Living in Bliss and Chaos: August 2012

This weekend marked a new milestone in my life: I attended my first gaming convention.

It was so much fun and filled with nerdy bliss; I was in awe. We arrived in Indianapolis Thursday afternoon, August 16th for GenCon Indy 2012. In February we had purchased our four-day badges and booked our hotel for three nights. A month or so ago, we signed up for all of our events. Never having been to a convention before, we kept it minimal so as not to be overwhelmed. We had two or three scheduled games a day.

I learned a great deal about gaming during these days. Board games, dice games, card games, tabletop games, role playing games, video games, virtual reality games, True Dungeon games, puzzles, hunts, quests, crafts, etc. Steampunk galore. Belly dancers. Game designers. Crafters. Merchants. There were thousands and thousands of people in attendance, some dressed up in full cosplay, others just hanging out. At one point, I saw Captain America pushing a baby stroller with his giant shield resting in the seat. Darth Vader was in attendance as well as several Stormtroopers. We toured a True Dungeon experience (which was theme park/haunted house-like); we listened to live bands playing in the halls; and we giggled at some of the... "classy" outfits we encountered, e.g. a barely-there Pikachu outfit. There was a Zombie walk and a Cosplay parade and contest.

We made a list of all the games we wanted to purchase when we got back home, either due to being sold out or cheaper prices online; we picked out a mug of random dice and the husband was fitted for a kilt. We decided to wait on the kilt though; shelling out a few hundred bucks for an (awesome) Utilikilt was more than we wanted to part with at the time. We toured the outskirts of the Magic the Gathering World Cup tournament that was held throughout the event. That was pretty intense. There were teams of people from literally all over the world.

We watched groups play Warmachine and other tabletop games. We demoed new games and learned how to play others.

There were dozens of panels and symposiums, but we didn't attend any. There were several celebrities in attendance as well, such as Wil Wheaton, Nichelle Nichols, Wes Bentley, and Brandon Sanderson who autographed photos and answered questions. We ended up decided not to wait in line for any.

The showroom was gargantuan. There were hundreds upon hundreds of vendor booths; we didn't know where to begin! There was a very large artist's section as well. We were able to demo some games while we perused the selections. There was a giant "tower of t-shirts" that were way overpriced (which is to be expected) and many large sculptures, too. We watched a few minis being painted (for tabletop gaming) and checked out some shiny armor.

After our first day, I was already making plans for next year's GenCon, what to bring, what not to bring, packing coolers, where to go for lodging, the cost differences from staying next door as opposed to staying out of town and driving, making plans for the baby, etc. Yeah, the little one will be about 7 months old, but I saw plenty of little ones there during the entire event. Start 'em young, I say!

Sunday was the Family Day pass and children were everywhere. We were even talking about what we could do for cosplay next year, including the baby. It just ended and I can't wait for next year. Yeah, there was a LOT of walking, food prices were high (of course), and there were plenty of fart-clouds and BO-clouds to kill an elephant, but it was one of the best times I've had in a long time. I learned how to play the World of Warcraft trading card game and Magic the Gathering. We discovered that we really love Dragon Dice and we were thoroughly unimpressed with the overly-hyped Mage Wars. We absolutely loved the card game Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule and will be pre-ordering it for pick-up in December. Not only is it a fun game, it's good for children, too. It boosts their cognitive skills with rhyming and matching as well as learning a bit about strategy, all the while being very simple and fun.

The best highlight of our experience was finally meeting some good friends of ours who also made the trip. We've known them online for years, the husband knowing them much longer than I have. It worked in our favor that she has family in Ohio and they were planning on attending GenCon Indy as well! We met them at a restaurant Thursday night and laughed together for a few hours. It was like second nature and felt so natural. There wasn't any awkward-first-meeting-silent-moments and the conversation was never forced. We met up again Saturday for lunch out by the food trucks where I had my first taste of hummus. YUM! I've already pinned a recipe or two for it on Pinterest, ha. We watched them play Warmachine and walked around together later when one of our games was cancelled. We grabbed some Starbucks and played a game or two together before our next event that evening. Sunday was the last day of GenCon and after our final events, we met in the afternoon to say our goodbyes. After a few days of hanging out together, parting on the final day was bittersweet. I can't wait to hang out with them again. When you find good, authentic company, you can just feel it.

With the advantage of living only two hours north of Indy, the drive home was a breeze. We arrived Sunday evening, unpacked everything, and settled into our normal routines. I took a three hour nap -oops- and Brandin played LoL online. We watched the rest of the Colts game as he taught me how to play MTG. Now I'm hooked and can't wait for more! He informed me this afternoon that he picked up one of the card games we played, Heap by Privateer Press. It was sold out at the convention and luckily he found it in one of the gaming stores back home. I guess I know what we'll be doing this evening!

Here are some more photos from the weekend.