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| Cerebria, MindClash Games, 2018 |
A year ago, this blog began.
The start of a journey.
Wandering in the land of games.
Without worrying where I might end.
Not knowing what I would find.
Not knowing who I would find.
A year of travelling.
A year of emotions.
As in the image and in the words.
In variable intensities, doses and effects.
Depending on the days or even on the hours.
Comfort. Insecurity. Euphoria.
Loneliness. Trust. Bleakness. Sociability.
Lethargy. Safety. Pessimism. Freedom. Doubt. Passion.
The path began in the comfort zone, solo, creating a new blog. With elements other than those present in the Notes (in Portuguese), already over ten years old. Adding games and photos to the writing. Three of my things. And with languages, as the fourth element. Avoiding the simplest choice between English and Portuguese, my mother tongue. Duplicating the work, creating twin versions in both languages. To share with more people. Definitely a feature to keep! And to which increasingly frequent contacts in Spanish, or sporadically in French, have been added. Communicating with more travelers, using their mother tongues whenever possible.
An extensive part of the walk was made in the virtual world, which is also real. Using the networks that modify space-time. That nullify some borders, even when creating new ones. Multiplying possibilities, up to the risk of overload. Implying other options, as to who, how, when, with what proximity. On Facebook, now extended to thematic groups; on Twitter, in an account created for this purpose; on Kickstarter, where both first ever projects and established companies coexist; and, responding as appropriate to new needs, on Reddit, Discord, Tabletopia.
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| InvictaCon 2018 |
Players gather around tables. They touch pieces, cards, dice, boards. At home, with friends, as in the world I grew up in and where access to new games was limited. But the land of games is much larger now, with many more inhabitants, many more species, moving much faster, extending through cafes, clubs and conventions.
Still early on this route, I made a swiftly passage by InvictaCon. An appetizer for other meetings, that happened in 2019, at LeiriaCon, in a very international setting, and Riacon. And as the summer was starting, the presence on the regular meetings organized by the Boardgamers Group of Aveiro. Gondomar, Leiria, Estarreja and Aveiro, among other cities in Portugal. Geography with games, to repeat and widen!
Continuing to wander I reached other places.
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| Moon, Pablo Garaizar, 2019 |
Observing games published in several languages, I thought I could contribute to increase the presence of Portuguese, making them accessible to more people, for whom the language can be a barrier or at least decrease the appetite. This, even considering the small size of the Standard Portuguese market.
A new phase thus began, daring to initiate a new set of contacts. “How about a Portuguese version of the rules?” Some silences, many negatives, some "maybe..." and "if", but also several affirmative answers! At first there were the whales, giving me some more confidence. Several projects followed suit. Some contacts have already become, in this short time, recurring ones. And as a positive symbolic sign, I received, just today, the end result of one of these projects. I reached the moon!
In a natural way, a new branch sprouted, based on my previous ROT experience (“Revisor Oficial de Textos” standing for “Official Text Proofreader”), as we called it among us, in a restricted group at the workplace: the revision or editing of rules.
And then, the involvement in the very creation process of games, through comments to the underlying concepts and mechanisms, during the development phase, and the testing of prototypes, in more advanced stages.
More than forty collaborations in all, accounting for many more people.
If I continue to wander long enough, I may be able to reach up two other levels, which I know are out there, in the land of games: the writing of a rule book from scratch, and the design of a few of my own games, whose ideas are still maturing.
In parallel, my collection of games was also increasing, among new acquisitions, the result of some of the collaborations, offers or even an instant of luck in a raffle! There are about twenty new worlds, some of which are yet to be experienced. As a direct result from the intensity of the journey, the time to stop and to play is somewhat scarce.
There have been many meetings throughout this year, with Authors, Illustrators, Writers, Content Creators, Editors, Managers and, of course, Players, scattered around the globe! I'm not going to list them now, but they're certainly going to show up here, in this blog, at some time, in Black and White.
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