NEWS: Wil Wheaton's Geek In Review: Living the Dream at So-Cal Gen Con

I have to say I am still not a big fan of Wesley but I love your columns here. I just wish I still knew anyone who played anything. I did the comic con thing a couple of times but it has been many years since I RP'd in real life or went to any kind of convention.

Dude, find a local game shop with a bulletin board. Many stores have one in order to help gamers find a group.

+1 for sure. that's amazing.

Wil, awesome piece. it made me miss the days whe RST was still privately owned and GenCon was held in Milwaukee every year...and i could go...and i still gamed, all my friends are too cool to be geeks now a days...*sigh*

My girlfriend didn't believe me about the smell of some con attendees until she came with me to San Diego.

I would like it if the cons had some sort of deal where they could hire people to hand out deodorant.

Meh - you've got another Harvest Moon lover right here. What can I say? I have ovaries; thusly, I like things which are cute, and HM is cute.

And, after reading many more responses, I think I have to add "Playing Settlers of Catan with all these really cool people" to my list of "Things That Would Be Awesome But Will Never Happen - Stupid World!"

I also feel the need to link to Fear of Girls. I can pick out traits of just about every gamer I've ever known between the two guys in this short film. My ex husband was particularly glorified in the moment of "Mercy?? MERCY?? I'M CHAOTIC NEUTRAL!!!"

I also highly recommend the Penny Arcade Expo. It's a FANTASTIC gaming convention in Seattle that's been going on for 3 years so far and doubling in attendance every year because it's so good at being about gamers getting together.

Alas, the demise of MosCon. But, when you get down, just remember...

Cthulhu loathes you!

Excellent article - just letting you know you were part of my friends' gaming past:


Dual classification and high cunning made you a good addition to Federation decks

Devil Bunny doesn't want a ham..Devil Bunny Needs A Ham! I've heard he hates the earth, too.

Cheapass Games and Looney Labs always get a lot of my time whenever I make it to a con now.

I couldn't make it to Indy or SoCal this year. I even had a free pass for the ad I was in. (Hmmm....got dissed by my fellow gamers for it. That makes good company.)

SoCal is a tough hit. Indy (formerly Milwaukee) has been around for a long time...getting enough attendance for SoCal to become a tradition could be rough. There has to be enough stuff going on to get attendance, so you can get exhibitors, so you can get more attendance.

Thanks for the con report!

Wil, you are DEAD WRONG about "Batman and Robin."

Oh wait, that was "Batman," wasn't it? I always called the show Batman and Robin when I was a kid. The movie is worth owning. If only for the classic lines like:

"Batman: Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb! "
"Catwoman: Marry me, Batman!
Batman: But what about Robin?"
"Batman: Bon Voyage, Pussy"

What sits in a tree and is dangerous?

A sparrow with a machine gun!!

It's lines like that that always made me expect Batman to just smack Robin upside the head and shout, "Quit fucking around! People's LIVES are at stake, you little shit!"

Went to SoCal myself, helping to run a booth, which cut down on gaming time, to be sure. I first went when... let's say when ST: TNG had just started. And I was playing lots of Car Wars!

For some reason, I'm reminded of a list of "Ways to Kill Wesley Crusher" someone had left on a flier table and invited people to add to. "Drop him in the Neutral Zone in a pod marked 'Romulans suck!'" comes to mind. Never understood all the rancor... don't like, then don't watch.

It was a fun con, but a bit thin in the dealer's room.

Yeah, dunno, never was particularly bothered by Wesley when I still watched the show. These days I'm not particularly impressed by Trek, but it still geeks me out that you're an editor here, much less a gamer. Go figure.

I always wanted to go to GenCon but it was several hours away when it was in Wisconsin and I couldn't convince my parents to take me (they aren't gamers). And now that I could probably have arranged to go at least once, it's in Indy (and SoCal) and those are completely out of the question. *sighs*

Still, I hit up Con of the North most years (the local gaming con. The only local gaming con, as far as I know.). While I can play board and card games on a mostly weekly basis, it's a lot tougher to get any sort of roleplaying going because of the regular attendance required and the considerably smaller pool of people who're interested. Plus finding a GM...man. I generally have had to run things myself, and, y'know...it's not something I dislike...but I'd rather be a player. So Con of the North provides that opportunity.

I sometimes also play nonroleplaying games that I wouldn't otherwise get to play. I particularly liked a session last year where we got to play Steve Jackson Games' "Hacker", complete with the expansion and I believe a few house rules. It's a game that I like very much but I can't seem to get my usual group(s) to play. And what made that session particularly fine was that the guy running it had thought to provide an extra touch of ambiance: cases of Jolt cola and Bawls, free for the players and plenty of both.