Familiar Faces

There were so many highlights this year.

Every year, I get to see people that I only get to see here.

And I rarely mention all of them here - and I should.

Outside of the folks I consider the core Asmodee crew (Carol, Ruby, Choukri, Jules, Christophe, and Stefan), I also get to see folks from Ludonaute and Matagot and a couple of other partner publishers.

Most years, I actually get to spend time with them. Not a ton, mind you, but some.

Hicham (who is from Matagot), for example, taught me to play Cyclades the year before it released, and I look forward to seeing him every year. Not just because I enjoy Matagot's games, either (and believe me: I do). Hicham is an incredibly nice person, and he's filled Matagot with awesome folks who I enjoy working with. But I barely exchanged two sentences with him this year.

Likewise much of the rest of the team. CROC greeted me warmly and shook my hand, but that was about the extent of our interaction.

I almost wish GenCon ran longer so I had more time to actually interact with some of these folks. Or maybe a post-show social event ...

And that's not including some of the regular attendees who I look forward to seeing every year. Like "the kids." They're three people who have been coming to us for demos since _Senji_ was the big new release. They were terrible brats back then, but they've grown into some of my favorite people to deal with.  Or Bill, who got me hooked on The Duke. Or Todd and Chris, who are local and stop by every year to say hi. Or any of the dozens and dozens of folks whose faces I recognized but whose names escaped me ...

Or the press folks like David Miller of PurplePawn.com, with whom I close out the show every year. Or Giancarlo (who is all too easy to overlook).

It was a very good year, but tonight I'm very much looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and seeing my kitties.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm taking this week off from the blog. I'll be back next week with my usual dose of content.

I'll see you then.