Cologne, Germany - Part 2

This is the second post about my trip to Cologne, Germany.  You can see the previous post here.

This week, I'm attending the Gamescom 2012 show - it's a massive trade show for the gaming industry.  While focused on European content, the games come from developers all over the world, including the U.S.  The size of this show is staggering.  300,000 people attend over 4 days.  The first day is only for industry folks - goofballs like me.  The other days are open to the public, which is why the attendance is so high.  To compare - the game industry trade show in the U.S. (E3) only has 45,000 visitors...no consumers.

Before showing pictures and movies of the show - I must give an update on the German food.  In the previous post, I had schnitzel, and am proud to say that I've checked-off two more items from the list.  The second day here, I had a bratwurst:

The third day, I found a fun kiosk outside of the convention center that was cooking-up some delicious items:

 I tried a krakauer.  It was really good - probably the closest thing to an American hot dog - lots of salty flavor ; )

Now, back to the show!

We actually spent a day getting equipment set-up in various game developer's booths.  Most of these installations were in enclosed areas.

In Germany, they take the game ratings system seriously.  If a game has been rated 18+ ("M" for Mature in the U.S.), no kids are allowed to see or purchase the game.  In a massive trade show like this, you can't take a chance that some child is going to walk up to your violent game.  Therefore, you put all of your mature content behind closed doors.  That means that most gamers spend their day waiting in lines, to actually play the games. Here's an example:

We had a blast putting systems together, and making sure the games looked great.

A disclaimer - when the show opened the next day, there were lots of people there - just not the suffocating crowds that will arrive later.  When you look at the pictures and videos, it will seem very empty.  I guarantee that's not the case in following days.  Just look at the size of the aisles or passageways, that will be filled to capacity later.

This booth belongs to Electronic Arts, the second largest publisher in the world.  They focused on just a few games, including their best-selling soccer game FIFA:

They also have a car-racing game called Need For Speed.  They brought actual-size vehicles into the booth:

You can't have a gathering of gamers, without some sort of Star Wars appearance:

Other pictures and videos from all of the various exhibit halls at Gamescom:

This booth was unique.  They actually hired 4 models to dress as characters from the game.  What stood out, was that they had the models standing above the game you were playing:

I found a "classic" gaming section, where they had old video game systems available to play.  Everything from an original Nintendo to a Commodore 64 to Colecovision.  I found two of the systems that I worked on.  Sad to think that they're considered "classic":

3DO System

Dreamcast

In between the exhibition halls, they had food for sale.  I loved this one - a 40 ft. BBQ Semi.  This is impressive, even by Texas standards.

Here's a really interesting display.  The company had a water system set-up, so that tiny nozzles would spray water at specific times.  The dropping water was illuminated by light, so that letters would seem to appear out of nowhere:

Outside, they had some activities for kids, including a trapeze arena and this urban surfing contraption:

Overall, the show was amazing.  I'm lucky to have seen the spectacle.  However, I've been away from home for almost two weeks. I'm so excited to return home tomorrow…that I can't stand it.  I miss my family, but was glad to be with my wife for the first week of the trip.  Thank goodness Mom was able to come and watch the kids.  We surely appreciate it…and I know the kids did, as well.

Hopefully, I won't travel for a while - as we prepare for G-man's first day at Kindergarten.  See you soon!