[GenCon] Checking in from the Front/First Impressions

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

[GenCon] First Impressions

emergent and I arrived at GenCon around 5pm local time, and had an easy drive into Indy. Found our hotel easily, and checked into a nice, clean, new room (a suite, complete w/ fridge and microwave). We are about 2 blocks from the convention center itself, but its an easy walk. We headed over to the con at 6:30 to pick up our event tix, and the first thing we see is a HUGE line streching out of the center down the sidewalk. Dread filled us, until a nice group of red-shirts (ie. con volunteers) came down the line shouting "If you have your badge, DON'T wait in this line! Go inside to pick up tickets at Will-Call!" Thank goodness for having our badges mailed to us. Inside we went, found will-call, and within 5 minutes had tix in hand. We then went to find out about event refunds, since we both have games that were cancelled. No luck, they aren't processing refunds until tomorrow, so we will have to wait later. We then wandered around the center for about 1 1/2 hours, finding event locations, ballroom for the ENnies, trying to get the lay of the land. The poor people standing in line to regester for their badges were hardly moving. Things look pretty well organized, but I guess we'll wait and see if they stay that way tomorrow...
We're back in our room now, reading over the Con program, looking for semenars to attend, and resting up for tomorrow. Its the first GEnCon either of us has attended, so we're not sure what to expect. We'll be headed by the ENPublishing booth in the morning to see who's around. I'm not sure how often we'll be checking in online, but I'll try to post occasionally if I can. Hope to see everyone, either on the floor, at the ENnies, or at Sundays gathering.

 

[francisca]

good for you! My first impression wasn't so good.

after being stupid and not pre-regeristing, I got in that big old line. there were two breakdowns with the registration system, and I finally got my badge at about 9:30 (I got in line at 5:30). Of course, the second breakdown occured right after they took my money.

At one point, the printer was only printing 2 badges (out of 6 per sheet) then skipping a whole page. This was after about an hour of no printing at all. Aweful, aweful, aweful. Somebody screwed up big time. Dunno if it was hardware or crappy coding, but GenCon, LLC needs to make sure somebody gets held responsible for the debacle.

On the upside, 2 of the GenCon customer service reps were able to force a reprint of my badges.

I'd like to publically thank Christina Preece and Steve Bond of GenCon, who remained calm under extreme stress and got my badges printed. They were very patient and friendly to everone who harried them.

On another upside, the crowd wasn't nearly as unruly as they could have been.

One highlight was when the "goth couple", for lack of a better term, built a tower out of the half length pencils that were provided to fill out the little forms. about the time they needed a step stool to add to it, some idiot tossed something from the line and knocked it over. of course he waited until they turned their backs. what a chicken.

So, after I got my badges, there was no way I was going to even bother to try for events. heck, the booth probably wasn't open. Hope tomorrow is better.

One bummer is that I didn't get my adventure for pickup games finished. looks like improv city, baby!

Another bummer is that I was told the building closes at 10PM. Doesn't sound like 24-hour gaming to me. Also, the "open gaming" area is one, thats right, ONE (1) stinking room, which comprises about 2% of the total floorspace. (at least that is what is shown on the map) I really hope those of us who didn't sign up for events can find space to play. i wonder how well dice roll on a steak'n'shake table......

Oh, and I was the fat guy near the front of the line during the breakdowns in the t-shirt, with the bad haircut and gotee. Oh wait, that was half the line, wasn't it?

EDIT:
You know what? It doesn't matter. I got to meet some nice people today, and I don't have to go to work tomorrow or friday, 'cause I'm going to GenCon: The best Four Days in Gaming (and crummy 4 hour wait in line as a free bonus), And that is a pretty good problem to have.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Francisca-
Sorry to hear you had to wait in the line. Hopefully today will go smoother. I hope to be able to meet you at some point this weekend and say hello. Have a great Con!

 

[Drew]

Preregister, preregister, preregister! I've been to two GenCons (2000 and 2002) and didn't preregister last year. I spent four or five hours in that damn line. It sucked, and it left me in a fairly bad mood.

If my experiance is any indication, your Thursday experiance will be much, much better. I hope you have a lot of fun, and I wish I could be there. I've got to wait until 2004 though.

 

[Mark]

I wonder how many folks will have the chance to give us updates like this?

 

[Eridanis]

[GenCon] Checking in from the Front

Heya, everybody! I've just checked into my hotel room, so I thought I'd jump on with some impressions of GenCon Indy I. Feel free to add your own thoughts, everybody!

1. Indianapolis has a very pretty airport with very friendly service. Plane landed early, baggage was off in record time (I'm talking 15 minutes or so after landing!), and I was into my rental car & on my way within a half-hour.

2. Bring plenty of quarters to park on the street. By the time I got to the Center, there was no parking to be had. Anywhere. But there were 2-hour spaces on the street, at 25 cents per 20 mins, so I was running in and out of the hall every two hours or so to move my car.

3. The lines are BIBLICAL in proportion for registering. If you did not pre-register, and planned on spending 20 mins on line to get a badge, you miscalculated. It had to be a wait of hours - literally, with a line snaking through the building, out into the street, and snaking half-way around a football stadium. My badge was at will-call, so I didnt have to wait - maybe someone can jump in and conform their wait time. It didn't loook pretty.

4. Maybe it's just me, but the Exhibit Hall seemed smaller than last year. NOw, I didn't do what I usually do - go systematically up one aisle & down the otehr - because I wanted to get to the booths where I knew I wanted books (good thing in the case of Arcana Unearthed; it was sold out by 1pm).

More to come later. But it looks like lots of people are having fun - once they get their badges.

See some of you tomorrow at the ENnies!!!!!

 

[BOZ]

sounds great!! i'm leaving from work in... a little over an hour, so i should be in indianapolis around 9pm central time.

as for the badge-getting... guess i'll just have to wait til the line dies down a bit (it will... sooner or later!)

 

[Gargoyle]

The lines are indeed long. I'm very glad I got my badge in the mail.

There seem to be about the same number of exhibitors to me, but I think it's odd that Upper Deck has a huge amount of space that they aren't using. They even have a closed in "office" area in the exhibit hall...looked like they were have a meeting.

I'll miss the WOTC castle. They decided to stop using it because it took 18 semis to haul (according to Bill Slaviscek).

 

[Black Omega]

I live in Indianapolis, so I suppose I can. Some sound advise so far. The best day to show up and get a badge if you did not rereg is Wednesday. I've done this for several years with barely a wait. On the other hand, prereg people one Wed can often have a decent wait.

Even so, the line was very long this year. A friend of mine waited three and a half hours. Also all the cash machines were empty way to quickly. I suspect the new Gencon people were not prepared for quite the crowd that showed up. I also could not help but notice the generic line ground to a halt at one point because they ran out of tickets to print on. I'm sure these problems will be less of a problem next year.

On the plus side, there is plenty of room. The exhibitors hall is huge. Parking is dead easy to find and not expensive. My total parking bill for the first day was $3. Plenty of food options, though someone doing a bratwurst stand would probably clean up just based on nostaligia.

And if you happen to notice someone in the Dealers area at a dice bag booth calling out things like "Dice bags dicebags dicebags! Happy dice roll better. Give your dice a good home. dicebags!" it's probably me, just say hi.

 

[William Ronald]

It sounds like fun. Any reviews of the local places to eat near the convention center?