When people ask me what I do for a living, they interestingly don’t inquire that much about what a “Product Manager for Catan” does. Much more frequently, I get asked how you become one.

This may be related to the fact that, professionally as well as privately, I have a lot to do with people who are interested in games and for whom “Catan” is, of course, a household name. And for those people it is more exciting to hear how you come to deal with games professionally – because “games editor,” for some, is a kind of dream job. And perhaps I’m not totally wrong in assuming that this also goes for many readers of this blog. It was definitely the case for me, almost 10 years ago – which is why, in my first blog, I would like to tell how I came to Catan. What it actually means to be a “Product Manager for Catan” or, respectively, a “games editor” – and if, as such, one really spends the entire day exclusively with games, or maybe playing games – that’s something I’d rather tell you on a later occasion.

Shelf with Catan games

First of all, let me answer the question of how to best prepare oneself in terms of education, in order to gain a foothold in the gaming industry: preparation is quite easy – because it pretty much doesn’t matter. Well, all right, it matters a little bit. Having attained an academic degree is helpful, since it means you already have (or should have) proven that you can handle written language and have text comprehension skills. Academic studies are definitely not necessary, though – but text comprehension and the ability to express oneself in writing are indispensable.

Catan and a dictionary on the desktop

Apart from reliable spelling skills, one needs especially one thing: enthusiasm for games. And one also needs either luck or connections. However, it’s not about “connections” in the conventional sense, such as being a great networker and having a thousand contacts at LinkedIn or similar platforms. The board games scene is small, and everyone knows almost everyone – at least in Germany. In fact, it’s not that difficult to get to know games editors. It may happen at gamer meetings or during game nights, but also at Brettspielwelt (a German online portal for online versions of board games) or during an internship at a publishing house – actually, it may happen wherever people play games, so long as it occurs in a fairly public environment. However, games editors can only rarely be met at one’s own living room table; that would only happen if one already has met them somewhere else. Once you know a games editor, you almost inevitably are in contact with many other ones as well. And if publishing house A is looking for a new staff member, and an editor at publishing house B knows someone he considers interested and capable – even though it’s not half the battle, it surely is an advantage.

Now I know all this.
10 years ago, I didn’t know it.
That’s why I was just plain lucky.

I have been into gaming my whole life, and after I began my studies in 1990, I played a lot – particularly games from the US, but also German games, of course, provided that they were sophisticated enough. Before 1994, German games of the latter type were kind of difficult to find, but luckily, this changed when the Settlers of Catan appeared in 1995. (Yes, I have one of the rare first editions that show the black logo of the publisher Franckh but no “Game of the Year” reference, featuring an additional, orange-colored set of game pieces – bought right after its publication!) I was member of a game club; since 1991, I went to the Essen game fair each year; I participated in the German Board Game Championship; etc. Nevertheless, I had almost no contacts at all.

Then I graduated; it was the beginning of 1998, a time when start-ups sprung up like mushrooms. At first, I struggled along in a start-up whose specialty were play-by-mail games, which at the time were already dying out. But it was a start, and in 1998, for the first time I went to Essen not as a visitor but as an exhibitor. Things went well for a little more than one year, then the company slowly but surely ran out of money, and I was forced to start looking for another employer. But even back then, job offers for specialists in German studies and cultural scientists were kind of few and far between, especially those I would have been interested in.

Catan games on the desk

Therefore, I was exhilarated to find a KOSMOS employment ad offering a trainee position in the area of books for children and young people. Although children’s books were not at very the top of my list of interests, I could definitely imagine myself working in an editorial office, particularly at KOSMOS, because like everybody else, as an adolescent I had read many stories of “Die 3 ???” (“The Three Investigators,” whose German version was published by KOSMOS). However, far more interesting for me was the fact that it was a job at KOSMOS. KOSMOS was the publisher that had been instrumental in making it possible for “genuine gamers” to once again being able to play games from Germany, and in addition to that, KOSMOS was based in Stuttgart. The fact of the matter was that I really wanted to work for a game publisher, and even better, for a game publisher based in Swabia, which is where I lived.

To cut a long story short: They didn’t even invite me to the job interview in the area of books for children and young people, because my application documents seemed to make me more suited for a job in the games division, which – at the time – still belonged to the same department the area of books for children and young people was part of. And as chance would have it, at that moment a trainee position was available in the Catan area, which seemingly had not been officially advertised yet. Therefore, I was invited to a job interview – and afterwards, the search had apparently come to an end, or rather, it didn’t start at all.

Sebastian Rapp in his office (Foto by Krauti)

After less than six weeks, I was already working at KOSMOS. And that’s where I still am today – although I’m sitting in a different office now.

Until next time!

Sebastian Rapp

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You all have probably experienced it at some point: the year has days where you know in advance that they will be good.

This year, October 22 is such a day for me – the day the SPIEL 09 [International Game Convention in Essen, Germany] will open its gates. It’s always impressive to see the great number of people gathering in front of the entrance as early as nine in the morning. Sometimes it is so packed that we as exhibitors have a hard time working our way through the crowd. And then, at 10 a.m. sharp, the doors open and people start running as if the first one to arrive at the venue were awarded a prize.

Essen Exhibition Center

Shortly after, the next performance test is due: will the rules explanations and the games meet the players’ expectations? That’s where my dilemma begins…because I’m the one who has to give it some thought beforehand.

For me, all this already starts in spring, when I ask the game instructors of the previous year if they have time and would like to instruct games for us again. Explaining the games well is very important to us, and the people we ask have really convinced us the year before. At this point, kudos to last year’s team of game instructors! You all were so good that you’re recruited again this year.

Once I get the feedback from the core team, I seek out other game instructors to fill the vacant positions. Sometime at the end of June / beginning of July, our team for the next SPIEL is complete.

The Kosmos booth

At this stage, my female colleague at the game convention planning department and I are already thinking about how we will design the booth. What are the highlights of this year’s SPIEL? Do we have to remodel the booth? Do we need special decoration? Do we make changes to the procedure? Which games will be lent out in limited numbers, which in large numbers? Do we have to subdivide the games into different categories? Easy, difficult, taking a short time, taking a long time… Will there be a reception for the game instructors again? Will there be giveaways? What will the Catan shop carry? … And there are many, many other things we discuss during this time. As you can see, life before the game convention is full of question marks.

But all these issues are gradually resolved, and we still find new question marks, which we convert, each time faster, into exclamation points. Don’t worry: up to now, we’ve always made it, and if we didn’t make it a hundred percent – the conventiongoer wouldn’t be able to tell…

The KOSMOS games portfolio is so big that we can’t lend out all games we have. That’s why we are limiting ourselves to new releases in 2009 (spring and fall) and a few classics this year. We even had to select among the spring releases, because they were still too numerous. I think, however, that our selection came out pretty good. When we determine which games to include, we also consider the visitor profile. The visitor profile in Essen is different from the visitor profile at the game convention in Stuttgart 3 weeks later, so our focus will be different there.

Then the game instructors receive the first package with the games available at that moment. Unfortunately, these are not yet the novelties for Essen – after all, they will not be available until the SPIEL 09 in Essen.

Game Instructors

So they get the spring releases and the classics, because maybe one of the game instructors doesn’t know them… but that’s relatively improbable, because our instructors love games!

Meanwhile, game convention planning continues. What would look particularly good at the booth? Yes, exactly – an author or graphic artist who signs his games. So I contact the authors and some graphic artists of our games and ask them whether they would be available for game signing. Happily, they’re all very nice people who look forward to give autographs at our booth. This year we will be able to welcome Klaus Teuber, Stefan Stadler & Michael Rieneck, Wolfgang Kramer, and Michael Menzel.

Crowds at the convention

Apart from the planning of a big anniversary for next year, the game convention is the main focus of my work at the moment. The order of the day for Arnd Fischer (who trains the game instructors) and me during the next weeks: playing games and trying to structure them in a meaningful way, so we can explain them to our team of game instructors on the Sunday prior to the SPIEL 09. Yep, in Essen we’ll lock ourselves up in a youth center for a whole day and study the games … well, no, it actually won’t be that bad. We’re all having fun, and this year, the game instructors can read through the rules and ask questions much earlier than usual. They’re making ample use of this opportunity, and a very animated communication is taking place on the forum for game instructors, which is where we (Sebastian Rapp and I) answer all questions regarding organization and game rules.

And then … it’s Wednesday evening, and Sebastian and I will meet with friends from Canada for a Mongolian barbecue and “German bowling.” That’s something I look forward to during the entire year – we made this appointment already last year in Essen.

And then … the moment has come: one of the most beautiful days of the work year begins, and as always, I’m very excited. And that doesn’t change when the familiar convention routine kicks in – attending one appointment after another, looking at other booths, answering questions, and managing our booth. After four days, it’s all over – the SPIEL has finished, I’m sitting on the train home, and I think to myself, like I do every year, “That was a nice time again, and a good game convention.”

I’m looking forward to see you all in Essen!

Carol Rapp

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