I am sure most of you - well, many - are unable to attend Comic-Con this weekend. In all honesty, even if I could afford to make it all the way across the country and go, I'm not 100% certain I would. As much as I like cons in general, the older I got, the less I liked going to them - which is the primary reason I haven't tried harder to hit more the past five years or so. I don't know if I've just outgrown them or my extreme hatred for the human race has become so deeply-rooted that I find it impossible to mask it in the midst of so many...
Crowded. I meant to say they are often too crowded. I don't know what... just ignore whatever else I said up there. I'm sleepy and babbling. Let's move on.
Seriously, all the "fun" things about cons that I remember just aren't fun anymore. We would only rent a room one night the entire weekend, because we knew we would be up the whole time otherwise; most of the best games go down overnight, I don't care which con it is. Of course, everyone else knew this too, so there was at least one morning where nerds were laid-out across the lobby. While that was cute when you were a rebellious adolescent, seeing 30-year old dudes in various states of facepaint, lounging about the hotel couches on a Sunday morning is just plain... embarrassing. Like stumbling onto the KISS tour bus after they'd been on a bender.
And the smaller cons are always more fun. Big cons are great for seeing things, but the real point of conventions is getting together with fellow enthusiasts and meeting new ones - something the larger cons just do not facilitate. I equate them more to college vs. highschool, where everyone's racing to get from one panel to the next and the only way you chance upon meeting someone new is because you keep noticing them at the same panels and chatting-up the same celebrities. The games are full long before you get the chance to sign-up, the panels, the previews, the movies room - getting into the con suite is like trying to get backstage at a KISS concert (literally)... definitely something every diehard fanboy should experience once, but if you're anything like me, that will be enough.
So, I decided a few days back that I would stage my own little mini-con at home - my version of the "stay-cation" everyone is touting these days. I'm going to clean the living room and drag out my comics, because I haven't been keeping-up with my new issues as they've been coming in. In particular, I'll be reading Walking Dead and Daredevil, but also whatever else I've been pulling. I'll let you know.
Of course, what would a convention be without some good, old-fashioned gaming? So I'm digging-out the Dark Conspiracy books and getting back into that so I can publish it in the coming months as the next big part of the site I'll release.
But what is a con without being introduced to a "new" game? Well, none of the games I have are exactly new, but I did luck-upon a cache of stuff some time back that is new to me, so I think I am going to check out Feng Shui. Either that or the Vampire stuff. It's been literally 15 years since I played anything Storyteller - mostly because it quickly became the "mainstream" system that every quasi-nerd wannabe shoved down everyone's throat (and I'm sure they listened to Nirvana when they played it) and it just got - I grew to despise it out of sheer... out of whatever it is that made me hate the kids who never had anything to do with me until Metallica released One, then wanted to talk to me about it. Constantly. Whatever that is - self-preservation, snobbery, whatever. I could defend it, but why bother? None of this is relevant, anyway... the point is that I've been watching Embraced lately and was possessed by a wave of familiarity and nostalgia.
After all, we were one of the first groups to playtest The Masquerade (at one of these small cons), and I remember all the clans and stuff. We had a really good time for a while, playing that. But, like I said, when it got to be the game to play, it attracted a ton of people who weren't true gamers and it ruined the whole thing. Then they released so many books for it so suddenly and everyone was playing it and slamming all the other games and systems and it just became the system to hate out of... loyalty, maybe? Out of whatever it is that makes me want to punch the 14-year old kid who argues with me as to whether Wolverine is Canadian or Australian. Right in the effing mouth...
So, my "stay-cation" Comic-Con will consist of everything but the celebrities. So if any celebs/creators are reading and would like to drop me a line, I'd appreciate it. Look at it this way: you don't have to sign 13 issues of Epic for me, so it's a win-win situation.
Also, all the rest of you who can't be at Comic-Con feel free to drop a line and let me know what you're doing!
Of course, I'll be watching G4's coverage tonight, so I'll be "attending" vicariously, and I think it would be fun if some of us who couldn't make it sort-of created our own, virtual "convention." I'm sure folks are doing it everywhere, and I know G4 has a forums/chatroom thing going on, but I have a feeling those places are going to have as many "l33t haterz" in there as actual fanboys, so I figured I'd just do this myself. If you want to join-in, let us know what you're doing to celebrate your fanboy-ism this weekend and maybe we'll get a good discussion going on whatever.
© C Harris Lynn, 2008
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