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International Toy Fair Nuremberg 2012
Internationale Spielwarenmesse Nürnberg 2012

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Skip the blah blah and direct me to the index
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No, these are not visitors, but one one of the many employees from the 2,776 exhibitors rushing to their stands half an hour before the fair opens. Let's presume that there are an average of four people manning each booth (Hasbro alone has more than 200!), then each day more than 11,000 employees find their way through the various halls. Every three minutes buses travel around the fair grounds to deliver everyone to their destination.
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A seemingly endless stream of exhibitors rushing from the nearby subway to the fair.
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Yes, the fair grounds of course is a non smoking area, at least inside. What strikes is that still many people smoke; they do it frequently and a lot! When taking a short cut via the outer areas, one always has to hold one's breath when approaching any of the hall doors, as many smokers gather just outside to do their dying breed thing...
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Not a pretty sight...
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The harvest this fair was remarkably meager, not only in numbers but also in game ideas. It's not very innovative to publish a dice game, and yet this is what most publishers do. Do gamers suddenly like dice games? Are the more demanding games losing ground?
And there were smaller publishers that decided not to be present in Nuremberg: The GameMaster and What's Your Game, for instance. I had a short encounter with the people from What's Your Game -they attended the fair as visitors- and they showed me the prototype of a card game called 'Oddville' with very nice graphics. Unfortunately, the promised prototype did not arrive in time to include it in this report.
Not all board or card games are covered; personal preferences prevailed although the intention always is to be as complete as possible. Smaller publishers without a booth on the fair still got their own entry, such as Alea or Ystari, although they are represented -and distributed- by Heidelberger Spieleverlag and Asmodee, respectively.
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Being a proud father -my son Fabian turned two last December, my attention also was drawn to the occasional childrens' game that I also decided to cover. I can't wait to introduce him to our hobby!

Alright, I'll cut the crap and move onto the games!
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Please note that many games were shown in their not yet finished form, many of them as a prototype. The final product therefore may change both in appearance and/or gameplay.
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The covered publishers / distributors:
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Abacusspiele
Alea
Asmodee
Days of Wonder
Eggertspiele
Granna
Hans im Glück
Heidelberger Spieleverlag
Huch & Friends
Intellego Holzspiele
Kosmos
Lookout Games
Mindtwister
Pegasus Spiele
Queen Games
Ravensburger
Repos Production
Schmidt Spiele
Ystari

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