Gaming conventions can be a remarkably competitive atmosphere, but a new event is looking to tone down the tournaments and just have fun playing games.
Dwayne Morash and Kevin Bagshaw, co-founders of gaming news site Game Nexus, are hosting Nexus-Con this Saturday at Saanich Commonwealth Place. The event offers a variety of roleplaying games, tabletop minis and collectible card games, with a focus on fun rather than winning.
The convention is open to gamers of all skill levels and features such RPGs as Savage Worlds and Star Wars: Edge of Empire, tabletop games like Infinity and Deadzone, and the Warhammer 40,000: Conquest fantasy card game. In the spirit of inclusiveness, Morash and Bagshaw made a conscious decision not to run tournaments, which they say can alienate gamers.
“We kind of went back and forth on it,” said Morash. “The default is tournaments, and Kevin said, ‘Well, maybe we don’t do tournaments. There are people out there who just want to participate.’
“There’s no wall between different communities in this place. You can come as a Warhammer player, you can play Infinity, you can play Imperial Assault, you can play any of these games without a specific pass for each game. If you migrate to another table, no one’s going to stop you.”
“It also takes out the intimidation factor,” added Bagshaw. “If people are curious about a game, they can just join in and play it.”
Also unlike other conventions, Nexus-Con is limited to 40 people, to make it more manageable in its inaugural year.
“We’ve been pondering the idea of putting on a convention, and we thought we would start off with a small, almost boutique convention,” said Bagshaw.
“Going for a more intimate event gives us a chance to make sure it works well rather than making it too big for us,” said Morash.
While the convention has opted not to put a focus on video games, they will have the Nintendo 64 James Bond multiplayer classic GoldenEye 007 on hand for gamers to play when waiting for rounds of the RPG, tabletop and card games to finish.
Nexus-Con runs Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Saanich Commonwealth Place. Organizers recommend attendees purchase passes in advance at Everything Games in Langford or on the Game Nexus website. Passes are $25 and re-entry is allowed at Nexus-Con. Attendees are allowed to bring their own food and non-alcoholic drinks into the convention. Snacks will also be for sale on site. For more information or to purchase passes, visit enterthegamenexus.com/nexus-con.