Have you ever wondered how we got to where we are with tabletop gaming today? How did games like Dungeons & Dragons or Magic the Gathering get their start to become so popular? Why did the Settlers of Catan spark a new interest in board gaming? A new book, Gathering of Gamers, by Matt Shoemaker and published by Play Story Press is coming out later this summer and helps to answer these questions by examining the role the game convention Gen Con has held in bringing people together and raising the profile of analog games. If you’ve ever been interested in history of your gaming hobby, or what it is like to attend a convention like Gen Con, this is the book for you.
Gen Con is the largest and oldest continuously running convention that is focused on analog games. It has been an important fixture in the development of modern tabletop games not just for role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, but also boardgames, collectible card games, miniature games, live action role-playing games, and others. Each year over 70,000 people make a pilgrimage to Indianapolis, Indiana to celebrate and play these games. Gathering of Gamers explores the convention through a year-by-year history from 1967 through 2022. The book not only discusses the prominent games at each annual convention, it also examines the major milestones in tabletop game development over the years, how gamer culture and the perception of gamers in society has evolved, how technology has impacted conventions and the games we play, and the relationship between game conventions and the cities and other entities that host them.
If you are attending Gen Con and want to learn more about the book in person and what goes into writing histories on gaming, join Matt Shoemaker and game historian Jon Peterson (author of Game Wizards, and Art & Arcana, and Playing at the World) at the seminar Exploring the Process and Sources for Writing Gaming History.
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