Ropecon

Ropecon was some time ago. I’ve been trying to concentrate on reading, so commenting on Ropecon is several weeks late. It was an exhausting experience for several reasons, of which the least wasn’t that I (or we) spend the preceding week making cosplay costumes. This, despite the fact that none of us are anime-fans or watch anime at all - and as I understand, cosplay is mostly a phenomenon occurring within the anime-infatuated. Probably the best pictures of our mad ventures can be found from the official Ropecon website, when they finally get to publishing them.

I didn’t have the time or the energy to participate in any full-length games or larps during the con, but I still managed to test some new games, mainly:

• Parhaaseen katseluaikaan (Prime Time) (with a theme taken from Pohjola’s Tähti [Star]), and
• Piruja miehiksi (Dust devils)

which seemed great. Also, I bought Vuoren velho (Mountain Witch), which I’ve been considering for a long time. It was actually a quite difficult decision, given that there were too many interesting games available at the Arkkikivi booth. Burning Empires seemed awesome, but it also costed 50€, so no burning empires for me. They also had a limited edition (made by hand) of Zombeja ovella! (Zombies at the door!), which I would have bought, if I would have had the money. I hope I get to play Vuoren velho soon.

Like every year, there we’re some excellent lectures and some quite horrible. I managed to dodge the ones that weren’t of interest (I knew quite well what I wanted to see), and I saw two lectures that were interesting, for different reasons. Montola’s and Stenros’ ‘Ethics of pervasive games’ was very interesting, and somewhat entertaining. ‘Get Real: Tappaminen’ (Killing) by Panu Alku was interesting and easy enough contents-wise that it suited perfectly for my tired Sunday-condition. J commented that it was a bit light in psychology, but that didn’t bother me. What did was the appalling way the lecturer used English and Finnish mixed, resulting in Finglish. (Not that it is in any way rare in academic circles.) I will probably never again see any panels in Ropecon - they were mostly verbal masturbation and empty witticism on behalf of the speakers, with low grade comments from the audience. Mind you, I didn’t see all the panels, so there may have been some that we’re excellent, but I don’t know about.