So this last weekend I worked at one of the largest board game conventions in the world. This is my second time working Gen Con, both times as a Games Workshop Employee (I’m a part of the Events Staff, and also judge/organize official Kill Team and 40k events) This event marks my 1 year anniversary with the company, and while we/I have had my ups and downs with it, overall it is a positive experience.
This article isn’t going to tell you about Gen Con, you can go and experience it for yourself, or you can watch countless TikTok/YouTube videos on the subject. What I’m going to do tell you what my experience was, working it as an employee.
The Good
First of all, despite long hours (12-14 hour days for 5 straight days, constantly on your feet and moving), it is a good time. I get to spend most of my day doing one of the things I enjoy doing the most: Running events.
One of the strangest dynamics I have is the fact that I enjoy running events, but I generally don’t like being around people. When I’m not working I tend to be working out, reading, or spending time with my family, but most of the things I do, I do alone or in extremely small groups. I’m an unbelievably private person, and I don’t enjoy crowds and large groups. But at the end of the day, I LOVE running events. I enjoy the interactions with the players, I enjoy watching them all have fun, and I enjoy being able to have a large hand in the joy that is being shared by everyone at the table.
The team we had this year is largely unchanged from last year. We were missing one of our full-timers due to illness, but the core of workers we have has been consistent since I started. After a year of working together we all know each other and we all know largely what we are doing, and we have done a great job coming together as a cohesive team.
I also enjoy that there is a large percentage of us that are veterans, and that we all come from different branches. There are a few marines (Just as cringe as space marines, unfortunately), a couple of naval veterans, and a couple of army vets, myself included. The inter-branch ribbing and joking was great fun, and even though none of us are still in, it creates an instant rapport that makes it easier to get along and communicate with each other.
The Bad
Overall, the bad really has more to do with me, and my personal feelings than anything that was bad or wrong with the convention. Smells get to me. They crawl into my nose and burrow under my skin, creating a deep feeling of disgust and discomfort. Gen Con had smells aplenty, from mildew and unwashed laundry to the foul stench unwashed armpits and Nurgle-rot. I’m not blaming or shaming, I’m simply saying that the smells get to me. In addition, city-smells are just as bad, but when combined with con-smells it is so much worse. Walking out of the center, only to get kicked in the nose by the retching aromas of stale ashtray, weed-stink, exhaust and pollution made me want to turn right back around and deal with the Nurgussy smell.
Bathrooms. There needs to be a better solution. Although certain bathrooms were worse than others, I feel like there should be some sort of separate bathrooms for the staff. More than once I would walk into one of the restrooms and immediately regret that decision. Almost every visible surface glistened, covered with a mysterious substance that looked and smelled like Nurgle’s asshole. There are a lot of people that legitimately need to get in to see a doctor, because whatever is happening inside of their intestines can’t be healthy.
Overall, celebrating my 1 year of employment at the same event that started it all off for me was rewarding, and I’m always happy to be given opportunities to perform on the largest stages. It was a lot of fun, and I’ll happily do it again. Here’s to next year!
Chris