TOPIC: GenCon 2021 Updates

balthasar wrote:

bpsymington wrote:

Fred K wrote:

bpsymington wrote: Since the ICC is currently planning on closing overnight for cleaning, I’ve been hearing from people about opportunities to play in the hotels.

I hope they make an exception for the main lobby. Every year, I’ve made it a point to spend one late night building on cardhalla until the wee hours of the morning.

Fred

It is my hope that as vaccinations increase and the situation continues to improve, ICC/GC/state & Local health officials can agree to relax some of the restrictions currently in place.

Indiana is is at 37% of the state's population fully vaccinated and 42% with one shot. Our progress has dropped offed, but the state may still decide to allow larger, indoor events to lessen their health protocols. I'd still like to see them require masks for several reasons. First, it is easier to enforce than asking for proof of vaccinations. Second, there will be people travelling from all over the US and each state has different levels of vaccine acceptance. And lastly, I think it is just the easiest way to give the most attendees peace of mind.

My position on that has been said before, but I will do whatever GC & local/state health officials require.

CA, especially in the urban areas, is kicking butt with vaccinations. We are no Vermont, but we are doing so well that the state is lifting most restrictions for vaxxed people starting tomorrow.

I read that some big companies might be skipping GC as kind of a test. If they don’t suffer a loss of business, why go to future cons and deal with that level of complexity and expenses?

I think companies that don’t go to cons might end up regretting that decision. I read today about “revenge shopping,” with people willing to spend exorbitantly on stuff that they feel they missed out on over the past year.

One of the publishers I follow said that Gencon is willing to accept event submissions from private groups as long as they can have three tables running "Most of the time" (whatever that means). So, it's possible we'll see more games being run than we first thought.

The GenCon Indy events catalog is now live on GenCon’s website.

bpsymington wrote: The GenCon Indy events catalog is now live on GenCon’s website.

Yeah, but I can’t find any Traveller games nor Shadows of Brimstone listed…

I just got a hotel room but now I don’t think I will go…

Mongo wrote:

bpsymington wrote: The GenCon Indy events catalog is now live on GenCon’s website.

Yeah, but I can’t find any Traveller games nor Shadows of Brimstone listed…

I just got a hotel room but now I don’t think I will go…

Just found two games of FireFly… I may go after all.

Mongo wrote:

Mongo wrote:

bpsymington wrote: The GenCon Indy events catalog is now live on GenCon’s website.

Yeah, but I can’t find any Traveller games nor Shadows of Brimstone listed…

I just got a hotel room but now I don’t think I will go…

Just found two games of FireFly… I may go after all.

I think the two games of FireFly are the same.

I did find one traveller game, The event ID is RPG21191130

The number of events is puzzling. They are allowing 30,000 attendees but limited events (currently between 5k and 6k.) By comparison, 2019 had 55k attendees and 19.600 events.

So, we have 55% of the people and 28% of the events translating to half as many events per person as we would normally have.

Baldman games have quite a bit fewer events than normal. No rio grande games, no Pelgrane Press, SJG is cut down dramatically, no serious Catan tournament, You too can Cthulhu doesn’t look like they are doing their black ticket event (but are doing the Masks event, at least), Hickman doesn’t appear to be coming, no significant guests so far, no mechwarrior/battletech, etc..

I am thinking whether I’ll attend will be based on whether I can get into much of what I want to see. Alternatively, I may just go for 1-2 days rather than the full trip. Of course, Covid case counts in Indy at the time will matter as well.

I can say I was 75% likely to go before the catalog went live - now down to about 25%.

Fred

Fred K wrote: The number of events is puzzling. They are allowing 30,000 attendees but limited events (currently between 5k and 6k.) By comparison, 2019 had 55k attendees and 19.600 events.

So, we have 55% of the people and 28% of the events translating to half as many events per person as we would normally have.

Baldman games have quite a bit fewer events than normal. No rio grande games, no Pelgrane Press, SJG is cut down dramatically, no serious Catan tournament, You too can Cthulhu doesn’t look like they are doing their black ticket event (but are doing the Masks event, at least), Hickman doesn’t appear to be coming, no significant guests so far, no mechwarrior/battletech, etc..

I am thinking whether I’ll attend will be based on whether I can get into much of what I want to see. Alternatively, I may just go for 1-2 days rather than the full trip. Of course, Covid case counts in Indy at the time will matter as well.

I can say I was 75% likely to go before the catalog went live - now down to about 25%.

Fred

I wonder if they'll end up allowing more than 30,000 attendees at GENCON. Indiana just lifted nearly all remaining COVID restrictions and requirements, so GENCON could probably go 100% attendance if they wanted to, without masks. Colts games will be 100% attendance this year, as will all other NFL games.

Mike Steele wrote:

Fred K wrote: The number of events is puzzling. They are allowing 30,000 attendees but limited events (currently between 5k and 6k.) By comparison, 2019 had 55k attendees and 19.600 events.

So, we have 55% of the people and 28% of the events translating to half as many events per person as we would normally have.

Baldman games have quite a bit fewer events than normal. No rio grande games, no Pelgrane Press, SJG is cut down dramatically, no serious Catan tournament, You too can Cthulhu doesn’t look like they are doing their black ticket event (but are doing the Masks event, at least), Hickman doesn’t appear to be coming, no significant guests so far, no mechwarrior/battletech, etc..

I am thinking whether I’ll attend will be based on whether I can get into much of what I want to see. Alternatively, I may just go for 1-2 days rather than the full trip. Of course, Covid case counts in Indy at the time will matter as well.

I can say I was 75% likely to go before the catalog went live - now down to about 25%.

Fred

I wonder if they'll end up allowing more than 30,000 attendees at GENCON. Indiana just lifted nearly all remaining COVID restrictions and requirements, so GENCON could probably go 100% attendance if they wanted to, without masks. Colts games will be 100% attendance this year, as will all other NFL games.

It's interesting that Marion County has gone 100% all of a sudden, especially when just a few weeks ago, they were in court fighting to keep restrictions in effect.

Also interesting that Gov. Holcomb extended the restrictions state wide till the end of the month. Contrary to what Marion county is doing.

Far as Gencon. I can't see them changing their plans at this point. Time remaining is short to make major changes and over all, they seem to like the idea of the restrictions to appease the vax'ers.

(OH MY GOD IF WE DON"T DO THIS PEOPLE WILL DIE!!!!!)

Rebeg wrote:

Mike Steele wrote:

Fred K wrote: The number of events is puzzling. They are allowing 30,000 attendees but limited events (currently between 5k and 6k.) By comparison, 2019 had 55k attendees and 19.600 events.

So, we have 55% of the people and 28% of the events translating to half as many events per person as we would normally have.

Baldman games have quite a bit fewer events than normal. No rio grande games, no Pelgrane Press, SJG is cut down dramatically, no serious Catan tournament, You too can Cthulhu doesn’t look like they are doing their black ticket event (but are doing the Masks event, at least), Hickman doesn’t appear to be coming, no significant guests so far, no mechwarrior/battletech, etc..

I am thinking whether I’ll attend will be based on whether I can get into much of what I want to see. Alternatively, I may just go for 1-2 days rather than the full trip. Of course, Covid case counts in Indy at the time will matter as well.

I can say I was 75% likely to go before the catalog went live - now down to about 25%.

Fred

I wonder if they'll end up allowing more than 30,000 attendees at GENCON. Indiana just lifted nearly all remaining COVID restrictions and requirements, so GENCON could probably go 100% attendance if they wanted to, without masks. Colts games will be 100% attendance this year, as will all other NFL games.

It's interesting that Marion County has gone 100% all of a sudden, especially when just a few weeks ago, they were in court fighting to keep restrictions in effect.

Also interesting that Gov. Holcomb extended the restrictions state wide till the end of the month. Contrary to what Marion county is doing.

Far as Gencon. I can't see them changing their plans at this point. Time remaining is short to make major changes and over all, they seem to like the idea of the restrictions to appease the vax'ers.

(OH MY GOD IF WE DON"T DO THIS PEOPLE WILL DIE!!!!!)

From the latest newsletter, it sounds like increasing the amount of people that can attend would be the most likely loosening of restrictions they might make:

"Again, we may loosen some of these restrictions as we get closer to the convention and if conditions warrant, especially the size cap. More than anything else we’d love to welcome each and every person who wants to attend this year, but for now, we’re going to have to keep it a little smaller than normal."

Mike Steele wrote:

Rebeg wrote:

Mike Steele wrote:

Fred K wrote: The number of events is puzzling. They are allowing 30,000 attendees but limited events (currently between 5k and 6k.) By comparison, 2019 had 55k attendees and 19.600 events.

So, we have 55% of the people and 28% of the events translating to half as many events per person as we would normally have.

Baldman games have quite a bit fewer events than normal. No rio grande games, no Pelgrane Press, SJG is cut down dramatically, no serious Catan tournament, You too can Cthulhu doesn’t look like they are doing their black ticket event (but are doing the Masks event, at least), Hickman doesn’t appear to be coming, no significant guests so far, no mechwarrior/battletech, etc..

I am thinking whether I’ll attend will be based on whether I can get into much of what I want to see. Alternatively, I may just go for 1-2 days rather than the full trip. Of course, Covid case counts in Indy at the time will matter as well.

I can say I was 75% likely to go before the catalog went live - now down to about 25%.

Fred

I wonder if they'll end up allowing more than 30,000 attendees at GENCON. Indiana just lifted nearly all remaining COVID restrictions and requirements, so GENCON could probably go 100% attendance if they wanted to, without masks. Colts games will be 100% attendance this year, as will all other NFL games.

It's interesting that Marion County has gone 100% all of a sudden, especially when just a few weeks ago, they were in court fighting to keep restrictions in effect.

Also interesting that Gov. Holcomb extended the restrictions state wide till the end of the month. Contrary to what Marion county is doing.

Far as Gencon. I can't see them changing their plans at this point. Time remaining is short to make major changes and over all, they seem to like the idea of the restrictions to appease the vax'ers.

(OH MY GOD IF WE DON"T DO THIS PEOPLE WILL DIE!!!!!)

From the latest newsletter, it sounds like increasing the amount of people that can attend would be the most likely loosening of restrictions they might make:

"Again, we may loosen some of these restrictions as we get closer to the convention and if conditions warrant, especially the size cap. More than anything else we’d love to welcome each and every person who wants to attend this year, but for now, we’re going to have to keep it a little smaller than normal."

Gen Con has a financial reason for wanting to raise the attendance cap.

1. It would help them burn through all those roll over badges. They would love to do it this year over next. As Next year we'll likely see a price increase.

2. If memory serves, you need to see about 70% of your badge price to pay for venue space. With 50% or slightly higher, Gen Con is very likely loosing money hosting the con this year. If they can get more people to show, it helps reduce their lose this year.

But there in lays another problem. As mentioned events this year are massively restricted. Who really wants to attend a con, without many events? A poll we did back in April showed about 65% normal attendance interest. With the events out, I doubt it's higher than 55% at this time.