Gen Con 2009 Wrap-Up

The month of August started out like any other in Indianapolis: Hot, Humid and full of smelly football fans, anxious for the Colts Pre-Season. But then, it happened: GEN CON! The city filled with more smelly people, but of the gamer variety! From all over the country, LARPers, D&D nerds and Anime Freaks poured into the Indianapolis Convention Center with two things on their minds: "What's the scoop?" and "Where's the free stuff?"

Gen Con 2009 was full of the glitz and glam of previous Gen Cons, but this time it had a particularly attractive booth: The Atari Booth! The Atari Booth held demo videos of both Star Trek Online and, the just released "City of Heroes Killer" - Champions Online. Loz and I were lucky enough to conduct an interview with Mr. Cryptic himself, Jack Emmert. We were astonished to find out that Champions Online was running an awesome deal: Until September 1st, 2009, you could purchase a lifetime membership for $199 AND you would receive a beta access key for Star Trek Online. He also mentioned that there were 6 month memberships available for $60.

Of course, we were stoked to hear this! Until the scandal broke out a week later that the memberships had been cancelled early, due to the negligence of staff and PR to relay that there were only a LIMITED AMOUNT of memberships available with this deal! Much to my dismay, I posted on their forums the audio clip of Mr. Emmert stating the September 1st deadline, but omitting the fact that there were limited amounts. We were very displeased to have to inform our loyal GGO fans on the forum of this debacle, but it was soon recitfied by Atari and Cryptic, and they agreed to extend their membership options until the original date, September 1st! Yippee to those who purchased it!

After the fun in the sun at the Atari Booth, we wandered around to find all sorts of creatures, from angels, to demons to even Jack Sparrow himself. Ah, the beauty of cosplay among a group of anti-social perfectionists! It's glorious really, to see how every detail of every character known to man can come to life in the form of a geeky girl or boy!

More wonderful stops were to be made, though. There were card demos, new board games, even "Make your own boffer" booths! We got free dice, free stickers, free ass-shots (as the hot booth babes bent over to pick up that oh so out of reach item on the floor at the back of the booth). Glorious days indeed.

Of course, this wasn't to last. Gen Con came to an end as quickly as it had rolled into town. By Sunday, everyone was tired, and just didn't give a damn. Half-dressed drow walked around with missing spots of makeup, and ninja's forgot their weapons. It was fun Gen Con, and see you next year at the Gaming Army booth ;)