I've never been.

Seems like a shopping expedition. I've seen the vids of people washing through the facility.

Never seen a great game run there, which would be a draw for me.

GenCon should be this epic yearly event, teasing adventures and great GMs that would make me travel across country.

I don't see the draw. At all.

Thoughts?

I've never been - but Origins is a lot of fun. But - it's local for me, so it doesn't require a ton of effort on my part.

I have heart from people who have been to both - Origins for the gaming, and GenCon for the event. GenCon just looks too crowded to be a lot of fun.

Quote from: Theory of Games;1098258I've never been.

Seems like a shopping expedition. I've seen the vids of people washing through the facility.

Never seen a great game run there, which would be a draw for me.

GenCon should be this epic yearly event, teasing adventures and great GMs that would make me travel across country.

I don't see the draw. At all.

Thoughts?

As of 2001 which was the last GenCon I could attend ohhhh yes gaming was quite prominent and unless they have lost their minds, it still is prominient. They just also devote a huuuuuuge area to vendors as well and part of that area is also various publisher stalls. The vendor area gets alot of vids because it is about the most fantastical part of the con. The rest is fairly mundane gaming youd see at about any convention with gaming. Toss in lots of board games and a few palour games or LARPs and theres even more. And then theres movies nearly 24/7 (unless they got rid of that) and gaming about 24/7 too.

Gencon is epic just due to scale.  Vendors demoing games was a big thing that I really enjoyed.  Large numbers of obscure vendors was also something I liked.  What I didn't like was how challenging it was to find pick up games if you're not a social butterfly.  In that area scale may work against it a bit.  There was likely a whole area that specialized in pickup games that I just never found.  
I liked it best as a group activity where three to five friends go.

I forget the exact year, but I went in 200X and it was fine. The vendor's hall / art gallery was absolutely massive, and I had to walk across it way too many times. But overall the conventions space, including the adjoining mall and hotels, was at least easy to navigate and I never felt too crowded. And I did sign up for some games. I had a couple complaints, though.

1) My focus is tabletop RPGs. I figure that the same kind of gaming should be kept physically located together as much as possible. But no. I signed up for a couple one-shots one day, and didn't know that they were in entirely different hotels. I had 10 minutes after the first game finished to take 3 skyways(hotel > convention center > mall > another hotel) to my next game. I made good time(again, not too crowded), and I walked a lot faster back then than I can now, but even then I definitely wasn't quite on time. I apologized, gave a quick explanation, and the GM was nice about it. But man, that was frustrating. I didn't know until I got my tickets and saw the printed locations that this was the case.

2) The official tabletop gaming schedule ended at either 5 or 6pm. I know they have gaming of some sort at all hours, but for any type of gaming to end so early in the day at a dedicated gaming convention seems incredibly messed up to me. When we found out there was nothing left to sign up for that day, my friend and I tried heading over to Games on Demand. It sounded like the kind of thing that'd be ongoing, but even they closed at that time. One GM there was nice enough to run a short(<30 minute) session of a sort-of board game based on the Dread(the one with Jenga) horror RPG, so the long walk there wasn't a total waste. The scenario was even based on a Dread scenario I'd been a part of at Dragon Con the previous year, so that was kind of surreal.

I'm used to Dragon Con's schedule. For the stuff I'm into - at DC they call it "Non-Campaign RPGs," which I think means RPG sessions that aren't part of something with Living or Society in its name - they have four 4-hour blocks every day from 9am to 2am, with a 1-hour break from 5 to 6. At Gen Con, this kind of gaming was over for the day when at Dragon Con they were just taking a short break. Finding this out when I went to buy tickets for more games really took the wind out of my sails.

I'm a proactive con-goer, so I'd put out feelers on various RPG communities beforehand and organized some unsanctioned game sessions and other meet-ups, but if I hadn't, I dunno . . . but yeah, if you care about new releases, announcements, and seeing a ton of your favorite game designers, it definitely beat any other convention I've been to in that department. By quite a lot, even.

I haven't been to GenCon or GaryCon; but I have attended dozens of large conventions since 1998.

No thanks.

The airport experience just plain sucks.  The airline and airplane experience sucks too.  Dealing with rental cars or cabs is a little bit of a headache, as well.

The hotels either hosting, or located close to a popular event jack their prices up; and sometimes have no availability, weeks in advance.

My tired old knees aren't capable of walking on hard floors all day, for 2 or 3 days straight.  I'm past being able to do that anymore.  Thank God for YouTube, and Amazon; in addition to my local gaming stores.

If I had a bunch of RL friends who were into it and roaring to go... well, most anything would be fun with that qualification.
But I don't... so GenCon would me, Billy NoMates, wandering the aisles, wanting to buy more than I can afford (or need).
At best I could go by the LotFP booth and scream adoringly at Raggi... and be a fanboy dork in the DCC tent.

Otherwise, nope... no relevance for me at all, and that's the only 'relevance' I really care about.
Some little local con, that wasn't run by cretins (local history), would be much more my speed.

Went in 2016.  I thought it was pretty awesome.  I may take the kids next year, but I think as much for the spectacle and event as for any gaming or the like.  I went in sort of blind, knowing nothing of reserving games, buying tickets, etc.  It was a bit overwhelming, but I liked it.  I would like to go again, but it seems like a 3-5 year thing rather than every year,  want to try a smaller con next.

Quote from: Simlasa;1098293At best I could go by the LotFP booth and scream adoringly at Raggi... and be a fanboy dork in the DCC tent.

That's like the entire point. That and buying more than you can afford/use. The DCC booth was cool.

Is it relevant? Well WotC doesn't seem to think so. You could get 5e books all over the place, but WotC was strangely absent.

Quote from: Rhedyn;1098326That's like the entire point. That and buying more than you can afford/use. The DCC booth was cool.

Is it relevant? Well WotC doesn't seem to think so. You could get 5e books all over the place, but WotC was strangely absent.

Any ideas why that is?  They were not there when I went, and pathfinder has a HUGE presence

Quote from: oggsmash;1098331Any ideas why that is?  They were not there when I went, and pathfinder has a HUGE presence

  WotC has been absent from GenCon for the past several years; their stated reason is that they figure the fans are more interested in gaming than in having them do presentations or show off new product.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;1098335WotC has been absent from GenCon for the past several years; their stated reason is that they figure the fans are more interested in gaming than in having them do presentations or show off new product.

  Seems they would set up games and run them the way the pathfinder ballroom(s?) do then?

Quote from: oggsmash;1098331Any ideas why that is?  They were not there when I went, and pathfinder has a HUGE presence

Paizo is a major sponsor of Gencon while WotC is not.

I suspect that WotC would rather Gencon fail and then make their own dedicated D&D/MtG con. Or WotC plans to step up after Paizo falls.

WotC may still be burned that Gencon didn't need them during the 4e era.

Quote from: Rhedyn;1098326That's like the entire point. That and buying more than you can afford/use. The DCC booth was cool.

But is it worth the $$$ I'd spend doing it, when I can pretty much do all those things online throughout the year?
It seems to me that many of the benefits of a con have been met by social media and online gaming.

I still take gaming friends to GenCon every year, but haven't attended since 2011. It is too big, expensive, and messy for me, even though I'm close enough to drive home every day. For gaming it is very relevant and attendance is running well over 70,000 unique visitors a year now. I just happen to prefer running Old School tabletop games in a smaller venue, more friendly and much less hectic. I hate searching for parking, driving in congested traffic, and detest being financially gouged by other businesses just  to enjoy my game design services and recreational hobbies. Just to attend a Convention I drop $500 for three days on hotel rooms and food, and this doesn't count transportation costs. For the same price for attending one convention, I can run games in my home games room for an entire year. I liked Origins, but found the woke crowd dissing on too many of my favorite former Origins staff members, so declined to attend this year on that count.