funny-shaped dice wrote: brotherbock wrote: funny-shaped dice wrote: rayken wrote:
GenCon is a totally different experience when you're in a downtown connected hotel.
I don't agree with this
at all - but to each their own. It all depends on what you want out of and can put up with at Gen Con
But it's true that
if you have certain desires and expectations from the Con, the experience will be very different.Back in the day in Milwaukee, I had friends who wanted the following from GenCon:
1) Game from 10ish in the morning to about 8ish in the evening.
2) Go do some serious drinking, interspersed with less formal gaming.
3) Carouse around downtown Milwaukee, including into their hotel, continuing to drink and game, and hang out with other drinkers and gamers.
4) Short stumble back to the room.
5) Repeat.
I'm all in with the qualifications you've provided - and I agree with your qualified assertion; if that is your Gen Con, having a downtown hotel
might better support it. Its the original, unqualified assertion that rankles me - only because I think too many Gen Conners stake their happiness on a downtown hotel, complain when they don't get one and then that attitude spreads and infects others.Now, of the 5 points above, 4 are related to drinking. :). If you don't get a downtown hotel, you can still do all of those things - except #4 - and then call an Uber/Lyft. Which is why I said "might better support it" and why you can *still* have that Gen Con experience while staying at an outlying hotel.
(I've liked my downtown stays, don't get me wrong - just want others to realize that Gen Con is great no matter where you stay)
I've been attending since 2006. My first full 4 days was in 2007. I've stayed downtown most of the time, and had to stay outside of downtown once or twice.
Walking around all day and being able to walk back to your room for a nap, being able to chill out in your hotel lobby and store games in your room... Being able to walk back and forth to grab games, or go to a lounge (if you're in the Marriott) and get drinks, etc. is a HUGELY and wholly different experience than staying outside of the downtown area.
Knowing your car is parked and that's where it sits for the 4 days is a totally different experience too. You can get up when you want, go to sleep when you want, and you don't have to worry about getting anywhere or being anywhere other than walking down the the sidewalk or through a hamster tube.
The feeling in the city is electric with gaming, too. It's like an entire city of gaming that doesn't sleep for 4 days and you never once have to remove yourself from it. No matter where you end up going if you're downtown, there are Genconners and people gaming around you, at almost all hours of the night. As you pass from the halls, to the gaming rooms, to the lobbies, everyone is constantly gaming, and you're enveloped in it 24/7.
When you have to leave the area and get your car and go 15 miles out and go back to your room, it's a very, very different feeling. Doesn't change how fun the days of the cons are, but it's still a very different feeling. It makes each day feel distinct, as opposed to Wednesday night-Sunday being combined into pure GenCon.
It is great no matter where you stay - but the feeling, the experience, is much different IMO. Especially in the later hours at night when you have to go vs stay.
Indy needs to hurry up and build more downtown hotel space, and expand the convention center, or whatever they are planning. Add thousands of rooms, please. The more people who get downtown rooms the better, and GenCon will continue supporting Indianapolis.