Is It Time To Boycott Gen Con?

[WizarDru]

Sorry but DT Indy, while very pretty, smells terrible. There's just various stenches around the area usally reserved for worse neighborhoods near sewage treatment plants. (Funny enough, right in front of Hooters is usually one of the worst spots) Clean is a relative term, but just because the rotting fish is under the couch while the rest of the room is dusted doesn't give one the impression of 'clean'.

If you think Indy is a dirty city, you clearly haven't been to a large city on the coasts (and probably shouldn't) As someone who works in center city Philadelphia daily....Indy is pretty dang clean.

 

[airwalkrr]

As I recall the pre-reg system was like that last time I went a few years ago. Doesn't really surprise me that they haven't fixed it. GenCon always struck me as a little bit sloppy. Fun, but sloppy.

I think what I ended up doing was picking the stuff I wanted to do and calling them to have someone put in my order manually. That seemed to work, although I don't know if that is an option now.

 

[Steel_Wind]

The smell of DT Indy appears to be an issue with storm sewers and lack of capacity to accomodate rain without smell. For all that, it really only seemed to be a problem after a rainfall in Indy.

Comparing Milwaukee to Indy? It's no contest, imo. I far prefer the event in Indy. That said, the pizza in Indy is rather iffy, especially compared to the deep-dish, sit-down restaurant near Mecca centre in Milwaukee - whose name I forget -- but whose pizza I won't.

Attending every single year, one after the other, the event can lose a certain unique appeal. After attending three in a row I missed last year and I intended to miss it this year as well. I had hoped that after skipping this year, the hankering to go to Gencon would return full blast next year.

I was wrong. Dead wrong.

After the hotel registration day came and went, I completely regretted it. Luckily enough, Paizo has permitted me to resile from that position! So I'm a Tier 1 GM running 8 slots of Pathfinder events for Paizo this year. I am REALLY looking forward to about 40 hours of DMimg Pathfinder. I can't wait, actually!

Anyways, enough explanations; accept the fact that Gencon is special and a helluva good time for any gamer. If you can find the time in any way to go - you should. Often, too.

 

[Eridanis]

If you think Indy is a dirty city, you clearly haven't been to a large city on the coasts (and probably shouldn't) As someone who works in center city Philadelphia daily....Indy is pretty dang clean.

Yeah, I'm scratching my head on this one. I've been to GenCon@Indy every year save one, and not once have I, or anyone with me, noted the problems which you report. We find it a very nice place to visit.

I'm just sad that I won't be able to go this year - vacation with my in-laws has to take priority over GenCon this year.

 

[jensun]

The unofficial EN World / Circvs Maximvs games are so much fun that I haven't played an "official" game in about six years. It's good to know there are fallbacks!

Are these advertised anywhere or just generally come together with people who already know each other/have met up in previous years?

 

[Steel_Wind]

Are these advertised anywhere or just generally come together with people who already know each other/have met up in previous years?

They are advertised in the sub-forum off of this General Discussion forum in the Gencon 2010 Scheduling Forum.

I agree with the assessment that the quality level of games run as EN World pick-up games is very high, as is the level of play.

While the membership of EN World certainly skews to the more experience and committed lifestyle gamer (so that the participants are all very experienced) - I think it's more than that which elevates the quality of ENWorld pickup games.

When you are playing with people who "know" you from online and see your posts and are certain to talk to others on ENWorld over the coming years and months - you really want to bring your "A" game, whether it's as a GM or player.

A "one-off" pick up game with consequences to one's reputation, as it were. So add the experience, commitment, familairity with the player's and GM's names - and a sincere commitment to making the game memorable and enjoyable by all concerned - and you have the ingredients for a helluva game session.

 

[Insight]

They are advertised in the sub-forum off of this General Discussion forum in the Gencon 2010 Scheduling Forum.

I agree with the assessment that the quality level of games run as EN World pick-up games is very high, as is the level of play.

While the membership of EN World certainly skews to the more experience and committed lifestyle gamer (so that the participants are all very experienced) - I think it's more than that which elevates the quality of ENWorld pickup games.

When you are playing with people who "know" you from online and see your posts and are certain to talk to others on ENWorld over the coming years and months - you really want to bring your "A" game, whether it's as a GM or player.

A "one-off" pick up game with consequences to one's reputation, as it were. So add the experience, commitment, familairity with the player's and GM's names - and a sincere commitment to making the game memorable and enjoyable by all concerned - and you have the ingredients for a helluva game session.

This is what I would like to do. I've had my fill of RPGA and "official" games, to be perfectly honest. I'd like to play with people with whom I know I would enjoy myself. I don't feel like jumping through a bunch of hoops to do so.

 

[David Howery]

ah, Gencon. The first one I went to was in 1989, the last one in 2000, and I have lots of fond memories. The convention grew a LOT in those years, and registration went from 'mail it in and get everything you want' to 'preregister 10 minutes after they open the site and hope for the best.' I remember the hotels around MECCA ranging from high priced and perfect to 'affordable' with roaches on the walls. I remember playing a huge variety of games, from familiar D&D to a whole pile of miniature wargames that I didn't really understand the rules for, but enjoyed all the same (somewhere around here, I still have a certificate for a Battlestar Galactica miniatures game, where by sheer random luck, I took out a lot of Cylons and was awarded 'Savior of the Fleet'). I remember meeting a lot of famous-in-the-business people, everyone from EGG himself to most of the staff from Dungeon and Dragon. I remember shopping in the main exhibit hall, and buying a massive pile of stuff over the years that I have, sadly, mostly lost now. I doubt I'll ever go back to a Gencon, but I'll remember the ones I did go to for the rest of my life...

 

[GodDelusion]

I would like to chime in and share my frustrations with the registration process. This is my third consecutive year attending Gen Con, and the perception I have is that the registration process is worse now than ever before. Sure they slapped a new UI on the process and admittedly provided some much overdue search features. However, the engine that drives the registration process, the underlying data access, is as shoddy as ever. It took me nearly 25 minutes to register for 3 RPG events and 1 Board Game event. I spent more time reloading dropped pages than I did actually registering for events. At the worst, I would enter an event id and the page would begin querying the database to find the matching event, and then the page would expire (failed to receive a response from the server before timing out). When I reloaded the page, I would be pushed out to the main page again and would have to navigate back to the event registration page. Typically this would not be an issue, however, it was a crap-shoot trying to get back to the event registration page due to the load on the server. Four times, when returned to the main page, I would not have the nicely laid out UI with the graphics and visual components. Instead, I was presented with a page completely missing graphics or layout. All of the text and links were left-justified and rendered in a top-down hierarchy. I was particularly emotional this year because my kids (twins and neighbor's son) were finally old enough to participate (13 years old) and I was very eager to get the family registered for the desired RPG events. Regrettably, due to the extremely ill-equipped server, I failed to get two of the desired RPG events. Knowing that I had similar issues during the previous two years, I had two alternate events for each desired event and was able to salvage the weekend. Had I not been able to get into the events I wanted, due to poor IT, I would have requested a refund for the cost of the badges I purchased for my family (5 in total).

In the end, it is extremely frustrating that the brain-trust of Gen Con, knowing there would be a mad-dash for events at the opening of registration, did not have the foresight to beef up their infrastructure to support the server load. And if they claim they did not expect the server load, then shame on them. Given the history with issues linked to previous year's registrations, they should have been better prepared.

 

[VictorC]

Every year I hear about how difficult it is to get events at gen con, I have been attending for over seven years and have yet to miss out on a single event I wanted. True Dungeon included. So, while I'm not trying to say people are making it up or exaggerating I find it hard to believe on account of every event I've ever tried to get I've gotten. True story.