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Valerie Putman: Prose on Cons—Dragon*Con 2007
Helloooooooooo Sparta! I remember thinking as I left the theater for 300 that this was going to be a great year for Dragon*Con. That’s because D*C is a science fiction and fantasy convention with plenty of Cosplay, which is con speak for “costume play"—lots of people dressing up as their favorite characters. Sure, some exhibitionists wear nothing more than duct tape, but there are plenty of elaborate costumes that must have taken hundreds of hours to construct and a team to assemble once on site. I watched six people put together a man’s Optimus Prime costume, for example, and once assembled, the guy was about 10 feet tall and could transform into a truck! It was an amazing feat of engineering and acrobatics. I had hoped to see a few well-muscled, barely dressed men in red capes after seeing 300 and I was not disappointed. The Spartans were out in full force.
Of course, some costumes are intended more for comedic effect. Three large (and brave) men dressed as Spartans from a different movie—300 Pounds! Their helmets were made from fried chicken buckets and their shields were pizza boxes. Their battle cry was, “Tonight we dine at the Golden Corral!”
And my favorite Spartan was a bit R-rated. We’ll see if Eric lets me post this one!
While some boardgaming did go on at Dragon*Con, the most fun game to play was the people watching/guess the costume game. There were the anime costumes that I couldn’t identify, the video game costumes that Tyler could pick out, and the television characters that most of us were familiar with, but no boardgaming themes that could really let my niche knowledge shine. So I started to wonder, how would you dress up in a way that boardgamers would “get” but the average con attendee wouldn’t? Tyler suggested Ra from Board 2 Pieces. I was thinking of a naughty Little Bo Peep—because naughty in front of anything works at Dragon*Con—who is carrying a stuffed sheep with a sign asking, “Got wood?” What do you think? Any other suggestions?
Here are a few more costumes from the convention:
For those of you actually wanting to hear boardgame news in this column, I guess I could give a rundown on the gaming side of the convention. Gaming was given prime real estate, just down the hall from one of the main open spaces where people watching took place. Four rooms were labled for open boardgaming, demos, wargaming, and miniatures. The boardgame room wasn’t very well set up, and it was usually packed. There were large round tables and not enough of them which meant that you had to stake out your territory for the day, then game while leaning far over the big table.
There were games available to be checked out of a small library. Most readers will easily have a larger collection at home, but it was nice when you wanted a pick-up game and all of your games were back in your hotel room. (I do highly recommend bringing a tub of games to the convention.) I got to see several familiar faces from the Atlanta gaming circle, but far more unfamiliar faces playing mostly Settlers of Catan and Munchkin. There were also Werewolf games going on out in the hallway non-stop.
In reality, if you’re looking for a boardgame convention, this isn’t it. If you’re looking for a party with fellow geeks where the occasional boardgame breaks out, then this might be the con you’re looking for. It’s one of my favorite weekends every year.
I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman
Posted by Valerie Putman on Sep 9, 2007 at 01:00 AM in Columnists, Valerie Putman / 3729
Comments:
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No offense Valerie, but I would much rather have photos of the Optimus Prime guy than the “full Spartan assault.” Posted by Eric Clark on Sep 9, 2007 at 02:47 AM | #
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Yeah...sorry about that. We watched Optimus Prime get put together from a balcony and he was swarmed with people taking pictures. They moved him to a different area once he was ready because he was causing hazardous traffic jams on the escalator. I wanted to let the crowd die down a bit and so I waited about 30 minutes before I went to take a picture and they were already taking him apart! Posted by Valerie Putman on Sep 9, 2007 at 06:43 AM | #
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Thank god that it was the full assauslt was of the young virile Spartan and not the 300 pound variety! Dale Posted by Dale Yu on Sep 9, 2007 at 07:22 AM | #
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Unbelievably sexist article. This sets us back 300 years, at least. Posted by Ryan Bretsch on Sep 9, 2007 at 11:21 AM | #
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(LOL) Posted by Ryan Bretsch on Sep 9, 2007 at 11:36 AM | #
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I know, Ryan. How fabulous is that? :-) Posted by Melissa Rogerson on Sep 9, 2007 at 09:46 PM | #
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It’s awesome! Women objectifying men… (LOL) Posted by Ryan Bretsch on Sep 10, 2007 at 11:21 AM | #
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What’s not to like about that? (LOL) Posted by Ryan Bretsch on Sep 10, 2007 at 11:22 AM | #
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Hi, I am the director of board Games at Dragon Con and I would like to thank you for attending. The games library that we had was on loan to us from one of our volunteers. He graciously stepped in to let us borrow his games as the library that we have was woefully inadequate to putting on an adequate boardgaming experience. In addition to the main ‘Open’ board gaming area, we also ran enough Star Fleet Battles to qualify one player to Captains rank and our daily Catan tournament. I will admit that the open area was a bit inadequate for boardgaming with the 8’ rounds. The main boardgames library that were to use was unavailable due to flooding in the greater Columbus, OH area. I hope to increase the number of games we have available for next years con. I am new to Directing Board Games and after seeing what i had after I arrived I decided to make the best of what I had. Based on the experience that I had this year I am going to insure that that we have the smaller rectangular tables and more of them in a larger open/boardgaming area.
Posted by Phil Collins on Sep 10, 2007 at 10:20 PM | #
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Phil,
While the boardgamers in the open gaming area tended to be of the Munchkin and Settlers variety, they certainly seemed interested in the few tables of meatier Eurogames going on around them. I think that there are a lot of people who attend Dragon*Con who would be interested in gaming, but are bombarded with so many other great choices for things to do over the weekend. That said, the one thing I’d love to see at D*C would be a booth in the exhibit hall directed at gateway games. Troll & Toad had a large booth, but I saw a lot of interested noobs overwhelmed by the options. A booth targeted at non-gamers interested in starting a family game night or in expanding their horizon past Settlers (which sold out quickly at any booths carrying it) might do really well. Fill the shelves with Ticket to Ride, Around the World in 80 Days, TransAmerica, Thief of Baghdad, That’s Life!, Hey! That’s My Fish, If Wishes Were Fishes, and other classic gateway games. Then, have a section of “advanced games” with some of the BGG top 10 titles like Caylus, Puerto Rico, and Power Grid and maybe a “new releases” section for people like me. Make the sections well labeled so that shoppers know what to buy. (Actually, a different booth isn’t necessary...if Troll & Toad just organized their booth differently or had the staff to really help new gamers make selections, that would work too.) Posted by Valerie Putman on Sep 11, 2007 at 07:37 AM | #
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Interesting comments Valerie. We have discussed internally a different setup for boardgames, but haven’t decided on anything just yet. We currently setup alphabetically, with the table used for small product, and hot or interesting titles. I easily could have left half the games at the warehouse, but the trick is to figure out which half to leave. I’m definitely looking forward to next year though, it was a fun con. Hopefully next year the construction will be done. Posted by Ed Bryan on Sep 12, 2007 at 02:10 PM | #
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