Huge GenCon news.

[Varianor Abroad]

Yes; the plan, as announced last year, is that once the new football stadium is completed, they are going to tear down the RCA Dome, and expand the Convention Center into that space. So, Indy'll have a bunch more space available for GenCon...in about 4-5 years.

They already have it under construction. I passed it in my taxi. They intend to have the new dome open by 2008. I also heard that they are going to add a new hotel on the space where the dome is now. We'll see if that's true.

 

[BOZ]

well OK, that's pretty neat.

 

[bowbe]

Pretty much what the last few posts said. That is according to my airport cabbie. Largely because of the success of Gen Con and the fact that the city recognizes (and subsequent businesses realize) the amount of revenue that Gen Con brings to the city, they intend to expand the convention center greatly and/or use the dome in the interum before any such "tearing down" happens. My cabbie mentioned that there was actually talk of turning the dome itself into a mega convention area after the team moves to the "Such and Such Oil" dome.

The new dome will seat tens of thousands more people than the RCA dome currently holds. Indy LOVES the Colts. Tens of thousands of new seats, private sky boxes and so on mean more revenue for the team and more hotels mean more $$$ for the city. With more hotels Indy can pull off more dual events than it has in recent years and its local economy reaps the rewards.

I one of the big reasons that Gen Con left Milwaukee was that Milwaukee's governing body wasn't interested in putting in more hotels, or more convention space, or really any talk of growth what so ever. I remember my last Gen Con there where the local businesses jacked everyone for every nickel they could get out of you. Parking, hotels, dining and their lucrative "Gen Con Rates" were the norm. That was the LAST Gen Con in Milwaukee. A year and a half later I visited for game fest and it had a couple thousand people. The same businesses that were gouging everyone for their hard earned dollars were suddenly reducing their prices... my hotel cost vs. airfaire cost was a total of $320 for 3 nights and all the bars and resteraunts were happy to see us and complaining how Gen Con had ditched them. Bummer Milwaukee. Elect new mayors and city council members I guess.

A bigger convention area will make Indy more attractive to large conventions and steal them away from places like Atlanta... which due to its "east coast" and "international" standing make it a terrorist threat area. Not that Atlanta is actually near the coast but you get the idea. Anyhow thats how the cabbie played it to me in the drive to the airport Sunday. His words held a bit more weight to me seeing the very large crowds that turned out to Gen Con this year despite the heightened terrorist threat and general airline pain in the bootay that it entailed.

Indy is doing well, and they can thank Peyton Manning, Peter Adkison and his lovely wife for that.

Case

 

[Steel_Wind]

I predicted this the very day that E3 announced its death spiral.

E3 was broken, but then again, E3 arose at a time when the market was vastly different. It didn't change with the times.

The main premise behind E3 was as a networking zone, a place to reach retailer and distributors and make a pitch for a title - but above all - it was a place to reach the print and television media.

You remember that? Print media? Time was when PC magazines and video and computer game magazines were hard to reach and getting them all at arm's length to sell your hype was the essence of the business of marketing games.

Well it isn't anymore. While print media still matters, it is nowhere near as important as it used to be - the web media has overtaken the field. Web media is a lot easier to reach now and the days of a print media controlled by Ziff- and a few others to reach your customer base are long gone.

So why all this hooplah for a media only gig with ridiculously priced booths? Worse, why does EA and Sony spend this dough only to - in the end - promote other publishers or - in Sony's case, Nintendo?

They don't want to do that anymore. E3 booths were insanely expensive.

Distributors can be reached by a centralized industry without difficulty. Retailers are relatively easy to access as well. True, networking among developers and publishers is always important - but GDC does a much, much better job of that than E3 ever did.

If E3 is as much about reaching web media, and if word of mouth and blogging creates better far better-buzz-for-the-buck, you are much better off going straight to gamers at Comic-con and Gencon. The payoff is better - a lot better - than an E3 booth. If high profile television media is your thing, there is always CES.

Moreover, if you are big - run your own events. The junkets will attract the more traditional media just as they always have.

The idea of not being able to do the business of E3 with fanbois about was the problem not of E3 - but of the mindset brought to it. If you want to talk to insiders, do it at GDC or over the phone. If you want to show off your wares, show them off to the people who buy them. Because the monolithic media as a means to reach them is now dead.

Adkinson saw the opportunity immediately. Gencon has been going in that direction already - and now it is certain to be there. Last year, there was serious concern there might not be a GenCon SoCal again. Now? They are moving in to the same convention centre E3 had to leave.

You may like it - you may not like it. I think the two portions of the show can co-exist quite happily with one another - at LA and in Indy as well.

But like it or not - it's a done deal. It's going to happen.

For those thinking that GenCon is about RPGs - I'm guessing you weren't there last weekend. The events are about RPGs - but the dealer room has relegated RPGs to become the poor cousin of the show. Gencon last wekeend was about miniatures and board games and CCGs - new RPG book products were few and the buzz at the show for all but a very few products was low. For the most part, dealer booths for RPGs were sad affairs at the last Gencon.

If you wanted hype - it was showing off WoW Burning Crusade or the forthcoming WoW CCG. It wasn't about Ptolus folks - it just wasn't.

 

[Ranger REG]

I fail to see any relationship between computer games and D&D/RPGs.

You're kidding me, right? Computer games, mainly computer role-playing games, owed much of its creative existence and inspiration from RPGs, even far back when Ultima was just a single-player game (played it on those dreadful Apple PC+) and Zork was the ultimate text-based adventure RPG.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You remember that? Print media? Time was when PC magazines and video and computer game magazines were hard to reach and getting them all at arm's length to sell your hype was the essence of the business of marketing games.

Well it isn't anymore. While print media still matters, it is nowhere near as important as it used to be - the web media has overtaken the field. Web media is a lot easier to reach now and the days of a print media controlled by Ziff- and a few others to reach your customer base are long gone.

Eh. I've worked as in-house PR for a major development house (you've heard of it). The big three magazines were our most important outlet, followed by the big three Web sites, followed (extremely distantly) by everyone else.

The Web is full of sites a half-step up from fansites, and most of them spend most of their time passing along info they've regurgitated from other sites. It's not necessary (or even worthwhile) to spend a lot of time engaging with them.

At the end of the day, Computer Games, CGW and PC Gamer make a hell of a lot more impact for the manhours spent working with them than anyone other than a bare handful of Web sites.

 

[Bonzi]

This seems like a "win-win" to me. For those who like the video games, there should be an increased presence of video games in the future at GenCon. For those who don't want to deal with video games, I'm guessing that the video games will be moved out of the dealer's hall and into it's own little section (kind of like anime)...so there will be more room for more traditional gaming stuff there with just a smattering of video game stuff in the Dealer's Hall.

I think the concern that this is going to make GenCon into some E3 mutation is a little silly. The appeal for video game companies to come to GenCon is that you have a large but very specific audience of strategy/RPGers. The video game companies that will spend the money to come to GenCon are the ones that are trying to reach that market. There's a lot of shows trying to attract some of the E3 castoffs and GenCon will end up bringing in companies that want to market to strategy/RPGers. If you are going after a different customer base, you'd be better off going to one of the other shows.

My guess is there's not going to be a big difference overall to GenCon. The dozen boothes that were in the Dealer's Hall dealing with video/computer games and the video game room will be moved next year to a separate video game area where probably another dozen or so companies catering to strategy/RPGers will also set up shop.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I think the concern that this is going to make GenCon into some E3 mutation is a little silly. The appeal for video game companies to come to GenCon is that you have a large but very specific audience of strategy/RPGers. The video game companies that will spend the money to come to GenCon are the ones that are trying to reach that market.

I think that's the important part there. GC won't become E3, you probably won't learn about a new console there, but games that are for the crowd that goes to GC will have a bigger presence.

As long as the cost doesn't get out of reach of smaller publishers, it'll be an improvement to the overall show IMO.

 

[Ranger REG]

This seems like a "win-win" to me. For those who like the video games, there should be an increased presence of video games in the future at GenCon.

Only if they feature selected CRPG titles. I really do not want to be in the same room as Terry Owen playing Madden 2007. He's likely to go on a temper tantrum and he and his entourage will start a wedgie roll on them poor role-players.