Spiel Explained
Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called the Essen Game Fair after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day public boardgame trade fair held in October[1] (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen, Germany. It began in 1983.[2] With 1,021 exhibitors from 50 nations in 2016, SPIEL is the biggest fair for board games in the world.[3] Many new games are released at the fair each year, especially (but not exclusively) European-style board games.
At SPIEL, board games that are often hard to find in retail are offered by international and small exhibitors. While the prices for buying these games at the fair do not tend to be significantly lower than in retail, games are typically available sooner than in regular board game shops and may come with promotional materials (mostly extra cards or tokens with a few more game mechanics, but also T-shirts and similar merchandise). SPIEL also provides an environment for board gamers to meet and chat with game designers, illustrators, and game reviewers.
See also
References
- Web site: Not twilight, but sunrise. Table-top games are booming in the video-game age. The Economist. 2015-10-03. 2015-10-29.
- Book: Stewart Woods. Eurogames: The Design, Culture and Play of Modern European Board Games. 2012-08-16. McFarland. 978-0-7864-6797-6. 64.
- News: For board gamers, heaven is a place on earth – located in Germany. Duffy. Owen. 2015-10-31. The Guardian. en-GB. 0261-3077. 2016-11-11.
- Web site: 147 000 Besucher bei der Spielemesse in Essen . WAZ . 2011-10-23 . 2019-06-04.
- Web site: 149 000 Besucher kamen zur Spielemesse Spiel 12 nach Essen . WAZ . 2012-10-21 . 2013-09-18.
- Web site: Spiel '13: Con Report . Big Shiny Robot . 2013-11-01 . 2015-10-29.
- Web site: Exhibitor information . Friedhelm . Merz Verlag . 2015-07-28 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150708114633/http://www.merz-verlag-en.com/exhibitors.html . 2015-07-08.
- Web site: Spiel 15: Das sind die Neuheiten der Spielemesse . Markus . Böhm . Spiegel online . de . 2015-10-29.
- News: Essen 2016: Best board games from the biggest board game convention . Mendelsohn . Tom . 2016-10-22 . Ars Technica . 2016-11-11.
- News: Spielemesse Spiel’17 endet mit Besucherrekord . 2017-10-29 . WAZ . 2017-10-30.
- News: „Spiel 2018“ bricht Besucherrekord: 190.000 Gäste kommen nach Essen . WAZ . 2018-10-29.
- News: Spielemesse in Essen endet mit mehr als 200 000 Besuchern . RTL . 2019-10-28.
- Web site: Cancelled Essen Spiel 2020 board game convention replaced by online event Spiel.Digital . Jarvis . Matt . 2020-05-19 . Dicebreaker . Gamer Network Limited, ReedPop . English . 2021-10-09.
- Web site: Face masks will be mandatory at Essen Spiel ’21 along with vaccination or negative Covid tests . Hutchins . Robert . 2021-07-12 . ToyNews . English . 2021-10-09.
- Web site: Spielemesse: Neuheitenrekord lockt Spielefans nach Essen . Volkmann . Andre . 2022-10-10 . Supertipp . German . 2022-10-10.
- Web site: SPIEL Essen: No record number of visitors . Volkmann . Andre . 2023-10-09 . Spielpunkt . English . 2023-10-09.
External links
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