Thanks, ArthurQ, that would be great.
Feedback follows:
1. I was mailed my badges. Thus, pre-registration worked well in this respect.
2. Why could I not also have been mailed the tickets for the games I pre-registered for? Why did I have to stand in line for this? I don't get it.
3. Also, there was an enormous line outside. If I'm pre-registered but ticket-less, do I wait in it or just go inside? The "staff" we asked directed us to wait in line. Luckily, we just went and ate dinner and came back when the line had gone down.
But it would have been nice to have been notified of what to do when we got to the center.
4. I was able to get full cash refunds on all of my unwanted tickets. This is excellent.
5. 90% of the staff we spoke with were completely cluless and disinterested. They didn't know and they didn't care. Repeatedly.
6. The facilities. The first ATM I tried to use was out of money. Everywhere we went, there were people telling us that they were out of (something, usually food) because they didn't expect so many people for the con. Really? Again, I don't understand this. (and I'm not trying to hold GenCon accountable for the expectations of nearby businesses, but was there some kind of notice to the area that could have gone out? It might have meant even more money made for local businesses.)
7. My "Advanced Sculpting Event". I signed up for the Advanced Sculpting Event with Drew Williams. The first thing Drew told us when he showed up was "Uh, I'm not really prepared for this, I've been really busy lately.". The second thing he told us was "This is not a hands-on event, I will be speaking for two hours."
Granted there was a small amount of useful information in the seminar, but it went on to end half an hour early. Mr. Williams was also unable to answer any of the questions I asked him.
Why does all this bother me? Because my wife and I each paid $12 for this event. Yeah.
I met some people who had attended the "Beginning" Scultping event, and they had greens that they had made (bits and peices) to take home. What did I get for my $12? An extremely thin book of photocopied Hogarth and DiVinci illustrations. Thanks.
8. The games. This was not so bad. The two games we registered for were fairly easy to find and started on time. They were also very fun, as we had excellent GMs.
9. Pick-Up games. I tried to run a pick-up game but did not know where the Open Gaming area was. Neither did any of the staff member we spoke to. Oh well.
10. The Event Book. Games in this book were organized by the gaming group that ran them. Why? Neither of our GMs were affiliated with a group. When trying to confirm the duration of thier games in the book, we just could not find them. Very frustrating.
11. Dealers Area. Honestly, quite amazing. I was a little dissapointed at the short hours we were allowed to shop, but I got lots of cool stuff and saw all the major booths, so I can't complain. Easily the coolest thing at GenCon.
12. Location. Indianapolis is totally cool and most of the places we went were staffed by friendly people (looking only less friendly by Sunday). The city istelf is clean and has tons of cool stuff to see. I would visit Indianapolis again some time.
So, the Con was fun overall, but also filled with frustration and confusion. We will not be going back next year. I hope, for the sake of other gamers, that what we saw were the "growing pains" of moving such a big Con and that it all gets smoothed out by next year. In fact, I think I wouldn't be so dissapointed if we hadn't spent so much money to attend. While it was fun, I definately did not get my money's worth.
