I think I had a good time!

Let’s rewind a bit, I wasn’t exactly in the best place before attending the expo. I think that came through a bit in the audio I did at the end of day 1. Which was amplified a million times with me also being tired and a little pee’d off. And it was looking for most of the Saturday as more of the same, but really pee’d off.

The sale of my Star Wars: Destiny collection was not as smooth as I had hoped. It was looking like the person had got cold feet and didn’t want to tell me. The lack of communication from the buyer was poor. It eventually came to light that on Saturday I was being used to look after the stuff because the person didn’t want to cart everything around with them all day. I pointed out that there was a shop and drop service, and I was using that to store the stuff, and would happily hand over my ticket to them. Which was enough of a push to close the deal and allow me to head back to the hotel around 3pm time. I was extremely drained at this point, waiting around, and getting frustrated aren’t exactly conducive to a great expo experience. Yes I know I am in control of my feelings, and should not let the actions of other effect them. But I wasn’t exactly in the greatest of minds to be that resilient to external factors.

There wasn’t a lot there that really grabbed me. I’m pretty sure others got much more out of this years expo than I did. The place was busy, especially on Saturday. But still felt that you could get around without fighting people in the aisles, or push through the hordes to get to see stuff.

This year seemed even more so the year of the super minor inter web celeb. Everyone including their dog seemed to be videoing for their YouTube channel. But apart from the UK super minor celebs we had even more of the international ones in attendance. There was “where’s Rahdo?” As he roamed the aisles of the expo halls, doing more Blair Witch Project footage. The Dice Tower crew were there for the third year(?), sadly no Sam this time. I failed in my attempt to show them the error of their ways and that Barenpark is indeed not a game. Plus I trolled Zee by saying Sam was the funny one. For some reason I do find that the Dice Tower guys seem the more approachable of the Youtubers there. The Shut Up Sit Down guys could be seen I think. I get confused as I often mistake their clones No Pun Intended for them. Oh and I will give a shout out to Toucan Play That Game, Michael is super friendly, sadly also under the impression Barenpark is a game. Scott of Scott Plays sadly couldn’t be persuaded to start an internet grudge with some of the other channels. I tried my best to lead him astray but to no avail.

Ignacy was seen wandering around the show floor on Friday after he got in from a delayed flight. But the small Portal Booth did see a bit of my money in the form of expansions, promos and a mug. Sadly I wouldn’t be around for the Ignacy demo of his latest game from Portal Detective on the Sunday.

I think the Shop and Drop once again was a god send, otherwise I would have been really really pee’d having to lug around the Destiny stuff for 2 days. This is a great service. It was a good idea having the chill out zone next to it. It made meet ups for trades, etc very easy to arrange. However I think next year the chill out zone needs to be bigger. It was not easy getting a spot to sit down most of the time.

My gaming was mainly in the evening with Jonathan and his daughter in the hotels restaurant area.

Games Played Friday:

Azul, Bohemian Villages, Ganz schon clever, The Mind

Games Played Saturday:

The Lost Expedition, Ominoes, Ganz schon clever

It may not appear so on here, but I’m not the most social of persons at the best of times. If I hadn’t gamed with Jonathan in the evening I don’t think I would have done any gaming outside of the odd demo at all during the expo.

Once the attendance figures have been released I will be very surprised if these are lower than last year. Will they have jumped up enough to secure the title of the third largest board gaming expo in the world for longe than Origins to be held? I hope so. It was evident that more publishers are starting to take the expo more seriously. However the lack of presence of the the likes of Wizards of the Coast, Stronghold Games etc shows that we are not there yet.

So that was my expo experience for 2018.