So, I heard that Gen Con told Cheese Weasel not to come this year because Gen Con was going to do something too similar. I haven't heard about any 'quest' meta-event except the puzzle one that never was considered competing with Cheese Weasel.
So, any info out on what the 'new' Quest is? Do we need cards, etc to pick up before the Exhibit Hall opens?
...or did Gen Con not manage to get a replacement in time, hence the non-news?
Lots of folks have been asking but no word yet.
_____________________________________ Alec Usticke, Fans of Gen Con Facebook Group
Feels weird for the convention to move in to a space that a company has been occupying for a long time and was generally well liked. I mean, I hadn't personally heard any complaints about it, but maybe I'm not listening to the right crowds. I could see them forcing out a company that wasn't performing well, but I'd honestly rather see them work with a provider than taking over that space.
I am sure all of us are speaking purely in conjecture, but I imagine more likely than Gen-Con telling Cheese Weasel not to come would be placing new limits on how Cheese Weasel could place its puzzle signs, either with or without the intention to do its own puzzle, which then led to Cheese Weasel not being terribly interested in working around the limitations and pulling out... to be replaced or not replaced, we will see!
'its puzzle signs'? Sorry, not following. The booth itself has moved over the years, but not sure 'signs' they post otherwise. The rest of it is driven by the booths that want the publicity and traffic.
Wait, then who posted all those puzzle signs around the convention? Sorry, it is apparently quite obvious by now I paid no attention to them :)
The puzzle hunt is back this year, but now it consists of several ticketed events. It also looks like its put on by a different company.
The puzzle hunt is being run by someone different this year. I don't know who they are but Lone Shark confirmed it's not them.
It looks like it will run as before - they will have 12 placards around the convention. It is listed in the event catalog but the tickets are free and duration is the entire con. Then they have additional puzzles that you can pay for.
Does anyone know how this all works?
So there is the regular puzzle hunt, Then 4 puzzle packs you have to buy, then an uber puzzle that you only get if you do them all?
If my game group wants to do the packs do we all need tickets or just one of us?
I don't believe I've seen any announcements, newsletter or otherwise, so aside from what's in the event descriptions, your guess is as good as anyone's.
https://www.gencon.com/event_finder?host=Puzzle+Hunt+Creations
Yes yes, but what is Gen Con replacing the Cheese Weasel Quest with that they told them not to come back this year because they were running their own?
Cheese Weasel was a thing where exhibitors could sign up to punch the cards (or show QR codes to the phone app) that Cheese Weasel provided, and anyone who turned in completed cards was entered into a drawing for free swag. The exhibitor could place a requirement on getting the punch, like playing a demo or listening to a spiel. I always found it a great way to explore the dealer room, because the need to get all those cards punched meant that I would go to out-of-the-way places and often discover something nifty and new.
So, did anyone see the cheeseweasel replacement? Was it any good?
_____________________________________ Alec Usticke, Fans of Gen Con Facebook Group
I would argue that the Cheese Weasel replacement has actually been up and running since last year. One should ask, what Cheese Weasel's actual purpose? It drove traffic to the participating vendors / exhibitors. Basically people would get the cards from CW and then go to the various participating booths and get them stamped and then return them for a chance at games being raffled off at the CW booth. The underlying transaction was that vendors paid to be part of the program to drive traffic to their booths. Now look at the pin program - vendors pay to have a pin as part of that program and it drives traffic to their booths.
Tacking onto this I'm reminded of a discussion I had with some booth people last year on Sunday. My wife and I went to the booth for a demo, and they were both shocked, and excited to see that we *actually wanted to to demo the game*. Apparently, they had signed up with cheese weasel, and just had a steady stream of people with no interest in the game at all coming by and filling up their demo space to get their card stamped.
That discussion opened my eyes a bit, and I'm 90% sure that the reason GenCon axed Cheese Weasel was to make demos more accessible to people who wanted to actually demo the games.
For me, that's on the vendor. Many vendors required a demo attendance to get a stamp.
I think the point is that the CW people were doing the demo, but without real interest, just to get the stamp.