San Diego Comic-Con: WotC surprise?

[Dr. Confoundo]

So I get down to San Diego, and after spending two and a half hours in the registration line trying to get inside, I finally make my way down to the dealer room. I'm wandering around, and I eventually stumble across the WotC booth. So I look around, knowing that 3.5 has just come out, and I'm sure that I'll see a display or two hawking it, or maybe even a pile of them for sale to the luckiest of buyers. Well, I see people playing Pokemon, and some other card games, and a few people playing some Hasbro boardgames (Risk in the future?), and they have a little display of the new D&D minis that I take a quick glance at, but I don't seem to see any adverts or product for D&D. So, figuring that I must have missed them, I ask one of the gentleman manning the booth where his D&D display is...

They didn't have one.

They didn't bring any RPG stuff to the show, at all.

Surprise? Not really. It just confirms what WotC/Hasbro thinks of the RPG industry... Not important enough to try and sell at the largest Comic-Con in the world.

Doc

 

[herald]

More than likely, they have tied up everything for Gencon.

Since they aren't tied up in setup of Gencon, thate gives them alot more freedom to pimp the books at the other big con this week.

 

[avatarolt]

I was pissed initally as well...but a couple things you have to remember:

1) San Diego Comic Con is only recently paying homage to RPGs. It really used to be a comic convention and has just gotten *ridiculously* big in the last few years.

2) WotC probably isn't going to try and dick over a bunch of small time sellers (because there are a *ton* at this year's conference -- if you've seen the convention center, they're actually using the entire length of it this year...absolutely insane). If everyone went to the Hasbro center, who is WotC going to middleman their books off to at ridiculous prices? Gotta protect the little guy, it's all about the bling bling.

3) If you live in San Diego, there were 4 stores that had it on release day that you should have known the location of. And you wouldn't even have to mess with a bazillion person crowd to do it.

 

[Dr. Confoundo]

It didn't really bother me that they weren't selling the 3.5 books. I have mine on order at Amazon, and they'll be here in a day or two. Plus, there was all of one booth where I saw the 3.5 books on display, ready to be sold. I may have missed more, but there weren't many.

The thing that irked me more was that they weren't even advertising it, or D&D in general. If you walked through that booth, not knowing what they sold, you would never guess that they sell the largest role-playing game on the market. And I've been going to SDCC for quite awhile, so I've seen the WotC displays in the past... D&D hasn't been a huge presence, but it's always there, somewhere.

I just found it sad that my favorite hobby was getting such short shrift from the very company that publishes it.

Doc

 

[satori01]

Besides Games Workshop selling Warhammer, Warhammer 2k, and LOTR minatures there was no other RPG representation at all, (Pazio was there mainly pimping star wars insider).

The Comic con has grown a lot and is much more dedicated to anime and comics than it ever was in the past. I last went to the con about 10 years ago, a lot of MTG, not so much RPG, at least not so much as in the "old days" in the old convention hall.

The culture has changed a bit, commercialy speaking. Before if you wanted anime, the Comic Con was pretty much your best way to discover and buy stuff, and people were willing to make deals and many had their stuff discounted right off the bat,(I bought the original forgotten realms box set as it was released, at the comic con for 20% at the TSR both all those years ago).

Everything was much more slick, but the boths were like walking into a video store, and no clerk there was willing to barter. I went so far as to show one clerk on my PDA how cheap it was to buy a particuliar DVD online, in an attempt to cut a deal... no dice.

As another aside what happened to downtown San Diego, it became Vancoverish with all the shiek housing, retail, and coporate buisness coexsisting in the same area. I went to go park in the familiar industrial side street I always used to park when I went downtown and rudely found a big friggin baseball park where my space used to be. HOW dare San Diego change in the ten years or so since I had last been there, (and change for the better it looked like). It almost looked like San Diego is having urban flight away from the subburbs back into downtown.

 

[Henry]

Two Words:

GenCon SoCal.

I have a feeling they have a large amount of resources tied up in Gencon SoCal a hit, and it's not outside the realm that they might even have an exclusive contract with Peter Adkison concerning D&D presence at other con's in California.

GenCon SoCal is going to be in December, so between that, and the nature of Comic-Con, it's not a big of a shocker as one might suspect. However, I would write WotC if I were you, and tell them you are interested in seeing more of an PRG presence at the Con. It might be worth their while if they know that there are people interested in seeing them there.

 

[Pramas]

Besides Games Workshop selling Warhammer, Warhammer 2k, and LOTR minatures there was no other RPG representation at all, (Pazio was there mainly pimping star wars insider).

There was a bit more than that. We had a booth this year, Decipher was demoing its Lord of the Rings RPG in its booth, and Adventure Retail was repping for Atlas Games, Steve Jackson Games, and Dork Storm Press (and carrying a lot of other RPG stuff as well, including releasing 3.5 on Friday).

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, WotC's presence at Gen Con UK was much the same. A real disappointment.

 

[satori01]

There was a bit more than that. We had a booth this year,

Hmm I should have read the program more closely, I didnt see your booth, I would have loved to stopped by.

[QUOTEDecipher was demoing its Lord of the Rings RPG in its booth,[QUOTE

An ommision on my part, as I did see their booth. I missed the others mentioned though, good to see some people representing.

 

[mythusmage]

satorio1, you also missed Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games. The con's first gaming guest. He was pleasently surprised at how professionally the show is run. (A hint for certain game con people, BTW.) He went around telling folks he intends to come back next year on his own dime.

He had two panels, ran games, and signed stuff. Don't expect SJG to have a booth at the con next year (Adventure Retail reps them rather well), but I expect more folks from SJG besides Steve and Phil Reed will make it. There was also an Evil Stevie Must Die Killer game (called a LARP in the program book) which proved popular, so expect more of that sort of stuff next time.

I suspect the lack of game stuff at the con this year was due to timing, what with GenCon being a week later. Next year with the two being a month apart and more space opening up in San Diego, more game companies may appear.

And, the last I checked, a new major hotel was scheduled to open in April of 2004 plus the opening of the San Diego Grand Hyatt's second tower.