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WotC Presence at Conventions
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<blockquote data-quote="Dannager" data-source="post: 5135433" data-attributes="member: 73683"><p>Wow. So, speaking as someone who returned from PAX all of a half hour ago and spent most of his time there participating in D&D-related things, I'll attempt to clear a number of things up here. The OP is, unfortunately, not very accurate in his portrayal of WotC's presence at PAX East.</p><p></p><p>First, it's important to remember that PAX is primarily a video game convention. WotC had, without a doubt, the most significant non-video game presence at the convention. They absolutely <em>dwarfed</em> whoever was next in line. You can check out the convention map <a href="http://www.paxsite.com/paxeast/worldmap.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. <em>All</em> the tabletop rooms on the second floor were dedicated to WotC - even the ones on the bottom row labeled simply "Tabletop" were actually the RPGA and organized play event rooms, where Dark Sun previews, D&D Encounters, and Learn to Play games were taking place.</p><p></p><p>I'm not sure <em>what</em> the OP is talking about as far as the WotC organized play games being "two floors above" the booth. Given that the exhibition hall (where the booth was) was located on the 2nd floor, and the convention center only has three floors, that would be patently impossible. In reality, all the D&D organized play events were located on the same floor as the exhibition hall (and the WotC booth) - a pretty heavily trafficked area.</p><p></p><p>There was <em>not</em> really more space taken up by MtG than D&D. Three full rooms (and I heard rumors of a fourth) were used for organized play, and the exhibition hall booth itself was primarily D&D (the Play D&D Live event took up quite a bit of space itself, and I never saw it without a line to wait in). The organized play events <em>did</em> become overwhelmed with demand (WAY more than anyone anticipated) and ended up needing additional volunteer DMs. A lot of people did have to be turned away, unfortunately, but only because they ran out of space to hold events in. The convention center only has so many rooms, and as it was there were about 20 tables of six players each running pretty much constantly throughout the convention. It was a really encouraging turnout, according to the WotC guys I got a chance to speak with. They apparently faced a lot of resistance when it came to having a presence at PAX because it was considered a video games convention, but this sort of turnout handily justifies their investing in it.</p><p></p><p>The OP apparently stopped by the booth at a poor time, as when I was there Trevor Kidd was on hand specifically to schmooze the crowd - he was actively going up to those wandering the booth and addressing any questions they had. They also had demo kiosks for the Character Builder and MtG at the booth itself, as well as three or four booth spaces just outside the exhibition hall where they had a number of 360s set up with Duels of the Planeswalkers for people to try out, and then a couple of computers with the Character Builder in the organized play rooms hooked up to printers for people to make use of for the events there.</p><p></p><p>WotC also had their own well-attended Save My Game Live panel featuring four of the D&D team answering audience questions the entire time, and which was extremely enjoyable.</p><p></p><p>Swag-wise, I walked away with <em>two</em> free PHB3s, a short deck of Magic cards, and a pile of the aforementioned DDI coupons that I plan on handing out to my players who don't already have subscriptions. I didn't see the thumb drives he mentioned, but then again I didn't spend a whole lot of time at the booth itself.</p><p></p><p>Just wanted to clear a few things up.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dannager, post: 5135433, member: 73683"] Wow. So, speaking as someone who returned from PAX all of a half hour ago and spent most of his time there participating in D&D-related things, I'll attempt to clear a number of things up here. The OP is, unfortunately, not very accurate in his portrayal of WotC's presence at PAX East. First, it's important to remember that PAX is primarily a video game convention. WotC had, without a doubt, the most significant non-video game presence at the convention. They absolutely [I]dwarfed[/I] whoever was next in line. You can check out the convention map [URL="http://www.paxsite.com/paxeast/worldmap.pdf"]here[/URL]. [I]All[/I] the tabletop rooms on the second floor were dedicated to WotC - even the ones on the bottom row labeled simply "Tabletop" were actually the RPGA and organized play event rooms, where Dark Sun previews, D&D Encounters, and Learn to Play games were taking place. I'm not sure [I]what[/I] the OP is talking about as far as the WotC organized play games being "two floors above" the booth. Given that the exhibition hall (where the booth was) was located on the 2nd floor, and the convention center only has three floors, that would be patently impossible. In reality, all the D&D organized play events were located on the same floor as the exhibition hall (and the WotC booth) - a pretty heavily trafficked area. There was [I]not[/I] really more space taken up by MtG than D&D. Three full rooms (and I heard rumors of a fourth) were used for organized play, and the exhibition hall booth itself was primarily D&D (the Play D&D Live event took up quite a bit of space itself, and I never saw it without a line to wait in). The organized play events [I]did[/I] become overwhelmed with demand (WAY more than anyone anticipated) and ended up needing additional volunteer DMs. A lot of people did have to be turned away, unfortunately, but only because they ran out of space to hold events in. The convention center only has so many rooms, and as it was there were about 20 tables of six players each running pretty much constantly throughout the convention. It was a really encouraging turnout, according to the WotC guys I got a chance to speak with. They apparently faced a lot of resistance when it came to having a presence at PAX because it was considered a video games convention, but this sort of turnout handily justifies their investing in it. The OP apparently stopped by the booth at a poor time, as when I was there Trevor Kidd was on hand specifically to schmooze the crowd - he was actively going up to those wandering the booth and addressing any questions they had. They also had demo kiosks for the Character Builder and MtG at the booth itself, as well as three or four booth spaces just outside the exhibition hall where they had a number of 360s set up with Duels of the Planeswalkers for people to try out, and then a couple of computers with the Character Builder in the organized play rooms hooked up to printers for people to make use of for the events there. WotC also had their own well-attended Save My Game Live panel featuring four of the D&D team answering audience questions the entire time, and which was extremely enjoyable. Swag-wise, I walked away with [I]two[/I] free PHB3s, a short deck of Magic cards, and a pile of the aforementioned DDI coupons that I plan on handing out to my players who don't already have subscriptions. I didn't see the thumb drives he mentioned, but then again I didn't spend a whole lot of time at the booth itself. Just wanted to clear a few things up. [/QUOTE]
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