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GenCon: Day 1
10 years ago
So, by now I've finished my first day at a convention. And it was kind of surreal. Never before had I been around people so openly passionate about their fandom. And what a selection of fandoms to choose from. LARP, Steampunk, anime, board games, card games, models, minatures, holy hell.
A feeling which I'm fairly sure also is represented at furry cons. Where creative self-expression is the norm more than the exception.
Not knowing anything about MTG, LOL, DnD, HON, etc, I did have to sit through a lot of conversations as they whooshed over my head. But I did get a chance to learn to trial a new tabletop game (and nobody else there knew how to play, so it was an evener playing field because I'm pretty terrible at tabeltop). And I got to people watch at a con. Infinitely entertaining, that.
I also met a potential furry. A proto-furry, perhaps? Let me explain. I only know one other person here. "Neal" who I went to high school with invited me to share his room when I mentioned my interest in cons. I don't know any of his other friends there. But one, "Steve" has been known in past cons to dress in a $30 plastic giraffe outfit at cons because....
Well, I asked him why. And he kind of gave an evasive answer. He originally was asked to wear it for a work function. That doesn't explain why he kept it nor why he actually replaced it when it started to wear out. Nor why he continued to wear it at cons. (He's apparently been a fixture at the last few GenCons.) The best reasoning he could give me was that it "was a crowd-pleaser". Well,well, well, Mr. Normie, you just tapped into the drive to perform that exists in all fursuiters.
Look for him at the con. I might be somewhere close by.
A feeling which I'm fairly sure also is represented at furry cons. Where creative self-expression is the norm more than the exception.
Not knowing anything about MTG, LOL, DnD, HON, etc, I did have to sit through a lot of conversations as they whooshed over my head. But I did get a chance to learn to trial a new tabletop game (and nobody else there knew how to play, so it was an evener playing field because I'm pretty terrible at tabeltop). And I got to people watch at a con. Infinitely entertaining, that.
I also met a potential furry. A proto-furry, perhaps? Let me explain. I only know one other person here. "Neal" who I went to high school with invited me to share his room when I mentioned my interest in cons. I don't know any of his other friends there. But one, "Steve" has been known in past cons to dress in a $30 plastic giraffe outfit at cons because....
Well, I asked him why. And he kind of gave an evasive answer. He originally was asked to wear it for a work function. That doesn't explain why he kept it nor why he actually replaced it when it started to wear out. Nor why he continued to wear it at cons. (He's apparently been a fixture at the last few GenCons.) The best reasoning he could give me was that it "was a crowd-pleaser". Well,well, well, Mr. Normie, you just tapped into the drive to perform that exists in all fursuiters.
Look for him at the con. I might be somewhere close by.
