Tannhauser... Field Ops, only. I wasn't interested.
Well, in the end, when I left this Salon, I thought : that is so amazing. I know nobody here in France, in my relatives or even in "heard-about" communities, that seems to know/like Arkham. They might know more about Chtulhu, and the cards, and the universe created around it, but that's all. Cooperative games in France ? Well, at this Salon there was Pandemia, there was Shadows over Camelot (originally called Knights of the Round Table here by the authors), so, I mean, french people DO know cooperative games. I think there is something about Lovecraft. Maybe it is because I love American culture, from many points, and I understand Lovecraft made something huge for it, not only in litterature, but really in the culture, in the collective imagination and all. But that doesn't seem to have spreaded across the ocean, does it ? What I mean, is : could we explain, that almost nobody knows about AH here in my country, just by the lack of knowledge from its people for Lovecraft's work ? Please give your ideas and opinions, especially from other countries, like Europe.
I mean, in France, there is a huge culture for vampires and Dracula, so here, on this case, B. Stoker's work... actually worked ! But Fury of Dracula isn't that famous at all either, here, so my idea explained just above doesn't seem to prove right.
Wow, it's been a too long post, so far, I'm sorry, I had more ideas but I'll stop. I want to read from everyone ! Hope this topic won't bother anybody, and that some of you will find it interesting ! Sorry for any language mistakes.
Have a nice sunday, bye bye.
Hem