Page 6 - spielbox 03/21 - English

Fun and Games. A Look Into the Crystal Ball
After our come sorely disappointed
first peek in- side the crystal
ball with a view to the future
of L.A.M.A., spielbox received nu-
merous comments, requesting we not
only look at the years, but also at the months
to come. So, we went ahead and acquired a new ball just
for this purpose, and now we can see it quite clearly: ideas from The Adventures of Robin Hood will dominate the year 2021.
June 2021
Shortly after the jury nominations for “Spiel des Jahres“, it turns out that Kosmos was not the first to be offered Michael Menzel’s game after all. Instead, the designer from Krefeld had already been working on „AZHA – Auch Zorro hält Abstand“ (“Even Zorro Keeps His Distance“) for the German Federal Ministry of Education since March 2020. The game was intended to teach youngsters about social distancing in COVID times in a playful way. But it failed because of logistics. First of all, and contrary to his announcement, the German transport minister did not have enough air taxis to deliver the game to all schools. Then the health minister wanted to include within each game specific test kits from a particularly inexpensive Swiss supplier. As a result, the education minister called the project off on the grounds that this was not financially feasible. Only then did Michael Menzel ap- proach Kosmos, and the game was published shortly afterwards.
July 2021
The Kickstarter for Terraforming Mars – Haus im Staub (“House in the Dust“, Fryx with CMON, license Kosmos) is break- ing all records. Menzel‘s advent calendar mechanism from Robin Hood promises totally new discoveries on the Red Planet. After somebody leaks that Prince Thorald will also play a part in the game, the entire Andor community gets on board, only to be-
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after the shipment in fall; Thorald merely dedicates a park in the third chapter, after which he rides off into the Olympus
Mons sunset and is gone.
September 2021
The Russian publisher Lifestyle Boardgames wants to enter the Guinness Book of Records – with the Robin Hood move- ment mechanism. The game board of Der Kurier des Zaren (“Michael Strogoff“) spans a total of three meters and depicts Strogoff‘s entire ride, all the way to Irkutsk. Because one space reveals a detention camp for opposition members, the game is banned in Russia ahead of publication.
October 2021
Menzel‘s mechanism takes the USA by storm. Major museums commission writers like Amanda Gorman, Jonathan Franzen and Richard Castle to write stories about the paintings in their collec- tions. At so-called „Race on Canvas“ cons, some games are even played on the original old masters. But the cons are terminated after just a few minutes in, once museum officials notice that many customers are slitting holes into the canvases to open little windows.
November 2021
First counterfeits appear: one advent calendar manufacturer of- fers children “games, fun and excitement.“ Kosmos files a lawsuit against this product with its chocolate Robins behind the win- dows. Soon, customers themselves are starting to complain to the manufacturer: allegedly they were informed too late that the pieces were required for playing. „For us, the matter of the ad- vent calendar is closed,“ states Kosmos publishing director, Heiko Windfelder, in mid-December. (cs)
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Photo: iStock.com/allanswart; Illustration: Michael Menzel