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About MerpCon
MerpCon 2005 Speech
TolkienBooksCollection.jpg
MerpCon V Now Finished. This was the LAST MERPCON. What does the future hold? Tolkien Moot 2010? MerpCon absorbed into SpoCon?
MerpCon V has finally finished. The five years I committed to has now been fulfilled. What now for the future?
Hawke Waving Farewell after cleaning up from MerpCon V (Midnight Wednesday July 28th, 2009)
MerpCon V was a blast. And many heartfelt thanks go out to all the volunteers and participants who helped make it possible for this fairly unique event.
I promised to give this a minimum of five years.
That promise is now fulfilled.
A unique recreational event combination. It has now grown beyond my ability to sustain it on my own under those terms. This is a good thing, but some difficult choices must be made now.
Sure, there are plenty of RPG conventions out there. But very few have very much in the way of Tolkien gaming, and usually just as a small track, and buried under most of the other activities.
And there are from time to time rather large Tolkien conventions, but few to none include actual role playing games, specifically Tolkien RPGing.
MerpCon was fairly unique in that it was Tolkien Role playing gaming centric, while including Tolkien scholars and scholarly pursuits, but tying it with those who love to role play in Tolkien's world. The gaming leading them to want to learn more of the normally "scholarly" aspects of Tolkien's works, that they might otherwise never have been interested in delving into.
The list of guest speakers included over the years:
- Professor Chris Seeman
- Dr. Thomas Morwinsky
- Michael Martinez
- John D. Rateliff
- Cason Snow
- Joe Mandala
I now have to decide if it is time to "go to the next level" or move on to other things instead.
Of course there is/will be all the audio and video downloads to help remember this event as well.
After finishing cleanup, and getting life back on track, and getting audio and video uploaded to the site for download, I will be reading the questionaires from the participants, emailing the participants who wished me to follow up with them, and posting polls, as well as speaking with other business entities to research future possibilities.
No matter what I decide, there will not (at least under my guidance) be another "MerpCon" with that name.
If I do continue from the foundation now laid by MerpCon, it will be under the title of "Tolkien Moot", as a more descriptive, and less cryptic title. Who knows.
I again thank everyone for their wonderful support, work, enthusiasm, and time. It has been a wonderful pleasure getting to meet (both in person and online around the world) so many great, ethusiastic people from all walks of life, and many different contries, cultures, and ages.The wonderful experience that is MerpCon would not be the same without everyone's contributions.
Namarie!
-Hawke
