Destin, Florida
October 21 – 24, 1999
With all the impressions from Gulf Games slowly sinking away it is time to write my report. I will start off with comparing it to the other game conventions that I have visited here in Sweden.
The average game convention in Sweden has some 600 people attending, of these you might actually know perhaps 30 or 40 by name if you have been around for a while. Of course you hardly don’t get to know any new players at such a meeting – if you are lucky you might get introduced to one or two players. At Gulf Games with its relatively small number of attenders you actually get a chance to talk to several people and get to know them at least a little bit more. I hope you will be able to hold down on the number of people that attends Gulf Games – even if I think that with such a wonderful gathering of players it will for sure attract the interest of more and more people, whom it will be hard to say no to.
At GothCon, and most other gaming conventions in Sweden, role-playing games are the main attraction, but board games, miniature games and card games are played. Apart from that there is usually also some other activities such as movies, live role-playing, drawing and painting competitions. This of course attracts many more different people for good and for bad. The group at Gulf Games is very homogeneous. Which makes it easier to interact with everyone, and since Gulf Games is a social event this is probably not a bad thing.
To host 600 people, of which most are students with limited budgets, the price has to be low. Thus all larger gaming events in Sweden are held at schools with the attenders sleeping on the floor. Everyone brings their own mattress/sleeping bag or whatever. To compare this with an hotel room and gaming in a conference room is like stealing candy from a kid…
Then the games, as I said before, almost anything is played at our gaming conventions – the only exceptions that I can think of right now is chess and normal card games. Apart from that anything goes, but the german games are rare. Settlers has been a big hit here and is normally played now, but apart from that most games are american (read Avalon Hill). I have seen tournaments in Vikingatid, and a few obscure games, but otherwise Swedish board games are also scares. Gulf Games of course gives the opportunity to play many more board games, but it also had some action games (thanks to Frank Branham) which I would be very surprised if I ever saw at a gaming convention here.
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So what did I do and play at Gulf Games? Well one thing is for sure, I don’t keep track of who I play against and how the game ended. I would never be able to keep track of it the way many of you do. But I do remember a few good gaming moments.
Cosa Nostra
My first go at this game. And even if the game is very luck based it can be fun and it sure was for me. I wonder if I had ever been so lucky with the dice. I myself rolled doubles more than twice as many times as the other players together! And at the first time when I was able to reach my home square someone mentioned that I would make it on a role of 10 – the first dice stopped on a 6 while the other slowly decided to halt on a 4.
Samurai
This was also a first try. I know one of my opponents was Mr. Jon “Don’t worry about hurricanes” Pessano, but I can’t remember who the other was. Well anyway it was a game in my taste – I had Jon, who was the player sitting before me, constantly playing moves that gave me an advantage.
Torres
This needs to mentioned since it was the best game that I played during the whole time. I managed to play it twice and so far it is a must buy.
Mamma Mia
Worst of the lot. I played it twice – first time with a number of the kids. I said several times during the game that I hated it, as it turned out I won and of course my final comment was “I hate this game”. One of the girls asked something to the effect: “You hate it, but you won?”. Of course I answered “Just because I win, I don’t HAVE to like it.” The look on her face was priceless 🙂
Nessie
This cute little game that we brought out from Frank’s pile on sunday might not be the best game ever but the theme was great. You were supposed to find evidence of Nessie’s – the Loch Ness monster – existence. This was done by covering the game board with plastic film representing people or equipment that was observing that part of the lake. A semi-random system was used to determine the spot where Nessie showed up that turn. If you have covered that square you get to pick an evidence card. The cards are worth points, first to 750 points wins. Of course it is very luck-based especially with at least one card worth 500 points while others can be worth only 30, 40 or even worthless. Still I thought it was neat.
Wettstreit der Baumeister
As close as it gets. Lenny Leo won with 44 points, Derk Solko came second with 43 and I finished third with 42. Vickie Watson was some points behind us since she happened to get a town hall left in her hand. A very tight game and a lot of fun.
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Now to my personal reflections. I must say that I consider myself lucky since I was able to attend Gulf Games. It is very different from any other gaming convention that I have been to. Maybe what I like the most is that you don’t feel forced to stay in the gaming room. You just do it because you want to – because you just want to play a game with that person or that you just want to try one more game before you go to bed.
I used this opportunity to try a lot of games that I have never seen or never played. Since I and Sus by far has the most games in our group of players – any games that we don’t have no one has. Of course we did only bring one game with us – so I didn’t give all of you the same change that you did give to me, but I do promise you all that if you ever get to go past Gothenburg I will make sure you get to try some strange Swedish games that you have never seen before.
Even if I will try to make it to another Gulf Games it I might not be able to ever go again, and that for sure gives me a sad feeling. After three days of gaming with you all I know that would like to go back, but who knows if I will…
Thanks to you all for being there.