No WotC At Gen Con This Year?

It looks like Wizards of the Coast will not be attending Gen Con this year. They've just posted a list of the conventions they'll be attending in 2016, and noted their intention to support conventions that they don't normally get to attend. "Gen Con is not on this list because we are changing things up to support more conventions and locations. Even though the Dungeons & Dragons team won’t be there we know our friends at Baldman Games will be hosting plenty of D&D adventures. It’s safe to say there will be ample opportunity to play Dungeons & Dragons during Gen Con. We’re excited to head to some new conventions this year and meet folks who don’t have the opportunity to travel to Indianapolis."

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The list of conventions WotC will be attending is Winter Fantasy (February, Fort Wayne, IN), Gary Con (March, Lake Geneva, WI), PAX East (April, Boston MA), Origins (June, Columbus OH), and PAX Prime (August, Seattle WA).

Chris Perkins will be hosting another Acquisitions Inc event at PAX East, and Origins will be the "D&D tabletop gaming event of the year" with sneak peeks and a return of the D&D Open. PAX Prime will have the highest concentration of D&D staff present.

Read more about their convention plans here.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Heh... I was wondering how long it would take for someone to finally notice this. I saw it on Friday and thought "Oh man, this will send some people apoplectic", and figured someone would mention it at some point to send some folks into a tizzy. I considered making a post about it when I first saw it, but decided against deliberately setting up the stick for which to poke the bear. But now that the stick is out, I'm interested to see how many bears are going to be poked by it and how many "WotC is the demon company!" posts we're going to get since they are leaving GenCon to Baldman Games.

 

[Von Ether]

Gary Con?

Looks like WotC is still courting the old school crowd.

I have a running debate with a friend of mine. He thinks 5e's simpler focus and the old school movement is coincidence. That the old school customer base isn't a market force compared to Pathfinder.

I disagree. IMO It's just so fragmented across so many companies and free products that's hard to track.

 

[Zaran]

Does anyone know if Gen Con extremely expensive these days? I feel like the reason is that they just don't have any overhead to spend for the trip.

 

[DEFCON 1]

On a more serious note... I've got to think running or doing anything at GenCon probably costs more than most other conventions (if for the fees they charge if nothing else)... so taking that part of the budget and splitting it up over many more smaller conventions might make sense (for this year if nothing else.)

Say what you will about WotC, but this entire edition cycle has been about changing things up from how they've traditionally been done in the past... and not sending the staff to GenCon seems to follow that pattern. But like everything... they can go back and change things for the next year if they find their instincts took them astray.

 

[Jester David]

This is unfortunate.
Other than Pax Prime, the conventions are effectively large local cons. They pull from a wide area but aren't likely to bring people together from across the county. You don't get nearly the number of people as GenCon.

I really don't get the abandonment of GenCon. Because it's the biggest it brings in so many different fans. Getting out to other cons is fine, but you don't ignore the best four days in gaming in the process....

 

[Morrus]

I really don't get the abandonment of GenCon. Because it's the biggest it brings in so many different fans. Getting out to other cons is fine, but you don't ignore the best four days in gaming in the process....

It's the only US-based one that non-American fans tend to be able to go to, too.

Actually, I take that back - the PAXes are bigger than Gen Con, I think. Lots of folks from around the world there, I should think.

 

[MerricB]

Jeremy Crawford will be at GenCon, even if none of the other Wizards people will be... (he posted that on Facebook).

Cheers!

 

[DevoutlyApathetic]

This is unfortunate.
Other than Pax Prime, the conventions are effectively large local cons. They pull from a wide area but aren't likely to bring people together from across the county. You don't get nearly the number of people as GenCon.

PAX East isn't really a local con at all and I wouldn't describe Origins that way as well but it's been ages since I went to one.

 

[Feeroper]

I suspect PAX is the more expensive con and also resource intensive with the majority of their staff there. As PAX Prime takes place in August as well, they will choose it over Gen Con likely to grow the hobby by stoking the interest of new potential players from PAX which has a higher attendance (not to mention the average attendee of PAX will have less baggage given edition wars and such that would be more prevailent with a Gen Con attendee). WotC was essentially not at Gen Con last year either.

I think it is a damn shame regardless though, that D&D has no official support at the biggest con in the industry. I understand the business side of it, but I do wish they would come out, even a small representation for a couple panels and a booth. I am not particularly interested in going to PAX. It is what it is however.