From The RTG Blog

Quote
After considerable internal discussion, R. Talsorian Games has decided to exit Gen Con 2021. We don't do this lightly. We had planned on our biggest Gen Con yet this year, with more events than ever, more booth space than ever, and a larger crew than ever.

And that's why, in good conscience, we cannot attend the convention. The health and safety of our crew comes first and the numbers in Indiana are abysmal. The vaccination rates are too low, the positivity rates and new case rates too high, and the social mandates designed to protect people too few. If even one member of our crew caught COVID-19 while attending Gen Con or carried it home to their loved ones and their local community, that would be one too many.

At R. Talsorian Games, we write about Dark Futures for fun, but we also believe we have a responsibility to try and prevent them from happening.

We want to make it clear, we do not blame the staff of Gen Con 2021 or the Indiana Convention Center in any way. We honestly believe they have done everything they legally and contractually can to make the convention as safe an experience as possible. Unfortunately, conventions never happen just inside the convention center. With airports, hotels, open spaces, and places to eat at play, the risk of infection is just too high.

If you were coming to Gen Con to sit down at our tables and play games with us, we're sorry. Please contact Gen Con and see about getting a refund for your event tickets. If you were coming to Gen Con to visit our booth and buy from us, we're sorry. We heartily suggest purchasing our games through your local game store if at all possible.

If you are attending Gen Con, please be safe. Get vaccinated if you can and aren't already. Wear your mask, and wear it properly. Don't touch your face. Social distance as much as possible. Wash and/or sanitize your hands regularly. Be a responsible member of the gaming community.

We will miss being at Gen Con this year. It honestly broke our hearts to make this decision but feel it was the right call for us and our crew and it is our sincere desire to see you all at Gen Con 2022.

Let's all do what we can to make that happen.

https://rtalsoriangames.com/2021/09/01/rtg-exiting-gen-con-2021/

I wonder who else is going to sit GenCon 2021 out and what effect it will have on GenCon itself?

  Social distance at Gen Con?  LOL.  I think attendance would have to be waaaay down from the one I attended to do any sort of social distancing.  I laugh at that a bit, more or less trying to blame the State, when there are going to be people from all over the Nation, and possibly the world at that Con.   I guess my point is, if you have ANY concerns at all around Covid, no way in hell should you go any where near ANY Con, much less an enormous one.

Quote from: oggsmash on September 02, 2021, 05:39:44 AM
  Social distance at Gen Con?  LOL.  I think attendance would have to be waaaay down from the one I attended to do any sort of social distancing.  I laugh at that a bit, more or less trying to blame the State, when there are going to be people from all over the Nation, and possibly the world at that Con.   I guess my point is, if you have ANY concerns at all around Covid, no way in hell should you go any where near ANY Con, much less an enormous one.

On that note......

https://www.reddit.com/r/gencon/comments/pbzud3/gencon_is_irresponsible_this_year/

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GenCon is irresponsible this year
I was really excited for GenCon. I've been looking forward to it all year. In June, it looked reasonable. Now? COVID is worse in Indianapolis than it was a year ago.

On 8/25/21, Indy had 531 new cases and a 7 day average of 450.

Compare this to 97 and 118 in 2020, when GenCon was cancelled.

Over 88,000 people in the US are currently hospitalized with COVID, with nearly 23,000 in the ICU as of 8/23/21.

A year ago this was 37,000 and 11,300 in the ICU.

These numbers are 4x as bad in Indianapolis, and 2x as bad nationally as when the world was shut down.

GenCon has said that they cannot require vaccinations or mandatory testing.

In June, when there was a rollover option, COVID numbers were trending down. Seven times as many people are hospitalized now, compared to June. June 30th showed 30 new cases in Indianapolis, with a seven day average of just 22. COVID is twenty times as bad in the host city as it was when we all had to make a decision on whether to attend.

And by not offering an option to roll over badges, GenCon has now created a scenario where people are incentivized to attend when asymptomatic, with mild symptoms, or close-contacts.

There is no reason to expect that this will not be a super spreader event.

Stay home. Live out your lives in isolation. This is going to go on for years.

Personally, I'm waiting for the first annual PunditCon.

I love how they go from Indiana cases (which the CDC has admitted can't be told apart from the common cold) to national hospitalizations as part of their justification. Because cases automatically mean death in Leftieland... versus, say, the annual sniffles that always go around right after school starts back up.

More likely I suspect the real "virus" they're trying to avoid is un-woke thought. The Seattle crowd can no longer tolerate being in even the most left-leaning parts of a Red State anymore (our Left is mostly of the pre-2016 variety... so basically far right extremists by Seattle standards).

GenCon got moved to Indianapolis in the first place because it was fairly central to the biggest consumers of RPG products (and Origins is in Columbus, OH for similar reasons), but this is what happens when the primary producers aren't actually located in the market region... a complete disconnect between the producers and consumers.

GenCon is barely a 90 minute drive from me and I have family who live 10 minutes from the venue so I wouldn't have to pay squat for accommodations and I still wouldn't attend the wokefest if they paid me.

Hmmm... interesting thought (which I'll crosspost); on the woke company list, where are they headquartered? I suspect a pattern will emerge of the red/yellow companies being in concentric circles of hell that surround Seattle and other woke bastions while the green are mostly elsewhere.

Quote from: Oddend on September 02, 2021, 10:14:56 AM
Personally, I'm waiting for the first annual PunditCon.

Be serious. What living game writer would be arrogant and pretentious enough to create a con and name it after himself?!?

Oh. Right. I forgot 

Quote from: jeff37923 on September 02, 2021, 02:29:20 AM
From The RTG Blog

Quote
After considerable internal discussion, R. Talsorian Games has decided to exit Gen Con 2021. We don't do this lightly. We had planned on our biggest Gen Con yet this year, with more events than ever, more booth space than ever, and a larger crew than ever.

And that's why, in good conscience, we cannot attend the convention. The health and safety of our crew comes first and the numbers in Indiana are abysmal. The vaccination rates are too low, the positivity rates and new case rates too high, and the social mandates designed to protect people too few. If even one member of our crew caught COVID-19 while attending Gen Con or carried it home to their loved ones and their local community, that would be one too many.

At R. Talsorian Games, we write about Dark Futures for fun, but we also believe we have a responsibility to try and prevent them from happening.

We want to make it clear, we do not blame the staff of Gen Con 2021 or the Indiana Convention Center in any way. We honestly believe they have done everything they legally and contractually can to make the convention as safe an experience as possible. Unfortunately, conventions never happen just inside the convention center. With airports, hotels, open spaces, and places to eat at play, the risk of infection is just too high.

If you were coming to Gen Con to sit down at our tables and play games with us, we're sorry. Please contact Gen Con and see about getting a refund for your event tickets. If you were coming to Gen Con to visit our booth and buy from us, we're sorry. We heartily suggest purchasing our games through your local game store if at all possible.

If you are attending Gen Con, please be safe. Get vaccinated if you can and aren't already. Wear your mask, and wear it properly. Don't touch your face. Social distance as much as possible. Wash and/or sanitize your hands regularly. Be a responsible member of the gaming community.

We will miss being at Gen Con this year. It honestly broke our hearts to make this decision but feel it was the right call for us and our crew and it is our sincere desire to see you all at Gen Con 2022.

Let's all do what we can to make that happen.

https://rtalsoriangames.com/2021/09/01/rtg-exiting-gen-con-2021/

I wonder who else is going to sit GenCon 2021 out and what effect it will have on GenCon itself?

Is this potentially a double dose of "get woke, go broke?" if it hurts both RTG and GenCon?

One can hope. I'm a fan of RTG products, but not if they continue to to go down the woke path.

I'm in Florida, where this sort of attitude is almost completely absent outside of power tripping middle managers and school teachers. Reading something so fearful feels like a time machine into last year (especially given their outdated advice).

There seems to be a serious overlap between the hopeless woke and those terrified their own shadows will give them COVID-19. I can't quite figure out where the overlap occurs, though you see the same rhetorical flourishes being used.

Quote from: Squidi on September 02, 2021, 01:13:30 PM
I'm in Florida, where this sort of attitude is almost completely absent outside of power tripping middle managers and school teachers. Reading something so fearful feels like a time machine into last year (especially given their outdated advice).

There seems to be a serious overlap between the hopeless woke and those terrified their own shadows will give them COVID-19. I can't quite figure out where the overlap occurs, though you see the same rhetorical flourishes being used.

I would hardly call the patients I've seen the "hopeless woke," but then some of them are still denying they have Covid (some even deny Covid exists) even as they are hospitalized for SOB, activity intolerance, and associated pneumonia.

Quote from: HappyDaze on September 02, 2021, 01:34:41 PM
I would hardly call the patients I've seen the "hopeless woke," but then some of them are still denying they have Covid (some even deny Covid exists) even as they are hospitalized for SOB, activity intolerance, and associated pneumonia.

I didn't say the patients. I said the ones scared of their own shadow. There's a big difference between actually getting COVID and cancelling a Gen Con appearance because there aren't enough government mandates.

Actually, this works in my favor as would not be able to make the trip from Canada otherwise: they'll improve the online portion of the event.
The US seems to be sketchy and changing their boarder policies on those coming from Canada double vaccinated still getting flak, so not worth the hassle attempting at this point really.
Feel bad for those close enough to attend to have to mull it over as it's an easy choice for me and likely others entering who would be flying/driving to the US for this.

Not a big Con guy, myself. I've been to a few X-Wing Miniatures tournaments. I hadn't planned on attending any this year, since restrictions and travel and vaccines and masks and fuckit.
Considering Con Crud is a common side effect from going to a Con, I don't blame anyone who wants to skip a big event during a Pandemic.

Quote from: Squidi on September 02, 2021, 01:13:30 PM
I'm in Florida, where this sort of attitude is almost completely absent outside of power tripping middle managers and school teachers. Reading something so fearful feels like a time machine into last year (especially given their outdated advice).

There seems to be a serious overlap between the hopeless woke and those terrified their own shadows will give them COVID-19. I can't quite figure out where the overlap occurs, though you see the same rhetorical flourishes being used.

As a fellow Floridan, Welcome!

We do things differently down here for the most part. And FTR, I'd like to have a non-woke Con come down here, and gain traction.

Of course RTG wont be there since they are scared of the More contagious but less deadly form of Covid.

Orlando OSR Con would rock.

Quote from: Godsmonkey on September 02, 2021, 03:22:55 PM

Quote from: Squidi on September 02, 2021, 01:13:30 PM
I'm in Florida, where this sort of attitude is almost completely absent outside of power tripping middle managers and school teachers. Reading something so fearful feels like a time machine into last year (especially given their outdated advice).

There seems to be a serious overlap between the hopeless woke and those terrified their own shadows will give them COVID-19. I can't quite figure out where the overlap occurs, though you see the same rhetorical flourishes being used.

As a fellow Floridan, Welcome!

We do things differently down here for the most part. And FTR, I'd like to have a non-woke Con come down here, and gain traction.

Of course RTG wont be there since they are scared of the More contagious but less deadly form of Covid.

Orlando OSR Con would rock.

Just came from Florida a couple of weeks ago. Dropped a ton of cash into your economy over 10 days. Not only is Florida not the ICU wasteland it is made out to be, but it was packed full of people from all over the world having a lot of fun and being very kind to one another.

A convention in Orlando would be an amazing time.