This is a guest post from Heather Markovich, a gaming and cosplay aficionado. When she isn’t dressing up as her favorite video game characters and attending comic and gaming conventions, she serves as a public relations consultant to Verizon Wireless in the Wisconsin/Illinois region.
Gen Con, otherwise known as “The Best Four Days in Gaming,” is easily the best four days of my year. Though the convention is held every mid-August in Indianapolis, my group of friends and I plan out our trip nearly nine months in advance. The convention is quite similar to San Diego’s infamous Comic-Con International, but focuses more on tabletop-gaming, such as Dungeons and Dragons.
And we’ve got our entire trip planned down to a “T.”
Meet at Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha, WI, drive in an eight-car convoy the four or so hours to Indianapolis, shove 10 people into one hotel room and attend an endless array of events, costume contests, play-tests, seminars and, of course, games - all fueled by cheap food truck BBQ wings and three hours of sleep a night!
But one thing was different this year: Verizon allowed me to bring along an LG G Pad for the trip. I’ll admit having that small, yet powerful, tablet with me actually made the trip quite a breeze!
The tablet came equipped with a mobile hotspot that I used to access the 4G LTE network and play World of Warcraft (WoW) on my computer in the backseat of my friend’s packed car. I was surprised that I never once lost a signal through Illinois and into Indianapolis. And while WoW tends to be a game that sucks up a lot of bandwidth, it felt like I was at home on my couch playing like normal.
Once at the Con, I downloaded the Gen Con app and organized my activities on the app while walking around taking pictures of the other cosplay enthusiasts. As a cosplayer, I enjoyed how portable the tablet was and how it easily fit into the purse attached to my costume and didn’t detract from the authenticity of my outfit.
I kept the tablet with me throughout the entire Con – it was even useful while I was playing Magic the Gathering late at night in the Card Hall. I simply downloaded the SCG app and set the tablet down next to me during tournaments with my friends. I could easily see my score and standings on the large HD display, and the battery life held out even during the longest of sleepless gaming nights.
Most of all, the tablet took some truly awesome photos of my time at Gen Con. With it being only four days a year, I always end up taking tons of photos that I can look back on during the rest of the year and reflect on the memories. The photos turned out so crystal clear that I feel like I’m right back there on the Convention floor! Here’s just a glimpse.
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