GenCon Indy part 1: General Impressions

This was my second year for making a random, nearly spontaneous trek down to Indianapolis for GenCon Indy, and the second year that I only got to spend a day at the con instead of the full four (for reasons beyond my control).  Still, it was a day much worth the long drive, long lines and now-aching feet — and I wanted to share a little bit of the experience with you.  In the second part of this article, I’ll talk about some of the MMO developers I met and what I gleaned from them.

I set my alarm for 5:45 and was out of my parents’ house (they live in Indy, so I spent the night) by 6:30, arriving at the Indianapolis Convention Center by a “holy CRAP is it early” 7:00am.  I’m glad I did so, as I got a great parking spot, and only had to wait in a 45-minute long badge registration line versus what become a 1.5 hour line later on in the day.

Once I got my badge and my pathetic “swag bag” (the best items in it was a 6-sided die and a 6-card Magic booster pack), I upgraded my status from “general nerd” to “press nerd” by registering in a room and proving that Bio Break isn’t just about janitorial services.  Having some time to kill, I wandered the main area and checked out the side rooms, including a huge 24/7 gaming room (where you could borrow any board game ever made to play) and this massive Serra Angel statue that Wizards of the Coast put up for us to worship:

The only thing my press badge did for me was to get me in the exhibit hall an hour before the general crowd — I had visions of geeks bowing at my feet, but nothing doing.  Still, at 9am I ducked in the side doors and made a beeline for the video game section of this aircraft hanger-sized room, and spent an hour visiting with the fine folks at Mythic (but we’ll talk about that in the next part).  Following that and a few other pit stops to MMO and video game booths, I spent the better part of three hours touring the hall, checking out obscenely priced merchandise, buying a Tenth Doctor action figure for my wife, and generally being giddy that geekdom has created all of these fine products.

Oh, and of course, I had to oggle at a lot of things you don’t typically see every day:

Oh hey, it's Middle-Aged Baronness! I never got that action figure...

The "Real" Ghostbusters, or so they told me.

This lady told me she came from Florida, but had to ship up her gear separately -- that's dedication

When I told my wife the TARDIS was there, she about flipped a lid that she missed it

I couldn't figure out what this vendor was selling, but that is one tricked-out computer

This is kind of how I envision all Bio Break readers to look

This Solid Snake actually stayed in character, growling and hiding in boxes

GenCon: where nobody blurts out, "Why are those grown men conducting an elaborate naval war campaign using intricate Lego ships?"

Me and some dumpy short Italian guy

Smurfette became a Jedi? I guess?

When a guy writes a book called "Star Wars Jesus", you kind of have to, by law, go over and talk to him -- the book's actually quite interesting

A giant card Magic game. Duh.

After having lunch, I wanted to check out “True Dungeon”, a big event that was being held over in the Marriott.  I talked to a few people who raved about it, and it seemed like a great way to end my visit to the con, so I trundled over and signed up for a one-hour session.  This is when they made me sign a waver which included the following language:

That’s right.  This “will involve the risk of moderate electrical shocks” — how could I *not* try it?

True Dungeon ended up being pretty neat.  It’s basically a series of life-sized dungeons that you explore with a party, during which you are tasked with solving a problem or killing a monster or unraveling a puzzle in order to progress to the next room.  Failure to do so within 12 minutes resulted in hit point loss for you and your team, but you could use tokens (items) to help out, find hidden secrets, and generally get into the groove of what turned out to be a D&D-themed haunted house.

Our party had six rooms (we did a small version of the dungeon — the regular ones run twice the size) to progress through to find and steal a relic for a mad wizard.  We had to prove our worth as thieves in the first couple rooms — using a grappling hook to cross a moat, picking locks, going through a room slow enough not to set off a motion sensor, and twisting our bodies through a hallway rigged with ropes and bells.  After that, we fought off a guard and then arrived in our last room to solve the final mystery — and solve it we did.  I was really impressed with the ingenuity, design and concept of True Dungeon.  People in the party I was with said they did it religiously at GenCon, and had years’ worth of accumulated XP and treasure.

That’s all for this picture-laden post — tune in later for part 2: The Games!