First things first: What kind of Mickey Mouse organization holds a gaming convention in Anaheim? In November? (official city motto: Just Play Along and Pretend you're in LA) Southern California and wargaming seem to be on odd pairing until you remember one simple thing. Actually eighty simple things, known as degrees. As in "It was eighty degrees when I went to a convention in Anaheim in late November." Then it all makes a little more sense. Hmm, maybe that's why people want to live in California. You know it's not for the educational system. As for people being willing to spend hundreds of dollars to travel and go play games the week before Thanksgiving? Well, turkey is overrated anyway. As it stands with the scheduling of other Gencon conventions during the year, November is likely to stick. And while there is no definitive date set for next year, Gencon is committed to Anaheim for the foreseeable future (despite circulating rumors to the contrary).
Several weeks before the show, I began my pre-con training regimen in order to prepare for Southern California. The grueling plan involved several intense rounds of hitting the tanning beds, receiving botox injections, and undergoing breast augmentation. It's all worked out quite nicely. The botox injections give the impression that I'm always paying attention, especially important when talking with my wife. The new texture of my skin has been a boon for my ability to sculpt leather, and the implants are excellent wrist rests for my sculpting. They're unbelievably stable.
While Southern California isn't exactly in my backyard, it's a quick little flight from the Bay Area. I was expecting things to go wrong this time, but somehow I, and my luggage, all managed to arrive in the correct city, at the same time, on the same day. God bless America. For all you travelers out there with your conservative little black travel bags that look identical to the other seventy conservative little black travel bags on the luggage carousel, I'm telling you, magenta is the only way to travel. You think I'm kidding.
Attendance for the show was officially 6,300 unique visitors this year, a 12% increase over 2004. 12% growth sounds great, unfortunately it may be a little misleading. That would work out to 675 more people in '05 compared to '04, but at least 400 of those new attendees were due to school field trips, not actual gamers (The boys at Ogre Cave broke the story). Without them, the growth was less than 5% over 2004. Not quite as impressive.
Any way you measure it, Gencon SoCal is right about one-quarter of the size of Gencon Indy. That, in a nutshell, is the primary problem. Many people came in expecting Indianapolis and found a convention that offered a fraction of it. One fourth of the games, one fourth of the dealers, one fourth of the seminars, one fourth of the humidity, all for the same price. The dealer area was tiny, and it's easy to see why so many dealers shy away. Why spend the money to reach 6,000 people when you can reach 25,000 for the about the same cost?
Those who had attended in previous years commented that the layout was more compact and centralized. Even so, there was still plenty of space to move around. Fewer people may be bad for business, but it makes getting around easier and more comfortable. Despite being warm and sunny outside, the convention space was cold and windowless. The AC was set to 37 degrees, no doubt to keep out-of-staters traveling from the frozen wastelands of the Midwest from going into shock.
The main convention area itself was dedicated primarily to card games. I didn't have my tape measure or abacus handy, but I'd say card games comprised 50-60% of the main floor space. There were a lot of cards. The heathen masses have yet to truly embrace the third dimension. There were huge displays promoting, um, well, whatever the flavor of the month is in card games. I know I saw super heroes. I'm not personally into the whole card game thing. It leaves me flat. (Ba-dum ching.)
I'm thinking of making my own card game. Hell, everybody else is doing it. It's convention based.
"I play my Indy 'Cloud of Stinking Doom' card!"
"I block it with my SoCal 'Freezing AC of Death' card!"
"Countered with my Gamesday 'Deafening Adolescent Roar'!"
It has 'hit' written all over it. I'm going to get rich, be bought out by Mattel, and retire to a semi-private island. Later suckers! Until that time, I should probably finish writing this though...
The con was fairly light on minis. Privateer was the only major player in attendance. They surprised everyone with the pre-release sale of 600 Hordes boxed sets. I picked up one. Or five. More surprising than the pre-release was how loudly many Warmachine players whined afterwards about not being able to get any for themselves. Three words: Whiny. Little. Beyotches.
Hordes is set to officially release in April. Privateer is trying to convince everyone it's a new game, but it's 98% exactly the same as Warmachine. The only difference is the resource management mechanic is set up so that you HAVE to buy the big expensive beasts in order to field an effective army.
Crunch-Waffle is a brand new gaming company, er, they were two months ago at the con. They've probably become jaded, disillusioned industry veterans in the time it's taken me to actually post this. They released their first miniatures at SoCal. The style is generally more realistic and subdued than the current Heroic trends in the industry. This may be because Gael Goumon has done many of the sculpts. The figs are decent quality, sculpted by familiar names. The imagery is on the exotic side. From what I've seen, there are African, Eastern, Native American, and other influences in some of the figs. Supporting d20 supplements and a skirmish game are in the works. Hopefully those will serve to bring together the apparently disjointed imagery. Anything different is good. As long as it's not more rehashing of the same tired Tolkien knock-offs, I'm all for it.
...Which brings me to Aberrant Games' Rezolution. I really wanted to like this. The concept artwork looked interesting. The skirmish level scale was right for me. I watched a couple demos and the rules seemed serviceable. The setting is different. It's fresh. It's not another gothic, Brom-GW lovechild wannabe. I really did want to like it. Honestly. But the figures, with very few exceptions, can be generously described as mediocre. I guess that makes me shallow. I can live with that. Life is too short to waste on bad miniatures.
Speaking of things to focus your eyes on while you avoid looking at bad minis, I finally had a chance to check out Darkson Designs' Painting Guide Volume I. I have to admit, it was better than I expected. The bulk of the book consists of painting articles written by various upstanding citizens of the miniature painting community. I actually learned something when I read through it, which is extremely difficult to do when one already knows everything. I can't remember what it was exactly I learned, but I distinctly remember new knowledge entering my brain for a split second.
Darkson also had their alternative WWII line at the show, like Crunch-Waffle, these figs are good quality and relatively realistically proportioned. They come in enough pieces to make a Warmachine fanboy blush. It seems like they've tried to match the variety and versatility of GW's plastic figures. It's something that clients bring up all the time, but I'm still not convinced that it works with metal figures. It just gets to be a pain in the ass putting them together.
Back in my Indy report, I did neglect to mention that when my luggage took its little detour, Mike from Fantization literally offered me the shirt off his back. He and Steve are both great guys. Keep an eye out for some possible collaborations in the near future.
With an eye on the future, let us not forget the past. There was next to nothing in the way of historicals. The historical miniature community was so convinced that Gencon was not supporting them, that they all stayed home. That's a great way to bring in new blood. I applaud the forward thinking.
Now I meet lots of people at cons, but I'm terrible with names. I can barely remember my children's and I've known them for years(I think one starts with an A?) Name tags, in theory, are a good way to get past that. In theory. I think name tags should be replaced by forehead tags, or maybe even those neon-colored ear tags researchers use to track wild animals (Next on Discovery Channel, the migratory patterns of the North American Wargamer. Look how they all flock to the Mountain Dew tap!). They should be placed anywhere that they can be glanced at quickly while pretending to maintain eye contact. Anywhere but the chest. I'm a self-employed artiste. In the US, that's one step above drunken transient as far as respectability goes. I make toy soldiers. I'm not only a nerd, I'm a nerd enabler. I work at home. People keep asking when I'm going to get a real job. I spend hours and hours alone, hunched over a desk. What little semblance of social skills I've ever possessed have atrophied to nothing. I can barely hold a conversation anymore. The only shred of dignity I have left is that I'm a gentleman. The last thing I need is for every woman I meet at a con to think I'm a perv because I look down at her nametag every time we talk. Not that I have anything against breasts. I've met many wonderful convention goers over the years with fantastic breasts (mostly men, but that's besides the point)but I'm definitely open to alternative badge options.