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.