It has been a while since I etched anything in the annals of The Link Adventures. Things got pretty rough for me during the winter, but now things are mostly better, and its time for a new season of the blog.
It's been just about a year since we opened the doors of Gamers Link Chicago, and it really came full circle this year with Gen Con. If you remember from the first episode of season 1, Eddie went to Gen Con and came back with a lot of stuff. Made some connections and friends and all the other things that gregarious folk do.
This year's Gen Con just happened recently, and instead of Ed going, I went. I didn't go on behalf of Gamers Link, though, because I was actually invited by one of my employers, TCGPlayer.com. They bought me a four day pass, and that pretty much decided for me that I was going to go. This was not something I was used to from TCGPlayer, though in the recent months I was given a raise, another small article for a newsletter, and of course the sweet token that they had commissioned by the extremely talented Nolan N Nasser.
I was to sit in the TCGPlayer booth, and sign said token. I didn't really know what to expect with Gen Con to be honest, and I kind of forgot about the hour loss of time I would have (odd considering how often time zones come up with podcast scheduling and such), so yeah, I was 2 hours late after being lost for another hour and a half. I was scheduled to be there on Friday from 2-4, and I got there right around 3:50. Sounds about right.
The big problem was the Indianapolis parking situation. I didn't have a hotel nearby, and it took a while to find and lots that weren't full. Downtown Indianapolis is beautiful by the way, which was a pleasant surprise after stopping in Gary, IN for gas. I can see why Gen Con goes there, it felt much cleaner and safer than downtown Chicago would be.
Anyways, I stuck around until six to make up for being a late douche. None of the other writers were around at that point anymore, so I mostly just chilled, and signed a few tokens. I met some of the bosses at TCGPlayer, which was super cool. I was going to hang out and play some EDH with some friends that night, but I anticipated bad news on Saturday, and I was tired, so I went to my hotel room and spent the night watching Fringe on Netflix. Good show.
Saturday came, and I made it to the booth on time! Wow! This day would find me paired with a fellow Chicagoan, World Champ Craig Wescoe. We met before at a Gaming Goat pre-release, so it was nice to know someone I was working with. I sat next to him at a small table, which helped me give out more tokens FOR ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN. We talked a little bit of Magic, but mostly we talked about the con goers; their costumes and such.
That brings me to the actual experience of Gen Con. Sunday would pretty much be quick and over, so we will get to that in a bit. I have wanted to go to Gen Con since I was probably 12 years old, but I never really knew what to expect. I probably would have enjoyed it more as a kid, but as it stood it was pretty crowded with a lot of backed up traffic, and I just don't like that scene anymore (except for a punk show). There were a lot of great deals and Magic cards to be bought, but as a store owner, I can get most of the stuff cheaper, and definitely don't pay anywhere near full price for a card. If there was no one around that I knew to play some EDH, I really had nothing I wanted to do there.
Actually the worst part was the atrocious phone reception in the exhibit floor, and the lack of any wifi that I could find. I do most of my work via the internet, so an entire building that was a dead zone was pretty much as unproductive as I could imagine. I couldn't just chill off the side, because my laptop couldn't get online, and my phone was dead from lack of oxygen.
The people at Gen Con were probably the biggest surprise to me, but that probably comes from being a Magic player, and dealing with a lot of them in turn. That is, there were not a lot of Magic players there at all, statistically speaking. I mean, there were a lot, but the ratio was much smaller than what you would see at a normal game store setting. I didn't expect many people to care about meeting me, but I was surprised when any of my more famous co-writers would really have nothing to do either for stretches of time.
It makes sense, though. I am a Magic player primarily, and Gen Con didn't have much for me in that area, except for much of the same at other things. Gen Con is a place to try out all the new cool board games and do demo after demo, but I honestly don't like demos much, and don't really like board games. I like stuff I can really sink my teeth into, and play it for years, and I don't get that from most board games. My point is that people come to Gen Con to try out the new games, not to play Magic. The convention was really an overall celebration of nerd culture, I'd say. Mostly people that don't really nerd out everyday like myself or Craig might have to, so they get way into it. I have more tolerance built up to the nerdiness, and also I am an cynical douche, so there is that. It was packed to the brim, too.
Craig told me that he usually can pick out the Magic players in a convention, but at this place, he was having a hard time picking them out. This is coming from a World Champion, mind you. This guy knows Magic players. I totally agreed with him, and more often than anything, we were explaining what TCGPlayer is more than anything, and the tokens wouldn't come up.
That was kind of the funny thing about the TCGPlayer booth... we don't really sell anything. We offer a service, like eBay. eBay doesn't sell stuff... they help you sell stuff. I mean, our booth was next to Magic giants like Cool Stuff Inc, Star City Games, and MTG Card Market, who each has giant swaths of booth set up with all manner of gorgeous singles. We had a little rectangle with two little tables, and some super sweet misprinted back drops (wish I got a picture of those). We were approached for information that comes from the free Con guide, because we were standing / sitting around. It was important to be there to establish the brand presence and what not, but it was definitely funny to be surrounded by commerce, giving out free tokens, signatures, advice, and love. Especially love.
Like I said, I gave away a lot of tokens on Friday because of my proximity to Craig, and I got to be included in conversations with him like I wasn't scrubbing out at my own FNMs on a weekly basis. Even though I play bad most of the time, I am very good at sounding like I am good at the game.
After I did my time, I was able to go outside, and got the bad news that I was pretty much expecting. My awesome dog Melody has terminal lymphoma. I was bummed, but I promised one of my Facebook friends Alex that I would play some games, so we slung some EDH, and after a few games he had to go, so I went back to the hotel and just watched some more Fringe.
The next day, god dang it, late again. Only 20 minutes this time, and that's because the parking garage I had been using was closed on Sunday. I finally found a parking spot, and ran off the the Con. This time, my editor Frank Lepore was already there, hanging out with Craig, so I just sat alone on the other side, chilling. I signed some more tokens and such, but as I was farther from the good Magic players, I was able to chill more. I really don't mind just sitting and people watching, there were a lot of cool costumes, and since I wasn't selling anything, and most people were too busy looking for things to buy, I really was able to just enjoy the moment.
Sunday was cool because I got a chance to really talk to some of the people who make TCGPlayer happen, and they were a lot more like me than the good Magic players, because they are more on the business end of things. I mean, I talked about YuGiOh more than I really did about Magic with them, and that had to do with hosting tournaments, and how it would affect my sanctioning with Konami. You falling asleep yet? The customer service guy, the event coordinator guy, and the internet guy? Check, that's what I do every day with Gamers Link (less so now, but we will get to that in later episodes). Eric Wall, the Event Coordinator, was particularly helpful, because he lived in my Chicago until 2008, and worked the scene as a judge.
After my shift was done, I pretty much packed up and left right away. It was a long drive, but Indiana has a kick ass 70 MPH speed limit, and I was doing 85 easy in my HHR no problem all day.
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