I’m currently sitting here in the Crossroads Corridor at the Indiana Convention Center, Doomslug hanging out by my side, waiting to see if any more folks from the Fans of Gen Con group want to come grab badge ribbons, and soaking in the last couple of hours of the Best Four Days in Gaming.
… yes, I made Doomslug her own badge, I know I’m ridiculous
I needed this. The past four days have been a lot, especially since I haven’t been to Gen Con since 2019, but I missed this so much that I’m actually on the verge of getting weepy right here in the middle of the convention center. (That’s probably due to a mix of exhaustion, overwhelm, and not getting enough food to fuel the 15k+ steps I’ve been walking per day since Wednesday, heh.)
I was a little nervous about coming back to Gen Con after not attending in person in so long. The past few years have not been great on my mental health, and I get overwhelmed a lot more easily than I used to – and I wasn’t sure how well I’d be able to handle being around approximately 70,000 other gamers, especially considering the largest event I’d been to before this was the Statewide IT Conference at work this year. (There were around 900 attendees there, if I remember right.)
Photo by Indy Mavens. Look who’s doing a tiny photobomb in the lower left corner!
Thankfully, the Gen Con community – or at least the people I interacted with personally here – is still as awesome as ever. I feel like this year more than ever, I’ve seen so many people out there taking care of their fellow con-goers. I saw folks posting in the Fans of Gen Con Facebook group that they found someone’s badge or other lost items and brought them to lost and found, con clerics wandering around to help with costume issues and basic first aid needs, and helping people find where to go for specific items they were looking for. I even did what I could to help by sharing hand sanitizing wipes, telling folks where they could find things like locking pin backs and fancy hand fans (I sent so much business towards the Geeky Endeavors booth during the con!) and even giving a spare mask to Liby of Bloomington Stitchery while they held down the fort at the Different Drummer Belly Dancing booth. (And tried not to go into awkward fangirl mode when I saw them there, haha. 😅 )
This was a weird Gen Con for me. It’s the first year I’ve flown solo for the most part, and my first Gen Con without Rana since we met in 2013. I ended up doing things differently this year – I didn’t take as many cosplay pictures as I’ve done in the past, and I didn’t sign up for a lot of events. I did, however, finally hand out some Crafty Nerd badge ribbons I bought in 2019 to hand out in 2020 – and that resulted in me talking to a lot more people than I normally would at Gen Con. (If you found your way here after snagging a badge ribbon from me, welcome!)
In general, going to Gen Con this year felt like coming home again after a long, exhausting adventure. Things are different, of course, and I’m a very different person than I was when I last attended, but it was still so good to be here. I’ll be posting in detail about my Gen Con experience over the coming days, so if you want to hear more about my Gen Con 2024 adventure, stay tuned!