The Good Doctor and I Return from Origins

Nothing like a convention to get the juices flowing; the mad rush of people from the far corners of the earth, the bazaar-style hawking of niche products of every conceivable stripe, the crinkle-swish of mysterious ladies strutting their stuff in latex catsuits, and, of course, the tangy aroma of unchecked body odor commingling and recombining like some pre-sentient alien gas colony . . . well, no one said life on the road was all roses and ice cream, but then such adventures aren’t for the faint of heart or sensitive of nose.

So, the intrepid Dr. Zaius and I have just returned from a week-long stint at Origins in Columbus, Ohio in support of my pal Nathan Jerpe’s computer RPG Legerdemain. This was our second experience as fledgling merchant princes and sales droids, the first being Dragoncon ’08 (at which my loyalties were divided between two endeavors of equal rogueocity, Nathan’s Roguelikefiction and Jason Waltz’s Rogue Blades Entertainment), and it was a blast as well as being a tremendous success for the company both in terms of sales and getting the word out. In the realm of pure enjoyment, the con reinforced for me the notion that there is something about the metagame of actually selling and promoting a product in such an environment that makes the experience every bit as enjoyable for many of us exhibitors as I’m sure the playing of the myriad of visually impressive and craftily ingenuous games that dominated the space at Origins is for the attendees. Alas, eight hours a day of selling and talking seems to impair the higher brain functions, so that the majority of our off hours had to be spent under the restorative influence of beer — a palliative finely represented by the local brews of the area. Kudos Columbus, you rock.

There was a time in my greener days when I would have contemplated doing a con report complete with pictures and write-ups, etc. But let’s be honest, the press card never won Clark Kent any respect, and I’ve always looked a bit dorky in blue and red, so the middle path seemed best: infiltrate the proceedings, soak up the information, and then come back here to regurgitate in the careless and casual fashion that is the lingua franca of the internet. In sorting through the riot of images and impressions (and disregarding the rather dull recollection of fourteen hours of highway blacktop smoothing past) I have to conclude it’s the people Nathan and I met that made the con the great experience it was, from the uber-capable guys at Longbow who are putting out one of the best historical strategy computer games I’ve ever played, and our fun-to-be-around and upbeat neighbors in the exhibitor’s hall, a great crew out in support of the CCG The Spoils, to the suave instigators of Geek Chic who hold top honors for most put-together presentation (and coolest outfits), to our new friends from Vectorform and the great state of Michigan (!) who demoed the very next-generational game playing capabilities of the Microsoft Surface to a hungry audience . . . as well as managing to laugh at all (or most) of my jokes. And, of course, the 100s of folks that were interested in talking about old school computer RPGs with Nathan and I with the sort of enthusiasm that brings back heady recollections of the days of the SSI gold boxes and games like Ultima and Wizardry, and who really grooved to what Nathan has created with his game.

To all of them Dr. Zaius and I extended a heartfelt ‘nice to have met you’ . . . although the good doctor would also like to add that he fears and despises you all and would like nothing more than to give you a lobotomy or perhaps incorporate you into a taxidermical exhibit. Road trips tend to make him cranky like that, especially after a couple of Red Bulls, so don’t take it personally.