Gen Con: A Gamer's Paradise

By Roberto Campos

A statue for Magic: The Gathering

As you pull up to the Indianapolis Convention Center for the annual Gen Con convention, a certain kind of excitement hits you.  An excitement that is felt by all attendees, an excitement that can only be described as a combination of pure joy and anticipation as you are unaware where the weekend will take you.

Walking into Gen Con on the first day is a surreal experience. Seeing the hundreds of cosplayers, decked out in lavish costumes which pay homage to their favorite gaming characters, makes you realize that Gen Con is more than a convention, it’s a celebration of the entirety of gaming culture. 

As thousands of casual and hardcore gamers descend on Indianapolis to experience one of the country’s biggest conventions, Gen Con really tries to sell you on its slogan, “The Best Four Days in Gaming!” Bringing fantasy to life through games like True Dungeon , massive statue replicas of Magic: The Gathering cards and its more than 8,500 gaming events, Gen Con doesn’t disappoint. Being a 24-hour convention, there is something to do at all hours of the day and there is always somebody ready to throw down in any game that you’re playing.

Most gaming, both table top and video games are played on a small scale. Either you’re playing at your local comic book or gaming shops or you’re playing through the internet, so there isn’t really ever a huge interaction with thousands of real people when you game.

Gaming, both table top and online, at Gen Con swaps the small scale with limited player interaction for a macro sized gaming explosion. With thousands of gamers converging on one location to play any game you can think of, and some you didn’t even think would ever exist, it makes for a special mixture of gamers coming together to play and talk about the games we have all come to know and love. That special mixture is felt all throughout the air at Gen Con, making a kind of euphoria that only certain kinds of conventions can give you.

A Little Sister from Bioshock captures a scientist from Portal.

Attendees are really what make the atmosphere of Gen Con so unique, as hundreds of people shuffle through the hallways of the convention center you can feel the love of gaming and its culture radiating off of every individual - a feeling that never dies throughout Gen Con’s four day run.

Besides all the gaming events that are held at the convention, the one room that really feels massive and overwhelming is the dealer’s room. Filled with almost everything you would want to buy relating in the gaming and anime universe, the amount of memorabilia in the convention is astonishing. If you are a table top gamer and you want some swag for your games, look no further than the dealer’s room.  It contains everything you need for almost all well-known games, as well as some of the new, up-and-coming games, and is a must-see if you attend the convention.

Before setting foot into the convention center it may be hard to understand how successful the gaming industry has become, but once inside the world of gaming engulfs you by its utter size and scope. Gen Con celebrates a life style that has become more mainstream over the years thanks to the mainstream success of video games, but also showcases the table top gaming that has had gamers rolling dice for decades. It’s a type of event any gamer should participate in to truly experience how special this subculture is.

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