“Where are your Warhammer impressions??” you ask?  Soon my friends, soon!  But for now, please enjoy some of these pics from GenCon 2007.

Share This

Well I’m back home in the great state of Texas, having just spent the last several days soaking up all things GenCon.  I had a blast the first time I went in 2006, and this year was no exception.  I especially enjoyed the centralized area for computer games and MMOs this year, but more on that later.  I will probably make some separate posts on different things from the Con - maybe a board game or two, and definitely Warhammer where I spent a fair amount of time.  Ah if only I’d had a laptop to post my play-by-play experiences.  Maybe next year!

In terms of my overall experience, it was a good one.  Few things I’ve learned from 2006 and now this year:  1) staying in a hotel with a skybridge is a must (imo).  It is so convenient and you can drop back by your room to drop stuff off, rest, etc., and you’re only like 10 minutes max walk from the events;  2) snagging a private room/area to game in is also nice, although it’s very hard in the Hyatt where we stayed.  Lots of gaming tables but very hard to snag an open one.  3)  eat cheap sometimes, but treat yourself to at least 2-3 good meals.  There are a lot of good brewery’s and pubs close by and some good eating!  4)  Wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to have your feet ache!  5)  If you fly, like me, bring a big extra suitcase to pack all your goodies and swag in. 

I arrived on Wednesday afternoon around 4:30 Indy time and met up with several of my buddies.  Got checked into the hotel, grabbed some food, and did some gaming the rest of the night playing the WoW TCG.

Thursday we hit the exhibit hall at 11 a.m. when it opened and shopped for a couple of hours.  One of the things we found out that first day in the hall turned out to be a common theme - limited items sold per day (i.e. 50).  We had missed out on the first 50 Talisman boardgames that day, along with the first 50 WoW TCG playmats given out via a trivia contest.  However, I did have a friend snag a place in line to get my copy of one of the 150 StarCraft boardgames that Fantasy Flight had brought.  I did go by the Warhammer booth as well, and was able to talk for quite awhile to one of the devs there, Johnathon Rudy.  Talk about a friendly, energetic guy!  He actually codes all the pathing of mobs in dungeons and the cities.  So if you get ganked by that wandering patrol you’ll know who to thank.  We chatted for quite awhile and I got a little hands on time in an RvR match, where I played a Runepriest (which figures…as I have always played a cleric/priest typically).  The match was a lot of fun and we stomped the Destruction guys.  Honestly, if they had a healer I don’t know what he was doing!  I have more impressions and info on Warhammer, but will save it for a separate post. 

We then grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to the Marriott for True Dungeon.  We had eight of us in the party and after sorting out our tokens, classes and mapping out strategy, we headed in.  I have to say I was pretty impressed with the amount of setup and detail that went into this event.  The lighting, fog, sound and decoration was all well done.  Each room had a DM in it to set the context for the room and to facilitate all actions that would happen in that area.  We had chosen the puzzle version of the adventure, and by the time the event was done, we had solved 4 out of 6.  We got to fight several creatures (all of which we handily defeated!) and even saw a very attractive gorgon.  All in all I am glad that we did it.  We all enjoyed it, but I don’t know that it’s something we’ll do every year.  Or if we do, we’ll move it to later in the evening after the exhibit hall has closed. 

Finally, as we were leaving the convention hall, we passed the RPGA hall and folks were beckoning us in with the lure of free t-shirts!!  Can’t….resist…..free…..stuff.  We snagged some free D&D 4th edition tees and sat down for “the big announcement”.  That started about 6:30 p.m. as the lights went out and a short movie came on.  That was followed by a presentation by a couple of the D&D dev guys about all the benefits of 4th edition, along with some of the online, digital stuff they’ll be doing (i.e. avatar creation similar to MMOs, building your maps online, populating them with your characters and creatures, etc.).  I’ve never been a huge pnp player, but it seemed pretty darn cool.  You can read more at here as Brian was also at GenCon and at this presentation.  My group ended the night by playing a mean game of Runebound.

Friday rolled around and our first goal was to camp the exhibit hall doors to be one of the first to get in.  This was done in order to sprint to the Talisman booth and secure one of the coveted 50 copies for the day.  We arrived at 9:00 a.m., an hour before the opening and were one of the first 30 or so people there.  By the time the doors opened at 10:00 a.m, a huge crowd had gathered.  The doors opened and we were off to the races.  Luckily we got into the line early and my buddy and I secured our copies - joy!  From there, we basically took in the rest of the exhibit hall and shopped the rest of the day.  I ended up snagging a True 20 sourcebook, some t-shirts, the WoW Burning Crusade boardgame expansion and a really nice custom dice tray.  I also spent a 2nd day at the Warhammer booth talking to the devs, watching people play, and getting in some PvE playtime.  I also signed up for the beta drawing they had (they did one each day of the Con at 3:30 p.m. where they gave out 25 beta “priority” registration keys).  Unfortunately I didn’t win on Friday, but one of my buddies from Houston did.  After some dinner we got in several hours of Talisman, where I played an Elf that sucked.  But the game itself was a ton of fun.

Saturday came quickly and we stumbled out of bed, into the shower, and back to the Con as quickly as we could.  First up was snagging one of the 50 WoW TCG playmats that Upper Deck was giving away.  Done, check that box.  The rest of the time we spent again playing demos, looking at the various MMOs and shopping to our heart’s content.  I spent another good chunk of time at the EA/Mythic booth on Saturday.  They had a good presence - four guy devs that I spoke with, and 2 girls (one was a data cruncher of some sort, the other was in marketing I think).  The 3:30 beta slot rolled around again and lo and behold, another buddy of mine won a slot!  They were then down to the last two beta codes and they called my name.  I couldn’t believe it, but I was grateful as I made my way to the devs, holding my name badge high so they could confirm my identity.  Sweet!  Mission accomplished there.  Saturday night we again spent on a game of Talisman, but had to cut our evening a bit shorter due to some early travel times on Sunday.

 I won’t go into Sunday as it was all travel for me (including plane delays, a canceled flight, and a car ride I didn’t expect), but at the end of the day I was home with my luggage and only 5 hours late hehe. 

GenCon is just a great experience - if you’re a gamer of any stripe I think you’d enjoy it.  It’s like being a kid on Christmas morning - the excitement is palpable, especially on that first day.   I really loved seeing all the MMOs there this year, and loved the way they had centralized that whole section and dimmed the lights down lower.  Last year the few computer games and MMOs they had were spread out all over the hall.  Much better job this year.  I’m already looking forward to 2008.

Share This

Well I’m hitting the airways tomorrow to head to Indianapolis and four days of GenCon goodness.  I’ll be radio silent for a few days here, but when I get back I hope to have pics and stories to share about what I saw and did at GenCon.  Have a great week!

Share This

Well, I’m off to GenCon in a few days and I’m pretty excited about the trip!  I’m going to be heading out on Wednesday and returning on Sunday.  Hopefully with lots of new games and news about what went on at the Con, including some news about the MMOs I see there.  That is if I can beat the crowds - see geeks colliding here during last year’s opening day:

So what the heck is GenCon?  Good question!  GenCon bills itself as “The Best Four Days in Gaming”, and once you’ve been there, it’s hard to dispute the claim.  GenCon has a long and storied history, with none other than Gary Gygax as its founder in 1967.   To quote from Wikipedia:

Gen Con began in 1967 as an informal gathering of war game enthusiasts at the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin home of Gary Gygax, later termed “Gen Con 0″. A year later, Gygax organized the first formal convention at the Lake Geneva Horticultural Hall with roughly 100 attendees.

Gen Con’s name is a derivation of “Geneva Convention,” given the convention’s origins in Lake Geneva. The name also is a play-on-words, as the “Geneva Conventions” are the name of a set of important international treaties regarding war and the earliest Gen Cons had a focus on wargames.

During the following decade the event grew and was hosted at a variety of southern Wisconsin locations, including an American Legion Hall, George Williams College, and the former Lake Geneva Playboy Resort. In 1978 the convention moved to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside campus in Kenosha, and in 1985 it moved to the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center & Arena (commonly known as the MECCA) in Milwaukee. Attendance steadily rose from 5,000 paid admissions in 1985 to a peak of 30,000 in 1994, making Gen Con the premier event in the role-playing game industry. Gen Con moved to the Midwest Express Center (MEC, now the Midwest Airlines Center) in 1998 when the MEC replaced the MECCA.

For the first nine years, Gen Con was sponsored by the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association.^[2] Beginning in 1976, Gen Con was managed by TSR, Inc., original publisher of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. In 1997, TSR was bought by Wizards of the Coast, which in turn was purchased by Hasbro in 1999. In May 2002, Gen Con was purchased from Hasbro by Peter Adkison, the founder of Wizards of the Coast. The Midwest U.S. convention moved to Indianapolis in 2003.

 Fore more detailed GenCon history, you can visit the Wiki entry or the Keeper of Ancient GenCon Lore. 

For me, this will only be my second trip to GenCon, 2006 being my first.  Last year I kind of had the wide-eyed, deer-in-the-headlights look all through the convention.  It’s massive, and I was a bit overwhelmed!  So much to see, participate in, and tons of exhibitors hawking their wares.  Throw in lots of pop culture costumes, good food and drinks, and all the gaming you can handle, and it’s a vacation that dorks like me dream of.

I’ll definitely be checking out the board/card/rpg scene this year, as that is and remains GenCon’s focus.  Most notably, I’ll be hitting the Fantasy Flight booth pretty hard, as I love the board games they produce (a love that someone else in the blogosphere shares).  I saw the launch of Dreamblade last year, and even though I bought it and played it last fall, I just couldn’t keep up with it.  We saw the WoW TCG launched as well which looked nice, and were able to watch various tournanments including Versus and Magic.  One thing I didn’t get to look in on as much last year were miniature games in general.  When you see a huge piece of plywood, covered in all kinds of foliage and buildings, with all these miniatures running around, you can’t help but geek out a bit.  I didn’t know most of the games but I think I may try to sit in on some this year and learn. 

I also noticed last year that there were several MMOs and other computer games being showcased at GenCon.  These included Pirates of the Burning Sea, The Burning Crusade Expansion, Eve Online, Neverwinter Nights 2, and others.  With the demise of E3 as we have known it, it appears that GenCon will pick up the pieces and incorporate more electronic gaming into it’s show, per this news release on August 8, 2006 (bold mine):

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 8, 2006–Gen Con, LLC today announced its plans to expand the offerings of the company’s gaming shows. Gen Con will increase venue space and change a location to better incorporate the video game business as a focus of the Gen Con shows. This will give video game manufacturers, developers, publishers and others, who traditionally attended E3, a place to feature their products to the trade, media and consumers alike.

“When the news came out about the drastic changes at E3, we began to hear from some industry players about Gen Con increasing its capabilities to better accommodate the industry,” said Peter Adkison, CEO of Gen Con, LLC.  “With our vast experience in producing quality gaming shows, it is a natural extension for us to make Gen Con a place where the electronic industry can show off its products. The video game business has always been a part of our shows, now they will have a greater presence making Gen Con the nation’s premier gaming show, period!”

In order to better accommodate the video game business into its existing shows, Gen Con will expand its venue space at the Indianapolis show in 2007.  An additional 43,000 square feet will be added to the exhibit hall with additional space expanding into area hotels as well to accommodate the thousands of games taking place over the four-day event.

 Later last year, Gamasutra announced that GenCon had hired on a former E3 Director to assist in this expansion:

November 30, 2006

Organizers of the annual Gen Con gaming hobbyist conventions have announced the appointment of former Entertainment Software Association (ESA) executive Bill Creonte as the new senior vice president of business development.

In his new role, Creonte is tasked with expanding Gen Con’s business, including building upon the previously announced plans to add video game-related content in the wake of the changes made to the E3 convention earlier this year. In its newly expanded form, Gen Con organizers hope to provide a venue for video game manufacturers, developers, publishers and others a place to feature their products to the trade, media and consumers alike.

In his previous role at the ESA, Creonte worked as the director of exhibit sales and business development for E3, which the ESA owns and manages. Prior to joining the ESA, Creonte was the national sales manager for E3 at IDG Expo Management, the company formerly responsible for E3’s management. In total, he has spent nine years involved with the industry trade event.

For someone that loves “gaming” in general, whether it be on the PC or around the kitchen table, this is welcome news indeed.  I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing an expanded MMO presence at GenCon this year and in the years ahead.  However, with developer specific events like BlizzCon and FanFaire, I don’t know what kind of presence or announcements those companies will have at GenCon.  I am hoping to see several of the upcoming MMOs there this year, with such companies as SOE, Blizzard, Atari, Flying Labs, EA/Mythic, Eidos, Fallen Earth LLC and NC Interactive confirmed on the exhibitor list.  I know it’s too much to hope for that EA/Mythic will have Warhammer there, but I’m sure hoping!!  For someone like me, going out to CA for cons and such is a pretty expensive endeavor.  So to have more of the MMO developers coming to GenCon is a good thing.  I can get all my gaming goodness in one place and much more affordably.

So I will be out of pocket August 15 - 19th and will be sure to take plenty of pictures and perhaps even some video.  I’ll be sure to have a post-GenCon report when I return and let you guys know how it went.  If anyone reading this is going to the Con this year, let me know.  Would be happy to meet up with you at some point and put a face with a name. 

Share This