Gen Con 2009 August 25, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in Alteil, Everything else.Tags: Alteil, Black Lotus, Gen Con 2009
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I’m alive! I’m alive!
Sorry for the looong hiatus.
Usually, even if I’m super busy, I try to post about anything to update my blog so people won’t get bored seeing the same front page over and over. But I got pretty tied up with my work and I had to go to another convention. Now that I’m back and finished the project I was working on, I’m gonna get my lazy butt in gear, and start bento-ing! But before that, I’ll blog about the con my boyfriend and I went.
My boyfriend and I were at Gen Con, the biggest card gaming/table top gaming convention in the world, which was held in Indianapolis last weekend. (8/12-16) I was going to update my blog from the hotel, but the hotel’s internet was soooooooooooo slow. (12KBs or something like that)
We weren’t there to attend the con, but we were working at the con for my company’s imported online card game, called Alteil.
Bathroom sign at Indianapolis airport. Seems like the women are curvier and sexier and the men are more buffed and manlier in Indianapolis.
We always have a lot of fun when we work at a convention together, but this convention was a little different from a regular anime convention. The average age of Gen Con attendees seem to be a little older than that of anime conventions. I’m no a card gamer, but even I know that a card game like Magic: The Gathering can be very expensive. (see the picture below) So most Gen Con attendees have a job to support their hobby. And they save up for Gen Con to spend, or go to card tournaments. (There are literally hundreds of tournaments held at Gen Con)
I had never seen "Black Lotus" (ones on the left) in person. ONE card cost about $899~$1800 (They are from a different edition)
Anime convention attendees are… (I’m sorry if I offend anyone, but I’ve been working at anime conventions for 7 years, and this is from my experience… ) Well, they are young, and many of them don’t have a job, so a lot of them have just enough money to go to a con & stay with several other friends in a hotel room. It’s more like a big “get-together” weekend. And a con-hotel (the closest hotel to the convention center) is usually very loud & chaotic. I went to Gen Con last year, so I’ve been telling my boyfriend how different Gen Con was compared to anime conventions, and this year, he got to see it with his own eyes.
In Indianapolis, Christmas trees are considered a threat to people, and kept in a cage underground until Christmas.
The most different thing between a card gaming con and an anime con is that the con-hotel for a card gaming con is super quiet! No one is running around trying to *glomp* people, or screaming random stuff to people. They’re all quietly playing card games in the lobby, in their room, even at the hotel bar. Like I said there are hundreds of tournaments held at Gen Con, so they don’t have time to loiter around the hotel late at night.
Main exhibitor hall at Gen Con
Famous Cardhalla at Gen Con: During the convention a city is constructed out of donated trading card game cards. Near the end of the convention attendees are invited to throw coins at the city to destroy it. The thrown coins are collected and donated to charity. (from WikiPedia)
Since Alteil is an online card game, it’s definitely easier to teach people how to play the game at a card gaming con. Most people get it right away. So even though it was 4-day convention, it wasn’t too hard. We even went to a party held by White Wolf publisher on Saturday night. (White Wolf is known for throwing very “goth” parties at conventions)
At White Wolf party. The "water" they served at the bar for free tasted very nice.
Don’t get me wrong, I like anime conventions for different reasons. But it was definitely a nice change of pace after going to one anime convention right after the other. And yeah, beer was dirt cheap in Indianapolis!
In Indianapolis, 1/2 liter of beer was only $2.01!
After we came back from the con, I got very busy at work. So busy that I had to work at home at night with time to update my blog… But I finally finished my project, so now I can get back to bento-ing! Now that my blog’s one-year anniversary is coming up soon, I have to plan something big… 😉
*I haven’t uploaded Gen Con pictures on my flickr account yet. (I just used the link from Alteil flickr.) I’ll upload them on my account later!
AnnaTheRed's bento factory 
White Wolf parties may be gothy, but are always ossim.
did you play any?
Gen Con is generally a terrific time. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
So You stayed at the Days Inn too?
My husband ran the Epic booth for his new tcg. The last few years he’s co-run the Battleground: Fantasy Warfare booth.
It’s fun to see pics, as he never remembers to take any and I’m stuck home with the kiddos. Sigh.
I’m not sure we actually have any Black Loti left in the house, but there have been times when we’ve had quite a few. The bad economic times have forced him to sell them. I guess you could say we invest in Black Lotus stock, LOL.
Cardhalla is so cool.
yoiang,
Nope. That’s the sad thing about “working” at a con… I usually don’t get to go to any events. (unless it’s held after exhibit hall hour) It’s still a lot of fun though!
Skippy,
We stayed at Hyatt. Last year they had 24-hour pizza buffet at the hotel restaurant, but they were only serving breakfast this year… 😦
veganf,
“I guess you could say we invest in Black Lotus stock”, that’s so true! My friend who plays MTG was saying that Black Lotus was a LOT cheaper last year, and after seeing how much it was going for this year, he wished that he had bought it last year to sell it this year.
Beer *is* cheap in Indianapolis — my sister regularly goes out for quarter beers, where a super cheap brand of beer is 50 cents for a 8 oz. cup! I’ve always wondered about GenCon, especially since the only con I’ve ever known is San Diego Comic-Con (been going for a decade now)…
I went to GenCon last year too – sorry I missed it this time around, but it’s hard to afford it when I’m living in New Zealand.
One of the reasons for the older demographic at GenCon, I think, is that it started out as a roleplaying game convention and quite a long time ago. So there’s some folks out there who’ve roleplaying and wargaming and going to GenCon for… well, longer than I’ve been alive.
White Wolf seems like a fun bunch. A couple of friends of mine used to write for them here and there. Good people 🙂