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My Mandatory Gen-Con 2015 Report (Part 4)

(Continued from Part 3).

Forgive me, True Believers, for my delay in completing this series. I do my best to post blogs on Tuesday and/or Thursday, but that doesn’t always work out. I lead a busy life.

The siege of Cardhalla.
The siege of Cardhalla.

Before I continue with the last day of Gen-Con 2015, I neglected to mention that I witnessed the fall of Cardhalla on my way back to the hotel that Saturday night. Cardhalla is a massive display created by con-goers using cards from the many popular games at the convention (though most seemed to be from Magic: The Gathering). Essentially, it’s a “city” consisting of houses of cards. On Saturday night, con-goers throw coins at the card towers to topple them and the money is collected to be donated to charity. I didn’t throw any coins since I didn’t have any, but it was fun to watch. One large tower refused to fall despite everyone’s efforts. A guy even tried throwing a Zip-loc bag of money at it, but he missed. I kept joking that any towers left standing should be “destroyed” by Godzilla cosplayers. Because why not?

Now on to day four…

The day did start with a bit of frustration. I ended up being late to the Christian Gamers Guild/Fans For Christ worship service because Jarod and I had to pack up the car and check out before it started at 9AM. We had to be out by 1PM, and since I was going straight from the service to the vendor hall at 10AM, we had to do all of that beforehand. Eric and Jarod went ahead of me while I took the last of our stuff to my car in the parking garage below. I had about fifteen minutes to get to the service—but realized I left my 10th Doctor costume in our room’s closet! I rushed upstairs, got a new card key, rode the elevator up, and got to the room, and grabbed my costume. By the time I returned to the car, I had only five minutes to get to the service. It was fairly close by in another hotel (in fact, it was held in the same room as the Five Year Mission concert the night before), but I still ended up being five minutes late.

Derek White the "Geekpreacher."
Derek White the “Geekpreacher.”

Regardless, I found Jarod and sat with him. Eric was helping with the service. The worship leader (whose name escapes me, unfortunately) was dressed as a bard (gotta love cosplay in church). After singing and communion, the message was, as usual, delivered by Derek White “The Geekpreacher.” He came dressed in what I’d call “LARP armor” (minus the sword) and preached on Ephesians 6:10-18 (the “armor of God” passage, naturally). He said he conducted a poll on Facebook for the title of his message: it’d either be “The Power of Fairy Tales” or “Here There Be Dragons.” The latter won, obviously. The highlight for me was hearing him get the entire crowd—the largest ever for this event—to recite the most famous line from the original Conan the Barbarian movie. He asked, “What is best in life?” The crowd replied, “To crush your enemies and see them driven before you. And to hear the lamentations of their women.” (I left the last part off unsure they’d say it. It’s a Christian service, after all).

EDIT: Here’s a video of his sermon.

 

The bard who led worship (I didn't get her name, unfortunately. Sorry!)
The bard who led worship (I didn’t get her name, unfortunately. Sorry!)

I was surprised by how many people attended the con on Sunday. It was different sort of crowd, too. The usual 4-day attendees were there, but since Sunday is “family day” at the convention, many new people came. While I wouldn’t say it was as busy as Saturday was, it was still very active.

Here I am with Arthur, one of my most avid fans.
Here I am with Arthur, one of my most avid fans.

Regardless, I myself didn’t do as many exciting things that day. Eric left by early afternoon. I mostly interacted with some amazing cosplayers and sold my books. I even found I had returning fans! One guy even came by saying he remembered me from last year, having bought and read Destroyer and The Day After, and wanted more. I barely said two sentences before he grabbed both volumes of Children of the Wells and Pandora’s Box. It was the easiest $35 I’ve ever made.

The big highlight for me was meeting Marina Sirtis, an actress most famous for playing Deanna Troi on Star Trek: the Next Generation. While I wasn’t smitten with her like I was Summer Glau the day before, Mrs. Sirtis has had a greater influence on me since I’d been a Trekker since age three and was reared on both the original Star Trek and TNG. I didn’t have to wait long to see her since the line was short. Because of that, though, Mrs. Sirtis spent a few minutes with each fan talking with them as they got photos and/or an autograph. Like with Mrs. Glau, I intended to give Mrs. Sirtis one of my books. In this case, a copy of 42: Discovering Faith Through Fandom since one of my entries is about Troi. I wasn’t sure if she’d accept something with such strong religious overtones, but I thought I overheard her say to someone in line ahead of me that her husband was Catholic, so I thought I might have a chance.

Representing GameChurch while meeting the amazing Marina Sirtis.
Representing GameChurch while meeting the amazing Marina Sirtis.

When it was my turn, I got a photo with her and had a wonderful chat, telling her that I’d realized that one reason TNG resounded with me as a child was because Picard reminded me of my Dad and Troi reminded me of my Mom. “You must’ve had an awesome Mom,” said Mrs. Sirtis. “I did,” I replied. I seized the moment and gave her the book, explaining that it was a devotional for geeks and nerds. She was noticeably surprised by this. I then said I wanted her to have a copy as a thank you for coming since I wrote about Troi in an entry. “Let me read it,” she said. I turned to that page and she read it. “So, you use stories like this to illustrate the Scriptures?” she asked. “Yes,” I replied, simultaneously nervous and excited. “Thank you so much. I’ll read this on the plane back to England.”

I walked away a happy fanboy.

Safe to say when 4PM tolled, I was sad Gen-Con was over. Not only was it the four best days of gaming, it was four of the best days of my year. 🙂

Gen-Con, Day 4

Finally getting fed up with parking garages and their fees, I decided I would park closer to Lucas Oil Stadium. It meant walking a block to get to the Indiana Convention Center (I probably walked just as much getting out of the garage), but it was half the price. I also had to go in through a different entrance on the opposite end of the ICC, which left me a little confused, but I found my way around.

The first event I attended was an unusual one: a Christian worship service. It was put on by the Christian Gamers’ Guild, a ministry that works with people who play role-playing games. I’d say that about 200 people attended. There I learned more about the CGG and their sister ministry, Fans For Christ. I was excited to learn there were three (them and GameChurch) reaching out this the nerd/geek subculture, which has been ignored by the mainstream church for years. Anyway, we sang a few classic hymns and had communion using little packets of grape juice with wafers on top. Then we got to hear a sermon from Derek W. White the “geek preacher.” He began by showing everyone his new pair of dice, which he’d bought from one of the vendors. One was a 10-sided dye with the Ten Commandments, and the other was a 14-sided dye with the seven deadly sins and the seven great virtues. “So together, this is my random sermon generator,” he said, rolling the dice. “I can get 140 sermons out of this.” Someone in the audience added, “So, is humility a d10 or a d20?” He used Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as his illustration.

You can watch his sermon below:

GenCon Service 2012 from Geekpreacher on Vimeo.

(I just realized watching the video that you can hear me because I sat next to the cameraman!)

With 10 a.m. fast approaching, I hurried to the exhibitors’ hall—and ran into this little punk:

I swear he tried to exterminate me just because I insulted him!

This is the Dalek owned by Who North America. I’d seen it a few times during the convention, but I’d never seen it do anything. I walked by it and saw that its head was swiveling around, as if surveying the scene. I got my camera out to snap a picture—and it looked right at me. I stepped to the side—it followed me. Here’s what followed:

Me: It must have a motion sensor. It follows me.
Dalek: This Dalek has a mutant detector!

Yes, True Believers, not only could it movie, it could talk! I don’t know if it has pre-programmed responses or if someone (Nick Briggs?) was hiding somewhere and improvising lines in response. So, I decided to mess with it.

Me: How’s the extermination business?
Dalek: Humans are easy to exterminate!

I went to my table and went back about an hour later. This time, I decided I would really mess with the Dalek by insulting it. This was my best exchange with it.

Me: Why don’t you use that plunger to do something useful, like unplug a toilet?
Dalek: Daleks do not make house calls!

I asked someone at the Who North America booth how they got the thing to talk, and he replied, “We tickle its chin.” “Good answer,” I said.

I returned to my table, and a few hours of slow book sales followed. It was easily the slowest day of the convention. I was chatting with someone, trying to make another sale, when what I guess you could call a band of traveling minstrels called Water Street Bridge entered my row and broke out into song in front of my booth! “Party at your table!” the patron said. Their music I would describe as folksy, although on their website they say they play even more. I’d post a video of their performance, but it’s too large to post on this site (lame!).

 

Their violinist seems to be the most talented. She is crazy! She broke her bow right as they finished. Regardless, their performance was a great surprise. Here’s a picture:

Here’s the band, clad in “Angry Birds” hats. (I apologize for the photo’s poor quality).

The convention officially ended at 4 p.m. I packed up, did some book exchanges, purchased a few things, said goodbye to my fellow writers, and headed out. Thankfully, my boxes were much lighter than they were when I arrived. I had around 80 books total, and left with less than half of them. This was good because I had to watch a bit farther to get to my car.

I miss the convention. It was invigorating going to something so fun and nerdy. Creativity saturated the air with all the cosplayers, gamers, writers, artists, and musicians. It was…intoxicating. If it’s possible to get drunk on creativity, I did. It was great fun being among thousands of like-minded people.

Regardless, I also realized how much this subculture needs Jesus Christ. While most of the people there were kind and considerate, there was still immorality. That’s why I was glad to learn about three ministries working in this subculture. I hope to somehow get involved with them in any way I can. Perhaps I have found my mission field.

::steps down from soapbox::

So, there you have it. Gen-Con. It was so much fun, I signed up to return to sell books next year! I’d like to take an assistant with me, so if any of you are interested, drop me a line and I’ll put you in contention.

COMING SOON: My first vlog! The topic: selling books at conventions.