Orccon 2007 and a Day with Knizia

For the first time in about 15 years, I actually attended a complete game convention and I really picked a great one for my return to this part of the hobby. The new owners of Strategicon, our Los Angeles-based convention series, have really shown their commitment to the hobby and to the huge, diverse group of gamers we have here in Southern California. After purchasing the company only three months before their first convention, they revitalized the board gaming, RPG and nearly every other aspect of the convention experience. Amazingly, they managed to secure not just the great Reiner Knizia but also the fantastic Tom Jolly as special guests in such a short time! The best news, of course, is that both of them were really friendly and extremely witty. Listen for a podcast talking about my experiences at the convention and the day I spent showing Reiner Knizia around Los Angeles before the convention. There are some things I can't reveal about prototypes played and details shared, but I will try to give you some good impressions of the great experience I've had over the last five days.

Even better, the new Strategicon is just getting started and I'm hoping that the high level of quality the new owners are bringing to the conventions will draw more and more people to these great shows. I know that attendance was huge, numbers of participants were up big-time and that I spoke to people from all over the country and even quite a few international visitors, too. And if this is what the new owners can accomplish in a few months, I can hardly wait to see the cons later this year and next, when they have more time to plan. They have an amazing mix of the best of the old staff and some incredibly sharp newcomers helping them out (including my multi-talented fellow podcasting buddy, Paul Tevis, who leads up the RPG efforts now). Between this development and the great game stores I now have near my home (Gameology) and my work (Game Empire), I'm certainly more optimistic about the board gaming hobby in SoCal than I was a year ago when I was inspired to do the Demise and Rise of the FLGS series (although there are at least two additional installments planned there).

Watch for many shows to come out of the con this weekend, including a broadcast of the Q&A session with Dr. Knizia, a short bit about the Ingenious Puzzles demo he gave (with prizes including signed copies of the puzzles!), a show about self-publishing and entering the game business, and a general wrap-up show with Matt Grimaldi joining me for some additional commentary. The dry spell is officially over.

I also have Cucoloris CDs that I was supposed to put out to sell at the show but never did! If you would like to order a copy of their magnificent EP, please e-mail me and if you are local, I can probably deliver it to you at one of the upcoming game events.

Thanks for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.