So that was my big purchase at MegaCon. It was fun going through
airport security with that :) It's a nice little toy. I will enjoy it.
I didn't expect to enjoy myself quite as much as I did at MegaCon, and what I liked most was being a part of the
TerrorWerks simulation.
It's an immersive LARP, first-person shooter type of game, where you go
into a scenario with a team of players and you have some sort of
mission, like liberate the space station from the aliens before the
reactor meltdown, and so on. I got to play an NPC in the simulation
most of the weekend, and then I ran through the simulation as a player
once. Eventhough I knew all the "monsters' secrets" by that time, it
still wasn't much of an advantage, as my group failed the mission.
Teamwork is required to "win" the scenario, and I think I got stuck
with a team of morons that time (with a few exceptions). It was fun
anyway. As an NPC, I got to attack unsuspecting players. As a player I
got to shoot things. I also got to be a greeter at the reg table. All
the people I got to hang out with---the MindGame Productions staff and
helpers---were just awesome. I would gladly do that again.
Going into this little adventure, I had mixed feelings about guns. I
grew up with them, as my father was an avid sportsman and lifetime
member of the NRA. He taught me how to shoot when I was a kid, but
since his death about 20 years ago, I haven't thought much about
"taking up arms" again. I even developed a fear of guns and supported
gun control for a while. However, this airsoft thing is fun without
being too dangerous. It's like paintball but less messy, and there's
more role-playing and costuming involved. They had me at costuming!
I
ended up paying very little attention to the other stuff going on at
the convention. I saw a few really great costumes, but a lot of anime
stuff that I didn't recognize, lots of duplicates, and some really
awful costumes as well. I'm a Robotech fan from back in the day, and
I'm not familiar with the newer stuff. I walked around the dealer room
a few times, but didn't want to spend a lot of money. I blew my
allowance on the fake Glock.
I got to meet Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers). There were lots of other
celebrities there, but he was the biggest one I'm familiar with. Geez
I'm old. That series was 30 years ago. Someone should remake that, but
do as good of a job as they did with Battlestar Galactica. I saw a
couple of good BG uniforms as well.
I'm
not a video gamer, and I was never a huge fan of the Resident Evil
movies, but I loved all the Umbrella Corp. stuff that I saw. The fans
were very cool. I am inspired to put together a SWAT-style load out
now. Speaking of which, I think I just opened the flood gates to a
whole new world of costuming. I already spent many years doing
historical period stuff, but now I'm suddenly fascinated by military
uniforms and more scifi-fantasy stuff. I have enough SCA garb anyway,
and I needed a new challenge.
