As a follow-up to my post Multilingual – Remember Tabletop Games Are International, I want to discuss a very special and personal perk of freelancing: international friends and co-workers. The game industry and community are international, which gives us, as freelancers, the opportunity to work with publishers and creators from around the world. Gaming is a global community and we get to be actively involved working with people around the world, many of whom become our friends as well through many projects. This perk gives us opportunities to experience other languages and cultures, the chance to view our home country from a different perspective, and opportunity to expand our understandings of the global gaming community.
From a work perspective, I have been blessed with a quite a few international projects and co-workers including Mutant: Year Zero co-published by Modiphius (Great Britain) and Free League Publishing (Sweden), Achtung! Cthulhu with Michal Cross a freelance graphic designer from the Netherlands, and numerous projects here in my native USA.
Working so closely with many of these people, you build strong friendships. As I reflect on the friends I have gained over these past couple years of working in the game industry, I can’t help but smile and be in awe of the blessing this perk has been. I have just returned from a trip visiting Amsterdam with my friend Jacob Coon, a tabletop game blogger and reviewer. A couple years ago, I got to spend a few days visiting Oxford and London with my friend Angus Abranson of Chronicle City. At Gen Con this year and last, I got to spend time with my friends Lynne and Richard Hardy from Great Britain who worked along side on the Achtung! Cthulhu books.
How has the international aspect of gaming impacted you professionally and personally? Have these global relationships affected your views of gaming and the hobby?
Thanks T.R., I love how international this community is too. I’m meeting up with gamers in 4 and possibly more countries this year alone. I never even thought about meeting up with people on my travels before, but now it is just so easy and I love doing it too!
Jacob – It was great to explore Amsterdam with you, explore game stores, and play LOTS of games…even if I lost most of them to you throughout the week. I look forward to a rematch of gaming when you are back in the US here soon.