Today marks my wrap up of my Gen Con 2010 reports. Thanks to those who have been reading these, commenting, emailing, tweeting and whatnot. It’s appreciated.
I wanted to use my blog here at AFi to share my passion for gaming. I think that gaming has a lot of crossover appeal to the toy collecting audience, and I wanted to share the gaming gospel so-to-speak. I dig video games. I have a PS2 and an XBOX360 and a library of games that I love. However, for me, nothing beats actually sitting across the table from someone and playing out a battle upon a tabletop. I love the social aspect of gaming in person.
One of the things that’s so awesome about Gen Con is it that’s place where gamers from all over the world gather together to game. Everyone is from different social, religious, economic, ethnic, etc backgrounds and those things can all be put aside, even for just a few hours, to enjoy the commonality of playing a game we love.
Another thing I love about Gen Con is the diversity of the games themselves. There are games of every genre, difficulty, style, type..you name it…there is literally something for every one and every taste. I would challenge anyone, even someone who doesn’t call themselves a gamer to make it through the main exhibit hall and not find something that appeals to them.
My wife, outside of Skip Bo, UNO, Scrabble and Super Mario is not a gamer. But, a few years back I asked her to play Battlelore (from Fantasy Flight Games) with me. The game had just come out a few months before, I was getting ready to open my store and was expecting big things from it. So, I wanted to familiarize myself with the game. But, of course, you have to have an opponent.
So, being the good sport she is she play. And, she loved it! We still play. In fact, we just played a game last week before I left for Indiana.
My point is: she would never have known, or even have expected, that she would like such a thing unless she had been exposed to it. And Gen Con is a great venue to be exposed to a ton of games you’ve never heard of that could end up becoming your favorite past time!
Gen Con lasts for four days. I was only able to be there for two this year. You cannot take it all in in just two days. There were several games I wanted to play that I never got the chance to, or games that I wanted to demo to learn more about. But, even being there two entire days I couldn’t fit it all in. I’ve even done suicide 1 day trips. Three hour drive out, all day at the con, three hour drive back. Definitely not recommended (but, it’s better than not going at all!).
Gen Con is big. Not Comic Con big, of course. But it draws a solid 28,000 people. That’s good for a gaming con. So, it’s big enough that it’s got an energy and vibe to it. There’s definitely excitement in the air. It’s not a place where one could easily be bored! But, it’s not so crushing that it takes all day just to move from one end of the convention center to the other. I like that.
One of the greatest things offered is the Gen Con iPhone App! Like most conventions, Gen Con has a program guide. And, it’s massive. It’s well done and well organized making it easy to find events to play in…BUT…it’s so much easier to use the searchable iPhone app. Bravo to whomever came up with that idea!
Also, I had the opportunity and privilege this year to meet two of the three hosts of The D6 Generation podcast, which is my favorite gaming podcast. Craig Gallant’s wife just had a baby, so he wasn’t able to make it. But, both Russ Wakelin and Raef "Hollywood" Granger were there, along with Russ’ wife, Nicole (who, herself, hosts the Total Fan Girl segment of the show). So, if you like games you owe it to yourself to give them a listen. Check their site, or you can download the show via iTunes.
In closing, I want to thank the entire staff and crew of Gen Con for another spectacular and well run convention. Here’s to Gen Con 2011!
And, next week…I’ll get back to talking about action figures a bit.
