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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Walking Paradox" data-source="post: 5666174" data-attributes="member: 96011">I recently attended an anime con that had a gaming room. Attendance was paltry at best (they put games into a room on another floor, rather than in the main convention area), even though a local game store was basically bankrolling the whole thing; it was mostly card tournaments, something that doesn't interest me. There is a local science fiction and fantasy convention that has a gaming room every year, and that is considerably better organized and more active than the rest of the con' in many ways; but people who used to organize it pulled out and its future seems uncertain. (I recall one of them griping about the organizers demanding that he pay an admission fee for the entire weekend even though he is volunteering 8 to 12 hours of his time every day to do what he was doing there, but apparently that's not the main reason.)Then there is <a href="http://www.fanexpocanada.com/" target="_blank">Fan Expo</a>, Canada's largest annual multi-genre convention. They've had gaming since 2005 but this year and last year, they moved all non-electronic gaming to a room that is on a different floor from the main convention hall; this year, it's in a room that is so obscure that only people who are "in the know" will be able to find it. It's not even listed on the <a href="http://www.fanexpocanada.com/genre/home/view/gaming" target="_blank">web page</a>! (Last year, the RPG events were sabotaged by a local rep' of the RPGA who also owned a store who basically directed everyone to LFR events and discouraged people from playing any other RPG, or even any other D&D 4th Edition game, because they were "not sanctioned.")<a href="http://robin-d-laws.livejournal.com/517694.html" target="_blank">Look who said</a>, before the event even began, that he does not plan ever to attend Fan Expo as a gaming guest ever again. Keep in mind that this is somebody who lives in the same city as Fan Expo, who does not need anything more than subway fare to get to the convention center, and doesn't need a hotel room. His cost of attending is nothing more than his time, and he asserts that it's no longer worth his time.Is there any use in having games at a non-game convention? Can the hobby grow in such an environment? Is there anything special that can be done to make gaming viable at cons that are mostly about something else?</blockquote>

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