Everybody Experiences GenCon Differently

GenCon is upon us, and while not as popular as the ComicCons or E3s of the convention circuit, it is one of the biggest gaming conventions around. I've been going to this Con for nearly 15 years now, and I've had many many experiences there, but I know that everybody's GenCon experience is different. I'd like to take this article to share some of mine.

My first one was when I was 15. My best friend's dad took us to GenCon with him for the day when it was up in Milwaukee. We spent the day wandering the booths in the hall, checking out the Magic booths, and playing those silly dice games where if you roll all 6's or all 1's, you get a high priced card. We even spent a couple hours playing in a sealed tournament at a booth, which is just unheard of these days. We went home at the end of the day thinking that was everything the Con was. We were so, so wrong.

When I was older and had the money, I decided I wanted to stay the entire four days, so I got a hotel room that ended up being 30 minutes away (but fortunately a short bus ride) from the center. I was only 19 at the time, which raised eyebrows at the hotel and almost had them not allow us to stay there, but they gave in since they didn't want to send some teenagers away without a room in an overbooked city. See, the housing situation in Milwaukee was pretty bad, and getting hotel rooms there was extremely hard. This was one of the major reasons that they moved to Indianapolis, but that's a bit of another story there.

Eventually I started really discovering what was going on at GenCon. It's not just about the hall, there's a lot of other stuff going on here. Over the years I've been part of several tournaments for different games (Mage Knight, Warmachine). I've gotten sneak peaks of upcoming titles before they were even announced to be coming to consoles (Dragon Age). I've gotten to playtest upcoming expansions and whole new game concepts with the developers (Killer Bunnies, Tomb, Mage Knight Dungeons) and explored dungeons and felled fantastic creatures by playing tabletop shuffleboard (True Dungeon).

There's another part to GenCon that is what makes it so great. It's the people. I've made so many friends at this convention, I've lost track of their real names entirely. And they've forgotten mine, but I'm surprised every year to have somebody shout out "Video!" to grab my attention. These lasting friendships and memories are going to be with me forever.

Keep with me this week while I post stories about my time at GenCon, and some tips from somebody who's been through the GenCon experience more than a few times. If I somehow attract some readers to this, post your own stories in the comments and share your experiences. Everybody experiences GenCon differently, and I'd love to hear yours.

Final note, I'm planning on spending quite a bit of time in the hall this year checking out the new games and writing up some mini reviews about them. If you'd like to make sure I stop by and maybe give you some free publicity (and give me some content to write), drop me a line at videogamingat30(at)gmail.com. I'm looking for a slew of new table top games to play.

The Ones to Watch For, July and August

The Ones to Watch For

Alright, so let's get back to some video games here, shall we? Here's the games that are coming out in July and August that I feel need to be kept an eye on:

StarCraft II - Wings of Liberty - PC - 7/27/10


I'm not an RTS fan, but Blizzard makes a damn good RTS. I'm a little wary about how this one will be received, especially when we look at how South Koreans play the original to this day in televised matches, but like I said, Blizzard makes a damn good RTS. One last thing stands out in my mind on this, didn't they say that this game was going to be divided into three parts? Is that still true? Hm. We'll see how this one pans out.

Madden NFL 11 - Multi-Platform - 8/10/10
Again, this one isn't for me, but you can't ignore the juggernaut that is the Madden franchise. Every year they put out a new one with a new roster and some new feature and every year it gets eaten up by the fanatics. And the platforms this game is coming out on, look at that picture up there, that's for the PS2. You know, that half dead console all of us have sitting in our basements or little brother's bedrooms? Yeah, it's still getting games, specifically this one. There should be something wrong with that.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days - Multi-Platform - 8/17/10
Nah, not really. I just wanted to see if I could get some cash thrown my way for promoting it. Look forward to seeing crappy ads plastered all over your favorite gaming sites soon to remind you that they can get people fired for posting opinionated reviews. Unless they want to get on the videogamingat30.com action, if you do, send me an email and we'll talk. I like money.


Metroid: Other M - Wii - 8/31/10
The latest reason to dust of the Wii, Metroid: Other M, looks like it could be a great game. Coming from Team Ninja, expectations are high that Samus is going to have some amazing moves and this could possibly bring Metroid into its next generation. Keep your fingers crossed, I'm hoping for the best.

M11 Predictions Revisited

Predictions Revisited

Wrapping up the last bit of the M11 articles for awhile, I wanted to go back and check out some predictions that I had made a couple months back before we started seeing any previews to see how I did. These were made on May 25th, before we knew barely anything about the set, so here we go:

1.) Baneslayer is out - WRONG - One of the very first cards that I predicted to be out of the set was revealed to be in the set a mere few days after I had made the post. They say Baneslayer has become a face of Magic. I say the Baneslayer stands for a lot of what is wrong in Magic. At least I was partially right in that the price has come down to around $30 for them.

2.) Nocturnus is out - RIGHT - Vampires took this loss with a bit of a fanged smile. Losing Nocturnus allows more creative vampire decks to be constructed, and I predict we'll see some very fast, very aggressive decks come out soon.

3.) Path to Exile is Out ... Swords to Plowshares is in - HALF RIGHT - My exact words were "Swords to Plowshares (or something very close to it)", and lo and behold, we get Condemn back. Instant speed, one white, life gain, doesn't exile but puts on the bottom of the deck, and the downside of it having to be an attacking creature isn't all that bad. Look for this to be staple (again) in white decks.

4.) Introducing your M11 Planeswalkers - WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG - Ugh. Who seriously saw this one coming? I understand the idea of putting out a series of identifiable characters in an intellectual property, but seriously, who wants to open the same exact planeswalkers that we had last year, AND those were MYTHIC reprints of RARES from Lorwyn. Waste of a Mythic slot, seriously.

5.) Big Creatures - RIGHT - Look no further than your Mythic Titans to see where Wizards wants the game to go. Many of the creatures in this set are 5 - 8 casting cost, are huge, and have game ending abilities. Unless we see a lot of removal from the Scars block, big creatures will rule the day.

So there you have it. Two and a half right, Two and a half wrong. Not bad for my first round of this. In local MTG news, I managed to pull much better in our local pre-release tournament (not so much in the rares, but much better uncommons and commons) which let me put together a pretty respectable Green / Blue deck and win our 20ish player tournament. Looks like I've still got some tricks in me.

Midnight Release at Pastimes

Midnight Release

My gaming crew was going to go to the Midnight Release event at the local store here Pastimes so despite knowing we had an early morning the next day (the wife had bought me tickets to the Star Wars in Concert event in Milwaukee for my birthday), we wanted to be part of the crowd and pick up a couple Sun Titans.

I bounced around the idea of what it would take for me to stay for the whole thing, and decided that it would have to be something that I could at least get placed with. So we sat at our tables, and I sat across from one of my own players, and we began opening the packs.

This is not how I wanted to start things out.

Suicide drawing options where big creatures determine winners is not going to get me anywhere. I checked over the uncommons and commons, nothing spectacular, and moved on to the next pack.

Ugh. Ok, maybe I can do a sealed mill? I pulled a Jace's erasure too, hmm, let's see what else we've got. Next pack.

Okay! Now we're at least getting somewhere. Admittedly it's no Baneslayer Angel, but 4/4 flying, maybe I can do something with that. Next pack.
Hrm. High priced removal. It would be okay if I had anything good to go with it, but so far I don't. Let's see what else waits for us.
Well, at least I have something to go get that Battle Effigy with now. What's my last pack?

Check, please.

I don't think I've ever opened up a worse 6 packs. My blue was alright, but was severely lacking the all important counters to do anything with or anything in the way of something to do during turns 1 - 3. Black and green looked the most promising with removal, but no bombs to speak of.

So, seeing as I had my Sun Titan and had an early morning the next day, I conceded my first game and dropped out. I have a second Sealed (and hopefully draft) today, that I'm really hoping I have a bit better luck on. We'll find out in about an hour.

Top 5 Cards for the M11 Pre-Release

Pre Release Weekend

With less than a week to go and almost 70 cards still unconfirmed from the set, many wonder what kind of game to play at the pre-release this coming weekend. I've rummaged through the cards we know of, and have compiled my Top 5 list sorted by rarity, and then big gimme card at the end. So, here we go:

5. The Common - Lightning Bolt


Lightning bolt is a staple red card and still shows off its power. Destroy a creature or bolt your opponent in the face, there's no better way to spend R in the game, and there probably never will be.

Honorable Mention - Squadron Hawk

If you can amass a few of these in your sealed packs (and they're common, so maybe yes), you can bring a whole lot of 1/1 flyers onto the field quickly. The reason this wasn't the top pick was because 1. Lightning Bolt is Lightning Bolt, and 2. It doesn't work well alone. Keep an eye out for these guys in drafts.

4. The Uncommon - Awakener Druid
This one was really tough to pick, as most of the uncommons out there suffer from being either very crappy or comboing with other cards to get any use out of them. Turning one of your forests into a 4/5 creature on turn 3 is really good, just hope your opponent doesn't have any kind of removal in hand. Look for this one to be revised as we hear about more cards.

3. The Rare - Vengeful Archon
This is a little pricey, but when it comes to things on their own that are game enders, this fits the bill nicely. A 7/7 flyer for 7 mana, in sealed this isn't impossible to get, and on top of that, you can pay to have your opponent eat the damage that they would be hitting you with.

2. The Mythic - Grave Titan


Six measly mana for this 6/6 monstrosity that creates two 2/2's when it comes into play or attacks? Plus it's black, so it can't be doom bladed? Yes please. Those who pull this guy and get them out will pretty much be cleaning up the boards. I know what I'm hoping for.

1. The first choice - Baneslayer Angel


The queen of the skies continues to hold her title, as a 5/5 flying, lifelinking, first striking protection from who the hell plays demons and dragons anyway bitch goddess. A 10 point swing in life totals is often more than enough to seal a game.


Final Thoughts - From what I'm seeing here is that creatures will continue to reign these events. Look for removal, as a well placed Doom Blade will be enough to cripple any of them (except Grave Titan, but he's cool like that). I'll try to have an updated list this week when we get the rest of the cards, but until then, good luck everyone, may all your opening hands have three land cards in them.