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I heard about Wizkidz and the trampling incident, but did WotC really pull out of Gencon? If they did I didn't notice.

Definitely wasn't because it was smaller. They reported a 9% increase in attendance.

Yep. I'm still waiting on them to break the 200k mark on turnstile. 100k on unique visitors after that. 200k should be done by next year, 100k in 5 years I estimate.

I had a lot of fun. Last year was my second year and my wife's first, and this year we brought our 6-month old son with us. It's never too young to start them as gamers!

He actually got lots of attention, because I begged my wife to crochet him a green hat with ears so when he was in the backpack, he would look like Yoda. He actually had a great time at the con (for a six-month old, anyway), and loved all the attention. Especially because his two favorite toys right now are a squishy D20, and a little latex larp dagger (we are letting him chew on both until the teeth show up).

Got the last button of the day from the Paizo booth for having the best goblin impression after we realized the hat would just as easily make a goblin. He was running an impromptu contest at passing people on who could be the best goblin for the last few buttons, and we just pointed at my son and he shrugged and said "you can't beat that, people!" I think a Goblin costume is in the planning for next year...........

Also had a great time playing a demo game on Friday night of the newest Savage World product with the writer of the Shaintar setting- Savage Rifts! Believe it or not, it's going to be an officially licensed adaptation of the Rifts setting using the Savage Worlds RPG ruleset. Piloting a Glitterboy is fun, just saying.

Sounds cool.


pics !

http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/32233/gen-con-2015-photos-part-1


http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/32232/gen-con-2015-photos-part-2

http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/32231/gen-con-2015-photos-part-3

 Sinful Hero wrote:
...but did WotC really pull out of Gencon? If they did I didn't notice.

From what I've heard, people are freaking out because they didn't have a booth in the exhibit hall, although they did have a large area for Adventurer's League (and of course M:tG). It's making something of a mountain out of a molehill: there presence was small )especially in the hall) two of the three times I've gone.

The one time they 'went big' was the first time I went, and they had a massive central two-stoty monstrosity in white in the exhibit hall. Had some D&D stuff for sale, but were pushing M:tG stuff hard then, too.

Since then, I think one year they had a 'dungeon' set up with a big drider statue in it one year. The following year, not even that... But they had one of the side rooms.

A lot of it is what they're pushing and using their many licensees, I think. For D&D, 5e's core is out and they've got a lot of subsidiary stuff in the works, but I don't feel like they had a big 'splash' release for the event. They apparently want to focus on retailers for purchasing, too.

 Balance wrote:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
...but did WotC really pull out of Gencon? If they did I didn't notice.

From what I've heard, people are freaking out because they didn't have a booth in the exhibit hall, although they did have a large area for Adventurer's League (and of course M:tG).

They did that last year, too. No booth in the dealer's hall, huge area the other hall with tons of table set up for 5E.

 kronk wrote:

 Balance wrote:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
...but did WotC really pull out of Gencon? If they did I didn't notice.

From what I've heard, people are freaking out because they didn't have a booth in the exhibit hall, although they did have a large area for Adventurer's League (and of course M:tG).

They did that last year, too. No booth in the dealer's hall, huge area the other hall with tons of table set up for 5E.

Yeah, when was the last time they had a booth in the dealer's hall? Not in the past five years have they? They also have to compete with the other booths selling/buying singles as well as packs, which is why I assume they never had a booth.

 Sinful Hero wrote:

 kronk wrote:

 Balance wrote:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
...but did WotC really pull out of Gencon? If they did I didn't notice.

From what I've heard, people are freaking out because they didn't have a booth in the exhibit hall, although they did have a large area for Adventurer's League (and of course M:tG).

They did that last year, too. No booth in the dealer's hall, huge area the other hall with tons of table set up for 5E.

Yeah, when was the last time they had a booth in the dealer's hall? Not in the past five years have they? They also have to compete with the other booths selling/buying singles as well as packs, which is why I assume they never had a booth.

They had one for sure the second year we went (2011), as we were directly across from them and their staff were total dicks to us.

 Cyporiean wrote:

 Sinful Hero wrote:

 kronk wrote:

 Balance wrote:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
...but did WotC really pull out of Gencon? If they did I didn't notice.

From what I've heard, people are freaking out because they didn't have a booth in the exhibit hall, although they did have a large area for Adventurer's League (and of course M:tG).

They did that last year, too. No booth in the dealer's hall, huge area the other hall with tons of table set up for 5E.

Yeah, when was the last time they had a booth in the dealer's hall? Not in the past five years have they? They also have to compete with the other booths selling/buying singles as well as packs, which is why I assume they never had a booth.

They had one for sure the second year we went (2011), as we were directly across from them and their staff were total dicks to us.

For some reason I can't say I'm surprised. What was their deal?

I'll get out my old programs tonight and see when they stopped having a booth.

 Balance wrote:
From what I've heard, people are freaking out because they didn't have a booth in the exhibit hall, although they did have a large area for Adventurer's League (and of course M:tG). It's making something of a mountain out of a molehill: there presence was small )especially in the hall) two of the three times I've gone.

The M:tG and D&D area wasn't actually WotC, they were 3rd party companies that handle those event scheduling for them, I believe Baldman Games and I forget who does the M:tG. Even then there were some issues in which WotC stepped in and said if you didn't give them a fair price then there would be absolutely no presence there.

There was some reasons behind the scenes but a good portion I'd have to guess would have to do with costs. Most conventions when you buy a booth, rent tables, chairs, run events, etc those costs you spend go towards your sponsorship level. For GenCon it is just costs, if you want to be considered a sponsor you have to write a separate check for $50K+. For the price of GenCon alone they can do conventions at PAX and Origins alone. For the companies I've worked for it is cheaper to go to Walmart/Ikea buy table/chairs/cabinets and throw them away or give them to local volunteers when the convention is done then to pay GenCon prices.

It did feel like they handled some lines a bit better. They tried to section off a Cosplay part for cosplayers and photographs unfortunately everyone still stops in the middle of the isle instead of going up to the yellow taped line. Then you have the crowd that stands at the stage 20 feet away, in the middle, instead of getting up to the stage and getting rid of the empty space. The Cosplay parade cutting off all hallways was insane though. Having to make product runs from the Tournament Area to the Exhibit Hall was a nightmare. I ended up dropping event tickets at Board Game HQ, only to find the way blocked and had to go back through to get to the back of the Exhibit Hall to make the way over to 601. Even then the Exhibit Hall was still packed.

The amount of times I was hit with a backpack, people carrying them and then turning suddenly side swiping people to the left and right. Or the amount of times someone had a roller suitcase taking up the space of two people. I get that we have a lot of stuff to carry and buy at times but the extra luggage takes up more space and slows traffic down.

Other than that the Con was great as usual. I did early shopping in the morning, worked the afternoon and evening and played late into the night. Picked up a few of my KS Pledges that I didn't realize were at GenCon. At first I was bummed about Rum and Bones, almost bought the set, but good thing I didn't. It was actually waiting at home when I got home. I ended up doing way more vendor trades this year that I had expected but picked up a lot of games for the family.

I will never be a fan of GenCon cosplay, roller cases, giant strollers, or oversized backpacks.

Mr.Church13 wrote:
I will never be a fan of GenCon cosplay, roller cases, giant strollers, or oversized backpacks.

Yeah I think roller cases should be banned unless used to transport stuff to from hotel to booth as a vendor. Cosplay should be moved to the 2nd floor honestly. If they made that a Cosplay area for pictures, then allowed pictures on the second floor for Cosplay then it would be fine.

WotC has not had a booth in the dealer hall for several years. Last year they had a tiny shop set up next to the organized play area selling a few books (remember only starter set and PHB were out at that time) plus GF9 miniatures and some tshirts.

Was there another WizKids trampling episode this year?

 Manchu wrote:
WotC has not had a booth in the dealer hall for several years. Last year they had a tiny shop set up next to the organized play area selling a few books (remember only starter set and PHB were out at that time) plus GF9 miniatures and some tshirts.

Was there another WizKids trampling episode this year?

WizKids demanded Gencon provide them with security for their lines. Gencon said, "No, FFG managed their line just fine on their own, why can't you?" And WizKids wasn't there.

Last year, WizKids had GenCon security working with them on their Saturday morning stampede after a lady was knocked down and I guess walked on (trampled seems a bit hyperbolic).

Well that gives a little context to Thursday morning.

I was among the crowd lined up at the doors for 10am, and the guy giving the speech was very, very clear that if anyone was caught running, he'd take their badge and remove them from the venue. They were taping it, and would snag people after the fact if necessary, as I recall.

We were told to repeat after him, DO. NOT. RUN.

And then asked to chant it as we walked in, partly as a reminder, partly to intimidate the gak out of the booth vendors.

As a booth vendor, if 10,000 people were marching on my location chanting anything at all in unison, I might need a change of boxers, so that struck me as really funny.

But yeah, they weren't messing around with it this year.

Yes they had us do something pretty similar on that Saturday last year, minus the chanting. It was pretty amazing how many people still ran. So I can see why they wanted cooperation from GenCon. I don't know how FFG manages it. I also don't see how it is Wizkids's responsibility until people are in the WK line. But it seems like GenCon wanted WK to be responsible for attendees from the time the dealer hall doors opened.

Didn't someone here remark that FFG's line was closed by a fire marshal?

Last year, Paizo handled it by having people queue up outside of the dealer hall and then releasing a few at a time as people who have already made it into the booth area make their purchases and leave.

I honestly don't see all the fuss about lining up for hours on end just to pay full retail. You know, unless we're talking con exclusives like WK is famous for ...

Because they gotta have it first!

Also exclusives and promotional offers.

 Manchu wrote:
I don't know how FFG manages it.

One entrance, one exit. The rest of the booth area is sealed off by display stands, cases and walls. So only one way in and one way out. It stops people from pushing, trying to cut into line or dive into the middle and then cut to the register. It also lets them control how many people are in the 'retail area' of the booth. It is however expensive in not only booth space since you almost need twice the size as normal, need the display cases and walls. The first initial cost is expensive because of shipping, drayage charges from the docks to GenCon which is what kills you. However once you've done that then you can negotiate and store things on the Catalyst caravan to avoid that in future, keep everything stored in Indiana for next year which becomes cheaper than shipping it every year. It also lets you take it to Origins if you want via Catalyst caravan. I'm not sure FFG does that though or just simply pays for local storage or trucks it in from a nearby distribution place.

WK has one entrance and exit to their line, as well.

 Manchu wrote:
WK has one entrance and exit to their line, as well.

At GenCon 2014 they didn't, at least I sure don't remember one. I went there to get some exclusives before the hall opened as a vendor trade and walked into the center area, it had multiple ways to leave and enter. There was only a walled side on 2 of the sides if I recall. They controlled the flow of traffic to create an entrance and exit then snaked the line through the center area but you could walk through the line and into the center area to grab items. The line itself is what created the rest of the walls.

 Dark Severance wrote:
At GenCon 2014 they didn't, at least I sure don't remember one.

Yep, I waited three hours to stand in it ... and actually made it!

more pics

http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/32243/gen-con-2015-photos-part-4

http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/32242/gen-con-2015-photos-part-5

http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/32241/gen-con-2015-photos-part-6


.... http://icv2.com/gallery/32241/9


somewhat terrifying there !

 Manchu wrote:


Last year, Paizo handled it by having people queue up outside of the dealer hall and then releasing a few at a time as people who have already made it into the booth area make their purchases and leave.

I honestly don't see all the fuss about lining up for hours on end just to pay full retail. You know, unless we're talking con exclusives like WK is famous for ...

Paizo did that again this year. On Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, there was no one in line, and I was able to just walk right up and grab a few things I wanted, along with the "Exclusive Mini".

Got all 4 buttons though! Gotta catch them all! feth yeah!

On Thursday and Friday, though, that line was hella long for most of the day. I don't get it, but to each their own.