Quote from: Radiofreedeath;1098531How is gencon political? It came off pretty neutral when attending

Yeah, I agree. Some folks are grouchy "culture warrior" types that gotta make everything about that, like the Christian that makes sure you know they don't celebrate Halloween (because Satan or whatever). I mean, there are literally thousands of gaming events and tons of gaming companies there. To say GenCon "eschewed gaming" is just weird nonsense.

I have always wanted to go to Gen Con but it seems like now Paizo Con would give a much better gaming experience.

Quote from: Radiofreedeath;1098531How is gencon political? It came off pretty neutral when attending

It's largely not, but there have been some events in recent years that aren't super great. To tar the entire event(at least at this point) is serious overkill. To say they've eschewed gaming, however, is to lose touch with reality altogether.

Quote from: Radiofreedeath;1098531How is gencon political? It came off pretty neutral when attending

Its increasintly bleeding into the edges. Last year had all sorts of problems that individually were small or just annoying. But together paint a picture of a larger problem brewing. Which is becoming more apparent outside the con this year. WOTC may not have a presence at GenCon or so they claim. But they sure throw their weight around there.

Quote from: GeekEclectic;1098548It's largely not, but there have been some events in recent years that aren't super great. To tar the entire event(at least at this point) is serious overkill. To say they've eschewed gaming, however, is to lose touch with reality altogether.

I am starting to wonder if the political stuff we are seeing at GenCon and other cons is not a symptom of the con itself. But symptoms of various "woke" publishers and agenda groups leveraging things.

Quote from: NeonAce;1098538To say GenCon "eschewed gaming" is just weird nonsense.

I know this is in a different context, but I want to talk about that, as well as the "Pop Culture Con" comment from earlier.

It FEELS like the con has changed and it's now not about gaming. It's about marketing, hype, industry connections, commerce and pop culture. It's is ABSOLUTLY the largest con with the strongest gaming culture but it doesn't feel like a "playing games" culture but rather a "games adjacent" culture. All of the major attendance cons seem to have morphed in to "I'm a big con with a strong focus on X", where X is gaming, video games, comics, etc. IE: pick the one your con has its roots in. But it's not longer about X, it's morphed in to some other slightly adjacent culture.

You can absolutly go to GenCon and play games and have fun, but it absolutly feels to me like the con has drifted as its gotten larger.

I believe the adjacent culture is 'convention culture'... Welcome to con con 2020!

Quote from: bryce0lynch;1098580I know this is in a different context, but I want to talk about that, as well as the "Pop Culture Con" comment from earlier.

It FEELS like the con has changed and it's now not about gaming. It's about marketing, hype, industry connections, commerce and pop culture. It's is ABSOLUTLY the largest con with the strongest gaming culture but it doesn't feel like a "playing games" culture but rather a "games adjacent" culture. All of the major attendance cons seem to have morphed in to "I'm a big con with a strong focus on X", where X is gaming, video games, comics, etc. IE: pick the one your con has its roots in. But it's not longer about X, it's morphed in to some other slightly adjacent culture.

You can absolutly go to GenCon and play games and have fun, but it absolutly feels to me like the con has drifted as its gotten larger.

Yeah, I don't feel like "It's not about gaming", but acknowledge the drift. I think it's just an inevitable byproduct of size & popularity. Like, you see a punk rock show in some odd-ball venue with maybe 40 people, and there is a local scene, and it has a certain feel. Then you go to the Van's Warped tour and your favorite punk band is playing on the sponsored "Sunny D Stage" and a hired sexy model in a Motorhead t-shirt is offering a rad Verizon wireless plan, and some people are into your thing, but other people are kind of tourists. Likewise with like a San Diego Comic Con, and now there's movie studios and non-comic interested people might come to catch a glimpse of a famous actor, and it's not about finding Steve Gerber at a small dingy table gushing about Howard the Duck or whatever. Basically, anything, once it reaches a certain level of popularity, attracts businesses & tourists that weren't originally a part of the thing, and it can shift or dilute the thing.

Also, Vincent's point is totally part of the deal. It seems like every "geek hobby" convention that has its roots in a thing eventually kinda becomes a little bit all of the things. Your Anime, RPGing, Comic Booking, & Star Trekking blurs across all of the conventions and CosPlayers aren't gonna miss a chance to get out.

This thread pretty much covers the start of where GenCon went all pear-shaped.

GenCon is not relevant. It's a legacy experience now.  

The internet has made communication between publishers and gamers very easy. Nobody has to go to GenCon to learn what the "hot new game" might be. That was a thing 20+ years ago. Not anymore.

Nothing sold at GenCon is unique. You can buy everything from the same publishers and vendors online, often cheaper.

But GenCon is big, and people are drawn to big events. Size is the stamp of popularity.

As for quality of gaming, GenCon was shit both as a player and GM. But I checked it off the bucket list and got my "Been to Mecca" gamer cred, then did it again just in case I somehow missed the promised awesome. Nope. No awesome, just lines and crowds.  

As a GM, I've received so much better perks and treatment from small cons. I want to do DragonCon, but I'm hesitant to do another mega-con when the smaller cons have provided such better ROI for gaming fun.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1098712I want to do DragonCon, but I'm hesitant to do another mega-con when the smaller cons have provided such better ROI for gaming fun.

Dragon Con is fire, as the kids I work with say. If all you care about is the gaming, they've got scheduled stuff from 9am to 2am every day. And a pick-up game room that runs around the clock(getting to try out stuff w/ my friends at the Loony Labs table is still one of my fondest memories from years back). They shift stuff around every few years, though, so you'll need to look up where you need to go(or ask at one of the help desks), but it's not too bad. If you want to branch out, there's tons of other stuff to do, too, but you can absolutely go there and game through the whole weekend. I'm going just on Saturday. Gonna play a couple games, check out the swag in the dealer's hall, maybe check out the art exhibits, and then hit a party or concert(or both) before going to my friend's place to crash that night. Bam! And if we wake up early enough, my friends and I might go get dim sum on Sunday. That's not con related - just pointing out that there are at least a couple places in Atlanta that have dim sum, which is awesome!

Quote from: bryce0lynch;1098498SNIP

And all this time, I have been running con games for free like an absolute chump.

But then the only ones I still trust are small, focused affairs where the expectations are laid out openly and the event is focused on actual play. Those have worked pretty well for me.

I like football. A LOT. I run a football blog. Oh, look, the Superbowl is in town, maybe I should go? It's like that, at least for me, since it's literally two blocks from my office.

But ... there's also value in a diversity of game systems and DM's ... I just wish there was some floor on the DM quality and some ceiling on the costs. Plus, the dealer hall, at least in concept ...

ORIGINS is a better con for gaming, for when you FINALLY come visit us Melan ... although its probably easier to get someone at GENCON to pay your way.

Went once when it was in Milwaukee (2000 or 2001, can't remember). Really, really, liked Milwaukee and glad I went if for no other reason then that.

Not super into cons, but people were definitely gaming. Plenty of other stuff going on. Got lots of exercise roaming around everywhere.

Never been to GenCon. At a time I could have been very interested in visiting it. Today I don't bother any gaming conventions whatsoever. Having to deal with that many people? No thanks. I don't like "gamer culture" which seems to be the focus of this kind of conventions. I like gaming and ttrpg especially. And I came to the conclusion that the format of this hobby works pretty badly with gaming with random strangers for me. One bad apple in a group or as a gm and you are in for painfully long shitty experience. Especially since I am generally too polite to say screw this and walk away. And there's 9/10 there's always at least one bad apple in the barrel. That in combination with SJW infiltration of gaming conventions makes for what I would call an unpleasantly toxic environment.
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