Gaylaxicon 2007 - A Night To Remember
This past weekend I attended my first gay sci-fi fantasy convention, Gaylaxicon here in Atlanta GA. I had an absolute blast. After recovering from the enormity that was Dragon Con 2007, Gaylaxicon was a welcome change of pace. Situated downtown at the Sheraton, it was a much more intimate affair. There was no cosplay, besides a few Trekkies, but that’s more like an outfit than a costume at this point.
There was everything you would expect from a sci-fi fantasy convention, a dealer room, reception suite, tabletop gaming room, art room, screening room, auction hall, and performance space. After wandering around for a while, I ended up in the tabletop gaming room which rocked. There were board games of all kinds. Most of them were of the puzzle, resource management, or D&D style. I pulled up to a table, met a bunch of guys who frequented Gaylaxicon and played a fantastic game of Ubongo.
The game instructions were in German, fortunately they knew what they were doing and we had a great time. I would recommend it to anyone who loves Tetris and is looking for a new board game experience. It’s a fast moving affair that consists of several rounds of a timed Tetris-like gameplay. The dealer hands out a card to each player, who has to take a set number of Tetrisy pieces and arrange them on the card in the shape that is depicted. The first one who yells ‘done’ gets to move their marker a few spaces on the board and grab the gems in the column that they rest. The object of the game is to get the most similarly colored gems than any other player before all of the cards are dealt.
After many rounds of Ubongo, we heard that there was going to be a Chocolate Symposium in the reception suite, so we gathered out things and made haste to the chocolate. As we approached the suite, we could smell the chocolate wafting through the air, inviting us to partake in sinful indulgence. They had set up a chocolate fountain with an array of fruits, cakes, and marshmallows on skewers to dip into the gushing chocolate.
I managed to meet the awesome guys over at Doorq, the new gay horror, fantasy, and sci-fi site, and chatted them up for a while. They were great, and together we can showcase the deliciousness of gay nerds across multiple interest groups. Go team awesome!
Shortly after, I had to leave, for my carriage was double parked and I neglected my soufflé in the oven. I raced back home with memories of the kindest men and the most decadent display of chocolate mine eyes had ever seen.
Next year Gaylaxicon will be in Washington D.C. The convention travels around the country, hitting up all of the major cities. I didn’t have nearly enough time at the convention this year, so I’m packing my bags in preparation of next year. See you guys in 2008!
For more information, check out the official site from this past convention.
Toots
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 9 October 2007
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: convention, fantasy, gaylaxicon, sci-fi
WTF? I was IN Atlanta that weekend, and I didn't hear shit about it! I figure someone at the Eagle or Woof's would have mentioned it...
Then again, they may have actually been at the event itself... *sigh*
But... do we actually need our own con for Sci-Fi? Isn't DragonCon and such good enough?
Gaylaxicon was being promoted in cities all across the US by way of sci-fi cons and gay friendly businesses. It was heavily promoed at Dragon Con and at Pride Atlanta.
If someone had never told me about Dragon Con or other events I never would have known about it either. That does not mean people had not tried to get the word out.
Does this city need another convention for gamers and such? Sure why not? Why should one massive con be all there is to choose from? There was a time when Dragon Con had competition. That slowly fell away as D*C did what it could to drive them out of business.
But have you ever wondered why there are no gay specific events at D*C? I work staff and have been a volunteer since the second year. While there is an increasing attendance of GLBT at the con itself and there are more and more staffers on-hand that are also GLBT the con remains a largely heterosexual geared event. This is of course my own perception of things.
Having an event that caters more to the GLBT side of things should be welcomed not shunned. Besides getting D*C to let GLBT members have their own panels or events has proven near impossible. If it weren't for Eric who runs the Trek Trak we wouldn't have the popular (though brief) rainbow party each year. And the OutWorlders suite parties are becoming increasingly popular.
There is an obvious need and desire for such conventions. At least from what I can see.