20 January 2000 . . . In recent days, Fantasy Flight Games, known for their empire-building wargames, e.g. Twilight Imperium, have announced that they will do an English version of Reiner Knizia's Durch die Wüste. Not that this game truly needs an English version as it is already fully internationalized. Considering that Avalanche Press, another publisher of wargames (e.g. The Great War at Sea series), has recently re-published Knizia's early efforts Digging and Res Publica, it is possible to perceive a zeitgeist of Knizia me-tooism. Hasbro, under their German Parker label, recently brought out his Rheinländer. Even the venerable Avalon Hill re-published his Grand National Derby as Titan: the Arena before taking its last gasp and GMT will publish Galaxy: the Arena, based on the same system. Knizia games have also been published by, in alphabetical order, Abacus, Alf, Amigo, ASS, Blatz, Dinter, Editrice Giochi, FAN, Freizeit, F.X. Schmid, Gibson, Goldsieber, Hans im Glück, Hexagames, Hugendubel, Jumbo, Klee, Kosmos, Mayfair, Milton Bradley (Hasbro), Nelostuote, 999, Pegaus, Piatnik, Pro Ligno, Queen, Ravensburger (and its labels Alea and Berliner Spielkarten), Rio Grande, Salagames, Schmidt, Spiel Spass, Tilsit and Winning Moves Deutschland. It is possible that some of these publishers such as Pegasus, Pro Ligno and others that are not even known to gamers except for the Knizia inventions that they have published. If he is not the inventor with the largest number of diverse publishers, then certainly a close second to whoever is. . . .
