Large room, huge maps, noisy atmosphere, ... the place is alive with people discussing their designs and gameplay. Wish I were there. When I was in my teens, I had in mind a hex wargame that simulated the North Atlantic conflict between u-boats and destroyers. The hexes were in 3D with different hexes representing different depths. I had earlier borrowed my dad's map of Europe (it had the major cities on it as well as oil company facilities) and had spent 4 days drawing hexes on it with his engineering stencil. I then designed my own cards and counters for my Invasion Of Russia campaign. And I played two-player ... against myself! Transferring war gaming and conflict strategy into real life. Nice.
What I noticed from the video was that men outnumbered women by a ratio of 8:1 (my estimate). Also there was more lively human interaction, discussion, eye contact, chatting and exchanging of social skills at the traditional wargames tables - as compared to those blokes sitting at their laptops who looked totally absorbed in their own world.
