Conclave at 30: steak without the sizzle.

It had all the elements of a good con: Dinners with friends and new people: Katherine, David, Charles, Hope, Andrea, Karen, Eric and Sandra; eating Chinese, pumpkin pancakes, Indian and cool multigrain and blueberry pancakes. Parties at least 4 a night including a UFO party with Scotch!. A dance. Interesting programs. A film (anime) track. Cool books to buy: I bought a rare new Howard Waldrop anthology.


It lacked interesting gaming, new faces and about a 100 attendees. Clave never picked up much of a Lansing crowd and some of those left when they graduated from MSU. The attendence this year had as its core the Dorsai, General Technics, Aegis Group, the concoms of ConFusion, Penguicon, Conversation a new MI relaxicon and Confluence from Pittsburg. Missing were the Cityclub and RenFaire crowds who used to live in the lobby and local fans who are not currently on comcoms who have dropped out for various reasons like raising a family or a lack of funds. Also missing were gamers not just in the game room but Titan Games was not huckstering and the local games store Ryders which had been just up the road has closed.

All of this added up to a lack of mystery or an abundance of predictability. I had much fun but it was predictable fun.

I am thinking that moving to Romulus next year will up the drop in rate if not the room block.

Also what ever illness I was fighting before con has gotten worse.