GenCon is over, and I
GenCon is over, and I thought it might be apropos to post something about it before I packed up my PowerBook for tomorrow's flight home to Los Angeles. Although I missed a few GenCons after we moved west, I've been coming to the convention since 1986, the summer after sixth grade. Many others have been coming longer, but that's a significant chunk more than half of my life. I have history with GenCon.
I love GenCon, but it's somewhat bittersweet these days. I made a conscious decision to move my life outside gaming when I left Atlas for USC. I'm still very, very excited by the possibilities of the screenwriting career that (I hope) lays before me every time I see a great piece of entertainment like Pirates of the Caribbean or re-watch a modern masterpiece like The Usual Suspects. But the need for a steady paycheck that led to my return to gaming with Decipher has made clear that there's still a lot that I love about gaming. At the same time, though, by putting only one foot back into the roleplaying industry, I often feel like I'm half-assing it—especially when hanging out with successful gaming designers and entrepreneurs I respect—and that's not something that rests very well with me.
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