Two of my buddies and I shared a room at the HomeWood Suites in Indianapolis. The HomeWood is about five blocks from the convention center and off the main drag a bit. So while you are within walking distance of the convention you’re far enough away that it’s a little less congested than say the hotels that are within two blocks of the center. It was very easy to grab a cab is needed and able to get hotel service without having to wait too long. The area also had a lot less vehicle traffic with the exception of Friday and Saturday night. There are a few nightclubs on the same street so on those nights it does see a considerable increase in traffic you might say it even gets a bit rowdy, but there a lots of cops out on those nights on foot patrol so it doesn’t get too crazy.
The hotel itself and our room were great. Over the past couple of years the three of us that stayed there have shared hotel rooms at other hotels and there has always been an issue with sleeping arrangements. Typically we could only get rooms with two beds so for various reasons someone (usually me) would end up trying to accommodate sleep on something else such as propping a couple of chairs together to sleep on or bringing an air mattress to sleep on. With the HomeWood none of that was necessary as the room came with two beds and a hide-a-bed sofa. This year I slept like a baby and was well rested each day of the convention. Another thing that was great was you have a refrigerator, stove, sink and whatever else to make it a real living area. In the past we have brought a cooler and stopped to do some grocery shopping to keep cost down. This year we didn’t need to go shopping. The hotel offers free grocery shopping and we could keep everything in the refrigerator. So less for us to carry there and to take home. It was pretty cool not having to worry about doing the shopping ahead of time, lugging a big cooler full of food/drinks around and refilling the ice EVERY day from a small ice machine. This was definitely one of the easier Gen Cons we ever had.
Other things the hotel had to offer were; a heated swimming pool, a small workout room, a laundry room, a small office center with computers and they offered a free buffet style breakfast. Only bad thing about the breakfast is gamers like to take advantage of every chance to get free food so if you were not down stairs very early you missed out as the other gamers would really load up. Didn’t bother me too much though because while I do like breakfast, being a night shift guy I don’t get to eat breakfast too often so I’m not used to eating that early in the morning.
Over at the convention itself there is always a lot going on. Back a few years ago Gen Con was having some financial difficulties and still are. They’re working through it but there was a concern on my part that the convention may suffer from it. That didn’t turn out to be the case. The convention doesn’t seem to have lost a step and in fact seems to be growing. There were plenty of dealers in the dealer hall and to my estimation just as crowded with attendees as it ever has been. It’s a good thing too. Gen Con is huge, it would be a shame to see it die.
Of course because there are so many dealers it is every gamers responsibility to spend too much on stuff not really needed. Well no one can say I’m not a good gamer as I did my part of spending. Got to keep that economy going and all. Some of the great stuff I got was; a stuffed squirrel dressed as a pirate, rubber duckies made up as a pirate and a ninja, gaming books, a very cool 12 inch Doctor Manhattan (from The Watchmen) from WizKids and a few more T-Shirts to go with my ever growing collection. I also picked up some art work from the Art Show, my favorite was a very horrific piece of Cthulhu rising from the depths of the ocean. Again, I admit I spent way too much money on stuff I needed………uh I mean didn’t need. What can I say?
They also had Authors Row which is a great place to pick up new fiction from new authors that others may have never heard of before. Last year I pick up a book from Victoria J. Waks entitled ‘Tau 4’ (see my review here). The book quickly became one of my favorites. I had a chance to speak with her about the book and about how much I loved it. I was silly stupid speaking with her and felt like I was a nuisance but she took the time to speak with me and answer my questions. She’s really a great lady and I was hoping she would have her next book ready but she is still working a publisher. I bought another copy for myself any way because I kind of ruined my original. All in all it was fun speaking to her. Just imagine getting to speak one on one with one of your favorite authors.
As any good fan/gaming/geek convention must have, there were lots of costumes. Although there didn’t seem to be as many people as I’ve seen in the past. I might have just missed them though. I have to admit I did see a lot more on Saturday than the other days. Saturday is the day that Gen Con holds their big costume contest so maybe they were just saving up their best stuff for that day.
The other big highlight for me was the media guest they had this year. This year they had from ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ - Wil Wheaton (his blog), they also had creator of the web show ‘The Guild’ – Felicia Day (her website) as well as her co-stars; Robin Thorsen, Jeff Lewis and Sandeep Parikh. All of them are great! I was able to get autographs from all of them and took photos with them. The line to see them was pretty long. Took me about 45mins to an hour to get through.
Lewis and Parikh were the first in the line and kept people in stitches.
They are very funny guys and it was great they were, as getting through that line was a little tiring.
Next in line was Thorsen.
She was very sweet and it almost seemed like she was overwhelmed by the way fans were flocking to them, myself included.
Next up was Felicia Day.
She's really a tiny little thing. But she is just so darned cute! To tell the truth Felicia is probably the reason most people stood in line to begin with, which was really smart of Gen Con the way they set it up. You had to get to the creator and star of the show by going past her co-stars first. I saw a few people go past them to get to her which seemed kind of rude to me besides the fact that they were there and make the show as funny as it is. Not to mention they were just great in general. Why wouldn’t you get their autographs?
Finally there was Wil Wheaton.
I think it was more of the 30+ somethings who most wanted his autograph. I was speaking to the boyfriend of the girl who was standing in line right behind me and he made a comment to the affect of ‘Why would they stand in the line for his autograph?’ He was in his 20s and didn’t seem to really realize (or maybe it was just think) about Wil Wheaton’s career. Here is an actor who started his career on a very popular show of a VERY popular movie/television franchise. On ‘The Guild' and on the television show ‘The Big Bang Theory' has become a regular/recurring member of the staff as a ‘villain’. Runs a blog which has become quite popular as of late. Written a couple of books and is one of the few celebrities who has come out to say that he likes this stuff himself. Don't these people think? He has probably tried to do more to bring gaming and geek things ‘out of the closet’ than most anyone else has. Besides Felicia his was the other autograph I really wanted.
So while I did get photos with all of them I have a confession. I was a bit nervous about asking to take a picture with them, so I missed out on getting them. However the next day I got my courage up (I don’t know what I was thinking the first time) waited in line again and got the photos with them. This is why I said they are great, I explained that to them and all of them said no problem, they were glad to take the picture. I was really embarrassed asking Felicia and I think my exact words to her were “Listen, I’m such a dork. I got your autograph yesterday but was too shy to ask you to take a picture with me. Could I please take one with you?” She laughed and said “Awwwwww, sure”. Like I said I was a dork.
Anyway that was about it. It was a great con and I had a lot of fun. Here’s a link to the photos I took at the convention, click the titles in the left hand column to view the folds. Until next year!
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