Easter... Egg? Gothcon

Brains...?

So Easter have come and gone and for me that most of the time means spending time in Gotheburg attending the Swedish boardgame/miniture/TCCG/RPG convention Gothcon. Now as far as international cons goes this is a small one with around 2000 people (that can be reliably tracked). But as far as this type of conventions goes in the Nordic region it is one of the larger. Beyond that things would feel fairly similar to other cons, you play games, hang out with people you only see once or twice a year and spend money on stuff you probably should not spend money on like... well..more games. 

But first and foremost it is the atmosphere that gets me every time. Because no matter how protective and elitist different sub-factions of physical gaming culture can get (and trust me... it can) once you set foot inside the con, you are at home. Around you are people who are as if not more geeky and nerdy as you are and nobody judge you for it. This of course rings true for any sub-culture con but since i am a gamer and i this is my hobby. This is where i call home 

So what did i do over these four days? Well apart from having a look at a metric ton of stuff i liked to buy i took the time to sit down with some games i was unable or unlikely to be able to play at home. It was nice to be able to play games and not mind the real world outside. The highlight of the weekend was oddly enough a tiny storytelling RPG. One of those that you pick a random scenario and just roll with it. Ours was a team of the most failed superheroes this side of the Great Lake Avengers. But it is a type of game i really enjoy when i am in the right mode because it lets me flex my storytelling muscles. I think the game it self was called Followers or some such. Anyway getting to sit down with a table of people and together weave a story is something that always have and i hope always will bring warmth to my heart. 

Now fortunate enough for me i do not have to wait very long for the next con as we have one coming up in my home town in about a month. expect a more in-depth write up of that one as i can get some decent sleep during that con. The perks of being withing walking distance. 

Anyway, that was just a quick update on what i have been up to. For a review of the games i played head over to spelkult.se in the coming week or so. 

Until next time

Stay safe, be kind and play fair. 

Bye. 

#WheresRey they say.

Toys are serious business and i agree that toys marketed to a specific gender is a horrid idea to begin with. But the issue that has have been sweeping the western world is why Rey have been underrepresented or even nonexsistant in the market. Disney and Hasbro say it was to avoid spoilers and thus pushed the Finn character as the main one for the movie. Now understanding that a toy can take about a year if not more from design to production the fear of spoilers is real for Disney. So it makes sense to tuck away the big plot points. If anything the fact that Disney felt that Rey was such a big impact point tells us a lot about how they view the Star Wars franchise. No longer has a boys club it is now opened to all.

But ofc it got spun all out of proportion, the “press” made it out like there are no toys at all, and I agree she is missing form some collections and was missing from the Monopoly. Now I have some limited insight in to these sort of things, being a big toy geek myself and I have no problem accepting the idea that spoilers forced Disney/Hasbro to act like they did… After all Rey has at least 9 different toys including two Lego sets and her own Infinity figure. There is also another one coming based on her outfit by the end of the movie (this also lends substance to the “no spoiler” theory)

Now with all that said we do have a big litmus-test for this theory coming up on the 13-16 February when the New York Toy Fair happens. If Hasbro and company shows off new Rey toys we know they did in fact tell the truth. Simply because there is no way they could have whipped them up in the time from the outbreak to now

Now I agree that we still have some way to go when it comes to toys, but I feel this thing got blown out of proportion by people who as usual had no insight in to the process and just reacted with their gut cheered on by “journalists” and bloggers trying to score some quick hits.  Combine this with the usual short packing and retailers stuck in their old ways and you have something of a clusterfuck.

Now my bet is that we will see a lot more Rey toys (and perhaps even some Black Widow ones) going forward, and should I be wrong. Feel free to tell me so.