I have return-ed home safely and soundly. Actually, we had a really nice trip back. Left around 2:30 and was at my doorstep at 8:45 (which is 9:45 in the time zone I left). 7 hours is great time with Indy, and that included a stop for food.

To be honest, I had reservations about going this year. The year we got married the whole thing was kind of a blur of not-funness. Our friends were incredibly sweet, but the hotel we stayed in was teh suq. We were both also still so stressed about the hitching that we had a hard time relaxing. Last year wasn’t much better, with me in particular not having a very good time thanks to poor planning and bad event experiences.

This year was great. Had a couple of fun events, but the real enjoyment factor for me was being able to check out the videogames. When I heard that the con was planning to invite videogame companies more heavily, I was afeared we’d have an E3-ish experience on our hands. Thankfully, that was far from the reality. Except for Dell’s incredibly annoying DJ Show/Bus Tour/Demo station, the booths were all tasteful and obviously geared towards Gen Con attendees. And (duh) most of them were MMOGs. I got the chance to check out Gods and Heroes, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Fallen Earth, and Warhammer Online, along with the titles Pox Nora and Eye of Judgement. It was actually really well done, and I felt it was a useful addition to the event. I have high hopes that next year will see even more titles in this vein at the event. Just as an example, by that point mayhap Bethesda will be showing Fallout, and the Con of Cons would be the place to do it.

I did, however, come back diseased. Not physically, thankfully; actually, exercise and attempts at making myself healthier made for one of the most painless Cons I’ve had. No … my disease is mental. One of the many demos I took in at the event was the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game.

::sigh::

Thankfully, even thought it feels like the game has been around for a while, it’s still fairly new. For about 20 bucks, I picked up enough cards from the first two sets to give me a decent base for deck-building. (As long as you’re not buying brand new stuff, Cons are great places for deals.)

Katie is actually interested enough to consider playing with me, so we’re probably going to go a few rounds tomorrow. Expect more comments on that, as well as my full writeups from the con.

My biggest yay: I’ll have something ‘throw-down-ish’ to play at PAX. :)