GenCon Review with a GZG Emphasis (part 1 of 4)

This review turned out to be longer than I expected. I will break it
down into
four parts so that the list server won't cough it up...

Overview

GenCon is the largest game convention in the world, running in early
August in Milwaukee. This year it ran from Aug. 6 through 9. The drive
from Toronto took 12 hours (about 1050 km). We arrived Wednesday at 6 pm
CST. One of the people with me had never been before, so we took her to
the Safe House (a local bar set up in a pretty cool spy motif). The next
day was the con.

For those of you who didn't know, there has been a lot of buzz and
controversy surrounding this year's GenCon. GenCon was owned and
operated by TSR (makers of _Dungeons and Dragons_) until last year when
the company---in financial trouble---was bought by Wizards of the Coast
(of _Magic: The Gathering_ fame). This year, WOTC ran the convention
through Andon, WOTC's convention arm. The controversy started with a
change in booth prices in the dealer's room, which prompted several
companies to boycott GenCon. Sort of. In fact, each of the major
companies boycotting the con had their products for sale in the room.
Even the great leader of the GenCon revolt, Steve Jackson Games, had
GURPS stuff for sale in a small area beside the Atlas Games booth. From
a con attendee, the boycott was a bust. Few noticed the boycott, and the
boycotters looked as though they themselves were in financial trouble,
if they were noticed at all. The dealer's room was large, full, and had
a wider range of vendors than in previous years. Some vendors chose
smaller booths, but this had the net effect of: 1) increasing booth
density, 2) making the smaller vendors with only one booth look "bigger"
than in previous years, and 3) made companies like Geo-Hex (with two
side-by-side booths) look very good indeed.

Of greater concern to attendees was a lack of prizes. In 1995 (my first
GenCon) and 1996 the programme book included $2 off coupons for use in
any booth. In 1997, these were no longer available. However, even last
year there was a prize at virtually every event. It was usually a $5 off
coupon that could be used at any booth in the dealer's room. It usually
went to the best roleplayer, best player in a team game, etc. This year,
nothing. This was particularly noticeable due to an increase in prices
for games (from about $1.50 in previous years to $2.50). A number of
companies sponsoring games gave discount coupons to attendees of the
games (Geo-Hex gave $5 off coupons, Chaosium gave Chaosium bucks worth
$3 off), but in many of the roleplaying games you got nothing.
Personally, I didn't mind this. I found that the games were friendlier
because of this, but some people enjoy the edge that only comes from a
simple prize for the winner. 

The final controversy hit Geo-Hex and the rest of us GZG players
squarely. In previous years, the con was held in MECCA, Milwaukee's
convention centre. Attached to the two-story facility by way of a
walkway was an arena/concert hall facility. This year there was a new
facility, the METC. It is one block east of MECCA. MECCA was being
demolished at the time (rather fitting, as several of us looked on with
nostalgia as the wrecking ball took down walls). Eventually, a new
section of METC will rise in place of the old MECCA and will be attached
to the part of the facility already completed. Meanwhile, there was JUST
not enough room to run GenCon in the three-story METC. The overflow was
put in the old arena. This included the miniatures games.

It was hard to find the miniatures games. They were held in the arena
annex, which involved coming in the main doors and taking a second set
of doors (which looked all the world as if they only led outside), then
down a ramp. The annex was dingy, depressing, and only JUST adequately
lit. Worse, there was nowhere to safely store miniatures or terrain. It
was two blocks away from the action. With the rain that fell during the
convention, the humidity, and the distance, no one was going to go to
the annex to simply watch a game unless they were VERY interested in it.
Let's be honest here. The main reason Geo-Hex sponsors games at
conventions is to make money. There is nothing wrong with that. I'm fond
of making money, so I'm sure the folks at Geo-Hex are too! :-)	Part of
making money is increasing your market. For that, you need to pull in
new customers. The best way for THAT is to play games and let the
potential customer try out the rules and see the game. Miniatures are
very visual and look good. However, it is hard to entice new players to
try your games if they can't find them!

In response, someone (I never found out who) printed up a number of
buttons that said, "I found the miniatures events at GenCon 98." This
was our own little protest for being stuck away from everyone. We could
have been placed where the board games were found, but I suspect it was
a simple problem of needing "x" square metres of space for miniatures
and the annex fit the bill. We didn't get much walkthrough traffic, but
the area was always very busy. Miniatures at GenCon seem to be
increasing in popularity.

On a side note, the RPGA events (RPGA is a roleplaying game association)
were held in the arena itself. Initially the RPGA members complained
about this. After all, the other RPG events were in the main building.
As the con went on, they realized they were actually lucky. The arena
was set up with metal frames from which were hung curtains. These
curtains made the area look like a hospital ward, as they closed off
each of the playing areas on three sides. This helped suppress the
noise. In the main RPG areas, players sat at tables in one big ballroom
(even though the room itself could be divided into a number of smaller
conference rooms). The din in these rooms (according to some friends)
made it very hard to hear what was going on in your own game. The card
game players made the same complaint. So, not everything was perfect in
the world of RPGs and CCGs.

Registration seemed slower this year, too. I had preregistered so things
weren't bad, but I understand that there was a computer crash during
registration on Saturday. I suspect that this is a scaling problem.
Andon runs Origins, which is about 1/3 the size of GenCon. I suspect
that they simply tried to scale their Origins operation for GenCon but
the system couldn't handle the load. I also didn't like the computer
monitors set up to tell you which games were sold out. Much better would
have been a computer monitor telling you which games still had openings.

Allan Goodall	       agoodall@sympatico.ca

"We come into the world and take our chances
 Fate is just the weight of circumstances
 That's the way that Lady Luck dances
 Roll the bones." - N. Peart