Sunday 7 October 2012

Sunday Sermon: Have I made the right life choices?

   
    

(apologies I have no pictures because apparently my memory card decided it didn't want to play!)

This is not the Sunday Sermon I'd intended to post up today, I had a spark of inspiration. Sometimes in life you have your life choices brought into very sharp relief and you ask yourself... did I make the right choice? You know, should I really have gone with extra chilli sauce, did I really need the stupidly expensive store insurance that they never intended to pay out on and... wargames or motorsport. Invariably I've been happy with the choices I've made. OK so sure I'm not an international playboy with honey's dripping off of my arms. But that's OK, I only need one honey and the one I've got is one of the best a man could ever hope for! No really she's awesome.  However, as the Cursed and I walked up to the Castle Donnington Exhibition Center to attend the Derby World Wargames event, a choice I made many, many years ago now was brought into focus.

You see, when I was a wee nipper I was offered a choice of attending one of two events. The first choice was whether I wanted to go to some Superbike race or other my dad and brother were wanting to go to. The other option was whether I wanted to go to Games Day instead, as I'd already got the tickets. Now I can't remember exactly what the motorsport event was, but I did love my motorsport, and I still do. My father, and indeed my older brother have taken me along to witness many forms of mechanized transportation vehicular races, and jolly good fun they are too. But, for some reason that day I chose Games Day. Thus condemning my brother to a weekend watching said motorsports event on the TV, while my dad had to suffer taking me to the NEC I believe it was to play games, and see stuff I'd already seen and played... just on a grander scale.


So why did our days excursion to Castle Donnington bring this long repressed memory flooding back... well... as we traipsed across a muddy field we could hear the strain of internal combustion engines being thrashed to within an inch of their lives, and the rich smell of fuel being burnt off in global warming level of quantities. We also saw a few brief glimpses of the lesser spotted orange 'bonnet babes'. You know the sort, knee high boots with leather / PVC skirts and make up that would make most porn stars seem classy. It looked decidedly tacky in a sort of glamorous way. Where were we heading? Well, we were off to a large warehouse in effect full of sweaty nerdy geeks with a love of miniature toy soldiers, and a scant disregard for personal hygiene. As I said, sometimes life really does bring those life choices you make into sharp relief!

While in said venue the strain of the engines outside reverberated throughout the venue, and... well I couldn't help feeling that maybe I'd made the wrong choice! Last year when I was at the Derby World Wargames event it was held in the far more accessible Derby University. OK, so the space wasn't the best in the universe, but it worked. This year it was one big long space and the noise was bouncing around inside the tin shed terribly. I couldn't hear myself think and then... vrroooooom!!! Those life choices again. There were a few tournaments going on, and honestly I wouldn't have wanted to have been taking part in them. The racket and trying to concentrate would have given me a headache, so to those of you who went there and ran games and took part in tournaments I salute your fortitude and perseverance. Truly you are the iron men and women of the hobby.

I'm going to say that I think the switch of venue is a bit of a failure. While Derby University was at times cramped, it never felt unwelcoming. Castle Donnington Exhibition Center is unwelcoming. It just doesn't look pleasant and the environment inside was dark and dingy. Also I think there were less exhibitors this year. Whether that was due to the change in venue, or just the God awful state of the economy I don't know, but it felt like there was far less interesting stuff to see. There were the usual stands I always look for at these events, but many were missing and those that were there seemed smaller this year. There also seemed to be less attendees this year... but that just could be an optical illusion. So we all make choices, and some of them will be bad, and for me moving the venue to be so far outside of Derby was a bad move.

Sure there's every chance its just the usual trouble that any event has after moving venue, but I spoke to a number of traders who felt the venue wasn't as good, and that things hadn't been as lively as previous years. Sometimes you have to live with the choices you make... and other times it's wise to admit you might have got things wrong. If Derby University wasn't the right venue anymore that's fine, but Castle Donnington certainly isn't the right venue for the events they have going on at the show. If the show remains at Castle Donnington Exhibition Center I'll not be going back, because:

  1. It's a pain in the arse to get to, and piss poor public transport means I can just pop along.
  2. I just don't like the big dingy shed vibe of the venue.
  3. The noise inside was deafening, certainly didn't make me want to play any games at all.


So perhaps it was a mistake. Still, at least there weren't any orange booth babes. Peace out!

13 comments:

  1. Jody, where are pictures of these mini skirted creatures? could you not give a comparative list of dip shades to use if you wanted to achieve the same fake tan results on your minis ;)

    As a trader I must say although it was there I didn't really notice the noise from the race track unless someone mentioned it.

    As for the venue change, I think it was as a result of the University not booking any events for this year full stop. I have a friend who works there and who told me they cancelled everything for this year. He thought at the time it was a strange change of policy but since then they have had a lot of work done on the atrium and he thinks it might be they just gave themselves some room in the calender to get the work carried out so a return could be on the cards perhaps. I suppose it will depend on the overall feedback the organisers get.

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    1. Sadly I never actually took a picture as they were standing by a people carrier as we drove into the venue. Besides, given my sodding camera failed to work any pictures I would have taken wouldn't have worked.

      As for the move, I was told the move was decided by the event organisers, if it was forced on them by Derby University then fair enough. But surely there are better alternative venues in Derby? It wasn't just the automotive noise though that was bad. I understand that any venue with a large collection of people is going to have the constant hum of chatter reverberating around it, but genuinely I felt at the Castle Donnington Exhibition Center it was one of the worst venues I'd been to for it. At times it felt like I was having to shout to make myself heard. We'll see where they head next year with it I guess, bu I was under the impression they intended to remain at Castle Donnington.

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  2. Yeah I've had the life choices moment thought a couple of times too, but at the same time I've got a lot of enjoyment and friends out of the hobby, so I'm pretty happy. I always just think of what my parents told me aboyt what they thought of me getting involved in war gaming, which boiled down to "it's a bit odd, but he could be doing a lot worse".

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    1. Indeed it could be worse... you could be a trainspotter!!! o_0

      I'm pretty much happy with the way I've turned out as a person.

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    2. Oi! There's some great fun people who are (or were) trainspotters - Captain Sensible, Joe Strummer (RIP)....

      I didn't make it to Derby/Donnington due to illness, but from what I've read it would have been horrendous for me, particularly as I was going to be competing in the FoG:AM tournament - the noise would have been a real problem as I suffer from "focussing" - my hearing focuses on the loudest sounds and when the source of the loudest sound keeps switching (as is likely in a venue like that) it can induce panic attacks. there are various things which they can do to reduce the acoustic effects - curtains/screens to absorb sound for instance - but it doesn't seem that they did so.

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    3. @TamsinP for me the noise was a bit much. I could just be a terrible old curmudgeon, but it sounded like there was a swarm of angry wasps constantly around my head. I guess I could just personally be really susceptible to said noise. I just found it really unpleasant. What have your mates who went said about the venue?

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  3. The what if game can be fun to play :)

    Too bad the venue wasn't very good. Hopefully it will beter next year. Although those gaming shows in the uk tend to make me a bit jealous ;) :p

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    1. Well as you can see from the comment below, some people liked the venue. If it is at Donnington next year I'll not be going myself. Just didn't like it.

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  4. Bit surprised at your sermon here. Or Im completely in the minority. I for one preferred this location to the University and for me it was an absolute breeze to get to.
    I also took part in a tournament all weekend (Secrets of the Third Reich) and came second - I can say that at no point during the weekend did the noise of the racing or the odd plane taking off from next door bother me. I hardly heard them as I was too busy concentrating in not getting my arse handed to me.
    I suffer from awful headaches usually at shows and tourneys but never got one from derby WEIRD!!

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    1. Firstly congratulations on finishing second in your tournament. Secondly perhaps it's personal preference but both The Cursed and I were really put off by the venue. The cars weren't half as bad as the constant droning hum of chatter that reverberated around the place. Honestly I couldn't stand it for very long at all. The majrity of people who I know who visited the show reported similar feelings to me as well. I'm not saying we're a representative sample, but it is at the very least how I experienced the show. I left Derby with a pounding headache, and needed the darkened room treatment when I got home.

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  5. I ask myself what else I could have been doing instead of gaming. If it was motor sport I would have almost certainly been confined to being an observer rather than taking an active part in what was going on. I think of myself as lucky that I have a hobby that does not cost me all I own, that I am relatively good at that doesn mean I get soaked or injured on a regular basis.

    I went to Derby with a mate who had been out of gaming for a while. It's a bit far south for me. The mate had a good time despite his kid vomming all over the back seat. It rekindled his gaming mojo a bit. My usual favourite show is Triples.This moved from Sheffield University to a sports centre a few years ago. It lost the mooching factor. That said it's a big show and there is a lot there.

    Or to put it another way, it could be worse.

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  6. Big mistake for me. I wish I had been gotten obsessed with something useful, like the many people I deal with who do masters or learn languages, go to dance lessons etc in their spare time. I sit there wondering how to differentiate Iron warriors and black legion at epic scale in a balanced way.

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