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 JODY MACGREGOR talks to game designer and special guest STEVE DARLINGTON about Brisbane’s biggest gaming convention, GEN CON OZ.
The original Gen Con took place in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin – hence the name – in 1968. It’s also a pun on the Geneva Conventions that protect victims of war, appropriate because the first Gen Con was a wargame convention. Organiser Gary Gygax rented his local Horticultural Hall for the princely sum of $50 so that visitors had somewhere to set up their games and push around their armies. It was popular enough to run for a second year and expand the focus to include board games; that was also the year that Gygax met fellow gamer Dave Arneson. The two would go on to design Dungeons & Dragons together, kick-starting the roleplaying hobby and giving the convention another focus.
Over the years Gen Con has moved to different locations since outgrowing that first Horticultural Hall and becoming an international event that attracts thousands of gamers. Steve Darlington attended the convention’s American iteration several years ago. “Gen Con US is pretty intense because there are something like 20–25,000 gamers there at once,” he says, “and the whole city feels full of us. Local stores and restaurants know what’s going on. The convention spreads out over three or four buildings, and includes everything from movie previews to improv shows to all night anime screenings to warehouses full of 100 D&D games all rolling dice at once – which almost feels like a stockyard.”
Spin-off Gen Cons have been held in Paris, Barcelona and London. Last year the very first Gen Con Oz was held right here in Brisbane, where cheap running costs and attractiveness to overseas guests who might like to spend some time on the beach were in our favour. With a mandate that covered computer games, card games, anime, cosplay, live-action roleplaying and various other kinds of geekery, 2008’s Gen Con Oz attracted over 10,000 guests and was enough of a success to ensure a repeat in 2009. This year’s convention features guests like Robert Picardo from Star Trek: Voyager and Stargate, Kate Vernon from Battlestar Galactica, D&D game designer Keith Baker and a host of other authors, actors, artists and game designers.
“Last year’s Gen Con really understood the need to raise the level of what a con can be,” says Darlington. “Gaming conventions were once like chess tournaments, it was just about the gaming, but in the last 20 years people have realised they are also trade shows, like E3 and ComicCon, and that people come for events and booths as much as they do gaming. I was worried Gen Con wouldn’t attract enough sellers and companies and events but we pulled in a lot of those, some international gaming celebrities and a few big TV and film names like Alan Tudyk. That really made it feel different from any other Australian gaming convention. Word was a bunch of computer companies were kicking themselves for not coming on. This year we’ve got Robert Picardo and Keith Baker of Eberron fame, so hopefully we’ll keep up the momentum.”
GEN CON OZ takes place from Friday Sep 18 to Sunday Sep 20 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, South Bank. See www.genconoz.com for more details of specific events.
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