History
Ziggurat Con was as a soldier-run event. The convention was organized by active duty military service personnel deployed to Iraq by the United States Armed Forces, and by contractors to the United States government. It was originally scheduled for June 9, but was moved to the 10th to help preserve operational security.
Part of the base's Community Activity Center hosted the convention. The Memorial Theater showed anime, the ping pong room and mini-theater held pen-and-paper role-playing games, and role-playing video games were held in the console gaming room at the MWR Activity Center. The convention's first organizer was Convention Chair SPC David Amberson. SPC Amberson is looking for someone who will take the reins and hold a second Ziggurat Con, and has a couple of prospects already.
SPC Amberson noted that a distinct lack of morale was plaguing the troops stationed in Iraq. This was especially true after troops first heard about the three-month extension over the news or from family members as early as two weeks prior to announcements by their own chain of command. To help combat this low morale, Amberson organized the friends he played Dungeons & Dragons with regularly and scheduled a convention to give games, dice, and other goodies to the troops he was stationed with.
As there are no stores near the base where these games can be bought, Ziggurat Con was dependent upon private sponsorship and internet orders. Game manufacturers and private individuals donated supplies, including rule books and dice. A number of groups formed in the United States to collect and ship gaming supplies for the convention. Operation Dice Drop in Oregon is one such group. The ultimate goal of the Con was to give every coalition service member and civilian contractor in attendance at least one item to take home and keep. This was achieved quite easily, and many soldiers even took boxes of goodies with them to their individual living areas.
Read more about this topic: Ziggurat Con
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it grows also when it turns to justice and to right for the conservation of its interests.”
—Aristide Briand (1862–1932)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)