Tag: GenCon2011

GenCon vs. Comic-Con or Apples vs. Zombies

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Bruce

I know I’ve already blogged a bit about GenCon, but as I sit and reflect over some of the experiences I thought I would share some of the moments for those. Today I started out arriving a bit early because I had a few things I wanted to accomplish…the first was more rings for Cecil’s chainmail. Once that was accomplished (I have the tools, and know how to make simple monkey chainmail) I headed out to the exhibit hall which was not going to open for about 30 minutes.

At Comic-Con this would have been a crowd of thousands all pushing and shoving, here it was an orderly crowd waiting around. When the door opened we calmly walked in showing our badges. No yelling, no cursing… That has been one thing I have noticed about GenCon, how the attendees definitely have some idea of personal space. At Comic-Con it seemed like everyone was focused on themselves, pushing & shoving & crowding every available foot of space. If you were in the way, tough luck. Stop to get a photo of something? Expect someone to walk through your shot. At GenCon people maybe in their own little world, but they understand that there are other people around. Maybe it’s the whole Midwest attitude vs. West coast attitude. Maybe it has something to do with space, there are around a quarter of the people for GenCon and most of those are sitting in rooms playing games, but I have to say I liked it. It was nice to be able to find a place to sit down (not the floor) and relax. People who could find a gaming space in a room took a table in a public space. There were also people zonked out on benches (not the homeless) when I entered the convention center, warriors sound asleep after a night of fighting dragons.

So what did I do today? Once I entered the exhibit hall? I decided to see about learning something about one the juggernauts of non-roleplaying games- Catan. It’s a simple gain so many points game with the mechanism for gaining points being settling a land by gaining resources and trading. Actually pretty simple with a lot of options for strategy and expansion. Which to me is what makes for a good game. After watching an abbreviated game I understand why it has such a following. I will be purchasing a set for my classroom in the near future.

Cecil in his chainmail learns to play Catan at GenCon 2011

After that I headed over to WizKids games (again) this time I wanted to demo the Star Trek: Expeditions game which sadly (since I own it) was a mistake. I was able to play as Dr. McCoy which was kind of cool, but the game mechanic was a little clunky for a group of first timers, this was compounded by the fact the expert from WizKids deserted us after a quick cursory explanation so he could demo Star Trek: Fleet Captains, a more expensive game. We ended up lost after a few turns either making up the rules or scrambling to ask anyone who looked official for help. While our questions were answered, the person usually ran off so within 3 minutes we would be asking for help from someone else. It was during one of these searches that I noticed there was only one table with Expeditions running and the majority of tables either had Quarriors or Fleet Captains. Oh, and a quick note for those HeroClix fans- here was no demo of HeroClix or the fancy 3-D playing fields that once graced the booth in Cons past. Once one of the other players fumbled for an excuse to leave, the demo was over.

I entered my last session (Education & Games) and was very pleased with the content and discussion. I have decided that I really need to look at starting a gaming club at school this year if time permits (then again I also want to do a comic club). I’m sure I will comment on both once I get them started.

So comparing both Cons would seem easy, they both deal with the geek community, but that is only the surface and frankly, they are as different as apples & zombies. San Diego is massive and because of that size makes it completely chaotic. It seems like most people who attend are focused on getting stuff or being seen. While it still deals with comics the sessions that get the most play are those dealing with movies & television. As Wil Wheaton (name dropping) commented “I started going to Comic-Con when it was about comics.”

GenCon is a gaming convention… So it caters to a different kind of geek. While there is overlap, these folks are into taking a more active role in their imaginary world. They seemed to be a kinder lot. I’m not going to stereotype them as the kind that tended to get picked on in school, but I wouldn’t bet against it. For most they buy their tickets and plan for 4 days of gaming, not partying, not hanging out with this “star” or that. Yes, you need a ticket to get into various sessions some cost more than others. Teddybear Chainmailing $18, Games & Education $0. This seems to be their way to keep from having the Hall H, or Ballroom 20 issues of Comic-Con. Tickets go fast for some things… This year I finally got up the courage to get some tickets- next year, who knows? I might actually play a game. Gamers do have their cliques, just as comic book people divide themselves into groups, gamers do too- it seems like human nature.

So which is better? I’d love to see more comics at GenCon, for me that could do it. As a teacher, I really wish there were more sessions at both on using games & comics in education. Then again I tend to not make it to Sunday at either con which is set aside as “Family/Kid’s Day”. The trade day at GenCon is a great way to focus on teachers and give us a track of programs to gather like minds together. C2E2 did this the first year, but it was kind of weak this past year. Comic-Con was difficult to find and what they had seemed to be squished into Sunday.

There are many different kinds of geeks out there… Here seem to to be many different Cons out there too.

GenCon: a few notes on the “local” Ginormous Geekfest

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Bruce

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.

Cecil shows off his armor and his wizard hat @ GenCon's city of cards.

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!