Role-playing fans from across campus and in Bloomington can come together for the 2015 Bloomingcon convention.
The convention will last from Saturday to Sunday with a schedule of events, Noon to 7 p.m. Saturday and Noon to 6 p.m. Sunday for participants, with locations throughout the Indiana
Memorial Union.
Featuring a first-time partnership with the Pathfinder Society, the convention will bring in participants across the tri-state area.
Pathfinder, a fantasy-adventure role-playing game, allows players to create a character online and track their progress through any Pathfinder game in any location.
Junior Jack Harmening, the director of the Union Board’s games and electronic entertainment committee, said the convention is shooting for an increase in
attendance from last year.
“Last year was the first, and we had, I think, 90
people show up,” he said.
About 40 students have pre-registered for Saturday and Sunday, Harmening added, and the partnership with the Pathfinder Society has brought in another 50 or so attendees, some from other states like Kentucky and Tennessee. Many more students will attend the convention on one or both days without pre-registering.
The Pathfinder partnership should be a mutually beneficial arrangement, Harmening said, as the interests of IU students and Pathfinder players might overlap.
“Pathfinder events are kind of a struggle logistically,” he said. “You need a large room and a lot of time.”
To that end, the Pathfinder Society will have several hours-long events Saturday and Sunday, Harmening said, using the space for longer than any other group or initiative at Bloomingcon. They will also have a panel Sunday afternoon, according to the current Bloomingcon schedule.
“We’ve ... said that was a good thing, since we want these rooms to be full,” Harmening said. “Anytime (the Pathfinder players) wander out or want a break ... they’ll be in the other rooms, at the panels.”
Harmening said the Pathfinder Society would be involved with Friday’s IMU Late Nite events as one more way to drum up participation in the game.
Another goal of the convention is to feature local artists and vendors who may specialize in fandom-based art or writing.
“Some people contact us — there has been an effort to reach out (to last year’s vendors),” Harmening said.
The remaining student and community artists were contacted through Union Board members’ social, academic and professional networks, he said.
Many of the vendors will be hobbyists or part-time creators, Harmening said, which could help expose IU students to people with similar interests outside of the University.
“For a lot of the people, it’s going to be their first time at an event with this kind of structure,” Harmening said. “Hopefully not their last.”
IU organizations such as the Harry Potter Society and the Japanese Anime and Culture Club will present at Bloomingcon, as well as individual students.
Themes include “Lolita Fashion 101,” “Marvel: Building a Cinematic Universe” and “Debunking the Myths of the Geek Girl,” according to the current online panel schedule.
“It kind of skews toward being an anime convention in terms of audience, but we’re hoping with (the Late Nite participation) that we’ll attract some people who love pop culture and films in general,” Harmening said.
Attendees with an interest in online gaming could potentially learn how to launch their own products, as well. “I’m really excited for Super Tea Studios, which is one of our panelists,” Harmening said. “They’re going to talk about publishing through Steam.”
Steam is an online game publisher that asks users either to submit or rate games through a platform called “Greenlight.” Harmening said the Super Tea pitch called Steam “the indie path” to game design, which they will discuss for an hour Saturday.
“In their description, they called it the ‘rabbit hole’ in how stressful and crazy it is to do that,” Harmening said.
Harmening said some of the Bloomingcon panelists applied through the Union Board’s website, but the board’s members contacted other clubs on campus as well to try to include a range of interests.
Harmening said he pulled up a list of student organizations at IU at one point and looked for any group that seemed to have a fandom theme.
“I really like that method,” Harmening said. “I think it goes back to the purpose of the event in the first place, which is that people are really excited about the things that they like, and if you give them the opportunity or prod them a little bit, they’ll come up with some cool ideas.”
