The Essen game fair held in October in Germany every year is the largest boardgame convention in the world. Essen is the Mecca for boardgamers. I have been a boardgame hobbyist for 20 years, and every year I take note of what the interesting new releases at Essen are. There is no way to avoid news about Essen when you are a boardgamer paying any attention to boardgame media. It is simply huge. It has a gravity well and everything revolves around it. This year, 2024, will be my first time ever visiting Essen. I'm going not as Cili Padi Games (a publisher) or as a game designer. I am just a boardgamer. Just a kid in a candy store. With about 4 weeks to go, I am feeling pretty excited.
Flights and hotels have been booked. In fact they have been booked quite some time ago. Finding a hotel is crazy. I probably should have booked within 2 months after the previous convention. Convention time is super peak season. The hotels are not just much more expensive, they are also often fully booked. I first checked availability of accommodation in January. At the time I could still find some options. About 3 weeks later when I checked again, all the places I had considered booking were fully booked. Nuts! And lesson learned.
Map of the convention halls
This will be my first time visiting Germany. Thankfully some of my friends have been to Germany and also to the Essen game fair specifically, so I can ask them for tips. My wife Michelle is going with me. We will do some sightseeing before the convention. The convention days will probably be intense and exhausting, so if I do the sightseeing after the event, I might not have much energy left.
When researching for and planning our trip, I realised that there really is not a lot to see or do around the city of Essen. So we will be visiting Cologne, and will also be spending a little time in Bonn, where Beethoven was born. Michelle has traveled in Europe before, and she says it gets dull quickly because it's all churches, castles and museums. We will try to experience the local culture and foods. That should be more interesting for us. They say Germen beers are the best. I don't normally drink, but I'm certainly interested to try.
The event organisers developed an app for the convention. This looks pretty nifty. You can keep track of publishers and games you are interested in. You can even use AI to create a schedule for you based on the publishers and games you want to see. Many gamers make highly detailed plans when they go to Essen, drawing out exact paths to specific booths to buy specific games. I don't have the patience to do that. I plan to just stroll at a leisurely pace, and stop whenever I come across anything that catches my interest. I'll listen to the game introduction and I'm happy to watch others play. I don't necessarily have to sit down and play.
I don't buy as many games as I used to. I still have plenty of opportunities to play new games, but I don't often come across games which surprise me. Aaaahh... the jaded gamer speaking. I don't often find games which I'm eager to have in my collection, which already has more games than I can play. I bought the 4-day pass for Essen, but I'm not entirely sure I will be there for the whole four days. Okay I know that's blasphemy. The true gamer should have no hesitation about fully utilising the four days to play as many games as possible, and to also use the evenings and hotel lobbies to play more games after leaving the convention halls. My plan is to take it easy. I'm there to experience the vibes. I don't intend to pack my schedule. I'll take my time to discover little gems and innovations.
For many years I have told myself I won't be making any trip to Essen. I live in Malaysia. Germany is a long way from home and thus rather expensive. Spending that amount of money for four days of playing games and visiting game booths doesn't seem worthwhile. All that information about the games will become available on the net very quickly. The hot games will eventually make their way to Malaysia anyway. The money I save will allow me to buy many games. Only more recently I changed my mind about making the pilgrimage to Essen. It's not just about playing games or buying games. It's about the experience being part of such a large international event. It's about soaking in the atmosphere. As they say, YOLO. Sometimes we allow ourselves to indulge a little.
And this is me. If you are going to be in Essen this year, if you see me, please stop me and say hi. My name is Chok-Sien. Hiew is my surname. I would love to meet friends who know me through my blog. If you want to support my games Dancing Queen or Snow White, message me privately and I can bring them to you at Essen.
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