No WotC At Gen Con This Year?

It looks like Wizards of the Coast will not be attending Gen Con this year. They've just posted a list of the conventions they'll be attending in 2016, and noted their intention to support conventions that they don't normally get to attend. "Gen Con is not on this list because we are changing things up to support more conventions and locations. Even though the Dungeons & Dragons team won’t be there we know our friends at Baldman Games will be hosting plenty of D&D adventures. It’s safe to say there will be ample opportunity to play Dungeons & Dragons during Gen Con. We’re excited to head to some new conventions this year and meet folks who don’t have the opportunity to travel to Indianapolis."

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The list of conventions WotC will be attending is Winter Fantasy (February, Fort Wayne, IN), Gary Con (March, Lake Geneva, WI), PAX East (April, Boston MA), Origins (June, Columbus OH), and PAX Prime (August, Seattle WA).

Chris Perkins will be hosting another Acquisitions Inc event at PAX East, and Origins will be the "D&D tabletop gaming event of the year" with sneak peeks and a return of the D&D Open. PAX Prime will have the highest concentration of D&D staff present.

Read more about their convention plans here.

 

[Shasarak]

I thought this was settled last year when there was controversy about the rewards people didn't get from WotC at GenCon. Mearls was rather clear that WotC wasn't interested in GenCon anymore.

Yes, I am pretty sure that this is last years news.

I am sure that soon enough there will be a license available for fans to run their own version of a WotC Con booth though.

 

[thzero]

Nah its that they haven't been able to compete with paizo the last couple of years, so tucked tail and ran.

 

[Lanefan]

I was disappointed they weren't there last year, and as I'm already committed to going again this year I guess I'll get ready to be disappointed again. Oh well...

The biggest problem with PAX prime is that is has a hard cap on how many people can attend, and said cap is reached the day badges go on sale. Which is sad, for me, as I live close enough to Seattle that if I ever did decide to go it would most likely be on a whim if some time off from work just happened to line up with the dates.

Lan-"all Pathfinder all the time does not make me a happy boy"-efan

 

[ad_hoc]

Previewing products? How much previewing do they need to do for a $50 adventure path? Previews are a tool when you are putting out a large volume of products, and you have to try to make sure fans know about all of them so they can pick and choose (and drive hype, so they drink as much as possible from the fire hose), or when the product you have has taken a *huge* investment of development resources (like, say, video games) such that you really have to drive purchases with hype to be successful. When you only do a couple products a year, and those products were built on modest budgets, this level of marketing probably isn't necessary.

In this day of The Internet, the con is a comparatively poor venue for disseminating information - only a few hundreds of people go to your panel, and they disseminate things by word of mouth? Why use that error-prone channel, when you can just put up a blog post on the internet that reaches thousands of people in a matter of minutes?

Yep, I agree when it comes to D&D.

I work for one of the board game companies and it makes complete sense for them to be there. No one has time to read rules for a game you may not like, so they come and are taught a bunch of games that will be coming out soon. Then they buy some and go show their friends.

You can still learn D&D at Gen Con. Wizards doesn't need to be there for people to learn it.

I go to both Origins and Gen Con and I would recommend Origins more because I am not into all the hustle and bustle of the latter.

I think it is great that they are doing Origins, if you go you will have a better chance to have some time with them.

 

[spongebob1138]

I (BMG) have requested a move from last year as noise was a reoccurring complaint (and problem) last year. I had no idea the moving of our space, plus the air-walls coming down, was going to increase the noise to the level it was this past year. The space caused a lot of issues this year and it is the first thing on my list I've been addressing this year.

Odds are we will end up in one of the large ballrooms in an attached hotel. Our own space with our own noise.

That sounds encouraging, and might make me change my mind about not playing any D&D at Gen Con...

 

[basilforth]

This is cool. This may be WoTC move to help PaxPrime overtake GenCon.

 

[UnsounderGnome]

I think WotC and Gen Con have some beef or something. Maybe because they can't get Sagamore Ballroom or some other nice area in the convention center? For years, it used to be WotC up in Sagamore at Gen Con and it was a great location for them, but then 2 or3 years ago Paizo took it over. The fact that WotC are doing pretty much all the other noteworthy gaming conventions this year and skipping Gen Con says to me, either they are they don't want to continue to get embarrassed by Paizo taking their old space or maybe it is some misguided attempt to force Gen Con to give them their old space back.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

If they had a beef, then they wouldnt be asking Baldman games to run their games there.. they just wouldnt be there at all.

I think people who are naturally prone to seeing conspiracies (yes, Elvis really is dead) are going to see Conspiracies. I dont for a second thing all this is because of a dust up. I think it actually is WOTC deciding to put its resources elsewhere considering Baldman has it covered.

Many years ago I really wanted to visit America and do Gencon. Now Ive done America but I didnt do Gencon and to be honest, I cant say I feel like I missed out. Logging in at a certain time to quickly get a spot at a table and a hotel room even close to th con, all the well on the premise that the server at the other end is working and that my connection is stable. Paying the rather hefty prices, going into a lottery for some tickets.

Just dosnt read as appealing when I list it off. I instead did Paizo con which I enjoyed as a one off experience.

Something smaller like Origins and Winter fantasy sounds more like my sorta thing.

 

[Uchawi]

I think it is part of their overall strategy when acting as the elder brain, and let other entities perform the legwork. Whether that is cons, adventures, supplements, forums, etc. Probably a component of that is budget. They have been trimming the fat ever since 5E was released.

 

[GrahamWills]

Not to thread jack. Can someone explain the difference between Origins, Winter Fantasy, and Gen Con?

At GenCon, you will have spent a fortune on accommodation and will spend a lot of time standing in lines, trying to get into restaurants, and trying to walk around huge rooms full of people.

At Origins, you will spend a lot of time in North Market eating excellent food and probably play more board games than you would at GenCon.

At Winter Fantasy you will play D&D, all day, every day, from morning till midnight.