Gen Con has cancelled their in person event for this year.
We’ve talked about Coronavirus before, when Who’s Yer Con had to cancel their event. A lot of what we had to say then still applies. We miss you all! We want you to be safe and healthy! We will see you soon!
But we know more about Covid-19 in May than we did in March, because science happens very fast, and so we have a few new things to say too.
Washing your hands is still the biggest and most important thing you can do to help fight COVID-19. Staying home when you don’t need to go places is pretty important too. We still think that not licking things (or people) that aren’t food is important. And maybe right now is not the right time to hug people without asking (even though we really love hugs).
Back in March, scientists mostly were telling people that they should only wear a mask if they were sick and had to go out, because we didn’t think that having everyone wear a mask was super helpful. We still don’t know for sure how helpful wearing cloth masks is, because there are many many different kinds of them, and many many different fabric, and some people have beards, and so there are a lot of different things to think about.
But what we do know is that a lot of people who have COVID-19 don’t know they should be wearing a mask, because they don’t get very sick. And we know that it’s hard to be the person in a group who is different. So we’re wearing our masks when we have to go out to the store – because if we have COVID-19 and don’t know it, we’re helping keep other people safe. And if we don’t have COVID-19, then maybe seeing lots of people wearing masks will make somebody else feel better about wearing theirs. Either way, everybody wins.
You don’t need to wear a mask when you’re playing in your backyard, or when you’re riding your bike, or when you’re outside and it’s easy for everybody to stay far apart. But you should wear one (if you’re big enough; babies definitely don’t need masks, and if you’re under 3 or you’re not ready to keep your hands off your mask when you’re wearing it, don’t wear one) when you’re going to the store or inside where it’s hard to stay away from other people. Gen Con is one of those places.
Can you imagine what Gen Con would look like if everybody at the Con wore a mask? It might be pretty amazing! The Motley Kids are sure that YOU can think of some cool mask cosplays to do. But it would also be a little scary. There are a LOT of people at Gen Con, and playing games with people means that you have to get pretty close together. And since we don’t know for sure how well masks work, we don’t know how safe it would be – for you, for your new gaming friends, and for their friends and families back home. And that means that the awesome folks who run Gen Con had to make some hard choices today.
We’re going to be working on a way to have gaming and crafting with you during the Gen Con Online show. Make sure your Responsible Adults stay tuned! We are going to miss all of you so much, but we’d rather see you safe and healthy on video chat for now.
With Love (and masks),
The Motley Kids