I can well believe 1e D+D being on the 'under-served' list, given my (lack of) luck in actually getting into any on-grid games of it over the years.
@Derek, For curiousity's sake, can you indicate what threshhold number of unserved demand each of these games had?
Can you perhaps repost the list with the number of unserved?
Thanks. Chuck
I'm not going to provide specific numbers because I don't want this to deviate into debating one game against another. There's no benefit in that so I'm not going to fuel it.
Everythign on the list had at least a couple hundred unserved ticket requests, so there should be plenty of demand for growth for all of them, well beyond what almost any single group or individual would be able to provide in one year.
- Derek Guder Event Manager Gen Con LLC
We are doing our part - upped our (mainly Call of Cthulhu) player hours from about 920 in 2015 to 2,822 in 2016
Novu Ordo Seclorum
This is perfect. Thanks! That 200+ number is the one I was looking for!
Curious. I'm an old gamer, DM, who has been slowly teaching his kids (ages 9 and 12 now) the joys of all kinds of gaming. We recently had great fun at a local game shop playing Werewolf, which I didn't see listed on the list of underserved games (does that mean it's represented and attended "as expected"?) but I did notice King of Tokyo. We love that game, but it's not one that someone really sets up and "runs" like a RPG. How does one GM King of Tokyo?
FWIW, I attended Gen Con last in 1978 or 1979, up in Wisconsin. :)
I'm not really sure what you mean - it's run like any other board game. The "GM" or host would be teaching players the rules and answering questions that come up during the game to keep it running smoothly. The GM may or may not be playing themselves, as well.
In most cases, it's the same as a friend coming over to teach you how to play a new game.
Is that what you were getting at?
That still happens along the old hallway to Halls A, B, & C (to the Marriott & JW), partly to prevent the furniture re-arranging issues you mention.
We stay in the Downtown Marriott most years so I'm used to seeing them. However, I didn't get to see much late last year (I was sick Saturday, Sunday, and most of the ride home) so I had to hedge my comment. :(
The Fight in the Skies Society did our part this year in helping to fill \some of the needs in some of these games
i submitted 5 Firefly board game events, the past few years ive gone i never managed to get into a game so im gonna solve that problem and run one (or 5) myself
Awesome, thanks for pitching in and running more games, folks!
Well to be clear, every board game event isn't necessarily a teaching game, some people just want to come play the game with people; maybe it's one none of their friends like locally.
Marian McBrine Event Coordinator Gen Con LLC
So, no, not everyone who wants the game is only doing it because they're an IP fanboy/fangirl. Some of us genuinely want to learn the system so we can go home and lead it for other people.
If all I wanted was the IP, there were several OTHER Dresden related games in last years program, such as Amber Diceless and ...I think maybe a Fiasco scenario, I don't remember. Anyway, it was there if you didn't care. That list specifically says there was a dearth of slots for the FATE system games... there were two slots, and they were both eight a.m. I know, I read the 2015 program guide to figure out what my odds were of getting into a game this year.
-Fledgling narrator/Game master-
I have run games for the past 4 years and have enjoyed it. I have created a small following of sorts, and the same folks seek out my games every year. Last year the demand was so high that my regulars were unable to get tickets. Sad thing is, I sold out all my tickets to my Saturday night game but only 2 of 8 showed. So I had 3 guys (regulars) who did not show (had no ticket and did not want to do the generic ticket stand-by) because they had no tickets, and then who-ever did get tickets, did not show. I wonder about Saturday night games sometimes. This year we have decided to gather off the grid and find a table to play Thursday-Saturday evenings in a 3-part trilogy game. No tickets, just friends who met at GenCon. It gives us freedom to start and end when we want, should we want to play longer or cut it short.
In the back of my mind I want to submit games, but the ticket thing with some left out and and then some that do not show kind of turns me off. It would not be the case without the GenCon group we have developed.
But then again, if I ran games on the grid again, it would put more games out there to play. I changed sytems from an unpopular one (not on this list) to D&D 5e which appears to be near the top.
I dunno. I'm in much the same boat - been running games for 12 years now, have the "loyal" crew of folks who show up year after year, etc.
But my usually packed-to-the-rafters-with-a-queue-of-generics-hopefuls Saturday night session last year was sold out, but under-attended to the point where it almost had to get scrubbed.
Something ... odd.... happened last year on Saturday night for attendance it seems, so I might not treat last year's outcome as typical of the past or predictive of the future.
Something ... odd.... happened last year on Saturday night for attendance it seems
I'm surprised that that wasn't planned better... pulling a few thousand gamers out of their Saturday evening games probably disrupted a bunch of events.
I think the biggest problem is that people "overbook" themselves either un-intentionally or otherwise. Last year, for example, there were some events that I really wanted to get in. On "ticket day" I was number 750 in the queue and already had the event numbers ready. When I went to purchase my tickets EVERY gaming event I was interested in was already sold out. Now, I know that there were more than 750 slots available for the games that I wanted so I could not imagine how this happened. Now I know that some people buy tickets for events for themselves as well as friends, but still, I cannot imagine how every event was sold out so quickly. (I didn't even pick some of the high demand items.) After the con, many of the events that I was interested in had many no-shows. Wish I had known earlier. This year, I am thinking of getting nothing but generics and going that route and just showing up at games I want to play in hopes of getting in.
I am unsure of a solution, but I am certain there could be a better way to handle ticket purchases, especially for high-demand games. Perhaps there should not be an option to purchase tickets for anyone other than yourself. Not sure when the option to purchase tickets for your friends was instituted, but I would be interested to see if there was a rise in no-shows after this was put into place. After all, if I purchase a ticket for a CoC event for me and two friends, and I am driving but don't get up in time to go, then I have just caused three no-shows for the same event rather than one if I had just purchased a ticket for myself. Either way, I go to Gen Con to experience new games, play some familiar games, and meet new people so its not that big of a deal to me, however to others it may be.