Where Are We Playing Today? | |
by Tonya Foust | |
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A small game is not easy to find in a convention the size of
GenCon. I play a game
named Dragon Storm.
Dragon Storm, even though it has been around for a few years, is
not a widely played game. Despite that, Dragon Storm has a small
but loyal following.
This year at GenCon we experienced an interesting shuffle. We had our game location changed three times, just on Saturday alone. I don't think that the management of GenCon was expecting the type of conflicts they had to deal with on this weekend. The main culprit was the Indianapolis Colts game on that Saturday. It was almost surreal. I didn't get up to the game room until a little later in the morning, but apparently the room we were originally in is directly attached to the dome and part of the game space on game days. Thus the first move. The convention moved the Dragon Storm players to a room on the second floor, slightly out of the way but still near the escalators. It was a nice room and this is where I joined up with my friends. I think that move was a nice one since we got to see ALL the costumes being entered into the costume contest. This is including the lithe young punk girl dressed as Leeloo from 5th Element. The only exception I had to her outfit was that she was dressed in masking tape and nothing else! But I digress. We got to see all these costumes because we had been moved to the room that was listed in the program guide as the staging area for the contest. Ah, well, life goes on. About 7:30 (a bunch of us had just gotten back from dinner), we are informed that we have to move again. Not a big thing, but damned inconvenient. So we are moved a little out of the way room WAY in the back of the second floor. Not bad except we are relegated to three small tables shoved in the back corner of a very loud, acoustically poor room. None of us were very happy, but we coped and were able to play and enjoy our games. Now, I told you that story to get to my real point. I realize that a convention the size of GenCon has to juggle many game companies, gamers and GMs. I think that the events that befell the Dragon Storm crowd could possibly have been solved or at least eased by more participation in the planning. I have been on the convention committee of several other conventions (okay, none with a game track quite as big as GenCon, but…) and by getting the participants involved in the planning, things have had a tendency to move much more smoothly. Please do not mistake my meaning. I think that the crew at GenCon did a great job with what they were given. I truly believe that the issues arose out of a lack of communication on the part of the convention center/RCA Dome personnel and perhaps an oversight on the GenCon convention committee's part. The main issue that I noticed is that the convention center personnel had no clue what was going on with relation to the GenCon convention. When issues arose, it was also difficult to find a GenCon official representative. Admittedly, they were short staffed, but in my opinion, I think they could have communicated things a little better than they did. The most annoying issue was that the GenCon convention personnel that the Dragon Storm players tried to work with did not seem to have either a sense of humor, or a decent sense of kindness. The two people that I saw barked orders at us and gave us next to no time to understand what was being asked. That combined with the fact that we had to pester them to find out WHERE we were supposed to go. I understand that people have bad days, we had a doosie of one on Saturday, and I understand that they were only carrying out the orders they, themselves, had been given. So I asked when the GenCon feedback session would be because I had a few ideas. I got told it was none of my business. So, having not been able to make my observations and suggestions at GenCon itself, I will do so here. I think that GenCon would benefit from talking with the smaller game companies that want to have game playing space at the convention. Whether it is for demos of full weekend campaigns, these smaller and lesser known games have just as much draw in their own right as WizKids and WoTC. I think that GenCon would benefit from a open forum throughout the year to hear how the public perceives the planning process thus far. It they gave the public more of an opportunity to have input into the planning process (not necessarily direct input, but at least a look-see) the convention may be able to better plan around the myriad of gamers and games that people want to play. In the end, my opinion if firmly grounded in the belief that communication between all the parties involved will more likely than not alleviate some of the issues I happened to notice and experience this year at GenCon. | |
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