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Gaming cons

maquiscat

maquiscat

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Since this section doesn't seem to have a limit on types of gaming this looks.like the right place.

How many of you have been to board game conventions? My family and I will be heading to BFGCon (Big Fredrick (MD) Gaming Convention) this weekend. We will be running the games library. This is BFG's 2nd year.

Other cons we have gone to include Pax Unplugged, Dreamation, DexCon, GenCon, S'mores and Meeples and Metatopia (which is for designers to Alpha and Beta test their games)

What have you been to.and what are your thoughts.on them?

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I went to a board gaming con MANY years ago (1990?). Back then pen and paper and table top games were considerably bigger than the digital alternatives... even though by then I was already seeing my gaming future as being largely electronics based.

It was interesting. I went with my college gaming club. Played some D&D Pugs, sat in on some Battletech game sessions, but I found the experience for me to be underwhelming at the time. I have rather acute tinnitus which greatly interferes with my ability to hear in large crowds, so playing an RPG in a crowded convention hall was more stress than fun for me.
 
jmotivator said:
I went to a board gaming con MANY years ago (1990?). Back then pen and paper and table top games were considerably bigger than the digital alternatives... even though by then I was already seeing my gaming future as being largely electronics based.

It was interesting. I went with my college gaming club. Played some D&D Pugs, sat in on some Battletech game sessions, but I found the experience for me to be underwhelming at the time. I have rather acute tinnitus which greatly interferes with my ability to hear in large crowds, so playing an RPG in a crowded convention hall was more stress than fun for me.
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Cons have come a long way since then. While there are rooms set aside for RPG'd and LARP's, a lot more focus is on the board games, like Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Munchkin, just to name some highly popular ones. Background nosie does tend to be less in those rooms and also affects play less than RPG's. Mind you, in your specific case, I'm not sure how.much difference it makes, but in general play tends to be easier with regards to hearing.

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maquiscat said:
Cons have come a long way since then. While there are rooms set aside for RPG'd and LARP's, a lot more focus is on the board games, like Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Munchkin, just to name some highly popular ones. Background nosie does tend to be less in those rooms and also affects play less than RPG's. Mind you, in your specific case, I'm not sure how.much difference it makes, but in general play tends to be easier with regards to hearing.
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Well, one of the weird things about tinnitus is that an audible cue seems to be lost in my ear (and people with tinnitus) that makes it nearly impossible to split competing sounds at the same level. As long as there is a lot of competing noise at the same level I can't filter out the background noise. If I had to guess, I think there is something in the higher ranges that the brain can use to actively select near versus far sounds. Low pitch sounds travel further than high pitch sounds, so maybe there is some near imperceptible tone to a nearby voice that your brain can tag, while when you have tinnitus your ears just dump high pitch sound on everything... it's like asking a Red/Green colorblind person to pick green from red.
 
jmotivator said:
Well, one of the weird things about tinnitus is that an audible cue seems to be lost in my ear (and people with tinnitus) that makes it nearly impossible to split competing sounds at the same level. As long as there is a lot of competing noise at the same level I can't filter out the background noise. If I had to guess, I think there is something in the higher ranges that the brain can use to actively select near versus far sounds. Low pitch sounds travel further than high pitch sounds, so maybe there is some near imperceptible tone to a nearby voice that your brain can tag, while when you have tinnitus your ears just dump high pitch sound on everything... it's like asking a Red/Green colorblind person to pick green from red.
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Ironically enough we game regularly with a color blind person. He's learned many ways to compensate. As for hearing, I was more trying to note that speech is not as important for board games as it is for RPG's. It can be helpful and handy, and make the game more enjoyable, but with many board games you can get by without. Except One Night. Yeah need to be able to hear clearly for that.

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Ive been to a few cons, but never played a game in them. When I played tabletop RPGs, it was usually in someone's house, so there was no audience or people going in and out of the halls to distract me.
 
maquiscat said:
Ironically enough we game regularly with a color blind person. He's learned many ways to compensate. As for hearing, I was more trying to note that speech is not as important for board games as it is for RPG's. It can be helpful and handy, and make the game more enjoyable, but with many board games you can get by without. Except One Night. Yeah need to be able to hear clearly for that.

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Well, yeah, 99% of table top gaming for me is the social aspect.
 
PoS said:
Ive been to a few cons, but never played a game in them. When I played tabletop RPGs, it was usually in someone's house, so there was no audience or people going in and out of the halls to distract me.
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We're they specifically board game cons?

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maquiscat said:
We're they specifically board game cons?

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Not really. They were mixed with RPG games and stuff.
 
I have been to a great many conventions, especially in the 1980s.

I pretty regularly hit every big one in the LA area from 1982 until 1986. Back then D&D and the miniature games were really big, especially those that used the WRG Ancient system and 25mm figures. But also everything else from Diplomacy and Risk to Axis & Allies and everything else.

One regular was a gigantic 12 foot version of the game board for Avalon Hill's Circus Maximus, as well as other popular games at the time.

Towards the end of that era, Lost Worlds and Ace of Aces had become particularly large. Those are long gone now, that area now largely taken by the card games like Magic.

What to expect? Lots of cosplay, lots of geeks and nerds who live, breathe, and rarely bathe unless it involves a game. And games you could never have imagined. You will see some playing some literally out of print for 40 years, and others that are still very much still in a beta teste phase. But they are a lot of fun.
 
Oozlefinch said:
I have been to a great many conventions, especially in the 1980s.

I pretty regularly hit every big one in the LA area from 1982 until 1986. Back then D&D and the miniature games were really big, especially those that used the WRG Ancient system and 25mm figures. But also everything else from Diplomacy and Risk to Axis & Allies and everything else.

One regular was a gigantic 12 foot version of the game board for Avalon Hill's Circus Maximus, as well as other popular games at the time.

Towards the end of that era, Lost Worlds and Ace of Aces had become particularly large. Those are long gone now, that area now largely taken by the card games like Magic.

What to expect? Lots of cosplay, lots of geeks and nerds who live, breathe, and rarely bathe unless it involves a game. And games you could never have imagined. You will see some playing some literally out of print for 40 years, and others that are still very much still in a beta teste phase. But they are a lot of fun.
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Regular board and card games are back on the rise now.

Want to be a Beta tester? There is actually a con that is specifically for publishers/designers to bring their games in development for other to play and provide feedback on. It's held in Morriston NJ. I can provide further details for anyone interested. I will say it's a lot of fun. Two of my spouses got to play Sharknado before it came out, and are probably listed among the play testers.

And the classics are still around. I think there were at least 3 of the old Bookshelf games from Avalon Hill/3M in the library that my family was running for BFG Con this past March.
 
Oozlefinch said:
I have been to a great many conventions, especially in the 1980s.

I pretty regularly hit every big one in the LA area from 1982 until 1986. Back then D&D and the miniature games were really big, especially those that used the WRG Ancient system and 25mm figures. But also everything else from Diplomacy and Risk to Axis & Allies and everything else.

One regular was a gigantic 12 foot version of the game board for Avalon Hill's Circus Maximus, as well as other popular games at the time.

Towards the end of that era, Lost Worlds and Ace of Aces had become particularly large. Those are long gone now, that area now largely taken by the card games like Magic.

What to expect? Lots of cosplay, lots of geeks and nerds who live, breathe, and rarely bathe unless it involves a game. And games you could never have imagined. You will see some playing some literally out of print for 40 years, and others that are still very much still in a beta teste phase. But they are a lot of fun.
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I used to have like 20 different Lost Worlds books and several Ace of Aces book pairs... I lost all of the lost worlds books (irony!), and only still have the Balloon Busters version of Ace of Aces... probably the weakest one.

Now that I am a man of some means I might start reacquiring my lost youth... more to erase the old sting of losing what was a kings ransom at the time.
 
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