General Ramblings on the WBC

For a listing of the games that I played and their results, check out my Geeklist. But for irrelevant rambling, this is the place to be. I returned home (mentally) from the WBC today, even though I commuted back and forth daily. It's amusing that, starting the minute I left work on Thursday, I forgot what day it was. Days ceased to matter and life focused on gaming. It's a good place to be. To center this conversation, I will touch on a couple of topics that really guided my convention experience this year.

First, let me mention John Bohrer. I was able to meet the man behind Winsome Games this year and I was surprised (j/k) to discover that he lacked the reputed devil horns that should have risen out of his head. It was a pleasure to meet and converse with John about his games and the hobby in general. As I suspected, I was not going to find him as terse as his forum posts would lead you to believe and I will have even more trouble in the future "picking a side" in the legal debates that are clouding my favorite hobby, designers, and publishers in so much controversy. Actually, it will be no trouble at all, I am simply not going to pick a side.

Second, the convention experience. The WBC is a tournament centered convention. Tournaments are scheduled for the entirety of the convention and a majority of the attendees are interested, at least to some level, in participating in the events. This means that, although open gaming is provided for, people do need to run off to be places and opportunities can be limited and perhaps games could be left unfinished. The Open Gaming room this year had a library of games, though I will admit that I am spoiled by the library provided at Origins by CABS. GCOM simply has no way to match that collection. The other relevant point is the type of gamer that this convention can attract. People handle tournaments differently and even people who are perfectly fun to be around in a non-competitive (non-tournament) game can show their bad sides during tournament play. Tournament play can bring out the best in people and it can bring out the worst. In the one tournament that I cared about, Age of Steam, I was thrilled by the high level of competition that existed during my games. The players were so good and every move mattered. I did not play any differently than I would have normally, but because this was a tournament, better and more serious Age of Steamers showed up, and this equated to more exciting games.

So, what about those tournaments. I participated in two series of tournaments, Chicago Express and Age of Steam. But I want to get this first part posted, so my tournament thoughts will come at a later time (if they do come...)