Things we were chatting about in Massage Den and Staff Den

[xiphias]

A guy from Security had come up for his massage on Sunday, late morning, early afternoon. After his massage, he was mentioning how calm Security had been this year. They'd had a betting pool going about "what time Saturday night the drunken rowdiness would require Security intervention."

As of noon on Sunday, nobody had collected.

We were trying to figure out why, and came up with a number of theories.

One, the elevator problems and layout things worked in our favor. You could go to a party and start drinking, but then, if you wanted to party-hop to another party with booze. . .

The party suite rooms were the ones that ended in 32. So, let's say there were big parties, with free booze, in 632, 732, and 832.

You could sort of imagine the floorplan of the hotel, looking from above, as something kind of topologically similar to a triskellion. That's not remotely what it was SHAPED like, but in terms of walking-paths, that will give you something of an idea.

The X32 rooms are at the tip of one branch, the two staircases were at the tips of the other two branches, and the elevators were somewhere vaguely close to the center point.

So, you're in 632, and you've sucked down their booze, and you're now ready to suck down someone else's booze.

So you leave your branch, and go to the center, and you wait for an elevator.

Which, of course, doesn't show up, so you get fed up and go to the stairs. So you walk down another branch, go down or up a flight, come out, go back through that branch to the center, then go out a branch to the X32 room.

That's a LOT of walking for free booze. And well worth it, but it meant that you actually had to be CAPABLE of walking that far to get more free booze.

Which is, frankly, a limiting factor.

I suggested that perhaps the membership cap was a factor.

This was not seen as likely, because, even with the membership cap, previous conventions were only 200 or 300 people larger.

"Ah, but WHICH 200 or 300 people?" And, let's face it -- our membership cap was 2000. 2200 or 2300 is 10 or 15% larger. That's not nothing.

And that does lead to another issue -- it's a smaller hotel -- there were just fewer places to put parties. A number of the perennial parties that are there year after year just weren't, for lack of space.

And of course, another reason was the layout. With an open layout to a central court, Security could really see what was going on, pretty much everywhere. You had good sightlines -- there weren't many places you could be staggering through a hallway where you'd be hard to spot.

Comments

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

So, let's say there were big parties, with free booze, in 632, 732, and 832.

lets say, hypotheticly, perhaps? Hyptheticly I may have stayed in the one on the 7th floor, so I couldn't speculate about the 6th or 8th :) The open court also had the interesting effect of letting everyone see where the parties were very clearly. But the parties that were giving away booze seemed to be selective about who they let in the door. I encountered someone in the halls who was cruising for a get drunk and fall down sort of party, and she was unable to talk her way past the door guard on 7.

But speculating about the lack of disaster, I think that the membership probably had a good effect on the bad people. I would hope that the party element wouldn't be any more supressed than it was, but it is good that there weren't any disasters.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Well, my wife and I weren't able to get into 7, either, which is probably why we never met.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Bummer. I was hoping we would bump into each other. There will be another convention. It's been a slow past few years (ok many years) for me and conventions, but it's about time to go back. I just don't know what else to go to, other than gencon, which is substantially different.

I felt pretty good about talking my way in. My wife tells me that when I'm talking to girls I think are pretty I can get really charming.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I could have. I don't know. I didn't care to try.

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

I, on the other hand, tossed my hair and unbuttoned the top few buttons on my shirt. Seemed to work.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Interesting. That approach failed for at least one person I observed. You may be some combination of younger, more beautiful, or more known to the hosts. Or I may have just had to keep talking until the unpleasant person trying to ride in on coattails left. Who knows what lies in the mind of the doorperson.

[undauntra.livejournal.com]

One of my gaming buddies got in by knotting up his T-shirt to show of his chest and borrowing my hat. Said chest was not exceptionally pretty or anything. (Hat was leather.)