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Wil Wheaton's GenCon SoCal Recap 35

Posted by Zonk from the arrrr-peee-geees dept.
Mr. Wheaton (CleverNickName to you) had the chance to attend GenCon SoCal, the westerly companion to the event held every summer in Indianapolis. He writes, in his regular column at Suicide Girls, about the joys of a nerd in his natural environs. From the article: "I made my way over to the correct hotel, and finally felt like I was at one of the cons I remember. It was intimate, dimly-lit, and packed with people in costumes, people playing games, people napping on couches, and people doing the things that geeks do. I passed one guy gloating into his cell phone, 'So, I guess you're not picking up your phone after that humiliating defeat?' He was cleaning up the aftermath of a Magic: The Gathering duel. A pair of men passed me, heavily engaged in conversation. One of them said to the other, 'Not only is it a valid thought, it's a valid line of discussion!' I have no idea what they were talking about, but it certainly seemed, uh, valid to them. Four teenagers (two boys and two girls) walked in front of me as I crossed the lobby, one wearing a Cthulhu backpack. All of them were dressed in black pants, the boys with the obligatory flannel shirts unbuttoned over their T-shirts. " If you're worried about it, Wil's column is in a SFW part of the site. You can also read some of his editorial cuts on the WWdN In Exile blog.
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Wil Wheaton's GenCon SoCal Recap More

Wil Wheaton's GenCon SoCal Recap

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  • Earth calling Zonk (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Slashdot, none-news that's even more vapid than hello magazine? Did anyone think this was interesting enough to submit or are you skipping your meds again?

    • Re:Earth calling Zonk (Score:4, Funny)

      by Sloppy ( 14984 ) on Friday November 24, 2006 @04:20PM (#16977554) Homepage Journal
      Did anyone think this was interesting enough to submit or are you skipping your meds again?
      I think it's interesting that some people visit SuicideGirls to read articles.
      • I think it's interesting that some people visit SuicideGirls to read articles.
        As they once read the articles and short stories in Playboy too, as I think they published stories by Artur C Clarke and Ian Fleming amongst others.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Talla ( 95956 )
          As they once read the articles and short stories in Playboy too, as I think they published stories by Artur C Clarke and Ian Fleming amongst others.

          It reminds me message I saw long ago on a mailinglist, with some statistics from Playboy or another of the high profile soft core web sites. On the bottom there were a few hits with lynx. One of the replies was "I guess some people really *do* read it for the articles".

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *
          gotta have something to do while you're waiting for the semen to dry
    • I did.

      It's news for nerd. You're clearly not nerdy enough. It doesn't matter.
  • You know, I've never been to one of these, but they sound like fun. I'd only go to pick up chicks, though.

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Stop cutting in on my game. It's the easiest way to get laid.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )
      you'll get modded as funny, but in actuality it's not a bad place to meet like minded ladies. The gender ratio is much closer these days then in the 70's/80's

      • Unless it's changed in the last year, it's still a really, really bad ratio. It's probably up to 10% over the con. Certain niches have much better ratios, like LARPs.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by MsGeek ( 162936 )
          Anime fandom has changed the sex ratio at conventions permanently. Anime fans are pretty much half and half male/female (or is it Otaku/Otome?) ratio. Over the past few years I've seen more and more women and girls at San Diego Comic-Con. Anime Los Angeles reflects this half and half ratio almost perfectly. And of course, Yaoicon in San Francisco is something like 85% women, 5% gay males, and 10% either men in tow (spouses and significant others) or single guys looking to pick up Otome chicks. (The latter i

  • You have got to love it... (Score:5, Funny)

    by LWATCDR ( 28044 ) on Friday November 24, 2006 @04:04PM (#16977420) Homepage Journal
    "l of them were dressed in black pants, the boys with the obligatory flannel shirts unbuttoned over their T-shirts. "
    The official uniform of none conformity.

  • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • GenCon SoCal (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ShakaUVM ( 157947 ) on Friday November 24, 2006 @07:09PM (#16978998) Homepage Journal
    I went to GenCon SoCal again this year. Probably the best time I've had yet, even though I volunteered the whole time. I did, in fact, see the Cthulu backpacks walking around.

    I'm surprised they didn't get Wil Wheaton to do an autograph signing. During the first year of Gencon Socal they paid William Shater something like $400,000 to sign autographs, and nobody even bothered to show up for it (there was like a line of two people) -- the announcer on the PA system got increasingly desperate. "Mr. Shatner is now signing autographs." "Shatner is signing autographs now." "There is no line to get autographs from Mr. Shatner." "Mr. Shatner will be leaving soon unless more people show up to get autographs..." Etc. And no, I didn't get an autograph. I was busy.

    Year 2, they got Val Kilmer. Unbeknownst to anyone at Gencon, Val had (maybe still has) a female stalker that follows him to all his events. So when this shy fan of his (not the stalker) poked her head around a corner and took a flash photo of him, he flipped out, stopped signing autographs (after about five minutes, tops), went back to his hotel room and drank and drugged himself into oblivion for the whole weekend. Gencon staff kept knocking on his door ("Mr Kilmer? Mr Kilmer?"). He finally came out on Sunday, and asked people if the con was still going on or something.

    So yeah, after all that brilliance, Wesley Crusher would probably have been the best celebrity guest yet. (Oh, yeah. Our guest this year was that captain guy from Battlestar Galactica, who mainly just talked about how he tried to kill himself after the show got cancelled.)

    Wheeeeee...

    But I had a fun time running RPGA events (www.rpga.com), it was worth the travel and the sick people everywhere.

  • Just wanted to mention, since I didn't see any reference to it in the comments so far, that the movie Wil mentions -- The Gamers: Dorkness Rising looks to be great. Movie site link: http://www.the-gamers.com/ [the-gamers.com]

    At least if the first one is anything to go on -- The Gamers (http://gamers.deadgentlemen.com/ [deadgentlemen.com]). Just watched it after downloading an avi of it and it has me sold on buying a DVD of it as well as the new one when it's out.

    If you're a gamer you must see it. Basically the movie goes back and forth be

  • There's nothing Safe for Work about Wil Wheaton.

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