:strip_icc()/pic2312210.jpg)
/pic2312171.jpg)
The tables are filling up...
It's a one-day event in Tokyo where several publishers (that would be regarded internationally as everything from mid-sized to very small) and half a gazillion independent self-publishers are presenting whatever they have for sale. For seven hours. And then it's gone, tucked away, and the next time the fair appears it'll be something completely else, with new games. (In fact, this is not wholly true, but true enough.)
I still have about one carton's worth of games that I maybe played once, or actually barely touched, since last Game Market (June 2014). In fact, I've got a grand total of about four such cartons at home, although I have to admit they're not all from Japan. But mostly. Count about fifty or so games that I have yet to discover, and that just might be really cool — or possibly half crap.
The reason that I, he who less than two years ago prided himself on knowing the rules for very game he owned, am sitting with fifty unplayed games — and sometimes even yet-to-be-discovered games — is...well, it probably depends on more things than just a lack of time, but mostly that. There is a physical limit as to how many new games you can handle within a specific time span, especially if you're studying full-time and working half-time simultaneously. Every time I open those boxes to check, I see before me hopes and dreams of a past life where I actually had time to...no, who am I kidding? I've never had time to stomach so many new games this quickly — not unless I triple my board gaming acquaintances and arrange gaming sessions at least four times a week.
When did this madness start? Oh, ever since the first time I went to Game Market. That's it.
/pic2312182.jpg)
/pic2312183.jpg)
/pic2312184.jpg)
/pic2312186.jpg)
/pic2312189.jpg)
/pic2312192.jpg)
Top row, from left: "I don't care if she's a zombie, I just want a wife!" (Hitoasokai), "Lemuria of the Stars" (Manifest Destiny),
"Dolphin Blade" (Oukokukan); bottom row: Flip Flop's table, Grounding's table, One Draw's table
Also, I'm quite poor. No, really, while not being in any actual danger of starving, I do have to count my expenses quite carefully and stop doing any impulse buys, and I'm pretty good at that. I don't shop to console myself; I never buy a hotdog because I'm hungry; I always take a lunch box instead of eating at the school diner — I'm good at keeping a lock on my wallet.
Except, it seems, at Game Market.
I hate Game Market.
/pic2312195.jpg)
/pic2312201.jpg)
/pic2312202.jpg)
Kogekoge Do's booth, Kirisuto Shinbun with "Bible Hunter" and Tea Club with "Princess Escort"
It's Spiel in Essen, Germany, only with more madness. With Spiel, you go to see which games are new, maybe you've checked some that you want right now, but basically you know that whatever you see, it'll be readily available, if not now, at least eventually. Also, it lasts for four days, which means that the initial "oooooooh shinyyyy" has good time to cool down, and maybe your pal is buying the game anyway.
With Game Market, you know for sure that whatever you see, it will never end up in the shops because this IS the goddamn shop, and tomorrow it's closed. And forget your pal getting it because he's sitting on a sofa on the other side of the globe, and probably isn't at all as hot as you are on some weird Asian undiscovered diamond, so you'll not play it with him anyway.
Some people who check out Japon Brand's booth at Spiel have complained about the games not being available after the fair. Well, Game Market is Japon Brand's booth — only about a hundred times as big.
/pic2312203.jpg)
/pic2312219.jpg)
/pic2312220.jpg)
Oink Games new submarine game, SNE's version of "Poison" and Imagine Games' new "Postman Race"
So, here we go. I have four cartons of unsorted games, I'm well and done, I've got games till my retirement, and also I'm poor, so let's not buy anything. Okay, sure, sure, THAT game sounds like it's really good. For real, so let's go for that one, but only that one. Okay. You don't have any money, remember? You're going to Game Market to WORK. You know, you were sent here to...oh, that's right, the business meetings are actually over, and you're only there to, you know, help out, maybe if you have time, but basically, check it out. But anyway. You don't need more games, you don't want more games (no, really, you don't want MORE games, you KNOW your gaming shelf is already paralyzing you when choosing a game), you're cured now. Just go there, get that game you wanted, and then don't frigging CARE about the rest. You.Don't.Want.More.Games.
[Substantial part of time spent in a mental state equivalent to being drunk in that way that you know, you don't really register what's happening, you don't remember too much of it, and you don't want to remember too much of it either.]
/pic2312222.jpg)
/pic2312226.jpg)
/pic2312262.jpg)
"Momonga Jump", Cygnus with their peripherals, and "Karesansui" by New Games Order
It's not just the "now or never" in Game Market that breaks down my cold sense of reason as if it were a wall made from one sheet of thin paper. Yes, yes, I am a longtime anime geek, and there's this sensation of larger-than-both with a combination of two hobbies that, at least to begin with, were unrelated. Anime was one thing, and it was great. Board games were another thing, and it was great. And there I am, looking at a card game that's probably nothing out of the ordinary, and my walls that I've raised against Unexpected Board Game Attacks are easily circumvented by the cute art that strikes home for a critical d20 worth of damage. Experienced in the field, I quickly assemble my forces to withstand any Anime Art Assault – a skill that I have developped after years of experience in Akihabara, the nerdiest districts of Tokyo – only to see the enemy forces running past them because they just morphed back into a Board Games Are Always Fun Strike Squad. This horrible enemy ability to change appearance at a glance turns my defenses into a scattered, erratic horde of unorganized lemmings, one reminding me that of course I am a big fan of nicely colored stones when they are supposed to represent candy while the other is screaming BUT DON'T FORGET THAT FANTASY BATTLE GAME WITH CUTE HATS!
/pic2312228.jpg)
/pic2312249.jpg)
/pic2312250.jpg)
"Forbidden Pairs" by MR Entertainment, "Friday – the Madoka Magica version" and "SARA" ("Plate")
But me being an anime geek is far from all. It's not just the art, or the fact that you buy it now or you will never see it again, and if you buy it, you'll also be the only one in your country to own it... It's not just that, although that's bad enough.
I'm weak against amateur initiatives and enthusiastic creativity — and Game Market has both. Squared. What you see here isn't publisher-polished products. It's not games in which the theme has been selected to fit the market, or some special rule has been taken away to make it accessible to a larger public. These designs are pure and unrefined, and they can be as wacky as a game can be. They can be absolutely crap, and they can be absolutely genius. They can also be the game that fits YOUR taste in a way that the professional games never can. This is the festival of Paris where everything is topsy-turvy and where a first-time amateur can out-design and out-sell the pro booths ten times over. This is the pinnacle of crazed, uncontrolled game design in which you in one game must plan how to best promote your team of overly cute pop idols, in the next find out how to smoke in public, in another one make your best of Jesus Christ in order to win your religious mission, and in the last, being a hopeless zombie without limbs, crazily fight the others for the last available leg. And oh, there's an expansion to that one, in case you wondered — only there's just four copies left and it'll never get reprinted. No, sorry, make that three copies left.
I hate Game Market.
Did I mention that you're buying all these games from the designers themselves?
I hate Game Market.
:strip_icc()/pic2312230.jpg)
The small game manufacturer Popls was there to show off its abilities
:strip_icc()/pic2312208.jpg)
Demo tables: Here "Lemuria of the Stars" by Manifest Destiny
:strip_icc()/pic2312205.jpg)
And wargames – here "Feudal Lord" by Sunset Games
:strip_icc()/pic2312193.jpg)
Future board gamers trying out some toys at the children's corner
:strip_icc()/pic2312264.jpg)
Seiji Kanai with the new version of Love Letter and "Magi Arena", the re-edition of Cheaty Mages
:strip_icc()/pic2312209.jpg)
"Bakafire" Ito of Tragedy Looper fame with his new title "Ruinous"
Hisashi Hayashi before a tower of Rolling Japan
/pic2247710.jpg)
/pic2311912.jpg)
/pic2310884.jpg)
/pic2085442.jpg)
/pic2080059.jpg)
