Guest Post: A look back at Gen Con

Hello dear readers! I’ve been taking a bit of a sabbatical from blogging this summer, working on some other projects in my life and taking time to just be me. One of the things I’ve done is check out different cons around the area, enjoying the experience of something new. I don’t often get to view cons through the eyes of a newcomer- a fresh perspective always reminds me of why I love this community. My friend Leah attended her first Gen Con this year. Check out her thoughts below!

I am new to this whole geek thing. For most of my life I was more likely to be found on a tennis court or in a barn than playing video games or reading a comic book. (Although I did play countless hours of NBA Jam on my Sega Genesis.) I’ve known Claire and Nicole for a few years now, and they are showing me the ways of the geek and helping me find new interests.

Claire and Nicole have been talking about Gen Con since forever, so I decided to wander down to the convention center to see what it was all about. When I first got into the exhibition hall, I was completely overwhelmed. There were so many people and I did not know where to begin. I followed the stream of people and tried to find something that I knew anything about. I eventually ended up in the Settlers of Catan area and stayed there to plot my next move, which was lunch.

During lunch, I met up with Claire, who helped me find my way around the convention for the rest of the afternoon. We have fairly similar interests, and she had already scoped out the exhibition hall over the course of the weekend. She showed me all of the highlights and we shopped at the booths that she had wanted to stop in throughout the course of the weekend. I ended up with 2 new strategy games from the makers of Catan, Urbania and Gangster. At the end of the afternoon, we sat down to play a round of Gangster, which was really fun after you got through the set up.

So the verdict. Would I go again? Absolutely. I went into GenCon not knowing what to expect. It was fun. There was so much to see and do. Next year I am going to have a better gameplan and maybe pick up an event program. I will definitely do my research online beforehand. Now I have a whole year to study up on geek culture so I know more about all the things I saw at Gen Con.

Leah is a recent transplant to Indianapolis. She has a slight obsession with Draco Malfoy and is always willing to chat about basketball and beef cows. Her next geek mission is to finish reading the Game of Thrones books before she watches the show. Follow her on Twitter @10strumpet.