Reply To: [unofficial weekender] A civilized discussion is a nice thing to have

[limburger 21708xp 1]

@horati0nosebl0wer

Awaken Realms is from Poland (or thereabouts) and they’ve made quite an impression using Kickstarter.
The team behind Anno Domini 1666 is also Polish (“Wargamer Games Studio LTD”), which is something you notice in their designs as they’re not as focused on our ‘standard’ western historic point of view.

// —

I’d say Kickstarter in general has helped the little guys a bit, but the stupendous amount of projects being produced works against anyone who isn’t lucky enough to get their project highlighted outside of their own (geographical) bubble.

I suspect the same applies to the independents in the USA, but the lack of a language barrier makes it easier to find them.

I know there’s bound to be tabletop gaming in China/Asia as well, but the cultural / language barrier is immense. You can see that in videogames where only the most popular things get a chance of gettting a translation and export outside of that bubble.

Maybe the real problem isn’t so much the technology, but the simple fact that anything that isn’t in our own bubble (‘western europe’ / ‘USA’)  is either unknown or ‘too weird’ for us to know.
Part of this can be solved (usually by accident) if somehow something pierces that bubble and gains momentum (the Witcher is one example … )

It does require us to be open to strange/new experiences though … and we all know that we as gamers can be incredibly close minded when it comes to things that are outside of our comfort zone.

Anime & Manga are probably the first time any of us saw something that wasn’t from our own (western) culture …