The Convention Guide Part Four – Dorkadia’s Most Memorable Moments

Dorkadia’s Convention Guide; Part 4, is part of a semi-regular ongoing series of articles of handy tips and information for the convention season.

One week from today marks the beginning of one of the best times of year – PAX! For me, PAX marks the end of the con-going season; the cons I like to frequent are finished up by my favorite convention on the West Coast. This week also wraps up the last entry of my Convention Guide for the 2013 con season. This installment I’ve asked my fellow Dorkadia staffers to contribute some of their most memorable convention moments.

Megan starts out with a story that I will apparently NEVER EVER LIVE DOWN…

” I think 15 or so of us were having dinner and drinks post PAX one night and Hannah very loudly mentioned how awful Rift was, only to have the opposite side of the table pale a little bit when we had to quietly remind her that the full table behind her was filled with Devs from Rift. Actually, that whole night was also filled with memories like the End of Nations devs buying my brother-in-law, Eddie, a drink for wearing their merch. Which was nice because Eddie and I also spent over $100 on wooden mustaches from Geek Chic that day. I nearly lost my voice from talking like an old English gentleman all night while wearing one.”

While that’s not exactly what I said, it was pretty close and I really had no idea the entire dev team was sitting right behind me. This can be filed under ‘Most Embarrassing Con Moments’ for me. But you know what? Rift is still a bad game. Not as bad as Tera, but pretty bad. Oh shit please don’t let there be Tera devs around here…!

Also those wooden mustaches were some of the smartest purchases ever made. Actually, one of my favorite parts of that year was going through a very specific booth with Megan and our old English gentleman mustaches. Charles, actually, remembers that booth quite well, too:

“At PAX 2011, 2k had put up the Citizen Skywatch booth. I walked by that thing trying to figure out what the hell it was. There was nothing indicating that it was showing a game — no screenshots, no consoles, nothing. What could be seen was several people in 1950s costumes and what appeared to be an examining area in the back. The people at the booth had a ren faire-like commitment to staying in period and in character. So of course I got in line and waited; then I was interviewed, prodded, shoved into a back room where I was photographed, handed an ID card and told to make contact with agents at the 2k booth and still had no idea WTF was going on. It wasn’t until later that weekend after an intricate ARG that we finally found out that it was all for The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. BEST PAX BOOTH EVER!”

This reminded Nick of a similarly awesome booth experience:

“The first year they were showing Skyrim at PAX, my friend Evan happened to be standing around the booth near the big line of people waiting to play. One of the guys running the booth stepped out and said, “Sorry folks, we’re wrapping up for the day, no more demos . . . EXCEPT FOR THAT GUY!!!” and pointed at Evan, then grabbed him and hauled him into the booth to play a Skyrim demo.  Evan wasn’t even in line, he was standing there trying to read a completely different booth.”

Megan shares about how cool PAX demo booths are with this fond recollection of an awesome demo for a terrible game:

“Charles and I waited over an hour to play the Duke Nukem demo – which was awful, but I don’t regret waiting to play the game at all. We tag-teamed in and out of line to play other demos, got to chatting with the people in line around us and at the end we got to hear a very impassioned speech from Randy Pitchford on why they made this game 13 years down the road. I already liked Pitchford for his other games, but listening to that man speak in a small group setting and answer our questions was pretty awesome. If you ever get the opportunity to talk to devs or even just the idea guys about their games, it will leave a lasting impression on you – even if you don’t like the game.”

While I’ve had some issues with Gearbox, especially regarding this game, I also got to listen to Pitchford and it was a great experience. We all knew he’d told the same story dozens of times during the con but he was just as passionate about the game and his vision every time.

Speaking of impassioned, Nick (sort of) remembers some good (ish?) times from GenCon:

“When I was 26, my friend Marty and I got drunk at GenCon.  Real drunk, real fast. We were down in the basement of the hotel, shooting the breeze and drinking, when a big pile of Changeling Larpers came down in full garb. Marty and I started to get a bit belligerent, but the Larpers were pretty nice and took it as casual teasing, and we went back and forth with them for a bit. And then for fun I ripped the hotel’s phone off of the wall and started swinging it around my head and chasing people.

I have pretty much no memory of this and had to be told later what had happened.  And that is one of the reasons I don’t drink a lot any more.”

A status update of his from the very recent GenCon continues to remind us that adult responsibility goes flying out the window during cons:

“About four hours ago, Marty ate a White Castle chicken ring off the floor for a dollar.”

But, of course, some people take things way TOO seriously at cons and maybe could use a drink or twelve to lighten up. Reuben shares two Emerald City Comic Con experiences:

“There was the swarm of bronies with a GIANT cardboard cutout of their unicorn queen. My friend dressed as the red power ranger aimed his dinosaur gun at the cutout and man, THEY MAD, BRO.  Oh, and this year’s voice acting panel, where Phil LaMarr was asked to do Snoop Dogg as Luke Skywalker. Someone in the audience repeatedly and insistently yelled out “‘nope LION! He’s Snoop LION, get it RIGHT!’

Man, conventions are weird.”

Cons really are weird. Also sometimes terrifying, as Megan remembers:

“A PAX 2012 there were zombies shuffling around to promote some zombie game or other. Eddie and I were standing in line at the Disney booth and Eddie was too kind to yell “OH NO MEGAN LOOK AWAY IT’S A ZOMBIE” and call the dude’s attention. While I was intensely studying my shoes and the floor, the zombie guy shuffled over. He took his prop dismembered hand and poked me in the ear with it. I shrieked so loudly, I was more scary to the people around us than the damned zombie.”

Is there a scientific term for zombiephobia? If so, Megan suffers it and suffers it hilariously.

Personally, I have a ton of memorable con moments from over the years, too many for this article because word count is hard. So I’ll cut down the list to the first years of my two favorite cons.

On a very late night during my very first Otakon, when I was far too young to be hitting any after-parties, my loyal anime club took to wandering the halls of the hotel. At one point we clustered around a window to catch a Baltimore gentleman having some very intimate relations with a tree. This is about when I started really liking big cities.

A handful of years later when I’d actually moved to a big city, I attended my first PAX. This was back when the con was held at the much smaller Meydenbauer Center, and it remains one of my favorite con experiences. I got to the con late and met a very dear friend from out of state. She, an enforcer, and I hung out all night behind the scenes and drank way too much free Bawls. PAX Fact of the Day – Bawls used to be a major PAX sponsor! I miss those days because free Bawls slushies were much better than free 5-Hour Energy shots and probably cause fewer heart attacks. Maybe.

The whole point of the Convention Guide has been that conventions are awesome and to help those who haven’t tried one yet. The nerdy community has come a long way over the decades and is still changing and expanding. Conventions are an awesome way of experiencing nerd culture and sharing your love of the fandom with other like-minded fanboys and fangirls. Get your dork on and check one out soon!

Upcoming conventions include: Dragon Con (August 30-September 2; Atlanta, GA), PAX Prime (August 30th-September 2; Seattle, WA), Meta Con (August 30th-September 1; Minneapolis, MN); Anime USA (September 13-14; Washington DC); Rainfurrest (September 26-29; Seattle, WA); New York Comic Con (October 10-13; New York, NY)