Convince me to go to GenCon.

[der_kluge]

I'm having trouble getting excited about GenCon this year for some reason.

There are a lot of factors involved. I still haven't gotten my badge, and several factors have been at play which have stalled me in that decision.

I didn't know what was going to happen with my job, or where I would be, or whether my wife was going to go some educational cruise thingy, which would have sucked up my vacation time. So, I've waited on the purchase of the badge. Only recently did my wife say, "yes, you could go to GenCon". That was two weeks ago.

The guy I usually go with (Reddist on here) is also in a state of flux, so he won't know his status for several more weeks, as to whether he'll get to go. Add to that, the fact that we haven't gotten a room yet.

If he can't go, and I have my badge, I'll have to room by myself, which is expensive. Unless I try to find someone on here to share a room with, which I can't really ask about until my friend finds out whether he can go or not.

But, add to that, a general malaise with regards to GenCon.

I was extremely dissapointed with the pick-up games area. It was virtually non-existant, and what there was, was completely unorganized. If Peter reads this, and if he can assure me that the pick-up games area will be better this year, that might influence me into going.

Mystic Eye Games, whose booth I have worked at for the past two years, may not even be there. They've been quiet on our message board, so I don't even know if the usual people I hang out with will even be there. So, if I'm not working the booth, that means I'll be just an average gamer like everyone else. Which will be nice, but it means that I'll have to fill my day trying to find pick-up games, which can at times be a bit frustrating.

I've got plenty of books, so there's nothing I really want to *buy*, that I can't already get at my FLGS anyway. Then there is financial cost, and the fact that going requires 3 days of valuable vacation time, which I could spend with my wife and my daughter now instead. So, there's a personal cost involved.

Add all that together, and I just haven't reached any conclusion as to whether or not I'm even going to go to GenCon this year. I was thinking of buying the badge (before pre-reg expires) and then waiting to see if my friend was going to be able to go. If he wasn't, then I could try to sell the badge. I've come to the conclusion that I could just wait on the badge, and the extra it would cost post-pre-reg would offset the cost of the badge if I have to sell it at a loss if I can't attend.

Anyway, is there some compelling reason why I should attend GenCon this year? Because I'm still on the fence.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I have to say, if you can't get excited for GENCON then you should not be going and do something else this year. Besides, trying to get a hotel this late!

 

[Crothian]

Curtis, in your situation I might choose not to go. You are right, the pick up room that had what 8 table in it last year was horrid. My suggestion is if you do go, try to organize some EN World pick up games before hand. There were a few last year, with many people looking for them. But no onre really took the time or effort to organize everything.

Personally, I don 't go to game. I don't spend my time voulenteering at a booth either. I go for the people and the other events. I don't shop for the new stuff, I shop for the old stuff and look for deals. Got some great deals last year and I look forward to finding more this year. I find its great to have no plan, out side of going to the ENnies Friday night. It worked very well last year. I was able to meet people and just short of hook up with them as they walked the dealer room or went exploring around the place.

Finding a room and roommate this far into the booking season may be difficult. Best of luck if you do go.

 

[francisca]

Anyway, is there some compelling reason why I should attend GenCon this year? Because I'm still on the fence.

Check your private messages, please.

 

[der_kluge]

If I went, it would be to game with ENWorld folks, mostly, and just game in general. I can always spend a surprising amount of time in the dealer room, even if I don't buy anything. I like talking to the d20 writers and publishers as well.

So, I'm sure that if I went, I'd have a really fun time. I just haven't decided if the costs associated with that are worth it or not.

Is there a place somewhere official where I can ask about this years' pick up game area?

 

[Crothian]

I'd try the official Gen Con forums...if you do start a thread over there, post a link so the rest of us can complain as well

 

[CaptainCalico]

I was extremely dissapointed with the pick-up games area. It was virtually non-existant, and what there was, was completely unorganized. If Peter reads this, and if he can assure me that the pick-up games area will be better this year, that might influence me into going.

There will be official open gaming areas this year. Check out this thread from the GC forums - it might get you fired up. On the other hand, trying to get a decent room this late could be a huge disincentive..... :\

 

[woodelf]

Curtis, in your situation I might choose not to go. You are right, the pick up room that had what 8 table in it last year was horrid. My suggestion is if you do go, try to organize some EN World pick up games before hand. There were a few last year, with many people looking for them. But no onre really took the time or effort to organize everything.

Personally, I don 't go to game. I don't spend my time voulenteering at a booth either. I go for the people and the other events. I don't shop for the new stuff, I shop for the old stuff and look for deals. Got some great deals last year and I look forward to finding more this year. I find its great to have no plan, out side of going to the ENnies Friday night. It worked very well last year. I was able to meet people and just short of hook up with them as they walked the dealer room or went exploring around the place.

Man, i miss those days! Nowadays, my conventions are pretty well planned out, with usually only a couple blocks of time actually free. That's the price of trying to get a game company off the ground, so i'm only sorta complaining. Honestly, if it weren't for running games there, i wouldn't bother to go anymore--i really hadn't thought it was well-run since WotC/Andon took over, and only continued to go because the expense was so minimal for me. When it moved to Indy, my expenses went up by an order of magnitude or more, and if i were going just to have fun, i wouldn't--if i were spending the kind of money it takes to attend a convention just for my own pleasure, i'd skip GenCon and go to Origins. Of course, we're doing our best to make GenCon fun, but i think it's been succeeding despite the management, not because of it. The gaming has always been great, and so on, but the organization can be such a headache. That said, i see a light at the end of the tunnel for the first time since TSR collapsed--i actually believe that Adkison and his staff will do their best to improve the convention, and i think it'll be much better this year, rather than the two-steps-forward-one-step-back of improvement under the WotC/Andon/WotC era. While i wouldn't have gone to GenCon Indy last year if not for the trying-to-promote-a-company thing, i'm also glad that i did, because i thought it was so much better than when WotC/Andon ran it. (Apparently nobody else remembers the equally-long lines on Sat the first year Andon ran GenCon--'cept they never gave people any refunds. Or the fact that they wouldn't/couldn't change the bottleneck that plenty of people pointed out to them was the real problem, so the lines were almost as bad the 2nd year.) I really think the new management is making great strides (and, in fairness, a lot of them were there when WotC was in charge the last couple of years, at least--and i thought that the last year at MECCA was the best GenCon that WotC or Andon ever put on.

I still probably wouldn't bother going if i couldn't justify it as a business expense, just because it's so expensive, relatively speaking (when it was in milwaukee, i could hop a bus for ~$20 round trip, stay with friends for free, and reasonably go for just one day if i really needed to save money (I've done GenCon on as little as $60, including a bit of shopping)--now it's Real Travel, hotel, eating out, and i can really only justify all the expense and hassle to myself if i go for the whole weekend--the per-day cost is even more ridiculous if i were to go for a shorter time). But i'm just not a big spender on vacations, and i have a really excellent FLGS or three in town. It's not so much the decreased fun-quotient as it is the increased expense. I might not be going just for fun even if it were as fun as the best of the TSR days of GenCon.