{"id":801,"date":"2020-03-08T21:33:24","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T01:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tabletop\/?p=801"},"modified":"2020-03-13T09:45:09","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T13:45:09","slug":"game-event-review-recon-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tabletop\/2020\/03\/game-event-review-recon-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Event Review: RECON 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I attended the 2020\nLeague of Geeks RECON event February 22<sup>nd<\/sup> and 23<sup>rd<\/sup>. RECON\ninvolved many activities in several different rooms in Armstrong and it was a\nbit overwhelming, but at the same time, was incredibly fun to go to. On the\nmorning of the 22<sup>nd<\/sup> I participated in the Game Awards. This was the\nfirst year RECON was holding a Game Awards where students on campus could turn\nin the games they have created to be played by others at RECON and by a judge.\nI turned in two games with two different teams. I created a board game based\noff of the infuriating video game I Am Bread with Jeremy, Juliette, and Steven\nduring our IMS 211 class and we decided to put that into the running. I also\nturned in a game called Nexia that I created with Bryan, Seth, and Jonathan\nduring our IMS 212 class. We created a game that was based on Risk, Catan, and\na dash of DnD roleplay. It was a strategic resource and army management game\nwith a board that is different every time it is played. Players explore new\nlands and collect resources to build towns and armies. During the Game Awards\nplaying session. I taught the game to two girls who came to the event. It is a\nvery complicated game to explain, but they got a hang of it quickly and had fun\ndoing so and voted for the game as their choice to win. The judge came by to\nask questions of the girls while they were playing and took notes and went to\ngo judge the others. The announcement would be tomorrow, but after the girls\nleft, I had to pack up and run to go do volunteering for a different club of\nmine. I forgot a lot of the rules that my team and I created for the game and I\nhadn\u2019t played the game since last semester, so it was a bit difficult for me to\nexplain correctly. I also felt like I was keeping the players from other events\nthey wanted to go to because my game was so long. Also, because it was long,\nthe judge never even got a chance to play the game. Next year I will probably\ncreate a new game that will hopefully be shorter to play. I also think that the\nGame Awards should be advertised a lot more and encourage more people to turn\nin their games. Many IMS students make games for classes anyways, but there\nweren\u2019t many games that were participating in the awards. There weren\u2019t many\npeople who came by to playtest the game either. I think location was a big\nissue there. The room was so far away from everything else so no one would walk\nby to see and be interested in it. I hope Game Awards will be much bigger next\nyear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Later\nthat night, I came back to RECON to volunteer for Miami Game Design Club. I am\nvice president and I signed up to run the Murder Mystery for 2 hours and ended\nup staying there with my friends until closing time. The Murder Mystery was\nsomething we started creating last semester and involved a group of around 5\npeople to come into a room and read a bunch of different documents and piece\ntogether the murder of Steve, a journalist from the 1920s. We worked very hard\non this event for a while and I was happy to run the event. The players looked\nto be very excited to play and some people did solve the murder in the end. I\nbelieve our event was a success which I was worried it wouldn\u2019t be. All of the\ninformation to solve the murder was in documents and I thought players would\nget tired of reading so many papers that we created. Many of them created\ncharts and timelines on the white boards and they really put their heads\ntogether to figure out new information. We could have made it more definitive\nthough because it seemed that even when people got the answer, they weren\u2019t\npositive they got it right. I did like our decorations and the story we\ncreated. It was very entertaining and because it was set in the 1920s, the last\ngroup ended up playing music through his phone to set the tone of the room. It was\na very chill atmosphere and I would have loved to play our own murder mystery\nif I didn\u2019t know the answers already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On\nSunday, I planned to come to RECON for the Game Awards and then go back to my\ndorm because it was an incredibly long weekend. I came to the pavilion where\nthe Game Award announcements would be held and chatted with my friends until\nthe judge came. It was a very small ceremony where the player\u2019s choice and the\njudge\u2019s decision were announced. My game ended up taking the win and I was very\nexcited. One of my teammates was there and I gave him a little fist bump. It\nwas very helpful to get feedback on the game we created from our class. He gave\nus a notecard with the notes he took about the game and his ratings on\ncharacteristics about it. He gave a high rating on the art which I created, and\nthis gave me a lot of confidence. The entire Game Awards event seemed\nunderwhelming. I know it is the first year it was held, but I wish it held a\nlittle more importance. There wasn\u2019t a lot of time given for people to playtest\nthe games and give their feedback. The judge couldn\u2019t even play all the games\nin that time. The room was so tucked away from everything else, so it felt like\nan afterthought. During the awards announcement, the judge was late and there\nwasn\u2019t much of an audience. The audience that was there was either the people\nwho made the games, and people who just so happened to be in the same pavilion\nplaying games on their own. The announcement was made off to the side of the\npavilion and I didn\u2019t feel much accomplishment even though my team won. Even my\nteammate seemed to be falling asleep even though it was noon on a Sunday. I\nhope next year is much more exciting. I think the Game Awards could really be\nsomething special that people look forward to every single year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As\nI said, I only planned to come for the Game Awards announcements then I would\nleave. I didn\u2019t leave. I got sucked into playing some of the play-to-win board\ngames with my friends. This was probably the most fun I had all weekend. We\nplayed Planet and Root. Planet was an amazing game and it was simple to learn\nand understand. Each of us had a magnetic planet that we added terrain tiles to\nand tried to win animals during the rounds to have them inhabit our planets. All\nmy friends really hoped that one of us would be able to win it so we can\ncontinue to play it after this event. After Planet, I was really intrigued by a\ngame named Root. The art style reminded me a lot of the video game Night in the\nWoods. My friends and I pulled that game out and were suddenly overwhelmed by\nit. This game is very complicated, and each person is playing their own\nseparate game with different objectives. We had two people come over to us to\ntry to explain how the game worked and eventually we were able to start. We\nsadly could only play through 2 rounds before we had to pack up and put it back\nso the prize drawings could start. I really loved the idea of playing a game\nthat will be randomly given to a person who played it. Free games are always\nfun but playing them first gives them an idea of how it works and an\nappreciation if they win it. It was also just a fun time to play with my\nfriends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The\nlast part of my RECON experience was the prize drawings for both the ticket\ndrawings and the play-to-win game drawings. The atmosphere during the drawings\nwas incredible. Everyone was a good sport and hyped up every single person who\nwon something, even if they themselves lost. It was humorous and relaxing. I\ndidn\u2019t win during the ticket drawings, but I did win the game Root which I was\nreally hoping for. I now own Root and the title of Game Awards winner and that\nfelt pretty good leaving Armstrong that day. After such a hard week and busy\nweekend. RECON created a positive atmosphere for me to forget my worries and\njust play with friends. I even got to play Bohnanza with my friends after the\ndrawings which has been our collectively favorite game recently. The League of\nGeeks brings together so many nerdy and geeky people to one area to just forget\nabout life and have fun playing and creating. RECON is such a large event and I\nwas happy to be both a participate and a volunteer. I could appreciate it on\nboth sides. I highly recommend that anyone should go next year. There is bound\nto be at least one event during the weekend that interests you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I attended the 2020 League of Geeks RECON event February 22nd and 23rd. RECON involved many activities in several different rooms in Armstrong and it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2910,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,3],"tags":[31,25],"class_list":["post-801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-event-reflection","category-game-commentary","tag-event-reflection","tag-recon"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tabletop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tabletop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tabletop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tabletop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2910"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tabletop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tabletop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tabletop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tabletop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tabletop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}