The GenCon Experience, some final thoughts

I’ve had a couple days to reflect now on this years trip to GenCon, mind you it was my first convention of any sort ever so I probably have a different and perhaps more romanticized perspective on things than others but hey, gimme’ a few years and maybe I can start being jaded….nah probably not.

I found GenCon to be a completely wonderful event, it’s a carnival of oddities and eccentricity while at the same time an organized event with something in mind for nearly every type of gamer. Even for those who aren’t even gamers , there are things to do and see and they should find plenty to intrigue themselves with. The presentation at some of the booths was just great but what really got me was the overwhelming friendliness of everyone I managed to bump into (often times literally) my son would trip and fall over countless people and not once did I get a scowl or a ‘damn kid” or anything like that. Perhaps it’s the common ground and understanding shared between gamers that made for such a great vibe, either that or miraculously the human race has started becoming more kind for unknown reasons which I highly doubt.

It’s great to be able to meet folks with a common thread and genuine desire to just get their game on in any way they can, the costumes are loud and fun and those who were performing in the hallways were phenomenal. You see costumes from video games and other things not nescessarily RPG or board game related but that’s because whether you play RPG’s, board games, video games, card games, TCG’s, hopscotch (the list goes on) you still have a place at gencon – because you’re a gamer!

Another thing I’d like to make mention of were the girls there at GenCon, particularly the ones in costume – there were a lot of girls that by societies shallow and ‘conventional’ standards were a bit too “thick” for the costumes they wore and my hat goes off to all of them (I don’t wear hats). I find it inspiring to see so many girls there were comfortable with themselves and perhaps even damn proud. Knowing that there is more than one size for beauty is something a lot of folks don’t have, but it seems those at GenCon did, which I think is awesome. Another layer of awesome the convention holds was the amount of diversity seen there, I think it’s great to see gamers of all racial and cultural backgrounds because let’s face it we’re not all boring white guys like myself.

The sheer amount of planning and inside knowledge required to fully navigate and enjoy GenCon is perhaps it’s only downside (oh and apparently ‘Con Crud’) but I do think that this is only because of it’s sheer size and breadth of things to do there, you kinda have to go once as a trial run I think and then the following years you kind of ‘get it’ and won’t feel so lost or overwhelmed with the plethora of activities available to you.

All in all I had a truly great time, despite the crappy hotel or lack of getting in on any actual games but that’s just all the more to look forward to next year, the negative details just fade into the background of the whole experience. It’s inspiring to be surrounded by my fellow gamers, if I had to pick one niche in life that I could honestly say I’ve always felt truly at home in – it’s that of a gamer.

Also I just wanna’ say thanks for reading my blog, and following me on twitter and all the great commentaries and conversation over the past months since I’ve started this whole endeavor, I’m super thankful for all my faithful readers and followers (except the  damned spam bots). I hope to meet a bunch more of you next year, in the meantime let’s keep this online community full throttle and keep this awesome hobby alive and kicking violently!