Minecraft: MineCon!

One of the myriad munchkins in attendance at the only event where wearing a cardboard box on one's head makes sense.

I just arrived back from MineCon in Vegas!

I will admit, I didn't go to many of the special events. Relaxing/recovering from work was primary, while waiting in lots of lines with a surprisingly large number of hyperactive adolescents was not high on my list of priorities.

And there were a lot of kids, although overall the attendee demographics definitely favored males in their teens and 20s. Geeky males. Most of the women my age were accompanying an adolescent son (although that doesn't mean the mother doesn't play, too; the game apparently has a large family fan-base.)

There I was, minding my own business, when I suddenly heard a SSssssss sound coming from right behind me!

MineCon marks the full release of Minecraft 1.0.0. After Notch pulled the lever and zillions of kids raced to... where, exactly? I strolled up to my room and met all kinds of glorious creatures like Magma Cubes and Blazes and... yeah, that was about it. I'm too wimpy to visit The End yet.

I also partook of some other typical Vegas pursuits, although in relative moderation: some slots, the buffet, Bloody Marys for brunch... The last night, I was at the sushi bar in Mandalay Bay, having a discussion with the man sitting next to me. He said that there were about 5000 people around attending a conference for a video game. I said I was one of them. He seemed grateful that there was an adult there who could try to explain the game and its appeal with a vocabulary that consisted of more than Star Trek references spliced together with "like." (I can apparently "pass" for "normal" if I'm careful.) Another group of adults had stopped me earlier, seeing my badge, and asked me the same thing.

Me knitting at the Curse Minecraft Forums photo booth!

Anyway, it was a nice trip, a generally pleasant crowd. Mandalay Bay was an interesting place to stay, as I had never done the big resort thing before.