{"id":11878,"date":"2021-05-23T17:02:54","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T17:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/?p=11878"},"modified":"2021-09-28T15:43:23","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T15:43:23","slug":"jeux-et-alcool-alcool-and-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/blog\/2021\/05\/23\/jeux-et-alcool-alcool-and-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeux et alcool
Alcool and games<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Une partie test de Trollfest, \u00e0 sortir l’ann\u00e9e prochaine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00ab M\u00e9fiez-vous des gens qui ne boivent pas, ils ont quelque chose \u00e0 cacher \u00bb. Je pensais avoir imagin\u00e9 cette formule, mais je l\u2019avais sans doute entendu quelque part puisque j\u2019ai d\u00e9couvert cette semaine qu\u2019elle \u00e9tait d\u00e9j\u00e0 attribu\u00e9e, \u00e0 tort ou \u00e0 raison, \u00e0 Baudelaire, Churchill, Staline et Humphrey Bogart, et que c\u2019\u00e9tait aussi un proverbe polonais. Le proverbe latin, In vino veritas, <\/em>n’est pas tr\u00e8s diff\u00e9rent. Alors, c\u2019est bien s\u00fbr d\u2019abord une jolie formule, mais comme souvent avec les jolies formules et les proverbes, il y a une id\u00e9e derri\u00e8re.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Je l\u2019ai post\u00e9e la semaine derni\u00e8re sur Facebook et Twitter, comme un conseil professionnel un peu ironique aux auteurs de jeu, et ce qui me semblait un avis de bon sens un peu amusant m\u2019a valu une vol\u00e9e de bois vert – shitstorm en anglais, c\u2019est moins \u00e9l\u00e9gant. Le fait que les r\u00e9actions outrag\u00e9es soient venues exclusivement des \u00c9tats-Unis montre d\u2019ailleurs que j\u2019ai peut \u00eatre tort en pensant que l\u2019on exag\u00e8re toujours les diff\u00e9rences culturelles. Quoi qu\u2019il en soit, cette phrase a \u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9form\u00e9e avec une totale mauvaise foi, pour me faire dire que j\u2019encourageais tout le monde \u00e0 se saouler r\u00e9guli\u00e8rement, ce que je ne fais m\u00eame pas moi-m\u00eame ou que je cherchais \u00e0 affaiblir les personnes avec qui je n\u00e9gociais. Sur les salons, j\u2019\u00e9vite plut\u00f4t les soir\u00e9es o\u00f9 il y a trop d\u2019alcool, et o\u00f9 en g\u00e9n\u00e9ral on ne joue pas, et demandez \u00e0 mes \u00e9diteurs, je suis plut\u00f4t arrangeant sur les contrats. Il est aussi assez significatif que tandis que les r\u00e9actions outrag\u00e9es et d\u00e9lirantes \u00e9taient publiques, essentiellement sur twitter, presque tous ceux qui ont exprim\u00e9 leur soutien l\u2019ont fait par message priv\u00e9. Cela en dit beaucoup, me semble-t-il, sur l\u2019\u00e9tat actuel du d\u00e9bat public et de la libert\u00e9 d\u2019expression. Bref, tout cela a \u00e9t\u00e9 tr\u00e8s p\u00e9nible, mais au moins, je me suis amus\u00e9 en fouillant mes vieilles photos de tests de jeux pour en trouver avec des bouteilles, et cela n’a pas \u00e9t\u00e9 bien difficile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Une partie test d’un jeu dont je ne suis pas s\u00fbr d’avoir le droit de parler, \u00e0 sortir l’ann\u00e9e prochaine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

En une quarantaine d’ann\u00e9es dans le milieu du jeu de soci\u00e9t\u00e9, j\u2019ai eu tr\u00e8s peu de mauvaises exp\u00e9riences avec des \u00e9diteurs. Elles se comptent sur les doigts d\u2019une main, et elles ont en commun d\u2019avoir toutes \u00e9t\u00e9 avec le m\u00eame type de personnages des petits \u00e9diteurs qui se voulaient tr\u00e8s \u00ab business-business \u00bb, costume-cravate, propre sur eux, juste sorti d\u2019\u00e9cole de commerce, ni barbe, ni alcool, ni drogue – ou juste un peu de coke, la drogue que je n\u2019aime pas. Avec le recul, je me dis que tous ces gens \u00e9taient, comme disent les am\u00e9ricains, \u00ab creepy \u00bb, et que j\u2019aurais d\u00fb me m\u00e9fier. La prochaine fois que l’on me propose de discuter affaire \u00e0 Starbucks – je ne plaisante pas, \u00e7a m’est arriv\u00e9 -, si c\u2019est avec ce genre de type, je ny vais pas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Test du jeu de Hispster de Sophie et Anna (au fait, il cherche un \u00e9diteur).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

J\u2019appr\u00e9cie dans le milieu du jeu de soci\u00e9t\u00e9, le c\u00f4t\u00e9 l\u00e9ger, informel, amical qui suppose une certaine confiance et un certain laisser aller, un c\u00f4t\u00e9 vieux hippie qui me va assez bien. J\u2019ai appris \u00e0 me m\u00e9fier des gens trop propres sur eux, qui ne fument pas et ne boivent pas. Je les soup\u00e7onne toujours de craindre que quelque chose qu\u2019ils pr\u00e9f\u00e8rent cacher ne ressorte s\u2019ils perdaient un peu le contr\u00f4le d\u2019eux-m\u00eames. Refuser l\u2019ivresse, c\u2019est refuser de se d\u00e9voiler, de se mettre en position de faiblesse, et c\u2019est pour cela que les control-freaks, les escrocs, les avides et tous ceux qui sont recherch\u00e9s pas la police ne boivent jamais. Les gens cools et confiants n\u2019ont aucune raison de craindre une petite perte de contr\u00f4le et peuvent m\u00eame y prendre plaisir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Une partie test de Artemis Odissey, la nouvelle version d’Ad Astra, \u00e0 sortir l’\u00e0 la fin de l’ann\u00e9e. L’alcool pose quand m\u00eame quelques probl\u00e8mes avec les prototypes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Je ne suis pas un ivrogne. Je bois un peu lors des repas, un peu plus dans les soir\u00e9es jeux et les concerts. Je suis souvent un peu gai en fin de soir\u00e9e, mais je finis rarement sous la table, essentiellement parce que ma tr\u00e8s basse tension provoque des gueules de bois longues et p\u00e9nibles. Enfin, si, il parait que j\u2019ai r\u00e9cemment jou\u00e9 \u00e0 Cartographers, je n\u2019en ai aucun souvenir.
Un peu comme la musique, et bien plus que la lecture ou le jeu vid\u00e9o, le jeu de soci\u00e9t\u00e9 est pour moi un loisir social, qui se marie fort bien avec une dose mod\u00e9r\u00e9e d\u2019alcool. Une soir\u00e9e jeux chez moi, c\u2019est un bon repas mijot\u00e9, car je suis bon cuisinier, quelques bi\u00e8res et quelques bonnes bouteilles de vin. Je n\u2019ai plus l\u2019\u00e2ge de la vodka et du whisky, et je le regrette, et je ne m\u2019occupe pas du dessert, qui n\u2019est pas mon truc. Sans le repas, sans la bi\u00e8re, ou sans le vin, je ne sais pas si je continuerai \u00e0 jouer autant, je pr\u00e9f\u00e8rerais sans doute parfois rester seul avec un bon livre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Test de ce qui est un peu l’anc\u00e8tre de Dreadful Circus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Personne n\u2019est oblig\u00e9 de boire. On peut ne pas aimer, ou ne pas pouvoir, et un de ces jours, je devrais sans doute arr\u00eater, ou au moins ralentir. Ce n\u2019est bon ni pour ma sant\u00e9, ni pour les finances de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale, et je ne suis donc pas choqu\u00e9 le moins du monde de voir r\u00e9guli\u00e8rement les taxes sur l\u2019alcool et le tabac augmenter. Je trouve en revanche la condamnation morale de l\u2019ivresse, l\u2019id\u00e9e aujourd\u2019hui dominante que ceux qui ne boivent pas et ne se droguent pas seraient moralement sup\u00e9rieurs aux autres n\u2019en a pas moins dans son principe quelque chose de religieux qui me semble tr\u00e8s inqui\u00e9tant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alcool et tabac ! Nous sommes impurs !<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Il y a sans doute un peu de ressentiment dans ma d\u00e9fense de l\u2019alcool, alors m\u00eame que je ne suis pas un si gros buveur. Les fumeurs subissent d\u00e9j\u00e0 depuis une vingtaine d\u2019ann\u00e9es une terrible pression sociale et c\u2019est pour cela que, m\u00eame si je ne fume pas moi-m\u00eame, je me refuse \u00e0 ce que les soir\u00e9es jeux chez moi soient non fumeurs. On ne fume pas dans ma chambre, mais cela n\u2019ira pas plus loin. La m\u00eame pression sociale, fond\u00e9e sur la m\u00eame obsession de la puret\u00e9, vise aujourd\u2019hui les buveurs d\u2019alcool, y compris tous ceux, et ils sont l\u2019immense majorit\u00e9, qui boivent tr\u00e8s mod\u00e9r\u00e9ment. Cela m\u2019effraie – rien n\u2019est politiquement plus dangereux que la fascination pour la puret\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Test de Dreadful Circus, bient\u00f4t publi\u00e9 chez Portal. Ignacy ne boit pas, mais Merry boit pour deux.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mon post \u00e9tait d\u2019ailleurs aussi une r\u00e9action \u00e0 quelqu\u2019un, je ne sais plus qui, qui sugg\u00e9rait que l\u2019alcool soit banni des salons ludiques, comme c\u2019est d\u00e9j\u00e0 plus ou moins le cas aux \u00c9tats-Unis. Si on ne peut plus boire dans les soir\u00e9es jeux, s\u2019il n\u2019y a plus de cocktails sur les stands des \u00e9diteurs lors des salons, j\u2019irai avec moins de plaisir et, oui, j\u2019aurai sans doute plus de mal \u00e0 trouver les bons \u00e9diteurs. Et il y au moins un c\u00e9l\u00e8bre auteur de jeu, que tout le monde reconna\u00eetra, qui fait tous les salons avec sa bouteille de whisky dans son sac et qui risque aussi de laisser tomber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Une partie test d’un jeu d\u00e9bile qui ne sera jamais publi\u00e9.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alors, bien s\u00fbr j\u2019ai d\u2019excellents amis qui ne boivent pas ou plus, pour diverses raisons, souvent m\u00e9dicales, et je retrouve parfois des bouteilles de coca dans mon frigo – mais cela signifie aussi que cela ne les g\u00eane pas de jouer avec nous. Mais il y a une \u00e9norme diff\u00e9rence entre la n\u00e9cessaire prudence vis \u00e0 vis de l\u2019exc\u00e8s d\u2019alcool ou de toute autre drogue, et une condamnation de principe, aussi immorale que moralisatrice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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OK, l\u00e0 on a peut-\u00eatre un peu exag\u00e9r\u00e9 !<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
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Playtesting Trollfest, to be published next year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00ab Be wary of people who don\u2019t drink, they have something to hide \u00bb. I thought I had coined this sentence, but I probably had heard it somewhere, since I\u2019ve found out this week that it was a quote attributed, wrongly or rightly, to Baudelaire, Churchill, Stalin and Humphrey Bogart, as well as a Polish proverb. The same idea is in the latin proverb, In vino veritas. As often with popular wisdom, it\u2019s a clever formula but there is also some truth to it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I posted it last week on Facebook and Twitter, as a tongue in cheek business advice for game designers and, what I thought was a humorous and half good sense advice caused a real shitstorm of outraged reactions. The fact that these came exclusively from the US means, by the way, that I might be wrong in thinking we always vastly exaggerate cultural differences. Anyway, the sentence was distorted, in total bad faith, as if drinking meant getting drunk, to suggest I was urging everyone to get drunk, something I rarely do myself, or even that I was suggesting to discuss business while drunk and trying to weaken the people I was doing business with. At game fairs, I avoid the parties where there is too much alcohol, and usually no gaming, I\u2018ve probably never had a business discussion while really drunk, and ask my publishers, I\u2019m definitely not the most difficult guy to discuss with when it comes to contracts. An interesting point is that while all the vehement and sometimes delirious critics I received were public, mostly on twitter, almost all of the many people who expressed their support all did it by private message – I let you realize what it means about the reality of constructive debate and free speech. Anyway, it was really painful, but at least I had fun afterwards looking for playtesting pictures with wine bottles on my phone – and it wasn’t that hard.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Playtesting a game I’m not supposed to talk yet, to be published next year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been in the boardgame business for forty years, and I\u2019ve had very few bad experiences with publishers, may be three or four. They were all by the same type of character, young guys who wanted to be and looked very businesslike, wearing white shirt, suit and necktie, no beard, no drugs, no alcohol – or may be just a bit of coke, the drug I most dislike. With some hindsight, I realize these guys were creepy from the beginning, and I should have been careful.<\/em> Next time I’m asked to join a business meeting at Starbucks – I’m not joking, it happened – if it\u2019s with that kind of guy, I’m just not going.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Playtesting Sophie and Anna’s Hipsters game (which, btw, is looking for a publisher).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What I appreciate in the gaming business is a certain lightness, informality, friendship, which is only possible with some level of trust and letting go, an \u00ab old hippie \u00bb feel. I\u2019ve learned to be wary of people who look too clean, don\u2019t smoke, don\u2019t drink. I indeed often suspect they are afraid something they\u2019d rather keep hidden might be revealed if they loose control of themselves. Refusing drunkenness (in the French meaning of ivresse, which means light drunkenness, like Germans, we have no word for complete drunkenness, only an adjective, saoul), it is refusing to reveal oneself, to place oneself in a weak position, and that\u2019s why control-freaks, crooks, greedy people and people wanted by the police never drink. Cool and trustful people don\u2019t mind being exposed a bit, and may even enjoy it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Playtesting Artemis Odissey, the new version of Ad Astra, to be published at the end of the year. Alcohol can sometimes interefere with playtesting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m definitely not a drunkard. I drink wine or beer with meals, a bit more during games nights and at concert. I\u2019m often a bit light-headed and cheerful at the end of the night, but I don\u2019t roll under the table, if only because I know my low blood pressure causes long and harmful hangovers. Well, yes, I\u2019ve been told I recently played Cartographers and don\u2019t remember anything of it.
Like music, and much more than reading or video games, I also view boardgaming a social activity, which goes very well with a moderate dose of alcohol. A gaming night at my home is a good meal, because I\u2019m a good cook and love cooking, with a few bottles of beer or wine. I\u2019m now too old for whisky and vodka, but I regret it, and I let other take care of dessert, which is not my thing. If I had to give up the beer and wine, I\u2019m not sure I would keep on holding that many gaming nights, I\u2019d likely often prefer to stay alone with a good book.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Playtesting Dreadful Circus, to be published soon by Portal. Ignacy doesn’t drink, but Merry drinks for two.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Noone is ever forced to drink. Some people don\u2019t like it, or cannot for medical reason, and I bet one of these days I will have to stop, or at least to slow down. Nevertheless, the fashionable idea that people who don\u2019t drink and don\u2019t do any drug are morally superior to others is wrong and disturbing.
There is some resent in me defending alcohol while I don\u2019t drink that much. I\u2019ve witnessed, among other with my father, the terrible social pressure put since more or less twenty years on smokers and that\u2019s why, even when I don\u2019t smoke, I don\u2019t want my home and my gaming nights to become no-smoking. My sleeping room is, it\u2019s largely enough. The same social pressure, based on an obsession for purity, is now targeting all people who drink alcohol, even the large majority who drink carefully and moderately. I\u2019m afraid, because nothing is politically more dangerous than the fascination for purity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My favorite homemade Codenames variant. I’m not sure we could have had the idea without some wine first. There’s a kid but, look, but look, there’s also a bottle of sparkling water.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


My post was indeed a reaction to someone, I don\u2019t know whom, who suggested that alcohol should be banned from game fairs, as it is more or less the case in the US. If we cannot drink when playing at night, if there\u2019s no more publishers cocktails, I would have much less fun attending game fairs, and, yes, I would have a harder time spotting the right publishers. And I know at least one famous game designer who always carries his bottle of whisky and might have a harder time than I.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Playtesting a stupid game which will never be published.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This being said, some of my best friends are teatotallers, for various reasons, taste or health problems, and I sometimes find the odd bottle of coke in my fridge – but this also means they don\u2019t mind playing with us. But there\u2019s a big difference between being careful of excess of alcohol, or of any drug, and a principled condemnation which is both immoral and moralizing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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See you next year in Etourvy !<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00ab M\u00e9fiez-vous des gens qui ne boivent pas, ils ont quelque chose \u00e0 cacher \u00bb. Je pensais avoir imagin\u00e9 cette formule, mais je l\u2019avais sans doute entendu quelque part puisque j\u2019ai d\u00e9couvert cette semaine qu\u2019elle \u00e9tait d\u00e9j\u00e0 attribu\u00e9e, \u00e0 tort ou \u00e0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,27],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-11878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creation-ludique-game-design","category-le-monde-du-jeu-game-trends-and-styles","tag-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2HNOP-35A","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11878"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12710,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11878\/revisions\/12710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}