Sad GenCon

[lumpley]

I hope Andy and Justin are right!

I wish I had some concrete observations to back up my impression, but either way there's not much to be done. Just make good games, play good games I guess, which I was gonna do anyway.

If there's more to be said, let's, but otherwise I'm happy with this thread. Thanks, everybody!

-Vincent

[Mike Holmes]

Can't let this one go by, Vincent. I'd like to think I'm a GenCon expert. I've lost track of how many I've been to - 18?

This makes me both a bad and good judge, I think. On the bad side, I really can't remember much of what it's like being there for the first time. Or even the fifth. But I do remember this... the overwhelmingness factor that people are mentioning (especially when you're only in high school).

Actually, that's not really right. It's not that it's overwhelming, IMO, at least not for me. It's that there are are thousands of events going on - and I'm only going to get to try a bit more than a dozen of them if that. In fact, I might miss things simply because I haven't found them.

This feeling never goes away. No matter how good I am at GenCon, one person can only do so much in four days. Now, I've reconciled with that feeling, it doesn't really bother me anymore. But it used to. It used to bother me a lot. I mean, I would feel physically ill.

Now, this was also due to the fatigue. Slightly physical, but mental, mostly. Whether its due to odd travel and sleeping arrangements, or just trying to do too much (trying to raise that percentage to the point where it's just a tad higher), you get worn out. By Saturday, if you aren't feeling like crap, you're not really trying hard. Which is probably a good idea. But some people like myself never learn.

Here's the thing, however. When I used to be on the team that used to run the huge Europa demos there would inevitably be people who had, by Saturday, played more than thirty hours - some as many as 48 by that time. Often you'd catch them staring off into the distance their eyes not focused on anything. Just like a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or shell-shocked soldier might look. In the military this is sometimes called the "thousand mile stare." The phenomenon was so common, that we nicknamed the gaming version the "thousand hex stare."

Know what? Wake any gamer out of that sort of a state, and they'll shake their head, look at you, and then this weird little grin comes over their face. A grin that says, "I'm so fucking tired, but damnit, you couldn't get me to walk away from this table for anything."

Yeah they're paying - because they know that it'll all be over in 24 hours more. Now, are some of these people doing it because they don't have anything better to do? Maybe. But it's my experience that they're pretty normal in other respects for the most part.

Do we do it for the comraderie? Damn straight. When entering the doors of GenCon every year, I ritualistically say the same thing every hear, "Ah, I'm amongst my tribe." I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Basically we can all be comfortable in doing our "geeky" stuff, knowing that the guy next to you is just as geeky as you are. Rather, as I say, it's a tribe, and we all know each other's customs. Forget about ridicule, a game convention is the one place where you might get lauded for the abilities that you've spent so much time honing.


Lastly, I don't know about other people, but when I concentrate, I often look very consternated. Given that gaming is pretty cerebral, there's a lot of concentrating to do. And given that it's pretty imaginative, there's more brain work to do. At some point, you just shut down your facial control entirely to focus on other things. Somebody could possibly even call it sad.

Basically, I think that a lot of people in the dealers hall lose themselves in the anonymity of the crowd, and just stop worrying about smiling at anyone else. Why bother? Instead, you lose yourself in thought looking at stuff. This isn't GenCon specific. Go to one of those huge flea markets. You'll see lots of people with that look on their face. Trying to decide if they really need that bread maker or if they'll never use it. Stop one of them and talk to them once - you'll always see the same thing happen. They put on their social face, and smile. Ask them if they're having a good time, and they'll say they're having a great time.

At GenCon, they'll tell you, "BEST TIME EVAR!" half the time, instead of just great.

Three minutes later down the aisle, they'll have that consternated look again. Or worse if they're 40 hours into the con at that point and have messed up their circadian rhythms. Sure, some of them are probably not having fun. But I think it's actually a very small percentage.

What's interesting is that it's not really easy to get a person out of that anonymous mode. I personally have a pat answer for people trying to waylay me in the exhibitor's hall, "Not now, thanks. Maybe later." I don't even slow down. Once in a while I feel a pang that I didn't stop and look at the game that they're hawking, or otherwise socially engage the person so desperately trying to make a connnection. But, again, who has time for everything?

As such, I think we make an amazing percentage of people "go social" at the Forge booth. But that's not to say that the others aren't having fun. They've just not seen anything that's grabbed their attention, right then. 25%? Those could all be CCG players, who, not seeing any CCGs at the booth want to just get by it. By my calculations, we're actually engaging gamers who don't want to play RPGs at all when they come to GenCon.

So, I agree with Justin. It's just the social phenomenon of a mob, not actual sadness. From what I can tell.

Mike