GenCon screwing over non-VIG gamers?
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Posted by ryric

I can do a quick estimation of how many people actually attend Trade Day, as a TD attendee myself. According to my TD program book, the average time slot has 13 or so seminars. Most seminars have about 10-20 attendees, so that gives 130-260 total TD attendees who actually participate in the seminars and other Wednesday activities. If we add in a few more who only attend one or two sessions, maybe bump it to 300.

That seems reasonable to me as generally by 4 PM on Wednesday I recognize most of the other Education TD participants from previous seminars.

Therefore, if the bulk of the early access line is made up of TD people, most of them are not attending any of the actual TD events.

Posted by fizler bigfathairyguy

franknbeans wrote:
They should get rid of the VIG system in general. Having a two class system for attendees is wrong.
No, it's the way the world works rather you like it or not.  People who can afford it have access to many benefits those who cannot do not.

Gencon should be expanding this program by at least 2x and maybe 3x - 4x.  Not doing so is foolish IMHO.  As I continue to say, it's free money for Gencon. 
 

Posted by monkeyknifefight fizler

fizler wrote:
franknbeans wrote:
They should get rid of the VIG system in general. Having a two class system for attendees is wrong.
No, it's the way the world works rather you like it or not.  People who can afford it have access to many benefits those who cannot do not.Gencon should be expanding this program by at least 2x and maybe 3x - 4x.  Not doing so is foolish IMHO.  As I continue to say, it's free money for Gencon. 
 
Then VIG would essentially be required to get a downtown room. Be careful what you ask for, you may just get it.

Posted by bigfathairyguy fizler

fizler wrote:
franknbeans wrote:
They should get rid of the VIG system in general. Having a two class system for attendees is wrong.
No, it's the way the world works rather you like it or not.  People who can afford it have access to many benefits those who cannot do not.Gencon should be expanding this program by at least 2x and maybe 3x - 4x.  Not doing so is foolish IMHO.  As I continue to say, it's free money for Gencon. 
The VIG system isn't a thing for people with money. People will money can get a hotel room no problem out of block, they can afford to pay double msrp on ebay for games, etc. The VIG system is really there to reward gamers who keep coming back year after year since that is pretty much the only way to participate in it unless you are extremely lucky and get one of the handful of open spaces every year. It made sense when it was a smaller convention but with 61,000 people attending it just doesn't make sense anymore. You truthfully don't need to reward a handful of long time attendees. Your focus should be on giving the best experience to the whole 61,000 attendees. 

Also a lot of the complaints with the VIG program should really go to the vendors. If you have what you think is a hot limited release game you should do something online ahead of time to reserve copies or set up demos. Even better if they know they are going to have 150 copies they could make it a ticketed event to get one or to do a demo.

Posted by jhs

When the VIG thing started, I thought "why would anyone do this"?  $500 to get first choice of hotel and a few other things seemed weird when you could always get a downtown hotel.  Now, of course, that is much more valuable.  I figure the people who paid the extra money back then deserve to get the benefit now, I suppose, but can't help but think gencon is (now) way underpricing them.

Posted by fizler monkeyknifefight

monkeyknifefight wrote:
fizler wrote:
franknbeans wrote:
They should get rid of the VIG system in general. Having a two class system for attendees is wrong.
No, it's the way the world works rather you like it or not.  People who can afford it have access to many benefits those who cannot do not.Gencon should be expanding this program by at least 2x and maybe 3x - 4x.  Not doing so is foolish IMHO.  As I continue to say, it's free money for Gencon. 
Then VIG would essentially be required to get a downtown room. Be careful what you ask for, you may just get it.

I would have no problem with that.  The demand for VIG's is strong.  Gencon is foolish to not expand the program to meet that requirements and gain some significant revenue.

If you want to take a large step toward addressing some of the downtown hotel issues move the volunteers and vendors out of downtown and give them shuttle buses.  This would be foolish for Gencon to do as the only reason Gencon is able to continue is volunteer labor but it would address the issues more than anything else discussed.  
 

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