Re: Bad Gen Con News.

On Tue, 23 Nov 1999 11:26:00 -0500, Michael T Miserendino
<MTMiserendino@lnc.com> wrote:

>The new convention center is still not conplete, but I would think by
2003 
>the expanded areas should be available.  Placement of the miniatures
area 
>for the last two years has not been pleasant.	The addition of the
"noisy" 
>bunch of RPG'ers in the same hall was really annoying.

The person who posted the move to Indy in the rec.games.frp.misc group
posted
the rumour of the move months ago. He mentioned that even with the
expansion,
GenCon still wouldn't be able to fit into one centre in Milwaukee. I'm
not
sure I agree with him, but when you look at the area used in the arena,
Bruce
Hall, and Labyrinth it is possible that the expansion might not be big
enough.

However, the problem is nearby hotel space. That's ALWAYS been a
problem. I've
heard people complaining for years about where they are stuck if they
don't
get one of the few good hotels right downtown. 

>If the miniatures area was moved close to the main hall especially the 
>exhibits, it would be well received.  I think the placement made a lot
of us 
>feel like miniatures gaming is not as welcome as other events.  Wonder
if 
>this was part of the reason why Sci-Fi Supply didn't show up.

I talked to the guy running the miniatures hall this year. I showed up
just as
someone was asking about historical games. The guy had signed up for all
the
historical minis games he could get, but they were few and far between.
Interestingly, the guy said that "Origins is the big historical
convention".
Both me and the other guy almost simultaneously said, "No, Historicon
is!" but
since Historicon isn't a WOTC event, he had never really heard of it!

But he did make an interesting point, a minute later. There is a
perception
that GenCon isn't a historical miniatures con. The reasons for this are
myriad, but it comes down to a vicious spiral. People don't see it as a
historical con, so people don't go to it for historical minis. People
don't
run historical minis games, so there are fewer historical games, fueling
the
feeling that it isn't a historical con.

For this year, I'd like to run a historical Stargrunt game. It would be
good
to run my Full Steam rules, too, but I don't know if they would be
ready. The
only way to reverse the "not a historical con" feel to GenCon, though,
is to
run more historical scenarios.

>I do remember having fun trying to get a room the first year I
attended.  
>Now I always pre-register very early!	You would think someone might
spring 
>up a new hotel or two.

I guess Milwaukee doesn't have the traffic for it. A hotel can't survive
on
one good week a year.

I will miss Milwaukee. It's got great architecture, and I do like the
city!
But as I mention elsewhere, Indianapolis is 3 hours closer to home by
car.
Considering the mess that was this year's organization, I was
considering
giving up on GenCon in favour of Origins in 2001 anyway.

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@interlog.com
Goodall's Grotto: http://www.interlog.com/~agoodall/

"Surprisingly, when you throw two naked women with sex
toys into a living room full of drunken men, things 
always go bad." - Kyle Baker, "You Are Here"