Blackmoor Vituperative

What the whole “sexism/harassment in gaming/conventions/comic shops” looks like to me…

Someone, we’ll call them Chris, says, “We need to do something about these precipices with no railings. People keep falling — or getting pushed — over the edge, and other folks are just standing around while it happens. If you see someone on the edge of a precipice, don’t just stand there: give them a hand. And maybe put some railings around these things.”

Then a handful of people show up wearing “RailingHate” t-shirts, shouting, “This is anti-precipice liberal hate speech! Precipices are not a problem!” And they start pushing people into the chasm.

Chris is horrified, and a little confused. “Seriously? You just pushed someone over that precipice!”

But the RailingHate crowd shouts, “That’s a lie! They dated a guy whose cousin worked across the street from a company that once made signs for a railing company! It’s a huge conspiracy!” And they push a couple more people over the precipice.

Chris says, “What are you doing?? Are you insane? Why are you doing that? Stop! Please stop!”

Meanwhile, the RailingHate crowd is grabbing people and tossing them into the precipice, while shouting, “There is no need for railings! No one is falling into these precipices — they just want attention! It’s all about ethics in building design!”

It’s the most weird, demented, surreal thing I have ever seen in real life.

Exactly one year ago, I held a rum-tasting at the Midnight Frights​ party at RavenCon​. The best one we tried was the 12-year rum from Trinidad, followed closely by the 5-year rum from Barbados. The 8-year rum from Haiti was a distant third. The New Orleans rum and the Cruzan 5-to-12-year rum were not very good, but perfectly serviceable when mixed with orange/pineapple/banana juice and ginger ale.

(I am posting this here so that I can easily find it when I am at the liquor store. If you find it useful, that’s a bonus.)

I spent this weekend at RavenCon, a SF&F convention in Richmond, VA. RavenCon was started by Michael Pederson, Tony Ruggiero, and Tee Morris (who, like Tony, left the staff a few years ago and has gone on to a successful writing career). I didn’t start it, but I am old friends with Mike Pederson, and I was there helping out at the beginning. This is the first year that I’ve attended that I haven’t been on staff. For the first few years, I helped design, print, and hang the large schedule signs, and I ran the movie room for a year or two until it was decided (and I agreed) that the room could be put to better use. For the past couple of years I did the programming, taking over from the previous program director, Tony Ruggiero (who was already a successful author, and is now even more so).

I had a couple of reasons for stepping down from being the programming director after RavenCon 2012. The main one is that, like Tee and Tony (or so I hope), I want to focus on my own writing. Setting up the programming for a convention is not terribly difficult, but it is ridiculously time-consuming. There’s also the matter that Susan and I have moved away from Richmond, so driving an hour or more each way for meetings was no longer something I really wanted to do.

While I did twitch a few times at things I would have done differently, it was nice not working during the convention. I could actually attend panels from the beginning to the end, and if I was having an interesting conversation I didn’t have to cut it short to go put out fires.

If you find yourself a convention volunteer some day (everyone on staff at a con is a volunteer), I have a suggestion for you: be gracious. Be gracious to the attendees, who pay good money to be there. Be gracious to the guests, who are doing the convention a favor by attending (often at their own expense), and for whom this is their livelihood (or at least an aspiration). Be gracious to the other volunteers who do the real work of the con — sitting for hours at the registration desk, or keeping the con suite supplied, or pushing carts full of audiovisual equipment from one end of the hotel to the other — all of whom are sacrificing their weekend, not being paid for their time, and who usually aren’t even able to enjoy the convention they are making happen because they are working the whole time. Be gracious, try to do a good job for the attendees and the guests, and try not to take criticism personally.

I was a Gaming guest at MystiCon 2013 in Roanoke, VA. With the permission of my fellow panelists, I recorded most of the panels I was on. I hope you find them interesting.

Friday

• Gaming For Beginners
  (Bob Flack (M), Steve Long, Brandon Blackmoor, Rachael Hixon, Greg Porter)
• Game Development
  (Brandon Blackmoor (M), Mike McPhail, John Meagher, Charles Matheny, Greg Porter)

Saturday

• Conversation With Steve Long
  (Steve Long, Brandon Blackmoor (M))
• Blog Much?
  (James Fulbright (M), Brandon Blackmoor, David Halperin, John Hartness, Sharon Stogner, Steven H. Wilson)
• Ouch! You Bit Me! Zombie Survival Guide
  (Brandon Blackmoor (M), Anita Allen, Jaysen Buterin, Scott Nicholson, Nelson Oliver, “The Bruce” Scholl)

Sunday

• Artistry Of Gaming
  (Brandon Blackmoor (M), Larry Elmore, Steve Long, Jason Oliveira)
• If They Came In Saucers, Why Are We Smarter?
  (Brandon Blackmoor (M), Chris Berman, Tony Finkelstein, Billy Flynn, Steve Long, Dieter Warringhouse)

Here is my MystiCon 2013 schedule, in case you are interested in that sort of thing.

Fri 8:00 PM
Ballroom D
Gaming for Beginners

Fri 9:00 PM
Ballroom E
Game Development

Sat 10:00 AM
Ballroom C
A Conversation with Steve Long (I’m interviewing him)

Sat 1:00 PM
Ballroom D
Blog Much?

Sat 10:00 PM
Boardroom 1
Ouch! You Bit Me! A Zombie Survival Guide

Sun 10:00 AM
Ballroom C
The Artistry of Gaming

Sun 12:00 PM
Ballroom E
No Shirt, No Shoes, No Entry ‐ Business Etiquette

Sun 1:00 PM
Boardroom 1
If They Came in Saucers, Why Are We Smarter?