[Through the Polish Cultural Institute of New York City, Brett and I were flown to Poznań, Poland to attend Poznań Game Arena. We then took a train down to Warsaw to see 11 bit, CD Projekt Red, and Flying Wild Hog's studios. I apologize for the photo quality; I was using my broken-ass cell phone.]
The game developers of Poland are warm, welcoming, and entirely too insistent on making you drink vodka until you can feel your heartbeat in your eyes. This stands in stark contrast to the older generation that we passed by every day on the street, who will only offer you the briefest of glances, often of the annoyed variety. As this was my first international trip, I found it odd to be simultaneously accepted and maligned by my hosts, and I assumed it was because Americans weren't loved here.
Tadeusz Zielinski of Flying Wild Hog laughed at this while we ate breakfast at Poznan Game Arena: "It's not because you're American. It's because you're smiling. People don't smile often in Poland. They immediately know you're not from here, which leads to distrust." I promised I'd try to stop smiling. "No, no!" he pleaded, "Please do it. We want this to change here. The younger people are happier, and we want that to win." That's an easy demand for me to follow, but I was curious as to why he thought people here didn't trust others. "Communism, man! It only ended for us a little under thirty years ago. The older people on the streets lived in a time where your neighbor could be a spy. They still think with that mindset."
Living in America, remembering only small bits and pieces of my history books, I hadn't realized Poland's time with Communism was so recent. After Zielinski told me about this, I couldn't help stop thinking about it while we attended PGA. The people on the cold, damp streets that we walked through each day to reach the convention center didn't match up with the smiling, enthusiastic faces we saw on both developers and attendees at the show.
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