It would also be very fair to say I'm really disappointed, I really enjoy these conventions and had personally set Historicon'21 as a bit of a benchmark for when things return to normal. It was a little foolish to do so, but sometimes a desire for a return to "normal" outweighs the facts on display. The lack of these conventions also reminded me of a time during my hobby journey where the three HMGS shows (Falli-In, Cold Wars and Historicon) were my primary venues to play games with other people and interact socially in the hobby. I suspect that is still the case for a lot of people who aren't as fortunate as I am to have a club and close circle of friends to game with locally. Now I will not bore you with "deep thoughts" and moralizing statements but I will say as this pandemic drags on that it's more important than ever just to be kind to other people - everyone is hurting in one way or another, some show it others don't but we're all worn down.
Civility in your comportment is always a virtue but really never more so than now.
It does seem as if this pandemic has elected to crawl across, rather than race across the finish line, doesn't it.
Still despite the loss of silly toy soldier shows things are definitely on the upswing and I consider myself impatiently optimistic, which is a bit out of character for a CFO/Investor type who specializes in crisis management (and looks dashing in green eye-shades). By the way, when one becomes a CFO, you are issued a designer set of green eye shades along with the secret handshake. Its all very Illuminate-like and hush-hush. I best not go into the details for security reasons and you'll all just be jealous of the glitzy, jet-set lifestyle we CFO's secretly lead.
I didn't say Historicon was canceled above because in a welcome bit of scheduling sleight of hand, HMGS has changed the name of it's Fall event from Fall-In to Historicon and will be adding an extra day (from 3 to 4 days) to match the planned length of the summer event. That is welcome news and I've now declared "Historicon-Fall" as my new talisman for a return to normalcy. The "delay" in Historicon also provides a little bit more time to make the Stalingrad game even better. I wonder if they'll allow me to use tiny pyrotechnics during a game session? I'm sure they will and more importantly I shouldn't bother the convention runner with silly questions as they are very busy adjusting plans for this Fall. Besides, what could go wrong with tiny pyrotechnics in a packed gaming hall, right?
I'm not sure when and if nay shows will go ahead in the UK this year, due to the restrictions that the organisers and hosts would have to set in place, such as social distancing (impossible based upon previous shows) and deep cleans afterwards. I'm not a big show fan but have missed the few I would normally attend and really look forward to the day when we can all attend as before, but maybe with less of the rugby scrum!
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with your comments. As much as we would all like to get back to travelling to these much beloved venues. The current state of things just doesn't make the risks worth it. Best to take this 'down-time' to get cracking on getting more hobby stuff done & ready for when the flood-gates open & things begin to normalize
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear this show has been postponed, but as you say not entirely unexpected.
ReplyDeleteI'm pinning my own hopes on a few of the big UK shows (current scheduled for late in the year) but I'm trying to be realistic and prepare myself for disappoint!