After getting back home from Comic-Con (besides getting ready to teach for the year) the next convention is GenCon, it is held in Indianapolis, so I can commute. In the past GenCon’s dates change around like the school calendar so sometimes I can attend and other times I can’t this year I was able to attend & I decided to branch out a bit cause, you see, I’m a comic book geek, not a gaming geek (& yes, there is a difference).
GenCon started out in Wisconsin, birthplace of Dungeons & Dragons, and is a conventions almost entirely devoted to games. Last year I attended educator day which was a way to help the teachers out there see how games could enrich their classrooms. It was really cool, I got some good ideas that I failed at implementing with “fidelity” (new educationese word that has nothing to do with 33 1/3 RPM vinyl). Since I had learned something I decided to go back and see if the second time around something might stick. I won’t bore you with all the sessions even though only one of them I would consider boring (Why is it that most folks who work at colleges or universities think they need to talk down to everyone, even though they have no idea how to actually teach? When did “academia” become only Higher Ed? Why can’t university types realize that powerpoint presentations are boring, especially when they are read to the audience?), but that was only one. What can I pass on to you- Out of the Box games are great and should be required for any classroom; having kids learn about game design & mechanics leads to actual thinking, and foam darts add joy, excitement and a little element of danger to any classroom situation.
The last activity of the evening was a demo time in which retailers & teachers met with game companies to try out some games. I did not try everything, but there were a few games I was interested in and few I got dragged into that weren’t that bad. The problem with a demo is that you really don’t feel like you can walk out no matter how bad the game is- you need to persevere through to the end.
I started out with a game I have really been looking forward to WizKids Star Trek- Fleet Captains. Being a Star Trek nut (you say Trekkie & I say Trekker) this looked neat. My favorite game from when I did do a lot of gaming was FASA’s Star Trek III: Space Combat Simulator. It was awesome, fairly easy to play and for a Star Trek Geek it made sense. This game captured a lot of what I missed and added some great features including missions and crew. Overly complex? this isn’t a game you are going to teach someone or even master the rules in 30 minutes, but I could see it being a great game except (and there always is an except) the price point vs. what you get. You get the entire game and some lovely plastic figures with clickable bases (if you haven’t played heroclix or mageknights I really can’t explain) the downside they are just that lovely detailed plastic figures. White ones for the Federation, army man green for the Klingons. Let me back up a bit… the first Star Trek game that WizKids released was Star Trek: Expeditions it deals with a basic old fashioned episode. I will hopefully go through a demo of that one sometime this weekend. For $50 you get the entire game (I know that sounds like a lot, but it isn’t in the world of games) and all the figures (and the ships) are painted. Heroclix (or Mageknights) all the figures are painted. They look cool, they don’t look unfinished. For $100 I would expect the same treatment. If I wanted to paint Star Trek ships I would go and buy the pewter miniatures and play Star Fleet Battles. Will I buy this game? I’m not so sure… the price and not having painted ships really puts me off. When asked I said it played well and then asked if the ships going to be finished in the final set and was told no. So I quickly reached my stop & think point, especially since I don’t have opportunities to play that often.
Other games I played were interesting not really worth mentioning since (as a teacher) I had a hard time justifying using games that were clearly not designed for the an all ages audience. Today I went and bought the classic “The Awful Green Things from Outer Space” for my classroom since my copy is in pieces I’m also looking at picking up another classic “RoboRally” to help my kids understand how programming works. The other one that I was introduced to during a session was the Professor Noggin’s series of trivia games, they look like a great addition to my classroom game library.
On the other hand (not really considering myself a gamer) I did actually attend a session this time around. You see in the past I had hung out at the exhibit hall and spent money. Most attendees of GenCon purchase tickets so they can participate in games for entire four days of the convention. The Will Call line today looked like the line for Hall H or Ballroom 20 at Comic-Con, meaning it stretched out as far as the eye could see. But I digress, I took a class on chainmailing. This would be the ancient art of turning little rings into armor that could stop, or at least slow down a sword when it was being swung in your direction. The class was on making chainmail for a Teddybear so I brought along everyone’s favorite stuffed monkey to get fitted for some armor. I’m still working on some finishing touches but I don’t think it looks that bad for a beginner with a a monkey. Wes & Josh from amazingly enough (it was fate, some might call it kismet!) Medieval Monkey Creations did a great job with the class even though I started off a bit concerned after the comment “Chainmailing is a lot like knitting.” I’ve tried knitting and we all know how that turned out!