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SJ Games on Facebook was mentioning it's getting to be convention season and asked what conventions people were planning on attending.
The answer is simple.
None.
Check the rules of every science fiction, comic or gaming convention and you will find language to the effect of:
THE CONVENTION AND HOST HOTEL ARE A GUN FREE ZONE
Yeah, not going to do that.
I'd love to attend one, but they ALL have that language.
A lot of conventions have also gone very woke about prop weapons and even costumes, almost like the convention staffs actually hate the conventioneers.
ReplyDeleteThus the kerfuffle over the Hugos from at least before the Sad Puppies thingy.
The combination of GFZs and hatred of right wing peoples makes me never to want to attend.
Plus, well, being a card-carrying misanthrope doesn't help me want to be around people I don't know. I hate already having to go shopping and dealing with other shoppers and staff.
There were a lot of issues with this when the NRA had meetings in Las Vegas. The hotels out there pretty much all ban any kind of carry, even licensed. Hotels in Las Vegas have tremendous political power. Here in Texas they can't completely ban guns by law. Some hotels post 30.06/30.07/30.05 but they can't ban hotel guests from carrying in their rooms like they do in Las Vegas or carrying to and from their rooms. It's still more restrictive than it should be though. They're still allowed to ban carry in places like meeting halls. That would still make attending a convention essentially a no-go. Also many try to bend the rules to their whim like claiming that entire facilities are affected by 51% when only bar areas should be, especially if bar areas are owned/operated by different legal entities which they usually are.
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There are still gaming and miniature companies that are requiring masks, vaccination proof, and temperature checks before one can enter their store or attend their events. One such place is less than 5 miles from my lair, but with their rules I won't go in there, and I am not willing to pay their exorbitant shipping charge.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to attend Origins, but the GFZ rule makes it a no go for me, even though I don't carry. I tolerate it at the local Meijer because it is in an upscale area, and I don't drive in the evenings.
At least with Games-Workshop events, I haven't seen the hostility toward conservatives, and in most things I am very conservative(over at Gab.com, I follow people such as White Rabbit, Mojave Man, and Harry's $hitposter sites). I'm known and accepted in that community as a painter, not a player. GW events have a lot of cosplayer participation, with some outfits costing upwards of $10,000.
ReplyDeleteDnD, well, that's another story altogether, I'm afraid. I stopped going to their conventions after about 1979 when Gary Gygax's ego went supersize...And I was running a large gaming store in upstate NY before and after my stint in the USAF. I did as little business with TSR as I could, preferring to go with smaller companies such as Metagaming Concepts and the company that made Starfleet Wars.
Oh, and I agree completely with your last paragraph. My last friend died some 23 plus years ago. All i have left are the cats, the exotics, and most importantly my wife.
A big part of this is the "instant idiot, just add alcohol" factor. There have been close calls at cons before, when some people carried very realistic prop weapons and someone thought they were real and called the cops. The concoms are probably trying to avoid liability...they've already got problems with "dramshop" laws aimed at curbing drunk drivers.
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