In Lucca Games there was the Miniature Island. Yes, we were on an island in the sea of Lucca Comics & Games (and Cosplay, remember). We were only an island in Lucca Games pavilion too. Boardgames had a larger space and importance because in Italy we have various publishers on the market. This means that more money is involved in this sector than wargames one. Roleplay games are another sector and it has a respectable market. Live roleplay is an obscure sector to me and it was located in another pavilion. But the videogames market rules upon us all.

To celebrate the release of the new chapter of the Assassin’s Creed saga, the third one, an entire pavilion was dedicated to it. A polite statement to say that Ubisoft bought it. They have got the money to do it.

Around the city you could see some projections of this videogame advertisements on the walls. More revealing was the reenactment event of the Saturday, the simulation of Bunker Hill battle (1775). Almost 200 reenactors and lots of gunpowder were involved. We play wargame battles with miniatures, videogame industries play wargame battles with real men. Money makes a difference.

Another money matter. Videogame stands were huge and customised. I forgot to take a picture of the new Nintendo console and its gorgeous girls stand assistants. Among these game giants I took a photo of a wrestling videogame with the straight edge wrestler guy. Weird. Minor Threat – the band who came up in the eighties with the “straight edge” term – didn’t think about this evolution.

Just Dance is the exhibitionists videogame of the fair. Every year a new edition, every year wild girls try to hypnotise men with their rhythmic movements controlled by a game console with video camera. Some stand assistants lead the game. Here at the end of a day. I saw them in the morning, before the open of the gates, dancing without public: they were so crazy for dance to do it for fun! After 4 days in Lucca I was dead tired. And these girls?

An alternative way to utilise your old CRT computer screen: using it as a stage for miniatures.

In Lucca there is always a little modding section. This one was kitsch for sure, a gun with inside and outside various bad taste things, as Smurfs and model cars. Ugly looking.

Something better. But not so practical with that finger-eat fan. Glamorous but too much “open” to be a computer case.

A great machine! Water cooled case. Clean design, neon lights, blue-black-white colours. What can I say? It is sexy.

Paolo from Switzerland came to Lucca by train. Here while he is wearing his new computer headphones. Saturday night we walk together to a place outside Lucca where were relegated the computer geeks. They organised an all night long videogames lan party. Someone fell asleep on the floor, indeed. Instead Paolo, our hero, killed millions of aliens and took the train the morning after at 7 to the watches country.

A break from Lucca C&G reports. They will follow next week. Now is the time of Ludica Roma convention! I’m leaving with Andrea “Ganesha Games” Sfiligoi for a three days duty in a huge fair full of wargames, boardgames, videogames and more. A full report here after I will have ended the Lucca series.
See you in Ludica!

After 5 days in Lucca Comics & Games I needed some sleep. I was among thousands of staff people and 180000 paying people. I worked heavy at the Ganesha stand but I succeeded to take almost 250 photos, so you have to wait a little to watch a full report in thematic posts on this web. However now I’m offering you some official videos to understand what is this fair. Enjoy!

The first time I watch the ad I thought: “They have stolen my game!”. I passed a lot of time to find the name “Ferrum et Gloria” and now exists a gladiator game called “Blood and Glory”! What a surprise! For my fortune it is only a computer game and not a wargame, so my name is safe.

You can see on these two promotional shots what kind of wonderful graphic it has, and even that the fighters only resemble gladiators because it is a fantasy version of what ars dimicandi was.

I downloaded this game for my Ipad. It is very nice because of the fighters great design and for the glamorous feel it give. But it is even a simple and classical coded fight between two digital puppets and nothing more. Boring to me. It is a feast for the eyes so I don’t care if I don’t play it, I see only the graphic and it is enough. It seems a free game but you can’t get past a certain point without spending real money to buy special abilities. It is another way to sell games: pay to have more levels, pay to play more. The sad thing is that at the end you will pay to play this game a lot of money little by little.

In the meantime I’m thinking about my gladiator game. Every time I re-take it after some time I find some new idea to improve it, so you are waiting to have something very special…

Lucca Games is videogames too. Here is where the real money is on game market, not in boardgames or wargames. They had the biggest stands. And beautiful hostesses. Nintendo is always the best, with 10 girls 10.

A sexy videogame well pumped to the audience. Something to trill hormones of young players, with fast action and big breast.

Free games with computers from another planet. Thermaltake is specialised in refrigeration of computers. So you can mount monsters for playing games.

This is not for humans. I think that with the energy necessary to run this computer you can feed of energy a bakery shop.

Have you got a video card integrated on your motherboard? This one is triple card and refrigerated by liquid. And you have to be mad if you own it.

Extreme modding. Put your computer inside a tire. And play with it a videogame on car races.

I thought that videogames were something not so interesting in Lucca. Instead they were the big thing in games pavilion! Almost half of the space were dedicated to videogames and seeing the long and beautiful legs from miniskirts of the hostesses you could understand where the money is in games field.

There was space for consoles and pcs, for the WII with its remote control and for the Playstation with its new remote control. A lot of games were on but I’m not so informed about trends and titles.

Before Lucca I didn’t know the 3D for the videogames. I thought that this could be a unnecessary element, but there was a little 20 seats cinema managed by Asus with promos on 3D videogames. They were terrific! It is absolutely a new playing experience, when you have saw this potential you cannot return back! I suppose we find all new titles in 3D format, it is great even for static games. I saw a Civilisation V ad in the 3D area, it is a causality or there is other? The weird thing was to see the people in front of monitors with their technological glasses: it is just an alienating view, but with this glasses all seemed a sci-fi flick about aliens who control the world with subliminal visions…

A lot of videogames to try, but I have only saw other people doing this. There was even a videogame where you and your friends must replicate a band, and another one where you must dance according to the moves on the screen and a sensor gave you points if you are good in this. Like Lara Croft, but this is another story…

Again in Fiera di Roma (but it is in nowhere land, not Rome…). This time with another friend of mine for Enada (show about slot-machine, videogames and other items for entertainment) and Eas (attraction machines). Two international shows in the same place, five hangars to contain the exposition. The access is only for specialized people interested in this business. The ticket is 20euros and the parking is 6euros…

Enada & Eas

Too many videopoker machines and only a few videogames this time. People like more to throw away money than have fun. A very sad thing. In these years I have saw a lot of zombies attached to these machines to spend their days…

Eas is about machines for fun-fairs. There were a lot of Germans because those places are popular in those lands. The new sensation is cinema with moving chairs and 3D screens. They were calling this “4D cinema” or “5D cinema”. How many dimensions!

Only a few flippers remain. An archaeological vision from the past.

The only videogames presented were practically based on the idea of shooting something on the screen with huge arms.

Everyone can buy a Playstation, so this market is narrowed to things that you cannot experience at home. Like this Vulcan machine-gun. A huge shooting machine indeed! And with rotating barrels while you fire!

Even the vintage is a shooting dream…

Free games were available, no coins were necessary. I killed a lot of enemies and when I was dead only a button to push to have a new life in the ongoing game. Here I used two electronic machine-guns made of plastic. Better of Rambo!

My friend Paolo instead liked to ride a motorcycle…

A good show, but we hadn’t the intention to open a fun-fair, so it was only a view on this entertainment world.