I love game conventions, something my wife didn’t know about me when we were dating. The chance to meet people through playing games, to see new games for the first time, to try a game before I buy it, to spend a full weekend thinking about nothing but gaming.. What’s not to love? I grew up in California and had easy access to conventions throughout the year ranging from a few hundred to a couple thousand attendees. Naturally, I introduced Gail to them. Just as naturally, she was shocked.
She was introduced to game conventions in California. We would show up and split off into different directions, she’d go to her board games, I’d go to my RPGs, but we’d always make sure we were scheduled into a couple of board games together. Then we got married and moved to a small town in Southern Utah to be near her family. There was no gaming nearby, and so we played Pandemic and Dominion when we got the chance. Work and starting a family took a lot of time.
It so happened that I took a job at a hotel (one of the only year-round employers in the area) and had a simple experience there that brought about a big change in our lives. I was working at the front desk one afternoon and saw a family sitting together on the couches in the lobby. I say sitting together because they were physically near each other, but they certainly didn’t seem together. Every one of them, mother, father and kids, were staring at their phones/tablets in silence. And that was how they spent nearly an hour, not a word being spoken.
I thought about my childhood. The family vacations we took usually involved tents, fishing poles and swimsuits, but they also involved a lot of time spent together. Really together, talking, laughing and playing games. Well into every night could be heard the shuffling of cards or the rolling of dice, and the occasional cry of ‘Yahtzee!’ Everyone was together, no one was left out.
The hotel I was working at is a mile outside the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park. This place is amazing, and is visited by over a million and a half people every year. The hoodoos, the red mountains, the forest, the animals, everything.. there’s good reason why so many people come here. There were activities at the hotel and in the park. If nothing else, there was just walking outside and being surrounded by that much of nature’s beauty. And here these people were, together, but worlds apart.
I was baffled. And maybe I shouldn’t have been. Afterall, they might have had fun games they were playing on their devices. They may have been dealing with important email. We never know what’s really going on in someone’s head. But it reminded me how distant people seem to be growing these days (boy, do I feel old now). And it bothered me.
Luckily, I knew a way to bring people together. It had worked for my family and friends, I could try it here. So I put together a local community game night and started inviting people out to it. Gail got more familiar with different types of games and we met some fun people that way. When I sprang the news on her that I wanted to run a game convention at the hotel, she was 100% in support of it. I talked to the general manager, and worked out some good deals and support from him as well. Everything was shaping up nicely, and we went ahead with it.
BryceCon was born in January of 2015, almost a year and a half after we had decided to run it. Utah’s destination game convention, right outside Bryce Canyon National Park. With an indoor pool and spa, outdoor ice skating, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, sightseeing and the park having free admission the day the convention ends, it became a good opportunity for a winter family vacation. Its relaxed atmosphere and multitude of scheduled games making it an inviting convention for even more introverted people (like myself) and 24 hour open gaming for the hardcore crowd.
But most important, a game convention you can bring your family to enjoy. Gamers bring their families and they play for a bit, then go across the street and ice skate, or relax in the pool. And that’s what BryceCon is about, families spending time together, community building, connecting with each other over a game or activity. That’s why we run it.
I’ll save the rest for another blog post later, but it suffices to say, we’ve started a game convention and after two years, we’re still looking forward to the next one. We’ve made some good friends through it in the region and in the larger gaming community. Surprisingly to me, it’s even brought us closer to each other and to our families. I’m grateful we’re able to hold BryceCon each year, as well as the community gaming we do, and I’m very grateful for the people who’ve supported it by running games, playing games, and just being their friendly selves. Without them, there wouldn’t be a BryceCon.
She was introduced to game conventions in California. We would show up and split off into different directions, she’d go to her board games, I’d go to my RPGs, but we’d always make sure we were scheduled into a couple of board games together. Then we got married and moved to a small town in Southern Utah to be near her family. There was no gaming nearby, and so we played Pandemic and Dominion when we got the chance. Work and starting a family took a lot of time.
It so happened that I took a job at a hotel (one of the only year-round employers in the area) and had a simple experience there that brought about a big change in our lives. I was working at the front desk one afternoon and saw a family sitting together on the couches in the lobby. I say sitting together because they were physically near each other, but they certainly didn’t seem together. Every one of them, mother, father and kids, were staring at their phones/tablets in silence. And that was how they spent nearly an hour, not a word being spoken.
I thought about my childhood. The family vacations we took usually involved tents, fishing poles and swimsuits, but they also involved a lot of time spent together. Really together, talking, laughing and playing games. Well into every night could be heard the shuffling of cards or the rolling of dice, and the occasional cry of ‘Yahtzee!’ Everyone was together, no one was left out.
The hotel I was working at is a mile outside the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park. This place is amazing, and is visited by over a million and a half people every year. The hoodoos, the red mountains, the forest, the animals, everything.. there’s good reason why so many people come here. There were activities at the hotel and in the park. If nothing else, there was just walking outside and being surrounded by that much of nature’s beauty. And here these people were, together, but worlds apart.
I was baffled. And maybe I shouldn’t have been. Afterall, they might have had fun games they were playing on their devices. They may have been dealing with important email. We never know what’s really going on in someone’s head. But it reminded me how distant people seem to be growing these days (boy, do I feel old now). And it bothered me.
Luckily, I knew a way to bring people together. It had worked for my family and friends, I could try it here. So I put together a local community game night and started inviting people out to it. Gail got more familiar with different types of games and we met some fun people that way. When I sprang the news on her that I wanted to run a game convention at the hotel, she was 100% in support of it. I talked to the general manager, and worked out some good deals and support from him as well. Everything was shaping up nicely, and we went ahead with it.
BryceCon was born in January of 2015, almost a year and a half after we had decided to run it. Utah’s destination game convention, right outside Bryce Canyon National Park. With an indoor pool and spa, outdoor ice skating, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, sightseeing and the park having free admission the day the convention ends, it became a good opportunity for a winter family vacation. Its relaxed atmosphere and multitude of scheduled games making it an inviting convention for even more introverted people (like myself) and 24 hour open gaming for the hardcore crowd.
But most important, a game convention you can bring your family to enjoy. Gamers bring their families and they play for a bit, then go across the street and ice skate, or relax in the pool. And that’s what BryceCon is about, families spending time together, community building, connecting with each other over a game or activity. That’s why we run it.
I’ll save the rest for another blog post later, but it suffices to say, we’ve started a game convention and after two years, we’re still looking forward to the next one. We’ve made some good friends through it in the region and in the larger gaming community. Surprisingly to me, it’s even brought us closer to each other and to our families. I’m grateful we’re able to hold BryceCon each year, as well as the community gaming we do, and I’m very grateful for the people who’ve supported it by running games, playing games, and just being their friendly selves. Without them, there wouldn’t be a BryceCon.
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