German Games

Germany is the third largest market for computer games after the USA and Japan; for 2005, game sales were estimated at 1.7 billion Euro. Germany has a long tradition of quality card and board games, and the term German Game has even become known for a certain genre of these games, described in the German Game FAQ as follows:

German games are defined by what they aren't almost as much as by what they are. They aren't simplistic, as are many games produced for the U.S. mass market. They are not rules-heavy, as are many games produced for the U.S. hobby market, nor do they take an inordinately long time to play. They are not military simulations, owing in part to Germany's post-World War II stigma against militarism in popular culture.

As for what they are: They are attractive, with a lot of attention paid to quality of components and graphic design. They are accessible, with rulebooks that top out around six pages and typical playing times of 30 to 90 minutes. They are easily grasped by older or smarter children. They are involving, both strategically (there are always decisions to be made) and socially (players are not left out of the action when it's someone else's turn). They contain unusual and innovative play mechanisms. And they're also a little expensive and hard to find compared with American mass-market games, largely because they haven't been widely promoted or distributed outside a core community of hobby gamers and the rec.games.board newsgroup.

Finally, they're nearly always credited. That is, the designer's name is printed on the box and is often a selling point. This is in contrast with most games on the U.S. market, for example, whose designers either remain anonymous or are buried in the back of the rulebook.

With Das schwarze Auge Germany even has her own PnP role-playing tradition (the Realms of Arcania trilogy is based on this ruleset). Yet it took fairly long for Germany to become a player on the international market, basically until the millennium.

One possible reason is that most German game developers used to write for other systems, especially Commodore 64 and Atari, but also Amiga, and had trouble changing over to the PC: this killed the French game industry.

Another reason is that the simplicity that is praised in the board games is not found in the same way in computer games, which often sell slowly on foreign markets due to excessive complexity and micro-management.

Most popular genre are business simulations and city building games (Aufbauspiele). Violence is censored heavily in Germany, erotic content very little, so you will find lots of erotic games (usually of the ironic kind) and little combat. Ah yes, sports simulations, especially soccer, are quite popular too, but because of my complete non-interest you won't find any here.