Morning. I've taken today off work to recover from the lack off sleep I was expecting after Euro-GenCon only to wake up at 9am.
First of thanks to Tallarn for the use of a couch to sleep on if it wasn't for his generous offer I wouldn't have gone.
Having been to every GenCon in the UK (except last years) I would have to say other than the wonderful people I met, this was the worst one yet.
I heard that Friday's attendance was half what it was the year before, and looking at how empty the trade floor always appeared to be, and how lots of the gaming tables were empty a lot of the time I imagine other days were no better.
I heard that some traders made a loss on the event, the trade hall was big, but seemed to have less stands than previous years. It certainly seemed to have fewer punters than previous years and I'm sure it suffered from the lack of a prestige book release.
The organisation seemed poor, for example the RPG reception (3rd floor) desk, didn't sell the tickets for the RPG games. They were on sale at the ground floor entrance (which only took cash). As they didn't sell the tickets they had no information on how many people were in each game.
As for the timing, Easter weekend is stupid.
a) The rail network is dug up over the Easter weekend (this happens every year in this country so they should have know that), this made travel to London difficult.
b) A lot of the gamers that go to Conventions are going to have family commitments at that time of year. Sure you don't have to take time off work, but if you do take holidays from work it isn't likely to complain as much as your mother on missing her traditional Easter Sunday roast, or your wife thought you could travel to the Lake District.
If its in Easter again next year I doubt I will be attending.
Next year is in Amsterdam now that's great for all our friends on the continent, but I'm not sure how good it will be for Euro-GenCon. After all there use to be a GenCon Benelux (BElgium, the NEtherlands, LUXembourgwhat) happen to that? As far as I'm aware its last event was in 2000. Why did that fold? Do they really expect attendance to go up?
Just to say again, the people I met were great, the games were good fun; but the timing, venue, and organisation made it a disappointing convention for me. What wasn't disappointing was meeting the EN World folks and other gamers there, that sure made it worth the trip.
