I am a shattered wreck of humanity.

[thebitterguy]

The con was tiring. I'm feeling unrested.

Bought several Heroclix boosters (weak, I am), got a couple U's (Arnim Zola & Nimrod, who's pink for some reason)*. Did panels.

Panels were good. Should have prepared more for SF Cinema in review. Gaming panels are getting worse each year. They have stopped providing a room for them,and simply shunt them into the gaming room, which pretty much destroys them.

The chili in the panellists green room was good. The GI results? Not so good.

There was a guest who did design work on Serenity. While chatting with him in teh hall, he gave me a piece of Alliance money. I thought that was neat. Until I found out a similar piece had sold for a lot at the auction. In which case I felt horrible.

If I saw you this weekend, it was good to see you. Unless you were one of the two people who were fuckwits at two of the parties I attended. In which case, please proceed to the nearest jackhammer to fuck yourselves to death with it.

*HC observations: No version of Luke Cage has the FF team ability, even though he was a member of the team. Several giant sized characters were produced in this latest Marvel HC set, yet they do not have Bill Foster, Black Goliath.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I gather this was an SF con. Which one? And where?

Secondly, why is gaming in the doldroms with SF fandom?

Or is it the opposite, gaming fandom has moved on?

::B::

[thebitterguy]

It was Toronto Trek. They've never had a good gaming track, but since they moved to their new venue it's gotten worse; everything is now squeezed into one room, and the gaming panels are held in that room, which doesn't have a pannelists table at the front.

I don't know if Gamers don't go to SF cons, or if SF cons just treat the gaming content poorly. It was dissapointing.

[luciancarter.livejournal.com]

"Panels were good. Should have prepared more for SF Cinema in review. Gaming panels are getting worse each year. They have stopped providing a room for them,and simply shunt them into the gaming room, which pretty much destroys them. "

That was at the request of the gaming room operator (myself) and was designed to get possible gamers into the Gaming Room in order to encourage /actual gaming/ rather than just talking about it.

And, speaking as a member of one of the same panels, I actually preferred the panel as a discussion in round rather than the typical pracice of placing panelists behind a table which almost makes them look like some sort of annointed experts. I've never felt that approach was appropriate to most gaming panels.

That said, only 2 of the 9 gaming panels at TTrek were held in the gaming room plus the Meet and Greet which was not classed as a panel. The other 7 panels were held in the same panel rooms as the rest o programming with an identical set-up.

Gaming has been reduced to one room do to lack of demand, as well as lack of space. Repeated requests to the community (yourself included, punk) to supply gaming content have gone almost compeltely unanswered for almost two years now.

That said there will be far more expanded gaming content I can say that because, even if none of the changes we're working on come through, I'll be 100% focussed on gaming next year not splitting my attention between gaming and other programming duties. For next year and we are investigating offering those who provide gaming content with admission discounts similiar to those that panel members receive. We hope to be able to offer announced gaming content BEFORE the convention begins next year. Also, we will be considering if there may be special con admissions that can be offered, similiar to the passes that are offered for the dance. We hope this will allow us to provide sufficient content to encourage gamers to visit the convention who might otherwise not find the main convcention content interesting enough to warrant purchasing a full convention pass.

Toronto Trek welcomes your feedback and I certainly hope you mentioned these items in your feedback surveys so that we have an offical record of these issues.

[thebitterguy]

First off, putting panellists at a round table pretty much eliminates the need for panellists. You can just hold an 'open discussion'.

Admittedly, a panel like "Nice Game" doesn't really need any sort of moderation of direction (thank God), because it can work as just an unfocussed bitch session, unlike most panels.

I actually preferred the panel as a discussion in round rather than the typical pracice of placing panelists behind a table which almost makes them look like some sort of annointed experts.

Amusing fact: They ARE experts, or at least they're supposed to know enough to make them worth listening to. Otherwise it's some kind of namby-pamby chatroom bullshit.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

Someone on a panel is supposed to be the moderator, which means that they actually do direct the conversation. They keep people on topic if necessary, stop trains of conversation that are going somewhere nasty, and call on people who have questions so that the panel doesn't degenerate into a shouting session with everyone talking over everyone else.

Of course, some moderators don't know how to do that, and then you do just have chatroom bullshit. But a moderator can moderate at a round table or from a Position of Authority table. They're more than just a symbolic expert.

I was on several panels this weekend that really were just mass discussion sessions, and that were moderated very well... the panelists didn't pretend to be 'experts', they didn't talk any more than the rest of the people in the room, and (thank goodness) everyone in the room was well-spoken and had good stuff to contribute.

[luciancarter.livejournal.com]

"Admittedly, a panel like "Nice Game" doesn't really need any sort of moderation of direction (thank God), because it can work as just an unfocussed bitch session, unlike most panels. "

Ok, but there was only one other panel held in the gamin groom and it had, what, six attendees including the panel?

"Amusing fact: They ARE experts, or at least they're supposed to know enough to make them worth listening to. Otherwise it's some kind of namby-pamby chatroom bullshit. "

And that's what a lot of attendees want.

[thebitterguy]

Don't worry, BTW, I'll fill in all my feedback sheets.

[mr-weasel.livejournal.com]

Unless you were one of the two people who were fuckwits at two of the parties I attended. In which case, please proceed to the nearest jackhammer to fuck yourselves to death with it.

Feeling less tired now are we?

;)

[thebitterguy]

I think I wrote that before I called you.

But I can be wrathful and sleepy pretty much simultaneously.

[anthonyarms.livejournal.com]

Hay, your blogging panel was good, I enjoyed it. And I think I was on a panel with you, talking about "DC on TV, Marvel for movies", or something like that. I thought that it went well(I hope it went well), it was my frist time being a panelist, and you made it fun.

[thebitterguy]

The panel was excellent, once we disposed of that wee moderator.

It was a pleasure to work with you as well. I'm sure we'll do many panels together in the future as well.