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I am far too keyed-up to sleep right now, so I'll make a post and try to pack some things, then go to bed.
BGG.con was pretty awesome. I am definitely coming back next year, and I think it'll probably replace Origins for me.
The good:
- It's in Texas, so I get to drive, and no plane tickets, no packing, no flight departures determining my schedule. Basically I block out an entire day for air travel, and driving here is a simple four hours.
- No kids. It's hard to explain, but it makes it better. It's a subtle difference. Their policy is no one under 18 without an escort, and no one under 12 period. I saw a couple babies in carriers but that doesn't really count and they weren't obnoxious anyway. It's the pre-teens that usually make Origins annoying.
- Serious games. Origins has a lot of nice crunchy Euro games too, don't get me wrong, but there's also a lot of Ameritrash. BGG.con is all about the Euro games, the new stuff from Essen, the big strategy games. You won't find any gamers who don't want to play a nice 1-2 hour game, because that's why they're here.
- The library. This is amazing, and it puts the Origins Board Room to shame. There's, basically, every game there. They have them all. I wish I had been able to get a panoramic picture of it. And I mean they have everything, rare stuff, old stuff, new stuff, everything. It really makes for a hell of a party when you can sit around talking with gamers about games, and then decide to play one and you can be certain it's right there, available.
- The people. Origins has a good crowd too, of course. I haven't seen Rachel and Mark in forever and that sucks. But aside from Joe Cochran and his group of friends (who are all really fun to play with) the crowd in general is good. Even if you know no one, you can wander the main hall looking for a "players needed" flag, introduce yourself to someone nice, and sit down and play a game. I played so many new things that way. You can be confident that, whoever you sit down with, they're also a crunchy-Euro-game fan.
The bad:
- The location is not so awesome. It's not walkable at all, there's nothing around to go to. Origins is in the middle of a nice downtown area; here you're pretty much limited to the hotel restaurant, which is a hotel restaurant. There's a free shuttle to other places but it takes a couple hours so I never went; there's no equivalent to "let's run down and grab food to go from North Market."
The neutral:
- The dealers room. It's smaller. A lot smaller. Not the awe-inspiring majesty of the Origins dealers room at all. But, on the other hand, practically everything I would want was there: all the big strategy game companies are there, what you're missing is a lot of fluffy stuff. So I'm kind of okay with that. I mean, I should be, I spent a lot of money there (and not all of it on myself).
Anyway, I had a hell of a good time. I played more games this weekend than I think I have in the entire last year. It's definitely not a "show up and go to panels" con, or a "show up and play in tournaments" con, or a "show up and buy things" con. It's about playing. All. The. Games.
And now, of course, I'm exhausted, and I think I caught a cold, and I may have to drive through an ice storm tomorrow to get home.
BGG.con was pretty awesome. I am definitely coming back next year, and I think it'll probably replace Origins for me.
The good:
- It's in Texas, so I get to drive, and no plane tickets, no packing, no flight departures determining my schedule. Basically I block out an entire day for air travel, and driving here is a simple four hours.
- No kids. It's hard to explain, but it makes it better. It's a subtle difference. Their policy is no one under 18 without an escort, and no one under 12 period. I saw a couple babies in carriers but that doesn't really count and they weren't obnoxious anyway. It's the pre-teens that usually make Origins annoying.
- Serious games. Origins has a lot of nice crunchy Euro games too, don't get me wrong, but there's also a lot of Ameritrash. BGG.con is all about the Euro games, the new stuff from Essen, the big strategy games. You won't find any gamers who don't want to play a nice 1-2 hour game, because that's why they're here.
- The library. This is amazing, and it puts the Origins Board Room to shame. There's, basically, every game there. They have them all. I wish I had been able to get a panoramic picture of it. And I mean they have everything, rare stuff, old stuff, new stuff, everything. It really makes for a hell of a party when you can sit around talking with gamers about games, and then decide to play one and you can be certain it's right there, available.
- The people. Origins has a good crowd too, of course. I haven't seen Rachel and Mark in forever and that sucks. But aside from Joe Cochran and his group of friends (who are all really fun to play with) the crowd in general is good. Even if you know no one, you can wander the main hall looking for a "players needed" flag, introduce yourself to someone nice, and sit down and play a game. I played so many new things that way. You can be confident that, whoever you sit down with, they're also a crunchy-Euro-game fan.
The bad:
- The location is not so awesome. It's not walkable at all, there's nothing around to go to. Origins is in the middle of a nice downtown area; here you're pretty much limited to the hotel restaurant, which is a hotel restaurant. There's a free shuttle to other places but it takes a couple hours so I never went; there's no equivalent to "let's run down and grab food to go from North Market."
The neutral:
- The dealers room. It's smaller. A lot smaller. Not the awe-inspiring majesty of the Origins dealers room at all. But, on the other hand, practically everything I would want was there: all the big strategy game companies are there, what you're missing is a lot of fluffy stuff. So I'm kind of okay with that. I mean, I should be, I spent a lot of money there (and not all of it on myself).
Anyway, I had a hell of a good time. I played more games this weekend than I think I have in the entire last year. It's definitely not a "show up and go to panels" con, or a "show up and play in tournaments" con, or a "show up and buy things" con. It's about playing. All. The. Games.
And now, of course, I'm exhausted, and I think I caught a cold, and I may have to drive through an ice storm tomorrow to get home.
