Recycling a lot of the text from last year's post:
We've had a chance to compile the wish list data for this year, and that means we can take a look at it to see what games are in the highest demand, for a number of reasons.
It also means that if you would like to get the wish list data for your own events, so you can go into more detail in your own planning, just email [email protected] and ask (and remember to include your group name). If you aren't the event organizer for your company or group, ask them to do it - we won't be sending data to individual GMs or anything.
First, the same caveats and instructions from last year still apply:
First, remember this list does not reflect overall demand, only high unserved demand - which is expressed here as the number of tickets folks had in their wish lists beyond the number of tickets that could actually be sold, based on submitted schedules. It's also wort noting this only measures the kinds of events folks put in their wish lists. Many TCGs and miniature games (and most board games, for that matter) don't have as strong a culture of pre-registering. Many players just show up with generics. Late events obviously won't be in this list, either, nor do games that had no submissions this year, for whatever reason (even if they were on last year's list). This is not provided to debate the merits of different games or editions, but instead to help GMs figure out what games they might want to run in response to what players are trying to get into. Second, don't sweat the details too much. There are lots of variables and some strange artifacts can pop up in how events are listed or attendees sign up for them. Friends might double-up and put the same tickets on both their wish lists. Many people will put every session they can find on their list, even if they really only want a single ticket. So the numbers I have aren't exact and don't read too much into these rough rankings. They're not exact, but they are a useful general gauge of what games seem to have a lot of unserved interested behind them. I'm going to break games up by type this year. Might make it a bit easier to parse quickly. If anyone has any questions or would like other data, let me know and I'll see what I can sort out.
It's also wort noting this only measures the kinds of events folks put in their wish lists. Many TCGs and miniature games (and most board games, for that matter) don't have as strong a culture of pre-registering. Many players just show up with generics. Late events obviously won't be in this list, either, nor do games that had no submissions this year, for whatever reason (even if they were on last year's list).
This is not provided to debate the merits of different games or editions, but instead to help GMs figure out what games they might want to run in response to what players are trying to get into.
Second, don't sweat the details too much. There are lots of variables and some strange artifacts can pop up in how events are listed or attendees sign up for them. Friends might double-up and put the same tickets on both their wish lists. Many people will put every session they can find on their list, even if they really only want a single ticket. So the numbers I have aren't exact and don't read too much into these rough rankings. They're not exact, but they are a useful general gauge of what games seem to have a lot of unserved interested behind them.
I'm going to break games up by type this year. Might make it a bit easier to parse quickly. If anyone has any questions or would like other data, let me know and I'll see what I can sort out.
What is the point of looking at this list? Well...
The distribution of high unserved demand events among different event types speaks to player habits and the challenges in scaling some events to meet apparent demand. If anyone is thinking about running some events at Gen Con and not sure what to do or if you're a gaming group/company looking to expand, hopefully this can be a bit of a guide: pick something from this list and you shouldn't have much troubling finding players.
If anyone is thinking about running some events at Gen Con and not sure what to do or if you're a gaming group/company looking to expand, hopefully this can be a bit of a guide: pick something from this list and you shouldn't have much troubling finding players.
RPGs
I pulled out the RPGs that were in high demand that I don't believe will be out in time for Gen Con, so it will be hard for general attendees to run more events for them:
I find the list very interesting for the number of smaller, indie RPGs that are recent releases from the last year or two. I feel like this list is changing faster now than it has in the past.
Board & Card Games
I removed a couple games from this list (RoboRally, King of Tokyo, Catan) because their demand was driven by very special large-scale events.
Just like RPGs, a few of these are hotly anticipated and I don't think they'll be available before the convention. Let me know if I missed any:
For other event types, things get more chaotic and individual.
For LARPs, unserved demand was for specific custom games or for home-brew games that are driven by the gaming group's reputation and/or the IP.
Historical minis (HMN) had War of the Ring in relatively high demand, as well as Bolt Action. Non-historical minis (NMN) were mostly spread out as well, but Frostrave, Shadows of Brimstone, Star Wars Legion, Gaslands, Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures, & Star Wars Miniatures - a strong for a number of old games, as well as some new ones.
Hey,
If you were late submitting to GenCon to get events approved and uploaded for people to sign up and play. Is there a forum or way to let people know that new ones have been added or do we just wait and see if people stumble across them? First year and just wondering.
You can post in the Events forum and any other communities where you think folks might be interested, like the unofficial Gen Con reddit, etc. If you tweet a link to our Gen Con twitter (@gen_con), Kristen may be able to promote it there, too.
And we'll have future streams and newsletters to try to get the word out about specific events, as well.
These high demand events are likely to have enough interest that folks will find them naturally, though.
- Derek Guder Event Manager Gen Con LLC
Thank you, that was the information that I was looking to obtain. Appreciated.
Will there be any emphasis on events run in Lucas Oil Stadium? It doesn't get the walk through traffic that the main halls get and miniatures games depend a lot on walk ins to replace the ticket holders who oversleep or overbook. I was at the Horticultural Hall Museum last year and ran one event of Little Wars and the area was sparse on bodies compared to the regular halls.
That's not really relevant to this thread, so if you want to go into more detail, you'll want to create another thread, but what emphasis are you asking about, specifically?
If you are wondering about the density of events, that will be much increased this year, with lots of gaming groups having been moved to the Stadium for this year.
If you're asking about direct promotion of Stadium events, I don't think we've singled them out, per se, so much as focused on highlight cool events in general all around the show. There aren't many more opportunities to highlight those events between now and show anyway, unfortunately.
As I finalize my plans for running games in 2019, this has been helpful. Derek, have you noticed any particular TIMES that are unfulfilled?
I haven't measured unmet demand across times, but I'll try to make a note to do that.
Ultimately, we're pretty full-up during midday in most locations, so it's usually better to plan to be done by noon or starting after 6 pm to maximize potential space.
- Derek Guder Senior Event & Program Manager Gen Con LLC
That does make sense. Thanks for the reply.
From a player (not GM) standpoint:
Curious. If/when will this be updated and re-posted for the 2019 events for reference?
It will be updated, just haven't had a chance to. Most likely be able to do the numbers for this year after Origins.
I'm sure this is the last thing on the list with good reason, but remain curious about this. Hope all goes well so we can hear any insight on this. Thanks and we understand if there's not time to do this data dive and share at this point.
Will this be updated before the event submissions hit? Just curious because i'm opting to pass on running RPG's this year and I want to know what's looking to be requested board game wise, I have an idea but the list is still nice.
I have a question about adventures, can you run a published adventure if you are not part of the publishing company or the original writers? I would like to run a published Dragon Age adventure but am unsure of the steps I need to take in order to do this. I have previously written my own and will do this again but have really enjoyed some of the Green Ronin Published adventures. Any help in the right direction is appreciated.
Yes, you are welcome to run almost anything without any association with the publisher.
I often encourage folks to directly volunteer for the companies so they can include those events in their schedule, but it's by no means a requirement.
- Derek Guder Senior Event & Program Manager
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Any new list of games for this year?
If we have a chance to prepare something like this for 2022, we'll likely post it around the end of the year or early into next, as event submission opens up.
- Derek Guder Director of Events Gen Con LLC