The Conpocalypse Has Been Scheduled

I wrote previously about geek culture reaching maximum convention saturation, predicting that major companies would eventually switch their focus to smaller venues. Two articles released this January are evidence that the "conpocalypse" is no longer a theory. It's all coming to a head this year.

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[h=3]Pros and Cons[/h]ICv2 columnist Rob Salkowitz reported about the wide range of Star Trek conventions coming up:

In the past, most of the competitive dynamics we’ve seen in the convention business have been around corporate shows coming to challenge local independent events, or the big guys competing to buy up successful regional shows. There are always a couple of weekends during the season that feature convention pile-ups. You even get a couple of shows angling for the same general fan base in the same basic geographic region cropping up within a week or two of each other.

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Star Trek: The Original Series is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, so a deluge of conventions was perhaps inevitable. Two Star Trek cons have staked out their territory on opposite sides of the country: Creation Entertainment's Official Star Trek Convention on August 3-7 in Las Vegas and ReedPop's Star Trek: Mission New York on September 2-4 in New York City.

The New York Star Trek convention isn't the only one scheduled for Labor Day weekend. There's many other geek-related conventions the same weekend: FanExpo Canada; Dragon Con in Atlanta, GA; Meta Con in Minneapolis, MN; Nan Desu Kan in Denver, CO; SacAnime in Sacramento, CA; San Japan in San Antonio, TX; and Baltimore Comic-Con in Baltimore, MD. That's eight cons in one weekend. Salkowitz sums up the gravity of the problem:

...we really haven’t seen anything like the traffic jam that’s shaping up for Labor Day, 2016, with potentially four 50,000+ comics and entertainment shows (FanExpo alone is around 110K) and a ReedPOP Star Trek extravaganza in New York City now getting into the mix.

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So what happens when the con space gets too crowded? Major sponsors begin pulling out.
[h=3]The Wizard Has Enough[/h]That may well be what's happened at Gen Con, which has experienced stratospheric growth that has outpaced the convention space. Tim Kask, who knows a thing or two about games and conventions, shared his concerns:

GenCon used to be, and to a lesser extent Origins, the date we at which we aimed for new releases; it was the single largest confluence of that many gamers. There was but a fraction of the companies back in the 70’s and 80’s that there are now. I cannot imagine the pressure to succeed, to make or break your company, if it all depends upon the splash you make at GenCon. It is extremely likely that several great games or products get lost in the blizzard of releases every year because they did not spend a lot on the box or were overshadowed in their booth area by one of the mega-booths or any number of other good reasons.

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It seems Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) agrees. WOTC announced it's leaving Gen Con:

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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WOTC will be attending Winter Fantasy, Gary Con, PAX East, Origins, and PAX Prime. How do these cons stack up compared to Gen Con's unique attendance of 61,000? Below is an overview of each of these other cons, described in broad strokes -- all of these cons support tabletop gaming, but in most cases these cons are known for a different type of gaming that's called out below.

• The Tabletop Gaming Con: Winter Fantasy will be held in the 30,000 sq. ft. Grand Wayne Convention Center in Fort Wayne, IN on February 3-7. Winter Fantasy has a legacy tied to the Role-Playing Game Association (RPGA) and Baldman Games, who currently operates many of the Living campaigns and gaming events on behalf of WOTC. As a result, it's primarily focused on role-playing games. Winter Fantasy's attendance reached as high as 2,000 attendees in 2001.
• The Old School Renaissance Con: Gary Con, named after Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax, continues the tradition of Gen Con in Lake Geneva, WI on March 3-6. Gary Con's focus is primarily the Old School Renaissance, with a particular focus on games released under Gary's leadership at TSR. Gary Con's attendance was anecdotally reported at 200 in 2009, 300 in 2010, a high of about 550 in 2011, and about the same in 2012.
• The Video Game Cons: PAX East and PAX Prime are celebrations of gamers of all stripes, with an emphasis on video game releases. PAX East takes place in Boston, MA April 22-24 and PAX Prime takes place Seattle, WA August 28 through August 31. PAX East and PAX Prime don't release official numbers, but there are estimates as high as 70,000 attendees at each convention in 2014.
• The Wargaming Con: Origins Game Fair takes place in Columbus, OH on June 15-19. Origin serves gaming in general, with a specific focus on wargaming and miniatures gaming. Origins' 2015 attendance was nearly 16,000 unique visitors.

Adding all the attendance numbers together (160,000 or so) is illustrative. It seems WOTC is after a broader audience beyond tabletop gamers in a wider variety of locations. In short, one of the leading tabletop game companies has withdrawn from the convention that the founders of D&D established.

If WOTC's shift away from Gen Con is any indication, the mass migration of sponsors from larger conventions to more smaller, local conventions has begun. We'll find out this year if fans follow them.

Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, and communicator. You can follow him at Patreon.

 

[Narl]

WOTC may not officially be there, the Mike Mearls, Chris Perkins, and Jeremy Crawford will all be at Gamehole Con as well.

 

[exile]

Interesting.

I've made the decision to pass on Winter Fantasy because it is primarily a venue for WotC's current OP program. That worked well for me when I was heavily invested in LFR, but now that AL and I haven't really clicked, there's no reason for me to make the trip to Fort Wayne (other to enjoy some Scotch eggs and bangers and mashed at the local Irish restaurant).

I've long been an attendee at Origins, so WotC's presence there does nothing new for me.

I have plans to attend GaryCon this year, though, again, WotC's presence does nothing for me. I'll primarily be playing older versions of D&D, DCC, and Pathfinder.

All that said, I am curious to see how this works out for them. They have made a lot of decisions lately that-- at the time-- have seemed really strange to me, but are seemingly working well for them and the new edition. My guess is that the change in convention support will be neither helpful, nor harmful, a wash.

 

[Septimus]

I've been attending cons (and Gen Con specifically) since the early 90's. This is not the first time that a major sponsor has opted not to run games or have a booth in the exhibit hall. There was a lot concern when Games Workshop stopped attending because to many people they *were* wargaming. WotC not sending their D&D people to Gen Con is, frankly, less impactful than GW pulling out. While D&D at one time used to be synonymous with roleplaying that's simply no longer the case.

Note that WotC has also only announced that their D&D team will not be attending Gen Con. They may have a presence supporting other properties like M:tG. It's not like WotC has decided to stop sending their D&D people to big conventions, either. They'll be at PAX Prime, which is arguably a much larger convention than Gen Con. This is because it's much, much cheaper for them to send people and product to PAX, since both PAX and WotC are headquartered in Seattle.

 

[WhiskyJack]

My first GenCon was 17, the last one at Racine. I was a teenager then and I've managed to make it to every single one since... it was the vacation I could depend on. This next year, I won't be going to GenCon. There are multiple reasons- but one of them is that for the crowds, cost and what seems to be a growing trend by hotels and restaurants in Indy to gouge on prices while delivering sub-standard service (and service often served with churlish resentment for the hand that feeds this particular micro-economy). The con has grown to a point where I just don't enjoy going to it any more... it may well be that I have aged and grown less tolerant of things... but I think it is time to let go.

This next year, I plan on going to Gamehole. I don't know if my personal decision cleanly maps to this concept of "conpocalypse", but it definitely is a bitter-sweet parting from the convention that has given me years of enjoyment and afforded me the opportunity to meet the woman who became my wife. Farewell, GenCon...

 

[Michael Dean]

Hmm, I've always had a great experience in Indy with the locals. Hotels close by raise prices, but that's common in any city with a big event. This year I had a trial in Detroit federal court the same week as the Detroit Auto Show. My usual hotel was charging $300 a night vs the normal $120 I usually pay. I'm curious, too, about which restaurants are raising prices as most prices are pretty static for chain restaurants at least.

I get that the crowds may turn people off, but I would rather that than the alternative; lack of interest.