Media influence

My game website is a journalist magnet. During the last month or so, I've been interviewed twice for a magazine (Kotiliesi and ET-lehti - first is probably a bit like Ladies Home Journal and ET is not about extraterrestrials; it's targeted mostly for older (say 50+) women) and yesterday I was contacted by someone from TV. They want me on their Saturday morning magazine show (Lauantaivekkari) to talk about board games.

The Kotiliesi article is written by a journalist who's part of the Finnish Game of the Year jury, so she has a personal interest in games. It's very good article, mentioning designers like Knizia, Kramer and Teuber, the German game awards, Spielfrieks, Brettspielwelt, Carcassonne, Puerto Rico... It should also have pictures of me and games - they sent a photographer to our boardgame club meeting. The issue with my article is out 22.11.

The ET-lehti article focuses on giving parents and grandparents tips on giving Christmas presents to the kids. It has a strong family emphasis - I strongly recommend parents to play games with their kids. It doesn't mention designer games as such, but that would've been too complicated. I do suggest Villa Paletti, Lord of the Rings and Die Neuen Entdecker, all of which have been published in Finland. I also recommend games published by Tactic and Ravensburger in general. It's a very positive article, really. The issue's out in December.

The TV thing is related to the computer game exhibit currently in Helsinki. They wanted to find out, if boardgames are still being played despite the prominence of video games and surprise, surprise, they found my web site and got interested. I'm not yet sure what we'll be talking about, but at least they wanted me to bring some games. It should be great, too - even though I'm not going to be on my best, as I'll be spending the previous night in a rock concert. I won't be home before 1 AM, I'm afraid, and I'll have to take the 5.55 train to Helsinki to make it. You'll have to make sacrifices for your ideals, I suppose. Might be actually the first time I'll really seriously think about sleeping in the train... I'll let you know more, when I know more.