View From The Porch: My timing skills are just awful.

Friday, August 06, 2010

My timing skills are just awful.

I've been in Indy for three GenCons now, and it looks like I'm going to miss this one, too.

Oh, well. I lived in ATL from the mid-'70s to 2000 and I think I made it to DragonCon maybe three times.

21 comments:

Brian J. said...: I made more GenCons when they were in Milwaukee after I moved out of Milwaukee than before.

It was an excuse to go home. Or going home was an excuse to go to GenCon.

It was double-dipping in any case.; 4:29 PM, August 06, 2010
aczarnowski said...: Milwaukee forever! *shakes fist*; 4:35 PM, August 06, 2010
leBolide said...: What is your preferred cosplay/larp garb?; 6:05 PM, August 06, 2010
Drang said...: It's been so long since I gaffiated I didn't even know they moved.; 7:18 PM, August 06, 2010
Roberta X said...: I thought you wanted to go, until you announced plans to decamp elsewhere, yesterday.; 7:22 PM, August 06, 2010
Themadlemming said...: I've been to many DragonCons and I generally enjoy myself. Money's always the big factor. It costs so much to go and then there's the dealer room...; 7:43 PM, August 06, 2010
Themadlemming said...: The profile pic is from last year's DragonCon, BTW.; 7:43 PM, August 06, 2010
Steve Skubinna said...: Went to GenCon in '76, when it was actually at Lake Geneva (Playboy Resort). I was working that summer for Flying Buffalo, Inc, maybe the smallest player in the game world at the time. I set up and managed their display ate various cons that summer - somehow FBI got the exclusive rights to sell OGRE on the con circuit that year. It was pretty exotic to be rubbing elbows with the likes of Gary Gygax and Lou Zocchi.

Getting paid to set up and demonstrate the Metagaming (now Steve Jackson Games) micro games was pretty decent, too.

I won't deny that taking advantage of the guest membership all vendors got at the Playboy Club was a less than onerous burden.; 8:52 PM, August 06, 2010
Anonymous said...: I wonder how many people will be shot at GenCon? Oh thats right "Bangers" are not gamers generaly.; 9:13 PM, August 06, 2010
Les Jones said...: Tam, check your email.; 9:59 PM, August 06, 2010
Justthisguy said...: Dang, Ma'am! I lived in Atlanta from 1968 to, oh, 1990 or so, with intervals in other places. (not to mention living there 1951-1954, as was too young to now remember much of that)

How come we never met? Was it my social-avoidant behavior, or what? You have mentioned Virginia-Highland; I lived around there for a while.
Do you like the Zesto's hamburgers?; 1:31 AM, August 07, 2010
bedlamite said...: Somebody needs to go there and get a pic of a wookie eating a bag of Cheetos.; 3:22 AM, August 07, 2010
Brian J. said...: Say it with me: CCG brats killed GenCon.

Actually, if you went to GenCons up to the late 90s, I think there was a 1d4 chance of meeting Gygax. He once pigeonholed a friend and I and regaled us with stories of campaigns he played with a new gaming system he was developing (post D&D, post DJ) and a particular encounter with a tree that dropped down on his party to eat it.

Once you've seen E. Gary use hand gestures to accompany the tale of a man-eating tree, you're changed forever.; 8:43 AM, August 07, 2010
EgregiousCharles said...: I had to cancel my planned trip due to hotel costs and Pelosi-Obama-Reid-Frank-Dodd-induced poverty.; 8:50 AM, August 07, 2010
Living in Babylon said...: Anonymous @ 9:13: Speak for yourself, foo'.

I'm bustin d20's in asses every mutha fuckin' day, and washin' it down wit' a 40 of Mt. Dew.; 6:33 PM, August 07, 2010
jimbob86 said...: They've changed quite a bit from the Lake Geneva days.... they've gone from the Playboy Resort to not allowing "Art" displays that are "violent or overtly sexual"

..... gaming is truly dead if a chain mail bikini clad Amazon killing giants is verboten.; 10:40 PM, August 07, 2010
Chuck Pergiel said...: I was wondering how you get Gencon out of "Gaming Convention" until I read the last comment. Lake Geneva. Huh.; 10:59 PM, August 07, 2010
Anonymous said...: That's three more than me when I lived there. I did manage to hit Comdex twice till it moved and more than a few Eastman's shows.

Gmac; 12:42 AM, August 08, 2010
Wayne said...: Then I shall tempt you with pictures from Saturday....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaiju_images/sets/72157624679268150/; 9:46 AM, August 08, 2010
Ian Argent said...: One of these days, Gadget. One of these days!

Ahem.

Of course, I went to college with folks who would road-trip out to Milwaukee each year from NJ. And once did the trip just to go to the Safe House on a whim. Drove out, got schnockered, (presumably) sobered up, drove back. Bright College Days indeed.; 11:45 AM, August 08, 2010
Ken said...: May not be your historical period, and it's a lot less spectacle, but I am partial to the Seven Years War Convention (all 18th Century all the time), held every March in South Bend. Hotel is right around the corner from a terrific pub called the Fiddler's Hearth, too.

Oh, and I had the privilege to meet Christopher Duffy (yes, that Christopher Duffy) there a few years ago. Sadly, he stopped attending after 2008 or so, but they bring in a historian for a presentation before the Saturday dinner every year. Great little convention.; 4:36 PM, August 08, 2010