GenCon 2016

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Just got a notice from GenCon that badge registration opens next Friday (Jan 22) and hotel registration goes live the following Sunday (Jan 24). Event submission is already open.

So, who is going this year? I ran into a few of you there last year but didn't get to do much with anyone because my schedule was a bit of a mess. Let's get this started!

There is now a planning thread for the official GWJ contingent

I plan on being there. It's going to be great!

I'll be going with my family and a couple of friends. I'm glad to see they've made some modifications to the hotel system. Last time I went (2014), trying to reserve a hotel was insane.

I am very excite!

It's the one con I'm certainly going to. It helps that tickets don't sell out in 30 minutes.

We're going to make the effort this year.

I've still got a sour taste from last year's hotel situation, and feel like we might end up backing out if we aren't able to secure a downtown room.

We have been very on top of / lucky for badges and hotel rooms every year we've gone, but with PlusTwo in our lives and the changing nature of our con experience, PlusOne and I are not going to be in attendance. We'll definitely miss being there. We are kinda noodling around going to Origins this year instead so we can at least talk about new games a bit over the summer, but we haven't decided.

Jolly Bill wrote:

We have been very on top of / lucky for badges and hotel rooms every year we've gone, but with PlusTwo in our lives and the changing nature of our con experience, PlusOne and I are not going to be in attendance. We'll definitely miss being there. We are kinda noodling around going to Origins this year instead so we can at least talk about new games a bit over the summer, but we haven't decided.

We're going to miss you, Bill. Maybe in a year or two you can make it back to GenCon. I had to take a couple years off when my kid was born. Now I can just drop her off with the grandparents.

Yeah, new kids definitely take priority over conventions but I'm sure you'll be back. Gen-Con is probably one of the most family-friendly conventions I've been to; I've never been to one where I didn't have a kid in at least two of the games I'm in.

Ha, yeah, once PlusTwo is old enough to game we'll almost certainly be back. Also if we move somewhere where we can drop him off with the grandparents without quadrupling our travel time.

Right now I'm planning on bringing my (then) ~1.5 year old, so that will be interesting.

I recall seeing many small children and babies at Gen Con last time. I have a feeling we'll be hanging out in the SPA open crafting room considerably more this time.

We'll be there. Hoping to get luckier with hotels this year. I'm fairly disappointed that they stuck with last year's hotel system, clearly the worst they've had in years, but what're you going to do?

Jolly Bill wrote:

We have been very on top of / lucky for badges and hotel rooms every year we've gone, but with PlusTwo in our lives and the changing nature of our con experience, PlusOne and I are not going to be in attendance. We'll definitely miss being there. We are kinda noodling around going to Origins this year instead so we can at least talk about new games a bit over the summer, but we haven't decided.

We'll miss you guys at GenCon! You should definitely hit Origins. It's definitely got a different vibe to it, but well worth going. And I'm totally not biased by the fact that Origins is a big sponsor of Hoop & Stick this year, or that Ravenwood & the Meeple will have a 10x20 booth at Origins...

Badge registration is live now. Hotel registration opens Sunday at noon Eastern.

I'll also +1 Origins. We had a blast last year, and used the drive out as an excuse to spend some time at Malted Meeple before finishing our drive to C-bus.

What flipped my mind about Origins was when I started seeing tweets about the "good" hotels being booked up. So then I looked, and there were still block rooms available at the adjacent and connected hotels. And that's when I realized that, at Origins, the "good" hotels are the cheapest ones, not the closest, according to their usual attendees. It's certainly a more laid back than GenCon, but I also feel like they can learn a ton from GenCon's execution.

It's also way more laid back. You can actually move around the vendor hall on Saturday and Sunday!

Welp, my hotel booking window opens in 2 hours, apparently. We'll see if anything's available then.

Hotel registration is open. I'm in the queue with an hour wait.

One of our group managed to get in with a 38 minute queue so feeling pretty good.

Is everyone going for Hilton again? I got 28 minute wait.

AP

One hour 20 minute wait here.

Last year I had a 5 minute wait, so I guess I used up all my luck then.

One hour wait, and closest hotel was 7 miles out.

Better yet, the GenCon system was having technical glitches again. Would show me hotels right downtown, let me go through the reservation process, then "fail to reserve room" and drop back to the main screen where suddenly the downtown hotels were gone. Unless you hit refresh, in which case they were back, until you tried to reserve it again...

GenCon really, really needs to get out of the hotel business. Arrange a block of rooms as they do, then get out of the way. Standing between the guests and the hotels does nothing but cause problems, and ensure that when those problems happen, it's GenCon that gets the black eye.

Teneman wrote:

One hour wait, and closest hotel was 7 miles out.

Better yet, the GenCon system was having technical glitches again. Would show me hotels right downtown, let me go through the reservation process, then "fail to reserve room" and drop back to the main screen where suddenly the downtown hotels were gone. Unless you hit refresh, in which case they were back, until you tried to reserve it again...

GenCon really, really needs to get out of the hotel business. Arrange a block of rooms as they do, then get out of the way. Standing between the guests and the hotels does nothing but cause problems, and ensure that when those problems happen, it's GenCon that gets the black eye.

Yeah, 2 hour wait and it's 12 miles out for me. I've reserved a Holiday Inn to the south (outside of Gen-Con's system because it's around the same price with better cancellation options) but I'll certainly be renting a car and driving in it seems, unless the bus system is better than it was last year. I'm not counting on that.

I've got one slot left in my hotel booking list, and I'm refreshing it occasionally. I'm still showing rooms as close as 1 block away as having availability. It won't let me actually book them, I'm still getting the "fail to reserve" error, but they're showing up in the search.

I have no idea if their search system is hosed, or if rooms are being temporarily 'held' because they were displayed to someone, and there are actually a lot of rooms available that the system is preventing from being booked. Either is ridiculous.

I ended up with a 1:55 timer, and just booked a room out by the airport. Everything downtown was sold out, so I went with my gut and grabbed an airport room.

We don't know where we'll be in August, so we might be flying, we might be driving.

My first choice apparently sold out between the time it displayed to me and the time I tried to make the reservation. I did manage to get downtown. Wound up at La Meridian. Don't know anything about them but at least I'm in a skywalk hotel.

I'll be there. This will be my first Gen Con since 2003.

Got a room at the Westin using hotel points.

I have never been to Gen Con but just made arrangements. I'll be at the Sheraton (12 miles away). Looking forward to this!

georob wrote:

I have never been to Gen Con but just made arrangements. I'll be at the Sheraton (12 miles away). Looking forward to this!

Make sure you're on the website when they open up event registration, otherwise you'll be stuck with trying to get into games using generics and probably won't get into the more popular games/events.

bnpederson wrote:
georob wrote:

I have never been to Gen Con but just made arrangements. I'll be at the Sheraton (12 miles away). Looking forward to this!

Make sure you're on the website when they open up event registration, otherwise you'll be stuck with trying to get into games using generics and probably won't get into the more popular games/events.

Ayup, May 15th at Noon Eastern is the next big thing.

They open up the event system a few weeks early, for you to start combing through and building a wishlist of events, and then at noon on May 15th, they open the floodgates and let you start booking event tickets based on your wishlist.

Unlike housing, it's a direct-entry queue. When you click the button, you get put into a queue behind everyone who clicked the button before you, and then it starts processing your wishlist of events, getting you tickets for whatever was available when it processed.

Thanks! I was not aware of that.

I have to say, I was really skeptical about GenCon's approach to events at first (you expect me to PAY to go to your panel about dwarven cooking??), but now I am totally on board. I didn't go to any events at PAX South this weekend because I didn't want to stand in a stupid line. Having a spot reserved ahead of time is totally worth not having to show up super early and wait in line for an hour.

And even then, unless it's a hands-on "class" on Dwarven Cooking, the ticket price will be at about $2/hr. I did a needle felting class last year that was $20, because it included fiber, needles, foam block, and everything else for you to take home. Also did a "mod your own steampunk NERF blaster", which was closer to $40, but included a bunch of take-aways and your very own Maverick.

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