West Coast Speculative Fiction Association

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2017 “Open Alpha” Gaming Convention (archived):

Nothing But Games

Nothing But Games was a family-friendly gaming convention hosted by WCSFA and held at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel in Guildford, Surrey, on Saturday and Sunday, June 17–18, 2017.

The event offered 32 continuous hours of gaming in a wide variety of formats:

  • Console games (both modern & retro)
  • Handheld console meetups
  • PC LAN games
  • Classic and Modern tabletop board, card, & dice games (e.g., Clue, Chess, Scrabble, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride)
  • Popular collectible card games (e.g., Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh)
  • Tabletop roleplaying games (e.g., Dungeons & Dragons, GURPS, Paranoia, Pathfinder)
  • Miniature wargames
  • Live Action Roleplaying (LARP)

There were also several side activities, including panels, speakers and workshops covering game design and play.

This was the inaugural event and was labelled as an “open alpha,” a term commonly used by video game developers when a game is brand new and still more full of “bugs” than “features”. Although no others have been held since then, it is absolutely something we’d like to see return in the future.