Essen: Anatomy of a Ban

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We admit it was pretty funny at first to be banned from a toy fair. But there comes a point where amusement turns to frustration and walking round Essen Spiel for the first time was that point.

To best understand that moment, we should review the reasons for our ban and see whether they measure up against what we now know about Spiel. Please allow and forgive us this indulgence; it's either this or we're going to throw the TV out the window, so for the sake of Anglo-German relations and the hotel we're staying in, we'd best vent our spleen on the blog.

Here are some of the reasons we've been given for our ban accompanied by photos that we took at this year's Spiel:
- "There are no war games at Essen"
- "It's a family show"
- "WoT is too political"
- "It's sick and ridiculous"
- "Nuclear weapons are nothing to joke about"
- "Terrorism is no subject for a game"

Some of you reading this will no doubt consider this petty, but we're not just crying foul. Essen is the largest games fair in the world. Some game designers literally make their living year-to-year by selling their game at Essen. There's no doubt about it, if we attended, it would constitute a major slice of our sales. Similarly, by not attending, TerrorBull Games suffers and loses out on a massive event that is open to all our competitors. And that just isn't ... what's the word ... fair.

Posted by TerrorBull Games on 28 October 2008 - 1 comment

Comments so far:

1. That game with the swastika deck of cards I believe would actually be considered illegal in Germany.duncan - 20 December 2008