Another Night in Moscow

Bayle Emlien submitted this today:

"Another Night in Moscow:" Turn down the lights, start the machines and all gaming experiences are still not the same. Take, as an outstanding example, the now annual presentation of games from 1C Company at the Russian Consulate in San Francisco. Nicer inlaid wood floors than any internet café I’ve been to anywhere in the world. No smoking either. Does that invalidate all those World War II adventures?

Many Americans don’t realize what a huge trauma WW II was for Russia (as I recall, the death of something like 20 million Russians attributed to it, though any reader could check my memory with a quick internet search). It’s still not ancient history there.

So it makes sense that the Russians are still perfecting war games based during the 2nd World War. They’ve moved on to add a spy series based during the Cold War–an extension of WWII from some points of view.

1C PR Manager Felix Yakovlev and his US partner David Tractenberg pulled together a wonderful evening. Enough stations to give everyone a chance to play. A support person at each station to be sure that as soon as a player sat down, s/he got started in the game and found success in short order. Do these Help Friends come with the premium package? Also better snacks than I’m used to. But my favorite add-on were the WWII posters. They looked authentic, except that they were all unblemished. So maybe they were well-done recreations. 1C does have a lot of technology resources, after all. You’re probably familiar with “Uncle Sam Wants You.” There were also a couple of Russian posters urging in the war effort, another American contribution explaining how cheerfully accepting rationing was patriotic, and the British “Keep Calm and Carry On” slogan.

Look for details of the new 1C game releases elsewhere in MCC, where we have the space to discuss products at length.