Online.convention. Couldn't make it. My buds at Silver Gryphon did and had a booth.
They're observations echoed Skirmisher's found here: http://www.skirmisher.com/node/1569

In the weeks leading up to it there was little to no support or communication and much aggravation dealing with the organizers.

Glad I personally missed it. Sounds as if a normal weekend of gaming with friends would gave been better spent.

Ya that was pretty brutal. I'd tried to watch some of the interviews and panels too, but the number of open mics made them pretty ear bleeding affairs.

With the problems Silver Gryphon was having with them in the weeks building up I had decided not to bother with it. I ended up working overtime anyway all weekend so it worked out. Holodinsky, the guy in charge, would not answer emails or sent answers so vague they were useless.

I was told the majority of folks simply quit bothering with it on Saturday and went back to their normal gaming routine at home, on google+, etc.

I was also told Holodinsky spent a lot of his time Saturday running all over facebook looking to get negative comments removed instead of actually fixing the problems.

Yeah, I'd read about him going around trying to have things taken down. You'd think a person organizing an online event would be intimately familiar with the Streisand Effect.

Why anyone would have a "virtual convention" is beyond me.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;600892Why anyone would have a "virtual convention" is beyond me.

In principal, it's a great idea - there are a lot of us out there who love online gaming, and can't get to regular cons. The problem came at least in part from the insistence that the online con duplicate all aspects of a real life con slavishly, rather than putting them in a form more adapted to the realities of online play. Other problems came from being under-funded and under-staffed, which are not insoluble, but are typical of first cons.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;600896In principal, it's a great idea - there are a lot of us out there who love online gaming, and can't get to regular cons. The problem came at least in part from the insistence that the online con duplicate all aspects of a real life con slavishly, rather than putting them in a form more adapted to the realities of online play. Other problems came from being under-funded and under-staffed, which are not insoluble, but are typical of first cons.

-clash

This, precisely.  If they give it another go next year, I hope they are open-minded toward the criticism (much of it constructive).

I remember when someone was trying to promote this here.  I certainly didn't have much interest in it myself, but I didn't expect it to turn out this way...

RPGPundit

Quote from: thedungeondelver;600892Why anyone would have a "virtual convention" is beyond me.

In principle, it is a good idea (we were there Saturday and Sunday). But the execution was deeply flawed, it wasn't well promoted beyond Facebook, and the impression the organisers (one in particular) have of the nature of the hobby and companies driving it, is severely at odds with reality.

It wasn't a complete waste of time. Just 95% of it.

kind of a shame, though I suspect we haven't seen the last of this sort of idea.  Hopefully the next attempt will learn from the mistakes of this one.

RPGPundit

I use Fantasy Grounds VTT and the community ran an online Con around 6months ago - 28 games of many different rulesets were played. It was done quite well. Scheduling and organisation of resources were the biggest headaches for the organisers but they did have a small team working together and they did allow/encourage DM/GMs to host whatever flavours of game they wanted to.

I think the next one will be played early in the new year - we've just started working on it now so no details available just yet... they did require you to download/install Fantasy Grounds and TeamSpeak and register on the Fantasy Grounds website. Almost every game ran as scheduled. Hopefully you might come and check it out when the next one is run...

Of course its not the same as a real con - but you can still try out some gaming with different people, with different rulesets and genres and you get to try out the Fantasy Grounds virtual table top which is a pretty decent platform.

I wasnt personally involved in organising the last one but did run a session of Castles & Crusades for a bunch of new players. I am involved in the next one and have been listening to the feedback on Aethercon and certainly we hope to avoid most of that angst. Our event is likely to be much smaller but should run a lot more smoothly

Ill post back here when we get a bit closer in case any of you are interested in joining in for a session.

regards
Damian

I found the organizer to be a little pushy. He wouldn't leave me alone about running some games there, even when I made it clear that I wouldn't have time to create any one-shots.

The evidence sure is mounting that the organizer in question is a class act, isn't it?

RPGPundit

Oh, I think he really probably meant well...but the road to Hell and all that.

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;602568Oh, I think he really probably meant well...but the road to Hell and all that.

Truth, Tommy!

-clash