GenCon 08 - Day 3
Saturday is always the big day of the Con. It's when there's the most people, it's the day of the costume contest, and it's usually when the big parties happen. So that's also the day it's hardest to find parking.
Then add in the Lucas Oil Stadium tours for an extra several thousand people in downtown. Needless to say, by the time I got through traffic, got parked on the roof of my usual garage, and got to the XH then line-mob had been there and any KOTOR books were gone.
Line trolls 3, Oz 0.
Saturday is the day I dress up in my ren faire garb. I have to admit that I was pretty pleased with how loose my doublet has gotten. It's always fun when the mundanes see me, and this year there was a lot of them at the garage. I, and other attendees in costume, got a lot of strange looks.
MIke was there in his ren garb also... the standard uniform of hat and doublet. Wandering the XH, we got stopped a few times for pictures. I didn't have the presence of mind to ask someone to use my camera, and my typical post-GenCon foraging hasn't turned up any pictures of my friends and/or I other than the Turbine party. Looking around, there must have been at least 50 guys dressed similar. We should have had a picture event - dudes in doublets. Then they could put the pics on dudsindoublets.com. Wait... that sounds kinda gay.
At noon there was a moment of silence for Gary Gygax. While most people were respectful, there were still a few tools out there that couldn't shut up for 60 seconds. It's not like the guy helped found the hobby, create the industry or start the convention... oh wait, he did.
Another of my Saturday traditions is to go to the costume contest. This has turned into an exercise in line-waiting, as for some reason GenCon can't seem to find a larger venue (though the first year it was in Indy it seems like it was in a larger room that worked). I happened to luck out when it came to seating, as I ended up in the front of a section on an aisle near the center.
They've eliminated the talent category, which usually consisted of some step-dancing girls, some girl dressed as an anime character warbling a song that was way too long, and someone trying to be a comedian. Instead, these got absorbed into the other categories. I wish they would limit presentations to 60 seconds for a single person, 120 seconds for a group. While a couple were amusing or even talented, most long presentations drag on and become painful. The winner, Borak(?) the Barbarian had it right. His skit was about a minute and was funny.
Unfortunately, the Winged Elf wasn't there this year. :(
After the contest I met up with Nicole, who was dressed up for the SteamPunk Party and the White Wolf Party. I was still in my ren garb, and we got a lot of pictures taken of us. We grabbed dinner at the Ram, managing to score seats at the bar. Needless to say, the mix of GenCon people and Colts fans made for an interesting combination. There was more picture taking, and we witnessed an interesting conversation between a burly bald guy in a Colts jersey and a smaller gamer dressed as a Scotsman a la Braveheart.
When they initially announced that the theme of the Saturday party was Steampunk, I was a little dubious. Were there really that many people out there that were fans of Steampunk, let alone fan enough to dress up? The answer turned out to be yes.
There were a lot of people there dressed up. All it takes is a little accessorizing and an outfit appropriate for a Western/Firefly larp or the typical corseted gamer-girl becomes Steampunk. Unfortunately, others that had expressed an interest in this party never showed, and the beer line was horribly long. Then Nicole made the brilliant suggestion that the line at the Speakeasy under Union Station (the dance was in the Union Station ballroom) probably wasn't as long.
Not only was there a short line in the Speakeasy, there were televisons tuned to the Olympics. And while gamers are stereotyped as not big sports fans, the bar came to halt when it came time for Michael Phelps to try for his eighth gold medal. And by halt I mean everyone screaming and cheering at the tvs.
The next stop was the White Wolf Party, at the Ice Lounge where we joined a couple of friends already there. For a place called Ice, it was hotter than hell, and I don't mean that in a good sense. Mixing this with free drinks could be a recipe for disaster, fortunately we were better disciplined than that, despite some urging. A woman that was hanging around our friends wasn't so restrained, and they ended up getting puked on before they got here and another drunken acquaintance in a cab and sent back to their hotel. I hope the cabbie got a good tip.
Then add in the Lucas Oil Stadium tours for an extra several thousand people in downtown. Needless to say, by the time I got through traffic, got parked on the roof of my usual garage, and got to the XH then line-mob had been there and any KOTOR books were gone.
Line trolls 3, Oz 0.
Saturday is the day I dress up in my ren faire garb. I have to admit that I was pretty pleased with how loose my doublet has gotten. It's always fun when the mundanes see me, and this year there was a lot of them at the garage. I, and other attendees in costume, got a lot of strange looks.
MIke was there in his ren garb also... the standard uniform of hat and doublet. Wandering the XH, we got stopped a few times for pictures. I didn't have the presence of mind to ask someone to use my camera, and my typical post-GenCon foraging hasn't turned up any pictures of my friends and/or I other than the Turbine party. Looking around, there must have been at least 50 guys dressed similar. We should have had a picture event - dudes in doublets. Then they could put the pics on dudsindoublets.com. Wait... that sounds kinda gay.
At noon there was a moment of silence for Gary Gygax. While most people were respectful, there were still a few tools out there that couldn't shut up for 60 seconds. It's not like the guy helped found the hobby, create the industry or start the convention... oh wait, he did.
Another of my Saturday traditions is to go to the costume contest. This has turned into an exercise in line-waiting, as for some reason GenCon can't seem to find a larger venue (though the first year it was in Indy it seems like it was in a larger room that worked). I happened to luck out when it came to seating, as I ended up in the front of a section on an aisle near the center.
They've eliminated the talent category, which usually consisted of some step-dancing girls, some girl dressed as an anime character warbling a song that was way too long, and someone trying to be a comedian. Instead, these got absorbed into the other categories. I wish they would limit presentations to 60 seconds for a single person, 120 seconds for a group. While a couple were amusing or even talented, most long presentations drag on and become painful. The winner, Borak(?) the Barbarian had it right. His skit was about a minute and was funny.
Unfortunately, the Winged Elf wasn't there this year. :(
After the contest I met up with Nicole, who was dressed up for the SteamPunk Party and the White Wolf Party. I was still in my ren garb, and we got a lot of pictures taken of us. We grabbed dinner at the Ram, managing to score seats at the bar. Needless to say, the mix of GenCon people and Colts fans made for an interesting combination. There was more picture taking, and we witnessed an interesting conversation between a burly bald guy in a Colts jersey and a smaller gamer dressed as a Scotsman a la Braveheart.When they initially announced that the theme of the Saturday party was Steampunk, I was a little dubious. Were there really that many people out there that were fans of Steampunk, let alone fan enough to dress up? The answer turned out to be yes.
There were a lot of people there dressed up. All it takes is a little accessorizing and an outfit appropriate for a Western/Firefly larp or the typical corseted gamer-girl becomes Steampunk. Unfortunately, others that had expressed an interest in this party never showed, and the beer line was horribly long. Then Nicole made the brilliant suggestion that the line at the Speakeasy under Union Station (the dance was in the Union Station ballroom) probably wasn't as long.
Not only was there a short line in the Speakeasy, there were televisons tuned to the Olympics. And while gamers are stereotyped as not big sports fans, the bar came to halt when it came time for Michael Phelps to try for his eighth gold medal. And by halt I mean everyone screaming and cheering at the tvs.
The next stop was the White Wolf Party, at the Ice Lounge where we joined a couple of friends already there. For a place called Ice, it was hotter than hell, and I don't mean that in a good sense. Mixing this with free drinks could be a recipe for disaster, fortunately we were better disciplined than that, despite some urging. A woman that was hanging around our friends wasn't so restrained, and they ended up getting puked on before they got here and another drunken acquaintance in a cab and sent back to their hotel. I hope the cabbie got a good tip.
posted by Oz at 1:05 PM
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