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EDITORIAL
Empty Shelves, Even on Netflix?
Some may consider the presenta- tion of plague-related games in this issue (see p. 42) a cynical ref-
erence to current events, but it was not intended that way. The article had been planned long before the crisis and fin- ished by the time matters turned critical. But it should have been obvious to every- one, not only Pandemic aficionados, that the outbreak would get serious at some point. I doubt that people are still having as much fun with the game, at least not if they are fully aware of their actions. They might now feel like players of war- games have always felt. German chancel- lor Merkel said that we were not at war – in the conventional sense of the word, that is true. But the parallels cannot be denied. Just like at war, only some people are directly affected, might even decease, while others can easily close their eyes to events. But if at some point friends, acquaintances, and even family are affected, things look differently. However, the prevailing social distancing rules and even more the general lockdown make the situation very clear to us, because practically everyone’s daily life is chang- ing, except maybe for lighthouse keepers and the crew of the Iss.
As a spielbox reader, you are of course entitled to find a stuffed-full issue in your mailbox, and as far as the makers are con- cerned, you can rest assured. So far you have never been troubled by the circum- stances under which the magazine is pro- duced. After all, it is our job to obtain prototypes, test them sufficiently and phrase our impressions, before every- thing is turned into your mag-
azine. But the first two steps are currently proving more difficult than usual. With
all parcel services still working, it has recently taken up to a week instead
of a day for a delivery of games to reach its recip- ient, no matter if it was samples from publish- ers or games sent back and forth between the spielbox reviewers. And
the shipment of spielbox 1/2020 itself led to more complaints than ever before, especially from customers abroad. The office, staffed by a different of our ladies each day, is therefore very busy to take care of additional deliveries. But all that works out fine.
More crucially, the content and espe- cially the play testing naturally requires people to gather around a table. The experience gained from solitary gaming alone – as welcome as it may be at pres- ent – is not sufficient to make a sound judgment. But since we have a long-term schedule for our contributions, we will not run out of reviews any time soon – espe- cially since some of us are in the fortu- nate position of being able to play test within their family circle. As regards the ratings, things could turn out differently, for many colleagues tend to work very close to the editorial deadline. So please do not be surprised to find fewer names than usual in the info boxes.
Compared to those of other people and industries – or in other parts of the world, for that matter – , our problems are manageable – apart from the forced can- cellation of the SPIEL DOCH fair at Duis- burg, organized by the spielbox publish- ers and the resulting monetary loss. The jury for the “Spiel des Jahres” award also manages well, even if they are also miss- ing the all-essential game rounds. Since they evidently did a good job in prepar-
ing, according to chairman Harald Schrapers there is currently no shortage of information or the need to reschedule dates, espe- cially since “consumers at the moment can use more recommenda- tions than ever”. We can therefore expect to see the lists in mid-May. The judges could hold their annual private meeting via video conferencing, if necessary, for which the gen- erally available bandwidth should still be sufficient. But
for how much longer?
Bandwidth vampires like Counter- strike players are already complaining about lag. If the world is stuck in the home office or streaming movies ad nau- seam, perhaps at some point even less data-thrifty online board gaming meth- ods such as TTS (sb 1/2020) or VASSAL might also be affected. Even then, Netflix users do not have to face those dreaded empty shelves (think: toilet paper!), but when the picture is frozen, the situation becomes dramatic. As it already is for game retailers. Closed stores literally drive customers into the arms of Amazon and other mail order companies. Whether they will ever return is doubtful. Fortu- nately, numerous counter strategies have already been developed and solidarity initiatives are up and running, some on BoardGameGeek among them.
Anyone thinking this does not concern them because of their purchase behavior is very much mistaken, because closed- down shops have a massive impact on the publishing landscape and the vari- ety of games in general. On the whole, the widespread confinement of people could even potentially increase sales, at least for the so-called family games. For Hasbro, Mattel, Ravensburger, Asmodee, Kosmos, Amigo et al, everything depends on how many games they are able to distribute via the still open supermarkets or mail order companies. Although Kick- starter-based enterprises suffer at most from transport- or manufacturing-related delays, which everyone expects anyway, the number of new crowd financing proj- ects has fallen considerably in recent weeks. The reason may be that the major- ity of them are not made for family cir- cles, but for groups of adults, and since meetings with friends are temporarily prohibited, in many a country, the incen- tive to invest in more stuff not being able to use has suffered.
There will definitely be both winners and losers, and who belongs to which group is ultimately determined by our purchase behavior, until everything returns to normal (and a while after that). Until then: Stay healthy!
Matthias Hardel/cs
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