The end of con crud and gamer funk?

[horati0nosebl0wer]

Something that occurred to me as I sit and don’t have social games in public. Will social gaming become more hygenic in the future from here on out? I don’t mean will we be wiping down terrain between play sessions, probably something that will happen now that I think about it, but will we eliminate convention crud and gamer funk?

With the intense scrutiny of health concens regarding cleanliness I think our general standard for personal hygiene has been raised to improve in these ways. For the mass social gatherings of conventions the prevalence of long hours over gaming tables and inducing stress responses from the intense focus on dice rolls or card draws for games of all sorts The Funk is real. This might be the event that makes bathing a norm and could clear the air of many a game shop as we’ve been apart for so long our olfactory senses could be that much more sensitive to how others smell.

The same goes for The Crud since social health is now an awareness that has grown and will be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future. Take a temp at the door and see that someone’s running a fever or got a cough, well, it might be a refusal and a refund on grounds of public health/safety grounds. I’m just tossing around ideas at the moment but how likely does anyone else see this?

[michaellove]

Likely in the short term, though most will revert back to their previous habits as time passes. It may help if cons actively promote social health, such as providing hand sanitizing stations.

[limburger]

nope,

at best soap stations will become standard in every venue, but even during the epidemic we’re seeing life returning to ‘normal’ (at least in my region).

I suspect a lot of conventions will never re-open again, because they are so dependent on the yearly cycle to stay alive.
The ones that survive might have a few things like soap dispensers and ‘minimum distance’ markers as standard, but usage will be minimal.

[sundancer]

Short term some people will change… long term it’ll stay the same… people are the worst and most are unwilling to change. :S

[horati0nosebl0wer]

@limburger I think you’re right on the matter of the yearly nature of cons and the likelihood of them severely being diminished in number. Perhaps this might be a good thing. If there are less cons there might be better quality brought back. Oust the people who were there for the geek cred and avoid any need to gatekeep against them.

[limburger]

there are very few cons here … so we don’t suffer from con overload around here.
Heck, Covid-19 killed the one time there would have been a proper wargaming section at one of the local conventions. 🙁

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