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I Wanna Go To Gencon When I Grow Up
Posted 9th August 2009 at 09:38 PM by EP
Sigh.
It's another year without going to Gencon.
It's hard to gripe about this in public and the most sympathy you can get out of anyone (save other gamers) are loved ones who just humor you to some degree but don't really understand what the big deal is about. It sounds like an excuse to wear your dice bag around your neck for four days straight like an engineering pimp of some kind.
Most of us outside of the Wisconsin area spent good portions of our youths dreaming of attending Gencon. And if you didn't, just play along because that's the angle I'm going for. To be surrounded by thousands of like-minded people with the same passion for D&D as you. To not be ashamed and feel as if you've wasted your savings on a plane ticket just to be here. Your fellow gamers are not here to judge and you will run into a least one person who performed sexual favors just to be there.
I went to my first con around 1994/5 in Peterborough (Ontario... Canada... we're in North America) and Ed Greenwood attended. I wasn't into Forgotten Realms, even though the guy I went with was and I had played numerous adventures in the Realms, I really knew nothing about it. When Ed came out as Elminster, I remember looking around at the faces of the people gathered there. Young men, the middle-aged with shades of grey tinting their beards, and a surprising number of women (to me, at the time). There was one guy in particular: if he never played football, it was a missed opportunity. This guy was HUGE and built like only steroids could build. He looked like he had come to the con to shout out "Nerds!!" in a foaming frenzy, but he stood there before Elminster, dumbfounded at the sight of his hero in the flesh. And he asked more questions on the Realm than anyone else there. It's that expression and sentiment I saw on that day which remains with me to this day. I want to have a fraction of that smile on my face when I walk into my first room and gaze around at the plethora of sights. I want to get dizzy with anticipation at which booth I'm going to first. I want my voice hoarse at the stories retold to my fellow players and friends when I get back. Then when my loved ones see that look of satisfaction on my face when I return, they'll know why it's so important.
So for now, there is no Gencon. Yet. As one more year passes, my determination grows. One more year until I attend Gencon.
Or two. Three tops.
It's another year without going to Gencon.
It's hard to gripe about this in public and the most sympathy you can get out of anyone (save other gamers) are loved ones who just humor you to some degree but don't really understand what the big deal is about. It sounds like an excuse to wear your dice bag around your neck for four days straight like an engineering pimp of some kind.
Most of us outside of the Wisconsin area spent good portions of our youths dreaming of attending Gencon. And if you didn't, just play along because that's the angle I'm going for. To be surrounded by thousands of like-minded people with the same passion for D&D as you. To not be ashamed and feel as if you've wasted your savings on a plane ticket just to be here. Your fellow gamers are not here to judge and you will run into a least one person who performed sexual favors just to be there.
I went to my first con around 1994/5 in Peterborough (Ontario... Canada... we're in North America) and Ed Greenwood attended. I wasn't into Forgotten Realms, even though the guy I went with was and I had played numerous adventures in the Realms, I really knew nothing about it. When Ed came out as Elminster, I remember looking around at the faces of the people gathered there. Young men, the middle-aged with shades of grey tinting their beards, and a surprising number of women (to me, at the time). There was one guy in particular: if he never played football, it was a missed opportunity. This guy was HUGE and built like only steroids could build. He looked like he had come to the con to shout out "Nerds!!" in a foaming frenzy, but he stood there before Elminster, dumbfounded at the sight of his hero in the flesh. And he asked more questions on the Realm than anyone else there. It's that expression and sentiment I saw on that day which remains with me to this day. I want to have a fraction of that smile on my face when I walk into my first room and gaze around at the plethora of sights. I want to get dizzy with anticipation at which booth I'm going to first. I want my voice hoarse at the stories retold to my fellow players and friends when I get back. Then when my loved ones see that look of satisfaction on my face when I return, they'll know why it's so important.
So for now, there is no Gencon. Yet. As one more year passes, my determination grows. One more year until I attend Gencon.
Or two. Three tops.
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