"Historicon 2021: Getting Better All the Time" Topic

I braved the pandemic and the five-hour roundtrip for a one-day excursion to Historicon this year. Two of my fellow Scrum Club mates went for the entire affair, but three of us drove up to Valley Forge for just Saturday.

Glad to have had the chance to attend another Historicon, despite the less-than-ideal circumstances. The organizers are to be commended for pulling this together and doing their best to keep everyone safe.

In the end, Historicon does what it does so well: reinforced for me my love for this hobby and those who put so much time and energy into sharing their passion and creating a good time for others. Even one abbreviated day at Historicon allowed me to chat with folks I hadn't seen in two years and to marvel at the creativity on display in the games I saw. Hopefully the world continues to move in the right direction, and future HMGS conventions can be free of pandemic drama.

There is a detailed write-up and many photos on my blog, Scrum in Miniature: link

Sounds great. But a five hour drive just for one day?

A five hour round trip is not a big deal. Used to do more than that from Richmond to Lancaster and back same day. I guess it all depends where you live and what you do. I just drove 1,000 miles this week for work in two days and visited several clients (which was not fun following the week at Historicon).

Two hours each way for a good one day event is a usual yes for me. Over two I'd have to think about it. Two and a half hours for something like a normal HCon would be a yes.

Old Contemptible: Please read his blog. If you are questioning him driving for five hours for a one day thing, please note that he didn't drive.

Given all of the great folks I got to see, it was time very well spent, even if the amount of time in the car wasn't ideal. And as I discuss in the blog, I got to see some great games and pick up some fun hobby loot.

" If they hadn't, I wouldn't have gone at all. But even so, I simply could not imagine sitting around tables gaming for hours with folks who did not want to take this health crisis seriously enough to protect their own families or mine."

Or in a car for 5 hours? Did you also scold the gentleman in the passenger seat for not wearing his mask?

Touché

Cardinal Ximenez and Rustycop Retired:

I didn't need to ask my friend to wear a mask in the car. We've had many discussions about the pandemic for the past 20 months and the precautions our families take every day. I was not riding on public transportation with a stranger. The fact that I have to explain that distinction is in itself problematic.

Touché..

Imagine believing that a piece of cloth from the dollar store most people wear as a mask would protect you or your family from the virus. Might as well just use the Babylonian Skull Cure or bloodletting. Full disclaimer: I am fully vaxxed.

The point of a mask is to stop the transmission of the virus through water droplets when you speak, sneeze, etc, not as a "shield" to protect you from airborne transmission.

Wearing it protects others. I can't believe how many times we've explained it to people on this forum.

To quote Kambei from Seven Samurai "By protecting others, you save yourselves. If you only think of yourself, you'll only destroy yourself."

Bellerephon1993 +1

Wearing a mask was pointless in 1918 when they tried it to stop spanish flu and its just as pointless today. We've moved to Delta, and now Omicron. In 2 months it will be Theta and 6 months after Zeta. Covid isn't going away. How long do you think you'll wear it? Another 6 months? A year? 5 years? The rest of your life?

Masks are optional in Tennessee. Kids have been back in school for over a year. The rates spike and then go down. Maybe it's because so damn many people are morbidly obese and unhealthy.

The point of a mask is to stop the transmission of the virus through water droplets when you speak, sneeze, etc, not as a "shield" to protect you from airborne transmission.

Wearing it protects others. I can't believe how many times we've explained it to people on this forum.

I can't really argue with that. However, there are so many people that get it with no observable symptoms maybe we should all be wearing a mask at all times for the foreseeable future as anyone can be a super-spreader. Even if you are double or triple vaxed you can still get it and die.

Everyone should be focusing on improving their immunity system. That will make you and everyone else safer. Even if masks are 99% effective eventually everyone will be exposed.

Maybe what we all really need a is a MOPP Level 3 or above.
link

Wolfhag

University of Oxford Professor Jim Naismith asserts that despite England dropping its mask mandate in July and Scotland keeping its rules in force, official data shows this "has made no meaningful difference" to infection rates.

So, when is the board meeting that will decide the fate of a con to be held at an off season resort area, now barely 4 months away, in the middle of an ongoing pandemic?

I didn't need to ask my friend to wear a mask in the car. We've had many discussions about the pandemic for the past 20 months and the precautions our families take every day. I was not riding on public transportation with a stranger. The fact that I have to explain that distinction is in itself problematic.

So you can only get COVID from people you don't know and haven't discussed the distinctions of for the past 20 months?

Wearing it protects others. I can't believe how many times we've explained it to people on this forum.

So while in the car neither of you were protecting each other even after you approached to within 6 feet of a maskless offender in a facility full of maskless individuals?

Cardinal, why do you care so much. Give it a rest. It doesn't affect you, you didn't go, nobody cared for your "protest" of not going then, nobody cares now.

Give it a rest. It doesn't affect you, you didn't go, nobody cared for your "protest" of not going then, nobody cares now.

So you don't have a rebuttal to the astute observation by Cardinal Ximenez and you're going to deflect the conversation?

Astute……+1 TSD101.

Cardinal I care.

+1 Bellerophon1993

If this is what passes for an "astute observation," then this isn't a conversation worth wasting breath on. But I'll make one last observation…

If you don't understand the difference between taking a calculated risk with somebody I know extremely well and who has taken all of the same precautions I have and a total stranger from a community filled with vocal science deniers, anti-vaxxers, and anti-maskers (as a simple stroll through these message boards reveals), then I see no point in arguing further except for the sake of it, which I have too many other more productive things to do.

Cardinal simply doesn't like my stance on the issue and thinks I've "scolded" somebody simply because I have a strongly expressed opinion on a subject. I can't give any more energy to somebody that thin skinned.

So you get to take calculated risks on your terms but others don't? Okay.

Yes, my friend and I get to take a calculated tiny risk with each other in a car where we don't impact anybody else. You don't get to take a risk with my health in a public setting. Is this idea really that challenging for you to process?

You don't get to take a risk with my health in a public setting

Sure I do. Plenty of people were maskless in the hallways HMGS didn't control, or outside, or in the food court. You passed many of them I'm sure. So did your friend. Either of you could've caught a droplet in that time. Then you chose to be maskless around each other for all those hours in the car? Why? Because your comfort was worth that little bit of risk. "Braving the pandemic" indeed.

we don't impact anybody else.

Suddenly the family isn't a concern? I see a lack of consistency with your approach.

This is why masks don't really do much to stop the spread and studies are showing that in European countries.

IIRC, masks were supposed to slow the spread to "flatten the curve" so that the hospitals would not be overwhelmed. I don't think it was ever a solution to prevent people from getting the Covid. Maybe in that respect it has helped?

Where I am in TN people are 90% maskless but employees and vendors are normally wearing them.

My big question is why have so many people that have been vaccinated getting it? How effective is it really going to be?

Wolfhag

"Opinion"……you know what they say about them.

Just a thought….. The topic of this Post was: "Historicon 2021: Getting Better All the Time"

I remember in the "Golden Days" Historicon attendance was in the realm of 6,500 attendees. Correct?

Then there was a slide, to approximately 4 or 3K. Then to around 2.5K.

Is this not right? Maybe the Fact Checkers can have a field day.

Now we are celebrating "maybe" 1,700 attendees at the premiere Historicon 4 day event?

So in conclusion, as a Financial Analyst, it seems the trend is not so promising. I'll leave it at that,,,,

I remember in the "Golden Days" Historicon attendance was in the realm of 6,500 attendees. Correct?

hmgs.org/mpage/HconArchive

High water mark of compiled data is 3,667 in 2008 at the Host. Whether or not it had more than that during the 90s/early 2000s I have no clue. 6,500 seems like a huge stretch.

As TSD said, 3,667 was the peak attendance, it never got higher.

Very well then, I stand corrected. For some reason I thought it was higher. Maybe the lore of years ago being told as I started attending, which was quite some time ago.

That high watermark is correct. Bob G (creator of Fall In) and his team used to do an incredible job with Hcon. They, and HMGS, used to put an unbelievable amount of work into it, especially the advertising. Back then there was a waiting list of dealers to get into the con. I believe, sadly, those days are long gone.