And once again, Luke lied about hotel registration.
I saw some folks talking about the Legends and Founders event, the weekend prior, and decided to take a look at the badges offered. There are two tiers:
Hero of the Realm
Admission to all 3 days, 3 nights stay at the Grand (Fri/Sat/Sun night), seat in the D&D Evolution tournament, lunch daily and evening mixer Sat/Sun and premier F&LC merch. GC XVI early housing
Adventurer
Access to all 3 days of the convention, games and activities.
The Hero badge is $2,000, the Adventurer is $100. Pretty big difference there.
I noticed that those paying the $2k get early housing registration, even after he specifically said on the FB group a while back, that everyone registers for GaryCon rooms at the same time. As they say, "
follow the money". I guess those with the privilege and option to pay more, get first dibs. The plebeians can fight over the scraps.
Maybe it is just me, but what started off as a simple gathering, a remembrance and an honor to his dad's legacy, has blown up into something else. I know people will attend and people will have fun, but they'll never experience Gary Con as it was, as it should be, in my opinion. It's just another con now, the only difference is this one it tied to Gary. Not to sound harsh, but I almost get the feeling that Luke is now just riding the coattails, almost to the point of grifting off his father's passing and legacy.
I remember reading about how JRRT had stated that he never wanted his work commercialized. He wanted it to be kept as it was, yet even so, look at how commercialized his legacy has become. At least Christopher tried to maintain his dad's wishes up until his passing.
"
Follow the money."
GaryCon feels like that now, like watching Tolkien's work become modern and commercialized.
The old days are gone, and I don't think we'll see them return again. I know some will argue that there are alternatives, like North Texas, but for ME personally, even that cannot replace those early years.
See, GCVII was awesome not only because I was tired of the "big cons" and wanted something smaller, but GaryCon was held in Lake Geneva, Gary's home. WotC, had no hands in the pockets yet and there was little to no Paizo presence. Those unfortunately, showed up in later years. I remember the Trolls and their booth, I remember playing Castles and Crusades, and Kenzer having a big pirate/harbor themed table running Hackmaster games. I remember sitting outside around the fire pit one evening, under falling snow, talking with some random attendees.
GCVII was where I met many of the folks from Dragonsfoot, people with whom I had written and talked online for many years prior. I remember meeting "
grodog" in the dealer's room for the first time and I remember sitting in a chair in some random hallway talking with "
tacojon" about gaming and our kids. I can remember sitting at a corner table, near the window, in the bar with "
Handy Haversack and "
bigperm" before the rest of the NYC crew started attending. I remember playing in a Basic D&D game run by "
Chgowiz" that was set in the Britannia setting from the Ultima series of computer games. I remember sitting with "
francisca" and a few others during an AD&D game (run by tacojon) and meeting "
Ghul" while he was running one of his early AS&SH adventures. Early one morning, I recall having breakfast at The Egg Harbor Cafe' with "
chainsaw", "
EOTB", "
ligedog", "
Guy Fullerton", and a few others. GCVII was the first time I banged together some coconuts during a jousting tournament with "
Paul J. Stormberg" and played Chainmail in an attempt to thwart the evils of his modular Moathouse.
No other con will or could replace that. Those memories are once in a lifetime, I can't make them again. I think the realization I have now is that, you can never go back. Even though the writing has been on the wall ever since that year, the GaryCon we knew then is just not there any more. Much like D&D, which has changed and moved on in other directions, so to, has GaryCon. Badges go on sale the 29th, but, the more I think about it, maybe it's just time to hang up the 'ole GC dice bag. Maybe for while or maybe for good.
