Atlanta Gamefest Jan 9th-11th

Slight change of plans--we're going to be there Saturday and Sunday instead of Friday and Saturday.

We were having to do a lot of work-related maneuvering to leave out with any time that would give us time to do anything Friday, and finally realized we could game more if we left out way early Saturday morning, gamed into the night Saturday, stayed that night and then gamed on Sunday too.

So Avery, Branham...I'll catch you two guys on Saturday. I think everyone else who messaged me said that Saturday would be their day anyway.

Space Ghost wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote:

Umm...no, you probably don't.

AGF is weird...there's these girls that are almost like gamer groupies or something. You can tell they're kind of trying to dress up a little nicer than the sweatshirt and jeans they usually wear. It's like they go to Fashion Bug or whatever the night before and buy what they think is a "sexy" outfit (which actually turns out to be pretty homely) and wear it to the gaming. I'm not kidding. And the body types tend to be either birdlike or cowlike.

I guess they're trying to find a gamer man or something. Too bad they're more interested in Power Grid.

I am usually able to figure out how much of the stuff on this sight is hyperbole/bullshit. The one area that I can never gauge is the discussion of "gamer fashion". I start out thinking it is bullshit, but after a few minutes it starts to seem plausible. You guys have woven a dark, mythical world -- I find it quite humerous.

I can attest that the bit about Power Grid is disturbingly true.

Gamer men either spend the entire game staring directly and without discretion at a female player's chest (whether clothed in a low-cut top or not) or completely red-faced and awkward, trying to actively avoid seeing the woman in question.

I thought about hiring some of the girls down at the Pink Pony to come to AGF and just walk around. Fat middle-aged dudes with red faces would almost certainly ensue, along with Will Kenyon hooting and cheering.

Michael Barnes wrote:

I thought about hiring some of the girls down at the Pink Pony to come to AGF and just walk around. Fat middle-aged dudes with red faces would almost certainly ensue, along with Will Kenyon hooting and cheering.

If that happens, I will get some last minute flight plans and a big envelope of singles. Throw in a couple of silver owl hats, and we can have a creepy, furry fandomesque sex romp.

The gamer groupies can be found in the larp scene as well. When I used to play in vampire larps, I called them "the ghoulfriends." Birdlike or cowlike physiques were typical, especially cowlike, as well as bad fake accents, though that is probably particular to the larp scene. Meryl Streep convinced an entire generation of fools that acting is about speaking in a funny foreign accent, and the more accents you can do, the better you are as an actor.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Haven't seen Jarvis in a while, be warned that he's a sandbagger. You know, :I've never played this game before...oh look, I won!" Last time I saw him he won DUNGEON even though Kenyon and I failed to tell him the rules.

LOL That's not true. I think the last time I saw you I won the game by driving the Commandant's car out of the Nazi compound. That game of Dungeon was great though. I basically just did everything you and Kenyon did, but one turn later.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Umm...no, you probably don't.

AGF is weird...there's these girls that are almost like gamer groupies or something. You can tell they're kind of trying to dress up a little nicer than the sweatshirt and jeans they usually wear. It's like they go to Fashion Bug or whatever the night before and buy what they think is a "sexy" outfit (which actually turns out to be pretty homely) and wear it to the gaming. I'm not kidding. And the body types tend to be either birdlike or cowlike.

I guess they're trying to find a gamer man or something. Too bad they're more interested in Power Grid.

Yeah, that just about sums it up. And I thought I knew exactly who you were talking about and then I realized it applied to a lot more people than I thought.

So it looks like my wife won't make it, so I'll be there on Saturday from the early afternoon to probably 10ish pm. See y'all there.

LOL That's not true. I think the last time I saw you I won the game by driving the Commandant's car out of the Nazi compound. That game of Dungeon was great though. I basically just did everything you and Kenyon did, but one turn later.

Fuck me, that's right...you did that after I explained at length how hard it was to do that and how I'd never seem anyone do it. Damn gaming prodigy.

I think I'll bring COLDITZ...it's always fun to break out a game with a giant swastika on it and on all the cards...

Michael Barnes wrote:

I guess they're trying to find a gamer man or something. Too bad they're more interested in Power Grid.

Gamer men either spend the entire game staring directly and without discretion at a female player's chest (whether clothed in a low-cut top or not) or completely red-faced and awkward, trying to actively avoid seeing the woman in question.

Ubelievable! You just mentioned punchlines of my next cartoon - Eugene playing a euro with his buddies when suddenly a young woman appears. Yes, they are playing POWER GRID.

I don't know what it is about POWER GRID that makes me immediately think of sexless twerps...and I actually kind of like POWER GRID.

Ok heres a quick review. I tried to write up a full summary but my memory is crap and it al seems like a big blur now.

Some of the games I played
Murder City- Richard Launius is damn lucky and a masterful liar..But i'm even luckier

Shadow Hunters- Although I didn't win, I consider this a victory because its the first time I didn't get killed in the 1st three turns.

BSG- Humans loose *again* 7/8 jumps everything low and every enemy ship on the board. I met Tae and Lauren Ho who turned out to be a lot of fun. I'm going to have to go to Columbia SC and break up their gaming Solidarity.

War on Terror- By far my favorite time at the Fest. This one went a little long but it had the most nukes I'd seen and I laughed so hard that I hardly realized how long it went. Ken Bradford is a bastard. We should kick him out and promote his brother Jeremy.

Cosmic Encounter- I love CE but I had forgotten how fun all those things are that the AH version is missing. It was a robust game with lots of coercion and threats. Ken and I were neck in neck. I scewed him out of a shared victory for big laughs...then he went and won the game.

Last night on Earth- I hadn't played for a while and now I remember why. As a hero, there is not a lot to do but run around and draw a card. I'd play again with just two I think. It was getting late and I totally hosed my teamate by not using the drifter's special ability to draw two cards and choose one- Sorry man!

Goldener Drache- I really like this race game. You have three programed moves and on your turn you can move anyone's peice take the move under it and add it to end of your stack. its chaotic with lots of screwage and takes like 25 mintues to play.

A couple of prototypes and a few more games that I can't remember (like loosing all of my dice in one really bad turn of liars dice). I also sold $300 worth of a crappy games (and a few not so crappy) and ate lots of delicious cheap mexican food. I never got a chance to meet Aaronatu but enjoyed Ken and Jeremy's company. All in all it was a ton of fun.

Other Highlights:

-Will Kenyon suckling Manboobs
-Watching Rob Martin suffer through a nasty hangover
-Getting into a shouting match with Barnes. Poor Jeremy got the brunt of it.
-Convincing newbies that they should attack Frank
-haggling with the vendor at the International Liquor Emporium
-Scoring Super giant Monster Showdown for $10

Steve"GamefestedOut"Avery

I actually enjoyed the shouting match. It was one of the funniest things to happen at the Fest.

Of course Avery left out that I pulled a knife on him during that shouting match.

Gamefest was a good time, indeed. I was SHOCKED at how many people came, most of them grossly overweight and/or shabbily dressed, and most of them I didn't know. I think there must have been 200 or more there. If we didn't find the secret nerd-free rooms, I might have left. It was PACKED in the main rooms. The stench of Arbys was replaced by the stench of cheap Chinese food. The smell of low-grade meat was thick in the air.

My playlist- nothing new, all old chestnuts:

THUNDER ROAD (well, I just watched because they didn't fucking wait for me to start)
WAR ON TERROR
DUNGEONQUEST
COSMIC ENCOUNTER
WORLD CUP GAME (Cinderella story- Spain wins the '02 cup beating Brazil & Germany)
REALLY NASTY HORSERACING GAME

My observations:
- How Robert Martin got by without ever seeing any Mad Max films is a real mystery
- Steve Avery loves teh cock
- Eddie Holley is a master forager specializing in Mexican food
- Bob Solow, my groupie, is pretty fun to game with but he gives up too easy
- the "birds and cows" theory was proven
- If you're selling games at a game event flea market, don't bother bringing good games- just go to a thrift store and buy a bunch of shitty games or $5 Euros off Tanga. Garbage sells like hotcakes.
- Watch out for them Bradford boys, they collude
- One 11% beer will make me tipsy (I am a total lightweight)

Low point- I called everybody nerds and this girl corrected me- "They're geeks, not nerds". She was a bird.

Great times. I was there Saturday evening; it was great to meet some of y'all. I also got to try out some new (to me) games. A rundown of the evening:

BSG - Reminds me of Shadows over Camelot, only every aspect of the game is more interesting (the traitor is more fun to play, bad cards have more flavor and give the traitor/cylon more opportunities to secretly mess people up). I was on the human side and we narrowly won with only 2 or 3 of everything left.

DUNGEONQUEST - I have always wanted to play this game; its reputation makes it sound like a 30 minute dungeon crawl made by the people who brought you the Horrible Black Void. I got knocked down to 1 health pretty quickly, but still managed to get pretty close to the treasure room before falling down a bottomless pit. Jeff got toasted by the dragon and Robert actually made it to the treasure chamber and was nearly back before he fell down a bottomless pit, just as the sun set.

WORLD CUP GAME - The GAME Z of sports games? I've never really played any sports games so I have nothing to compare it to, but as far as games in general go: it was fun, quick (after the knockout round, anyway), played well with a large group, was light enough that we could have a conversation while the game was going on, and it worked well with the theme. I think watching soccer is boring, but I really enjoyed this game.

REALLY NASTY HORSE RACING GAME - This game was a blast. The highlight of the game for me was the last round; I put all my money on the horse with 50:1 odds and made over 19 million when it finished first.

I managed to pickup Talisman: the Reaper while i was there, which I'm looking forward to trying out.