Muahaha...

*This* community represented pretty well last year, I'd say we had 12 or so at dinner. I expect this coming year to be bigger (perhaps 20 or so).

Personally, I welcome the video game presence on the show floor. I think last year they did a good job keeping it in the ghetto, making the visual and auditory impact minimal on the rest of the convention. It's a great chance to get in depth, particularly with the RPGs. I know we had a good time getting exposure to titles like Age of Conan and The Witcher (and sure, we got to play Crysis and Starcraft 2 as well.)

As far as actual Gencon programming, I'm of mixed opinion to be honest. I think a session or two on crossover would be keen - folks like Kevin Wilson from Fantasy Flight are practically making a career out of crossover games, and of course the HAS guys were in full force with Eye of Judgment last year. I think they all have interesting thigns to say.

And as for playing games - I think this can be problematic. Last year there was a "pay 10 bucks to get in the room" thing which was fine, but essentially it meant standing around in line waiting to play Guitar Hero 3 or whatever, which I had no interest in. If you expand that, my suggestion would be to have more lounge space - beanbags for pickup DS games and the like - and more retro gaming. I think you had like one Ms. Pacman machine in a corner and I know that was a blast. A roving arcade would rock. Not sure how realistic that is.

But overall, I think the focus should be on stuff we can't do at home. That means either NEW stuff trotted out by developers (which means on the floor, most likely) or unique stuff (like stand-up arcade machines or other crazy stuff I'm not creative enough to come up with.)

I also think you very much need to focus (as you have in the past) on segregation. There are a LOT of people at gencon who want to have nothing to do with video games at all.

I personally have no interest at sitting down for impromptu LAN games. I get plenty of that kind of gaming at home.

Really appreciate you using this as a forum to ask!

I like your idea of Retro Games, in fact - some of us pondered having a Donkey Kong tournament.

As for the "10 bucks to get in" room I'm not sure what you're talking about per say, as far as I know the Video Game "Arena' that had the Guitar Hero 3 line was to the left of the Crysis/Intel bus and that was totally free to get in.

I to agree with the "stuff we can't do at home" aspect, but do you think that still leaves room for tournaments? A lot of people loved the CounterStrike and Halo tournaments last year.

We'd love to have an EOJ tournament at GenCon, the problem is no one on staff really knows how to play it, so we'd need an expert to help collaborate on event management.

Oh, and as a side note, if any of you GWJ guys are looking for comped badges the VG staff will probably need some volunteers to help with the video game area, and for 32 or 16 hours of work you get your 4 day badge refunded and your hotel stay as well (4 person room), the policy is here: http://www.gencon.com/2007/indy/iam/volunteer/default.aspx

No, I'm not trying to shanghai this thread into a "JOIN GENCON STAFF FOR FREE BADGE" post, just offering some insight.

Come to the dark side ...

Gencon, for me, is about playing games on the floor, and making martini's at night.

I was planning to go to GenCon this year. As a long-time PnP roleplayer, I've always dreamed of going. One of my RPG groups goes pretty much every year. And with GWJ having a presence there now, I decided I had no reason not to go. Except several events this year conspired to make my attendance less than ideal (10 year anniversary, Florida vacation and bad illness ate into my PTO, wife between jobs for several weeks). So hopefully next year.

I was at Gencon last year with EOJ which unfortunately left me little time to do anything else, so please correct me if what I am about to suggest already happens. I think it would be cool to have a few panels, maybe even have a panel on the crossover from board games into video games we are seeing a lot of. I plan on attending Gencon this year and am really looking forward to having time to just be at the event and do all the cool stuff I couldn't do last year.

It also might be cool to have a section open for Indie developers where they can show their stuff.

Loved GenCon. Loved. Totally going back this year, in whatever capacity I can.

I wish I had something more to add to what Rabbit's already posted, but he hit the nail on the head. The best parts of the expo floor were games that we didn't know a lot about. Seeing more of that would be great. I'd also second the idea of an area dedicated to impromptu DS games, filled with bean bags and such. PAX nailed that from the first year on.

I'm curious: How seriously do video game developers take GenCon? I was kind of surprised that Bioware didn't make an appearance. Might be an interesting place for them to show their new MMO.

Oh, how I love wishing upon a star.

I think they are still feeling out Gencon. Some folks, like CCP, have been there for years with a big presence. Others have avoided.

I don't think I'd want to participate in a multi-match tourney. If there were slots available for single round match-ups, I'd definitely be down for showing everyone what playing games since you were four nets you. Answer: not much. Mediocrity at best.

My dislike for the tourney is my preference for a lack of schedule. I don't want to have to keep my eye on the clock while demoing games on the floor because I have my second match to lose in a double elimination tournament.

I like the Rock Band idea but really only because I want to see Interrobang live!

New site still has some quirks.

There are 5 definites from Chicago and a few unconfirmed but highly likelys. We're gonna form a tightly new group with secret hand shakes and mission statements then exclude everyone else from our merry making.

Harmonix did that at PAX last year and it was lineups as far as the eye could see. Of course the game hadn't been released yet so people were salivating at the chance to get there hands on it. I still think it would attract a lot of attention, especially if there were songs that were playable haven't been released yet.

I would just worry about the noise. You wouldn't want it to overpower other booths, so location would be important.

I was there for dinner and board games afterward and never once was groped or abused, but then I had to leave early and didn't stay all night, so my evidence is hardly conclusive.

Wow, It's pretty cool that so many of you guys are coming - maybe we can arrange a location for a live recording of GWJ Conference Call?