Gamers celebrate passions at Indianapolis convention

More than 25,000 gaming enthusiasts from around the world descended on the Indiana Convention Center from Thursday through Sunday, sporting witty insider jokes on their clothes and manifestations of their passion for hobby gaming everywhere. \n"Carpe DM" on one; "Jesus Saves -- on a roll of 16 or better" proclaimed another; "Chicks Dig Pale Skinny Guys" hopefully implored a third.\nIn its first year in Indianapolis, the Gen Con gaming convention drew enthusiastic participants to compete and enjoy the diverse world of gaming.\nDistinct from gambling, hobby gaming encompasses such disparate activities as role playing (Dungeons and Dragons being an example of one role playing system), collectible card gaming (familiar in its children's incarnations of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh), miniatures gaming (simulating historical, fantasy and science fiction combat with painstakingly detailed miniature figurines), board gaming and video games. \nThe Indianapolis Convention Center was swamped with gamers young and old, some in elaborate costumes as vampires, barbarians, samurais or Klingons, but most wore casual attire, and all were eager to play their favorite games. \n"(Gaming) gives me something to do and its fun, even though it takes a lot of money out of your pocket," said 13-year-old Erika Aulder of Toledo, Ohio, while waiting for her name to be called for the next round of a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament. \nThe convention cost $60 for a four-day pass or $23 per day. Individual events and tournaments required additional fees.\nAulder came with her two brothers, her uncle and both of her parents. She said she plays with her parents and brothers every day.\nGaming is a family friendly hobby and also produces lifelong friendships. \nBloomington native and assistant manager of the Game Preserve, Andrew Reyes, games with his wife, and two of his high school gaming buddies were in his wedding.\n"You can't swing a sack of four-sided dice in this town without hitting someone who knows what they are," Reyes said. \nThe allure of gaming is both competition and community.\n"With games, the more you play them the better they get, whether it be a proprietary game like Scrabble or public domain like chess. Contrast that to a book or movie that only happens once," said Richard Garfield, math professor and designer of Wizards of the Coast's wildly popular collectible card game "Magic: the Gathering."\nConvention goers lined up to get an autograph from the tan, blonde calendar pin-up girl Mary Riley, who was promoting the Benchwarmer line of bikini model trading cards. Riley said she only plays arcade games but was impressed with the hobby gaming crowd. \n"The people here are so nice, if you go to a car show you're going to get a bunch of pigs," Riley said. \nShe also surmised that gaming is attractive to young men because, "it's getting aggression out, and guys need to hunt, and guys need to conquer." \nMany gamers saw more to playing games than just competition, however.\n"I love the atmosphere of gaming -- we like to call it the metagame. It really is a lifestyle," said Randy Buhler, head of research and development for "Magic: the Gathering." \nGamers live the lifestyle in varying degrees. \nKristen Trigg of Chicago came dressed, but barely covered, in a homemade duct tape miniskirt and tube top. She had dyed blue hair that was shaved below the scalp and done up in pig-tails. She was accompanied by Caleb Kestle, who was half-dressed in full caveman garb. \n"I like dressing up really, really weird, and here people don't make fun of you. They love it," Trigg said.\nWhile Trigg said she feels comfortable at Gen Con, the gaming subculture often provokes misunderstanding and ridicule.\nReyes acknowledges that the stereotype of gamers is of a "smelly 15-year-old kid who can't get a date, or the 40-year-old lifetime virgin in a Sailor Moon t-shirt that lives in his parents' basement," but he contends that nearly everyone enjoys games of some type. \n"It's just a hobby, it's not like gamers are 'those people,'" he said.\nReyes compared gamers to sports fans in an attempt to explain the gaming phenomena.\n"If you think I'm a nerd because I have role playing stuff, what do you call the guy who collects every bit of NASCAR memorabilia," Reyes said. \nAnd unlike sports fans, he said, gamers don't "paint their faces and go to football games to cheer for someone they've never met but idolize from a distance."\n"(Gaming) seems to attract a smarter class of people than other hobbies," Buhler said.\nPhyllis Hughley was on the security staff for Gen Con and also works at basketball games and other sporting events at Conseco Fieldhouse. \n"It's amazing, all of these people are really dedicated, and I haven't run into a bit of rudeness like at (Indiana Pacers) games," Hughley said.\nD'Alexander Gregory, another non-gamer, is an artist who has done paintings and drawings for several role-playing titles, collectible card games and comic books. Gregory echoed Hughley's sentiment that the stigma associated with gaming is unwarranted.\n"Gaming is about bringing people out of their houses and exposing them to things like artwork, the practicality of math, storytelling and creativity in general," Gregory said. \nNot every non-gamer was as enthusiastic as Hughley and Gregory, however. Kenny Baker, the actor who played the droid R2-D2 in all of the Star Wars films was dismissive of gaming and sci-fi.\n"I don't believe any of that has a great role in society," Baker said.