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Gencon 2008!

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:28 am
by Chalks
As a massive nerd, I love two things:
programming and games.

Gencon (in Indianapolis) sates my desire for the latter. This is my third year going... anyone else from here planning on coming?

Re: Gencon 2008!

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:59 pm
by JAB Creations
Their homepage is sort of lacking to put it lightly. I don't get to go out and do much...but then again I don't know many tech heads in my area. Going to a new Meetup for Ruby or Rails or something like that (don't worry I'm not converting, it's for social-connections). I'm finding Twitter to be useful....

Usually when I can attend an event (most especially anime conventions) I tend to be on the very poor end which is obnoxious. I'm either working and have money...or I can attend without! :roll:

If I were in Indianapolis I'd shot you a message and say let's meet up there! What genres of games are you in to? I love stuff like The Elder Scrolls and pretty much anything but Blizzard (well multiplayer isn't made too fair but you know). Thinking games mostly. UT2004 kicks ass though I was disappointed after buying UT3.

Re: Gencon 2008!

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 10:16 am
by alex.barylski
Just to clarify:

a. Geek: Is someone who is into technology, understands many of it's inner workings and is likely a software developer
b. Nerd: Is someone who plays games either in video or traditional card games like Dungeons and Dragons
c. Dork: Is someone who says in appropriate things at inappropriate times and argues until their face turns blue.

I'm guilty of all three at one point or another. :P

I haven't played video games for a long while and I have never been into comic books, magic cards or anything of that nature...but I LOVE flying around in Flight Simulators...I used to sit in front of my computer screen for literally hours (sometimes a whole day on weekends) flying from Winnipeg to San Fransisco, then Honk Kong, then England, etc.

God I loved that game err simulator. My buddies would call me to go out and play and I'd say "Sorry I'm flying to China right now". LOL

Many people would ask me how I could just stare at a screen all day...but in my mind there was a lot more to it...tracking VOR's and watching the GPS mostly (before MSFS introduced advanced cockpits, tools, etc).

I went to Oshkosh for the EAA airshow with my dad many years ago...they had a booth with the latest FS5...I sat down...took off from Meigs airfield, performed a simple circuit and surprised everyone watching as I schooled everyone else who tried.

That my day of glory. :lol:

Re: Gencon 2008!

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:23 pm
by Chalks
Hehe, I guess if I used those definitions, Hockey, I would fall under all three of them at one time or another as well.

I think I need to clarify what type of games Gencon has. There's a _very_ heavy emphasis on boardgames (think risk or monopoly, except fun). There is a fairly large D&D / Magic the Gathering crowd there, as well as several computer gamers (there was a large area with computers running Crysis), but not nearly as prevalent as the boardgamers. Last year I participated in a Settlers of Catan tournament and it was a blast. This year I'm planning on playing Agricola (a new game from Europe), Diplomacy (a cutthroat game of treaties and the breaking thereof), and I'll probably find time to play A Game of Thrones again (an 8 hour game that is amazingly awesome).


As for computer gaming, even though there's not much of it at Gencon, I do play quite a few. I used to LOVE Sim City 2000... I ruled that game. I also like Civilization type games, the best one by far is Alpha Centauri. I picked up Oblivion recently and really enjoyed it, but I still haven't finished it. UT2004 was the best UT game, and I really enjoyed it. In general though, I only like FPS games if they're multiplayer (so, team fortress 2 is awesome). Single player FPS doesn't really do anything for me. As for RPGs, I love ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery: it's like nethack) and various other dungeon crawls. Edit: oh, and the only puzzle game that I've ever thought was _really_ fun is D.R.O.D. (Deadly Rooms of Death). If you go to their download page, download "DROD: Architecht's Edition". It's a completely free version of the game. It also gives you a full featured room editor, AND let's you play the hundreds of HUGE maps made by other players. Very awesome.

I never really got into flight simulators, Hockey. I just found them too difficult to understand what all was going on (I didn't read the instructions) and... it struck me as kind of boring. I dunno, I might enjoy it more now than when I last tried it, I have a bit more patience. ;)