My Thoughts On Gaming Conventions
Posted by Jeff Hiatt on Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Last September I posted this on a local group in regards to local conventions. I thought that it was worth putting up here:
I didn't go to Conquest. Why? Because there really wasn't anything on the
schedule that I wanted to do. The only thing that was interesting to me was
the Flea Market but I am not going to shell out for a badge just to do that.
There will be people that say "Well if you don't see something on the
schedule that you like volunteer to run something". The answer to that is
that I don't feel like it. Over the years I have put in more volunteer time
with the cons than most. So that being said if I go to a convention I want
to play something that I don't normally get to do during my usual gaming
times. I am happy to pay to go to the convention if there is something
there.
I did a lot of gaming this weekend though. I was at Game Kastle of Friday
and Sunday and both days they were pretty full with gamers playing games.
The Docking Bay at GK had 12-20 people in there playing 40k from 11 to 6. I
asked a couple of them why they were there as opposed to Conquest. Most
forgot or didn't know about it. There were also some that were in my boat in
that they didn't see anything there worth the expense.
Now please don't get me wrong I know of the sacrifices of money and time
that are given to producing the convention. So what I will say next is meant
as constructive criticism and not an attack on ANY of the local conventions.
On this subject I can only speak about miniatures because that what I do.
Jon Caudil and Dave Partek do a great job with the Historical miniatures
categories at their respective conventions. However where all the
conventions are lacking is that there is no active recruiting of GM's in the
Science Fiction, Fantasy and Pulp categories.
What do I mean about active recruiting? It means going out to the place
where people play and seeing what is being played and recruiting GMs. Many
years ago when I first got into running events at conventions the thing that
got me into it was Nick Tompkins and Rodrick talking to me at Slugathon
about running my game at their conventions. I did that and ran games and
after that helped to create Kublacon and worked as one on the Senior
Volunteers for many years after that. Unfortunately there are not a whole
lot
of the smaller shows like Slugathon any more but there are other venues and
in some ways it is easier now than it was then to find out what is going on
when and where. Most of the stores have websites to see what is going on at
their stores and forums to see what people are talking about. I cannot
remember the last time I heard of any convention representative coming out
to the stores to see what is going on or recruiting.
For a specific example I will use Conquest and their Sci Fi and Fantasy
Miniatures selections. They had the GW series of tournaments and that is
usually something that adds to the convention. But you take those away and
there is 8 or so S/F mini games a couple of which were board games. That
being said probably the most popular s/f miniatures game in the area wasn't
on the schedule: Warmachine. Also missing was AEWW2, SOTR, Dark Age,
Alkemy, Uncharted Seas, Non tournament GW games, Wargods, Rezolution, AT-43,
Confrontation, Infinity and etc.
So, what can be done to fixed this? Communication. Talk to the people out
there. Go to the stores see what is happening there. Talk to the store
owners and managers find out what is being played, sold and what people are
interested in. Talk to players at the stores and the clubs. Talk to the
people in your own vendor rooms. Ask the question to people out there what
is missing from the
schedule. Also another place to find GM's is to go to the manufacturers
directly and ask. A lot of time they have demo programs or at the very least
they can put out an APB asking their customers for help. It is not easy but
in the end it will provide a better convention.
I didn't go to Conquest. Why? Because there really wasn't anything on the
schedule that I wanted to do. The only thing that was interesting to me was
the Flea Market but I am not going to shell out for a badge just to do that.
There will be people that say "Well if you don't see something on the
schedule that you like volunteer to run something". The answer to that is
that I don't feel like it. Over the years I have put in more volunteer time
with the cons than most. So that being said if I go to a convention I want
to play something that I don't normally get to do during my usual gaming
times. I am happy to pay to go to the convention if there is something
there.
I did a lot of gaming this weekend though. I was at Game Kastle of Friday
and Sunday and both days they were pretty full with gamers playing games.
The Docking Bay at GK had 12-20 people in there playing 40k from 11 to 6. I
asked a couple of them why they were there as opposed to Conquest. Most
forgot or didn't know about it. There were also some that were in my boat in
that they didn't see anything there worth the expense.
Now please don't get me wrong I know of the sacrifices of money and time
that are given to producing the convention. So what I will say next is meant
as constructive criticism and not an attack on ANY of the local conventions.
On this subject I can only speak about miniatures because that what I do.
Jon Caudil and Dave Partek do a great job with the Historical miniatures
categories at their respective conventions. However where all the
conventions are lacking is that there is no active recruiting of GM's in the
Science Fiction, Fantasy and Pulp categories.
What do I mean about active recruiting? It means going out to the place
where people play and seeing what is being played and recruiting GMs. Many
years ago when I first got into running events at conventions the thing that
got me into it was Nick Tompkins and Rodrick talking to me at Slugathon
about running my game at their conventions. I did that and ran games and
after that helped to create Kublacon and worked as one on the Senior
Volunteers for many years after that. Unfortunately there are not a whole
lot
of the smaller shows like Slugathon any more but there are other venues and
in some ways it is easier now than it was then to find out what is going on
when and where. Most of the stores have websites to see what is going on at
their stores and forums to see what people are talking about. I cannot
remember the last time I heard of any convention representative coming out
to the stores to see what is going on or recruiting.
For a specific example I will use Conquest and their Sci Fi and Fantasy
Miniatures selections. They had the GW series of tournaments and that is
usually something that adds to the convention. But you take those away and
there is 8 or so S/F mini games a couple of which were board games. That
being said probably the most popular s/f miniatures game in the area wasn't
on the schedule: Warmachine. Also missing was AEWW2, SOTR, Dark Age,
Alkemy, Uncharted Seas, Non tournament GW games, Wargods, Rezolution, AT-43,
Confrontation, Infinity and etc.
So, what can be done to fixed this? Communication. Talk to the people out
there. Go to the stores see what is happening there. Talk to the store
owners and managers find out what is being played, sold and what people are
interested in. Talk to players at the stores and the clubs. Talk to the
people in your own vendor rooms. Ask the question to people out there what
is missing from the
schedule. Also another place to find GM's is to go to the manufacturers
directly and ask. A lot of time they have demo programs or at the very least
they can put out an APB asking their customers for help. It is not easy but
in the end it will provide a better convention.
Tags: "gaming conventions"