Post-Bronycon Postmortem · 2:26am Aug 4th, 2014
Back from my weekend in Baltimare! And it was a good one. In general, I mostly resisted the siren's call of the Dealer's Hall and only acquired two T-shirts. Almost gave in to the temptation to buy myself a Twilight plushy, though. It was quite the near thing. And I think the Bag o' General Geekery (the khaki Derpy-eyed 'Express Yourself' bag covered in a ton of pins and buttons representing assorted fandoms) shed a couple buttons. I swear they're all trying to escape half the time. I arrived late Friday afternoon, and I'll try to arrange my impressions somewhat chronologically.
-People don't get that panels are the worst time to ask questions. Seriously, we're all hanging around Quills and Sofas if you want to find us to answer your super-specific question. If you put 2-6 experts on a thing in a room and they want to talk about their thing, let them talk about their thing!
-To the servers at Tir na nog who had a group of 35 people all show up at once, many in costume, and had to seat/serve all of us at once: Well done. Hope the PTSD goes away after a bit of therapy.
-It's a good thing I wasn't on the Do's and Don'ts of Fanfiction panel. Because I would have been that really contrary guy who seemed to be disagreeing just to disagree. I ignore like every tip they gave. I don't do drafts of my work, I don't give it to others to edit, and I certainly don't set time aside as time specifically for writing. Hell, between waiting for trains, waiting to check in, waiting for panels to start, waiting in line, and riding the MARC I wrote about 6,000 word of Changing Lives over the weekend just on the Google Docs app of my phone. So while I had a good time this week, I made sure Azalea very much did not. Sorry Az!
-Also during the Do's and Don'ts panel, I feel like a lot of the people asking questions were seriously missing the mark. A bunch of the questions were along the lines of "Can I have a character with Attribute X?" or my favorite, "Can I have a character with tons of awesome attributes if I make sure they have just as many disadvantages to offset them?"
There are SO MANY THINGS wrong with that.
Writing a character is not a mathematical equation! You aren't building a character in some sort of mechanical GURPS-based roleplaying system. Nobody cares about who your character is.
Sorry, let me make sure I properly emphasize that: NOBODY CARES WHO YOUR CHARACTER WAS!!! The success of your original character will live or die on how compelling you make them during the story itself. If I'd been on the panel I'd have likened character back story to a battery. A better one can add more oomph to whatever your main device is. But if your device isn't built right in the first place the size of the battery you plug into it isn't going to make a difference on the end result. I kinda feel like there a lot of poor-to-decent writers out there who have glomped onto online lists suggesting what not to do and turned them into gospel.
Okay, moving on:
-Apparently, a certain subset of the EQD prereader panel consider me to be exceptionally huggable.
-Have you guys watched the PMVs TheeLinker has been posting? This won best in show, and deservedly, but the whole channel's great. Also a shout out to the guy who did a PMV entirely in Microsoft Excel.
-Somebody asked a question about Hard Reset during the crossovers panel! Granted, I think the guy was totally off base since HR wasn't even directly inspired by Groundhog's Day, but still. I very nearly made a rather undignified squeeing noise.
-For every attendant playing the official MLP CCG, there were about twenty playing the Twilight's Secret Shipfic card game. I don't know if that's because the official MLP game is just that bad or we fans are. I suspect the former.
-If you'd ever doubted that Blackgryph0n was an absurdly cool dude, this year's Hooves Line is it Anyway would have dispelled that. He totally stole the show.
-I totally showed up to the Bronypalooza rave at the perfect time, just as Eurobeat Brony came on to play a set. I don't regret staying there until after 1PM, but I'm going to be recovering from the acute wub poisoning for the next several days.
-Hard Reset got brought up again at the adventure fic panel! By my co-captain of time loops, Capn_Chryssalid himself.
Which really brings me to the absolute highlight of Bronycon: the bronies. I saw like a hundred of you who I knew from the site, and if I start naming names I'll feel terrible when I forget someone. So just thank you to the whole Quills and Sofas crew for the hours of fun, fics, and all around silliness that is the essence of what makes the convention circuit a good time. And if you were there and I missed seeing you, I'm really sorry! There's always next year. I'm already counting the days.
I am Jelly.
I wanted to go
Alas I'm broke.
Cool to meet you, bro. Hope to see you at a future con :D
Well, shoot. Panel failed. :V
Good meeting you finally! Hugs all 'round.
2341738
You'll just have to put me on next year's so I can contradict everything the rest of y'all say. Imagine:
"You should really make sure you spell everything correctly."
"Dood! Ur speeling iz uh kreativ choise!"
Oh yeah. Best panel ever.
I'd like to also say it was cool to meet you, but I don't think me pointing a camera at you in Quills and Sofas counted as meeting you. Also, for some reason, we've been friends on Battle.net fora while. I think we played one game of Hearthstone back, like, nine months ago.
>a group of 35 people
>try 60, bro
It was cool meeting you. :D
I wasn't there on Friday, but after that I went to Quills & Sofas quite a few times and I tried to get a look at everyone's name tags, but I didn't see "Eakin" once! I would have loved to talk with you about some Optimalverse stuff in person.
EDIT: I definitely met Obselescence and Present Perfect, though. I was so close!
Gah, and once again I am absurdly jealous and irritated that I didn't go, especially given that there is literally nothing that would have stopped me from attending if I had bothered to make the arrangements.
FUCK
I REALLY WANTED TO MEET YOU AND I FUCKING MISSED YOU
ALSO I'M DRUNK RIGHT NOW
FUCK IT
TURN UP NEXT YEAR WE GOTTA CHILL
Really wish I wasn't poor so I could go to these things.
It's really not that bad. It was clearly engineered for younger audiences than games like Magic The Gathering, though. There are some areas that would benefit from added complexity, and a certain mechanic makes a large part of the game highly luck-dependent. Unfortunately, there really isn't any way to tone down the luck factor without removing the mechanic entirely, and it needs a bit of luck factor to avoid becoming tedious.
That said, TSSSF is funny, a bit self-deprecating, and definitely the better party game. This fandom being what it is, it was going to come out on top of the official version.
2341885
I FEEL THE EXACT SAME WAY
I DIDN'T KNOW HE WAS GOING TO BE HERE
SERIOUSLY, EAKIN, SHOW UP AGAIN NEXT YEAR SO WE CAN MEET YOU. YOUR STUFF IS AWESOME
24
As someone who plays the official game, I'll say that it's not the sort of game you can just pick up and play. Shit's HARD, and way more complex than I initially gave it credit for. I've played tournament Magic the Gathering for about 5 years, and yet there are still parts of MLPCCG that I'm trying to wrap my head around. It also requires a fairly competitive mindset which from my experience is not that typical of this fandom.
Had a great time, and thanks for showing me the ShipFic game. Why is it more popular? Because the official CCG is a serious game for gamers that happens to be build around ponies. ShipFic is a party game a la Cards Against Humanity, with ponies, that happens to be a game.
I too was at the biggest con in baltimore.
Parking.
Ps hard reset is a pretty cool guy. She fights the changelings and doesn't afraid of anything.
Also, weathervane.
Glad to hear you enjoyed Bronycon. I hope to make it next year myself...
2341976
Yeah... that's not a sign of excellent game design. I've had three random enthusiasts try to explain it to me, and I've looked at the official rules. It's pretty incomprehensible. I've played MtG too, so the fact that I still can't grok it suggests that there's a bit more than it just not being my thing going on here.
I'd bet I could teach someone the basics of Magic: the Gathering quicker than you could teach an equivalent person the basics of the pony CCG.
2342038
It also didn't help that the first edition rulebook was a steaming pile of garbage.
BlackGryphon always steals the show on Whooves line is it Anyway.
Panels always get the stupidest questions. At Babscon, they passed out a "bad question bingo" to the VA's to fill out with the common bad questions. But the real problem is that only two things are infinite: the universe, and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe.
Glad you had fun. Oh, and it's pretty clear Hard Reset was inspired by your future self who visited and gave you a copy of the completed story.
It was good meeting you at the prereader panel! I suppose the entrance of Hard Reset into common knowledge means your Home Run has turned into a Grand Slam.
BlackGryphon and his team were simply amaaazing at Hooves Line. Wiggles, from the other team, is incredible at what she does (such as Chrysalis impressions, frequent improv and Ask King Sombra), but... The rest of the team couldn't compete (and one probably shouldn't have) with such synergy. Why, whyyy must fate be so cruel?
Sofas & Quills was hooves down the best part of the con. So many people to meet and hang out with! The horse famosity gathered in that room was intense.
2341762
You should have said hi! And please don't challenge me right now. I'm behind on unlocking Naxx wings.
2341786
Sixty? Oh god, no wonder we wiped them out so badly.
2341787
I dumbly entered my real name in the name field. Eakin is my real-life middle name, so it worked out okay. Still, it might have thrown people who judged based on a glance.
2341885
2341946
AWESOME! NEXT YEAR WE'LL PLAN THIS SORT OF THING AHEAD OF TIME! ALSO WHY ARE WE YELLING?
2341977
Glad we got another chance to chat too
2342059
Well obviously, I wrote it and then gave it to my past self based on the charred remains of the manuscript I found in the wreckage of Doc Brown's laboratory. Where do you get your ideas?
2342142
Yeah, I was trying not to be mean to the other team, but they were frankly pretty awful. I cringed every time they tried to land a joke based on a tired meme or terrible 'awkward brony' stereotypes.
Glad we ran into one another, though.
Huh. That actually sounds like a lot of fun. Maybe I'll catch the next one.
Always love hearing stories about someone enjoying a con. Might have to go next year myself.
2341977
Serious... game... for gamers... with ponies? Whose dumb idea was that? We're generally some pretty nerdy folks in this fandom, but the intersection with the hardcore tabletop gaming community isn't that large.
my only regret from BronyCon is that I didn't get to spend more time in Sofas & Quills. and now that regret has been doubled! dammit! didn't know I was missing out on you as well!
...
darn, I'll just have to go next year. what a trial. how shall I survive
Don't forget the awkwardness of not knowing who you were and then fangirling upon realizing too.
Why did you not?!? I bought a couple last year, and I've never wanted a plastic molded toy again.
2342210
2342235
Go! If not to Bronycon, to something similar in your area. It's a blast.
2342307
I blame my name tag. You kinda have to read the whole thing, notice the middle name, and recognize it as author of whatever story. Plus I kinda snuck up on you and jumped in just as you were answering someone else's question.
2342349
Alas! I can't bring myself to buy anything besides T-shirts. I like being able to eat and pay rent too much.
2342006
It was good to see you too. Have you seen Guardians of the Galaxy? I bet I could rope Alex in if you want to check it out sometime. Text me.
Aw man. I have to attend to at least one Bronycon.
2341723
Alas, I too am broke. And on the other side of the world. :(
2342201
Wait, Eakin is seriously your middle name? O.o I thought you were just going with the "Firstname 'Middlenamethatisreallymyonlinehandle' Lastname" deal.
2342496
Mine, my grandfather's, and my great-grandfather's, yeah. Really my middle name.
2342201
I haven't even beaten Anub yet. I guess I really am... a noob.
YEAAAAAAHH!
2342498
that's p. awesome :O
2342259 Oh, believe me, it gets much worse. See, the designers/developers don't understand how ruthlessly hardcore gamers play. So there are a few cards--and not all the expensive ones--that are ludicrously overpowered and win the game two or three turns faster than average. There is virtually no way to win other than all-out aggression or a lucky hand. But the devs don't know or won't accept that and continue to try to put out cards for control and combo decks.
2342412
This sounds like a plan.
There's something fundamentally wrong with a game about trying to win at friendship.
2342563
!!!!!!!!!!!
So basically... FUCKING GOBLIN SLIGH 2WW-WRATHOFGOD 2WW-WRATHOFGOD 2WW-WRATHOFGOD 2WW-WRATHOFGOD 2WW-WRATHOFGOD2WW-WRATHOFGOD
2342412
I just wish to note that Guardians of the Galaxy is super-awesome and everyone should see it.
2342409
True dat.
4de plus hoes are only 25$ though. That's pretty comparable.
All hail my fuzzy huggable purple god!!!!!
2342933
Something like that, except it's:
2343211
And that is when playing Nightmare Moon becomes appropriate.
2343220 OK, you play your NMM, I drop Forest Owl, move Fluttershy up, and hit Cavalry to take the points.
Ahhhhhh, I didn't meet you there?! DAMMIT!
(And weren't there more like 59 or so of us there?)
It was pretty fun, though it was a bit of a shame that we got exiled to the tiny table with the support pillar in the middle (I was the person on the opposite corner from you who you consequently almost never saw). Apparently we're going to need a bigger
boatrestaurant.I only really poked my nose into Quills and Sofas once on Saturday night. Apparently I should have spent more time there? I figured I'd end up sitting down and staring at a wall.
2342437
I'm merely on the the other side of the US.
Well I guess you: have it worse.
2343473 Nah, we woulda dragged you ito a game or conversation.
2343772
Well, I'll have to spend more time there next year. And more time at the equivalent rooms in Everfree and BABScon.
2343211
Actually you can get guidance councilor out on turn 2, and a second one on turn 4. If there still aren't any points on the board by that point, you can lock out your opponent at this point if they don't have enough cloudchasers on the table.
2344973 Sure, if you're running Royal Guidance or any fixer. But getting the bonus and trying to get to the end of the game gives the opponent less time to react. It's even possible to get to a double faceoff in turn 3 with Sugar Twist/Sapphire Shores and Whitewash.