Verily, I am a Name among Nerds.

[ltmurnau]

The conference in Phoenix. Well, overall, it was a great time in a beautiful hot city!


The trip down was the usual annoyance - I have never liked air travel, and it gets worse with every trip. After a 3 1/2 hour wait in Seattle airport and the usual dramas at airport security (I always have to take my boots off because the steel rack in my leg sets off the detectors, which are turned up so high these days they pick up on gum wrappers in your pocket) we arrived in Phoenix, 97 degrees and a clear hot sky. Much the same weather for the rest of the week.

The hotel was great, really nice rooms with an interior courtyard and a pool (Betty spent practically the whole time poolside). Half the usual room rate for the convention, with a good breakfast and free refreshment station in the afternoon included.

We were actually in Tempe, the southeast part of the conurbation that is "Phoenix", very close to the campus of Arizona State University. Hence the streets were full of near-identical blonde coeds named Ashleigh in crop-tops with only half an upper lip each. We found an interesting music store where I picked up a Devo CD and a Throbbing Gristle sampler CD I had never seen before, and a nice used bookstore where I paid too much for a large-format book of Chinese Cultural Revolution era posters.

Friday night Joe Miranda and Betty and I went to the only Goth night going in Phoenix, at a very small bar named Incognito Lounge. Small dance floor with some mirrors to make it look bigger, cheap drinks and not a bad selection of music. The DJ even played "Warm Leatherette" (original version by The Normal, not the Grace Jones one).

The conference/expo was lots of fun, and I was bowled over by the people I met there and the way they treated me. I expected to be completely anonymous there, the way I usually am in a crowd, but found people coming up to me and saying how much they liked my work. It appears I have a reputation!

I was invited to speak at a seminar on designing games about the Battle of the Bulge (a special theme of the conference), and found myself on stage with five other guys who had spent between 5 and 10 years each doing minute research on their own games. I didn't really feel out of my league, it's just that the game I had designed was very different from what they had done. Add to that the facts that mine was the newest such game to be published (I took a case of samples with me to the conference and they got snapped up fast), and that it was packaged in a tin box (the first game to so packaged) and I aroused a lot of interest.

Anyway, lots of ego strokes, discussions for future projects, a long hot walk in the sun with Betty searching for a Walgreen's we never found, and a brief dip in the pool later, it was time to go. It would be nice to go back next year, but I don't know if I'll be able to afford it. At any rate, this was worthwhile.

And yes, here are some pictures:

to placate scuttle, images of Fat Greasy Nerds in their element



the panel at the seminar


blurry photo of the new game I had to show off

Comments

A. Vasiliev reporting from the report from Phoenix

[(Anonymous)]

You always complain about the high prices of good books. I assume you paid the asking price for the Chinese poster book, meaning that you agreed albeit grudgingly that the asking price was not inappropriate for a book of that topic and quality. But by complaining that the asking price was too much, you seek our sympathy. Well you're getting none from me.

Re: A. Vasiliev reporting from the report from Phoenix

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

No, I did ask them to knock a few bucks off the price because the cover was scratched, but the clerk said only th4e owners could do that, and they weren't there. Chances were I'd never run across the book again as it is long out of print, so yeah, in the end I forked over.

I would further offer that my idea and your idea of "too much" to pay for a book probably differ. And I look to Betty for sympathy, not you!

[scuttle.livejournal.com]

that dedication makes it looks like I have a thing for fat, greasy nerds.

Oh wait...

[scuttle.livejournal.com]

I should not have doubted your desciption. I mean Grandpa NEVER embellishes his yarns.

The Ashleighs sound dreadful. There are few things I destest more than trendy pseudo-Gaelic name spellings.

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

The Ashleighs were especially annoying to listen to. By "half an upper lip" I meant that abbreviated lip thing where their top teeth can't help but show - seem to see it most often with blond women.

And let's not forget the jiggly bare midriff preceding the rest of the body by a few inches...

[inkie.livejournal.com]

you know, I've always wanted to go to a Con to see the fat greasy nerds for myself... sorta like going to the zoo. Is there still a Con-thing in victoria in the summers?

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

Well, first thing you have to remember is that there are many sub-types of fat greasy nerds.

The ones in Phoenix were heavy-duty board wargaming nerds, people who have forgotten more military history than you will ever know and who could probably do multiple linear regressions in their heads if it gave them the edge.

Then there's RPG nerds, some of whom you may have met. Lots of subtypes there, my favourite is the LARP (Live-action role playing) weenies who walk around wearing dyed bedsheets for cloaks, holding one hand in front of their face to show they are invisible at the moment.

I don't think there has ever been a proper wargaming convention in Victoria. I heard from time to time there had been science fiction conventions that were OK, but that was long ago. And SF nerds are a species unto themselves...e.g. the Star Trek fans who several years ago dressed up as Klingons and led some of their number down the street in chains, as part of the Victoria Day parade.

Someone, I think it was Dave Barry, once said, "There's a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness.'"

[inkie.livejournal.com]

I think it's the spectacle of the whole thing that appeals to me most of all...

and as far as RPG nerds are concered... I am one ;) Just a kinda busty, gothy, girly kind. (unlike the busty non-girly kind *shudder)

I even paint my own miniatures and collect comicbooks! :)

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

Present company excepted, of course!

Everyone knows that any female who plays games (games with explicit rules, that is, not the other kind) cannot, by viture of her gender, be a nerd - only tremendously cool and the object of much attention in the room.

[inkie.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, I've seen the female version of the RPG nerd.... the pastey, unwashed, greasy girl gamers... they do exist! It's funny how there seems to be this perception that chicks that game must be cool AND attractive. I've seen some that I can't honestly say I was even 100% sure they were actually girls or not..

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

I know they exist, and in fact they are probably in the majority. I was being borderline-sarcastic in the above.

But you can't deny that almost any leisure activity that doesn't involve muscles is seen in the public eye as dominated by fat greasy male nerds - anything involving computers, all genres of games including miniatures, comic books, collecting anything for that matter - well, just look at that fat guy on "King of Queens" for the stereotype (can't remember his name, you know, the friend who works in the subway and drops in all the time).

[inkie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I get asked fairly frequently "you STILL play D&D?" like only little kids play it. I'm 33 and I play.. we've even taught my kids to play it (and man they're hilarious to play with) we play with other adults too. Amazing.. grownups can use their imaginations too! ;)