HippyCraig
Explorer
It worth going to, if its too large work you way up to it. Start with Origins Game Fair then GenCon. There a ton of fun!
How Relevant is Gencon (or Any Con)?
The networking at a convention, for better or worse, is much better than online.
MGibster
Legend
As great as the world wide web has been at connecting (and dividing) us, I would have to agree that there's nothing better than face-to-face communication to build and maintain relationships.
aramis erak
Legend
I've never been to a "Big" Con. 300 or so max.
For me, they're a chance to play the games my regulars won't - MLP:ToE for example. Or to evangelize Traveller or D6 with a demo. Or (if it gets me in free) run a session of D&D for the AL program. RPGs are my way in the door.
They're also a chance to play a bunch of boardgames, too. And boardgaming is why I go... I never get enough boardgaming these days.
As for the large ones? No clue, but as long as Wizards thinks they're relevant, Origins and GenCon will survive. It's worth noting that ComiCon San Diego has a large gaming component, as well.
MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
As a consumer, they were much more relevant before on-line publishing and, more so, before on-line play gained critical mass. In the 80s they were really the only way to get exposure to many new games and, unless you were were luckly to have a very vibrant local ecosystem of FLGS's and gaming communities, it was the only way to have meet lots of new gamers and play many new games. GenCon was like a pilgrimage for many of us in the 80s.
After a long hiatus, when I started playing again in 2014, pre-COVID the only convention I ever attended was a small local convention. I didn't go there for the vendor booths (and the vendor hall was quite small), I went there to try playing new games that I would not have the time or group of players to play on my own. During COVID I was forced into on-line play and learned that I would find a seat to try almost any game I wanted to play using various online find-a-game platforms. I also played in some on-line convention games. So going to a convention is less important to me now.
As things open up, will I return to live conventions if I can fit it into my schedule? Local, probably, but not every year. Large, non-local conventions. Maybe, once in a great while. For local conventions, it is just fun to rent a room in the hotel and just play new games for 18 hours and crash in your room for a few hours of sleep and then repeat for another day and a half.
For larger conventions, the only thing that interests me about them is the chance to speak with and play with game creators and to watch some celebrity live-play sessions like Aquisitions Incorporated, Critical Role, and Glass Canon. Being able to have the creater of a game demo it or to play in a game run by (one of) the creator(s) is something I always treasure. Outside of Gary Con, that may be difficult with the big-name properties, but there are lots of smaller publishers with the creators of the game attending their companies' booths.
After a long hiatus, when I started playing again in 2014, pre-COVID the only convention I ever attended was a small local convention. I didn't go there for the vendor booths (and the vendor hall was quite small), I went there to try playing new games that I would not have the time or group of players to play on my own. During COVID I was forced into on-line play and learned that I would find a seat to try almost any game I wanted to play using various online find-a-game platforms. I also played in some on-line convention games. So going to a convention is less important to me now.
As things open up, will I return to live conventions if I can fit it into my schedule? Local, probably, but not every year. Large, non-local conventions. Maybe, once in a great while. For local conventions, it is just fun to rent a room in the hotel and just play new games for 18 hours and crash in your room for a few hours of sleep and then repeat for another day and a half.
For larger conventions, the only thing that interests me about them is the chance to speak with and play with game creators and to watch some celebrity live-play sessions like Aquisitions Incorporated, Critical Role, and Glass Canon. Being able to have the creater of a game demo it or to play in a game run by (one of) the creator(s) is something I always treasure. Outside of Gary Con, that may be difficult with the big-name properties, but there are lots of smaller publishers with the creators of the game attending their companies' booths.
As an independent author with zero marketing budget, having the ability to safely attend conventions removed has utterly destroyed my sales. I'd have a trickle of ebook sales throughout the year, but at Gen Con (or Game Hole), I'd sell scores of titles, clearing enough to pay almost all the con expenses and there was a steady uptick each year I had a new fantasy title come out.
But since 2019 was my last Gen Con, I've sold a whopping 3? Maybe 4 books, total.
While I still have a day job for income, the lack of book sales is crushing to my motivation to continue writing, an endeavor I hoped would one day actually be profitable enough that I could quit my day job, a job which I have increasingly grown to dislike as my duties have shifted during the pandemic, yet in which I feel increasingly trapped, because while everyone wants to pretend like the pandemic is over and it's safe to go back to pre-2020 life, since my wife is high-risk and immune compromised, it is anything but.
So, yeah, the loss of conventions has been HUGE for me as an independent creator and it's a struggle every day not to just give up because everything sucks.
But since 2019 was my last Gen Con, I've sold a whopping 3? Maybe 4 books, total.
While I still have a day job for income, the lack of book sales is crushing to my motivation to continue writing, an endeavor I hoped would one day actually be profitable enough that I could quit my day job, a job which I have increasingly grown to dislike as my duties have shifted during the pandemic, yet in which I feel increasingly trapped, because while everyone wants to pretend like the pandemic is over and it's safe to go back to pre-2020 life, since my wife is high-risk and immune compromised, it is anything but.
So, yeah, the loss of conventions has been HUGE for me as an independent creator and it's a struggle every day not to just give up because everything sucks.
Last edited:
So, to be realistic for a moment, GenCon has attendance numbers in the tens of thousands. The number of game creators there is a comparative handful. The competition of their attention is... very stiff. Don't go to GenCon expecting to actually get significant time bending the ear of a game writer.
Web-based news and marketing seem to be slowly making consumer-focused trade shows obsolete. Nobody has to go to E3 - they can just read a few websites during and after E3, and get the same information for free. For big fish in the business, E3 is largely superfluous. The tech news would cover their announcements whether they are made at E3 or not.
Similarly for GenCon. If I'm looking for gaming news, I don't need or want to go to presentations at a convention. Reading EN World and similar sites is more efficient in terms of time, and vastly cheaper.
MGibster
Legend
I really hadn't been considering things from the producers point of view. I expect I'm exposed to a lot more games via EN World than I could possibly get even from Gen Con. If I go to Gen Con, I'm simply not going to have the time to stop and look at everything from smaller publishers, I might not even have time to see all the big publishers, but online I can just click at my leisure.
So how about trade shows? Is that even a thing when it comes to RPGs?
Jd Smith1
Hero
I as never interested in attending. My F2F gamers went several times, and every time came back with tales of badly-managed access, insane prices, the literally unwashed masses, and the like. Certain events were praised (a live dungeon, for one), but none of my players went more than once.
I think that it held a lot more potential before online access got going; back in the days when you could buy stuff that was hard to find or hadn't been released it would have been really interesting, but now that's not an issue.
I think that it held a lot more potential before online access got going; back in the days when you could buy stuff that was hard to find or hadn't been released it would have been really interesting, but now that's not an issue.
