Casting Shadows

August is a very busy time, and historically – and of historical importance to the creation of the #RPGaDAY event ten years ago – it is busy with conventions. In accordance with that detail, today’s prompt looks at what can be found at conventions, or pivots to using the word convention as its prompt. It’s up to you~

Day 14: Best Convention purchase

Life has not brought me into contact with convention opportunities. I have been to a few small ones, and for a period of my life often thought about making a special trip to GenCon, but when thinking back over my time as a gamer, I haven’t given them much thought. Gaming for me is done with friends as an important or as the primary expression of that friendship.

What thought have I given them?

The value of conventions for me is twofold and rooted firmly in attendees’ ability to expand their knowledge.

First, opportunities to game with strangers – which is different from an opportunity to add a newcomer to your group – provide a lot of opportunities to see how play can be conducted and experienced differently. Conversations afterward can further expand whatever lessons about games or oneself that were learned in play. We can even attend seminars or involve ourselves in debate and investigation of ideas with people whose experience complements or challenges our own.

Second, we will be figurately bombarded with the depth, breadth, and history of gaming products. Conventions are a major source of income for most game companies, and given the challenges of distribution, the costs of advertising, and the small size of the target demographic, appearing at a convention is far more sensible than building a website and hoping search queries will pay off in purchases.

These two reasons alone are sufficient in my eyes to encourage participation in conventions if you are able, but there is a third.

We can attend and communicate about lost games, rare cultures of play, provide tutorials and insight into complicated or hidden things which time and neglect are slowly erasing from existence. While it might be hard to put yourself out there, risking a lack of interest, there are those for whom what you could share would make all the difference.

I think you know what that is like.