I will never forget my first time in Essen Spiel. After all it was only three years ago and I am not plagued by Alzheimer's yet. Most of us have gone to a gaming fair, be it a small university affair, a fan event or a convention hotel endeavour. There is however quite the disconnect between these experiences and the biggest gaming fair in the world held each October in Essen, Germany, in a dedicated expo site.

Except from the traditional four-day duration, this year's 33rd edition, once again incorporating the Comic Action '15 convention, appears to be bigger than last's year in pretty much every respect. It will take place in 63.000 m2 (last year: 58.000 m2), with 900 exhibitors (opposed to 832 last year). Visitor numbers are always sort of rough (and let's not get into the details of unique visitors, multi-day passes etc), yet in any case 160.000 people are expected to join. Saturday and Sunday are always busier, so I'd better get all the work done during the working days. New releases abound, with 850 new products and world-premieres. And then you have the Deutscher Spiele Preis 2015, one of the most prestigious awards in game design, also in two unique flavours: Best Family and Adult Game and Best Children's Game.

Don't get me wrong, Essen Spiel is not a spectator's event where people are watching others having fun. There will be hundreds, if not thousands of tables with games to play or playtest, and I intend to sit in every single one of them. On the other hand, that would be silly, or suicidal, so I'd better not. I do not want to spoil the fun just yet, even though I have a pretty good idea of what will be hot. We have already seen together the recently released Codenames, which will be formally released in Europe in Essen Spiel, the gigantic Cthulhu Wars which will be finally on sale after so years of careful playtesting and kickstarting, the gorgeous The Magnates: A Game of Power which was also there last year only in prototype form, or the funny More Ca 'n More Guns which is already an enormous hit with casual gamers. Were I to look back in the games reviewed since last year's Essen, I can't but praise the incredible Trickerion: Legends of Illusion, a lonely prototype back then which made a killing on kickstarter and which will be sold in Essen for the first time this year; Waggle Dance, which shows you what kind of good games can come out of a small and dedicated company; the stunning Guide to Glorantha and the undiscovered Private Eye, because a convention without RPGs is a ship without a sail (oh, wait); Mutant Chronicles Warzone Resurrection and Freebooter's Fate on the other hand showed us that there are whole universes of not only amazingly sculpted miniatures but of solid, entertaining rule systems. Knowing what companies are bringing in this year has me salivating. I'd better wipe myself beforrrre thiss kebrd gos bustttt.

Then of course there are the mega events, like Sunday's 1000-participant (!) Catan table, in the presence of Klaus Teuber himself. If you think that this is something for the Guinness book of records, you are correct; this is what it is being done for.

Gaming is one thing, buying is another. Gamers leaving at closing time each day with sturdy IKEA bags or folding hand trucks that can barely hold the weight are quite a site to behold, especially if you carry nothing but your popcorn while watching the spectacle. There are dozens of independent retailers, discounters and specialised shops carrying hard-to-find or out-of-print material to empty even the fullest and most resistant of wallets. To all those fixing budget limits I say 'pffft, losers!!1!1', which is my way of saying 'good job, I should do the same'.

As many jokes as I can make about gaming and buying and gaming and buying and gaming and buying, at the end of the day the most enjoyable thing about our hobby is its people. Now, 160.000 people in one go might be a tad too many. There are many designers, publishers and vendors however that I am genuinely excited about seeing, be it for the umpteenth or the first time. The amount of insight one gains by meeting the person behind his entertainment medium is heart-warming. Were I not living thousands of kilometres away from some of them I am sure that we could have been very close friends, or that I would have been issued a number of restraining orders. In all honesty, it feels so much better to say 'UR GAME SUXXXORZ DUDE!!!11!1' straight in the face of somebody. This anonymous internet name-calling is so yesterday.

For the gaming orphans that would have liked to be there but can't, or those who are there but still haven’t figured out how to be in two places at the same time, I will be tweeting the whole four days (from the 8th to the 11th of October) from my usual @Antonios7S twitter account. Should I be fast enough, some things might even make it to my also world famous Antonios S facebook page. At the end of each day, and provided that I have resisted the advances of gorgeous saleswomen and game designers, that I am not in a drunken stupor, or more likely, that I am not gaming like crazy to the early hours of each day in order to write the next big piece in reviewing, you will see a summary of what went on that day.

If it comes out late, or if it never comes out, it will never be my fault; it will be the time zone-difference. Or RPG.net's editor. Did I really write that last part?