IDG and Gen Con To Merge Events?

Gamespot reports that convention companies IDG and Gen Con LLC are talking about an event merge. IDG has already gotten the nod from the ESA for their 'GamePro Expo', and expects to attract no less than 25,000 gamers in October of next year. If Gen Con joins the fray, that will add table-top roleplaying, board games, and the like into the mix for some sort of nerdapalooza. From the article: "If the two events co-locate at the LACC, the current plan is to see Gen Con base its exhibits in the convention center's West Hall, with the IDG game event placing its exhibitors in both South Hall and the lower-level Kentia Hall. One impediment to the two groups linking up could be due to the current success IDG is having selling its upcoming game event into the industry. If it can sell out the LACC's nearly 550,000 square feet of expo space on its own, there may be no need nor reason to bring Gen Con into the mix." If this goes through, there would be no need for the Gen Con Indy event, which would only be held a few months before. I knew E3's demise was no good.

Outstanding

[Anonymous Coward]

I've always wanted to dress up as a moogle and a dwarf at the same time. Now if I could only add in my bat'letH I'll be all set!

Indy?

[thesupermikey]

Isnt Gen-Con have a 10 year hitch in Indy?
or will this take the place of the winter event?

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[kria]

They would have to be, IMHO, pretty stupid to move GenCon. GenCon SoCal has been so-so out there compared with GenCon Indy, here in the heart of tabletop gamer land (as far as I can tell).

Why do I say the midwest is heavier on gamers? Because GenCon SoCal doesn't do as well as GenCon Indy, and because Winter Fantasy (WotC's RPGA Convention) isn't doing as well as it was in Indiana. It's now on the east coast.

At any rate, I'd hate to miss out on GenCon, but I'm not interested in flying to California for i

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[deinol]

GenCon SoCal has been so-so out there compared with GenCon Indy, here in the heart of tabletop gamer land (as far as I can tell).

Being a resident of Cali, I don't think our location has anything to do with a lackluster GenCon SoCal. ComicCon is down here and attracts giant crowds of similar interest groups.

Having been to GenCon SoCal several times, here is why I think it isn't as good:

It's a lot newer. GenCon Indy has been going on for several years. It's basically the E3 of board games. So it just has more

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[ParodyMan]

The article only talks about So Cal.

Er, what's this about Indy?

[bssteph]

Reading the /. part of the teaser, I was all worried. But the actual article doesn't mention bupkis about Gen Con Indy. In fact, it specifically mentions So Cal:

"Gen Con So Cal, a video game, fantasy, and science-fiction-oriented event completed its 2006 run at the Anaheim Convention Center earlier this month. If a deal were inked, Gen Con would join forces with the upcoming IDG show, a morphed version of E3 that will now cater to general consumers. The IDG event expects to attract no less than 25,000 atten

I miss Milwaukee

[Suzumushi]

I miss playing midi-maze at Gen Con back when it was in Milwaukee...

I too, would not go to California.

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[retrorogue]

Actually, the original GenCon Midi-Maze display is still around here in Milwaukee. I own it now (rescued it from the group who is still around but no longer Atari orientated), and we actually had it up and running [midwestgamingclassic.com] at the 2003 Midwest Gaming Classic [midwestgamingclassic.com] (picture GenCon for console, arcade, and computer gamers). I'll probably see about bringing it back this year if I have the room/space (I co-run the museum area).

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[Suzumushi]

Well hot damn! Thanks for rescuing it, I had wondered if it was still in use. I hope you can get it up and running for the Midwest Gaming Classic. I'll make the trip to Wisconsin for that alone!

Scions of Wisconsin

[PMuse]

If this goes through, there would be no need for the Indy event, which would only be held a few months before.

Q: Why did GenCon and WotC spread their events geographically?
A: To reach different audiences.

How in the name of all that is hyped and marketed would the merger of one LA event with another LA event affect the "need for" events in other parts of the country?

Will it smell any better?

[LordNimon]

Somehow I doubt it. Maybe GenCon should consider merging with with the Texas Soapmakers Association Annual Convention [txsoapmakers.org] instead. Lake Conroe is nice in July.

E3 was completely overbooked

[Erick Lionheart]

From experience as a member of the game industry, E3 was getting just about impossible to get a booth at.

Even on the attendee side, it was supposed to be a game industry members event only, and they kept having to increase requirements to demonstrate said membership in order to keep hordes (yes, fine, the alliance too!) of consumers from trying to get in.

Considering these factors, I really don't see the event needing to add RPG and boardgames to fill up the space, as much as I also enjoy those...

Move it back to Wisconsin already!

[alexwcovington]

Put the Gen back in Gen Con. Bring it back to Lake Geneva, where it belongs!

This could actually be a bad thing

[CTD]

While there is definite synergy between the E3 and Gen Con audience (I play tabletop and video games and I'm not alone), mixing the two events together at the same time could be counter productive. On the one hand I'd want to walk the video game side of the event and see everything in every booth. On the other hand this means I'd have less time to sit down and game. It would cause people to really weigh their priorities as to what they want over the course of those days, and one side would eventually loose out as the other trends better with traffic, etc. End result could be that one half, or the other is just there as an afterthought -- which won't sit well with the hardcore fans (of either).

PAX anyone?

[Carch]

Can't believe nobody's mentioned it...

http://www.pennyarcadeexpo.com/ [pennyarcadeexpo.com]

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[Macgrrl]

There are decinfately RPG/tabletop gaming cons in Australia (not sure which part of the mix you were interested in).

From memory, SwanCon runs out of Perth. Melbourne has Arcanacon, Conquest, Unicon, Dwarfcon and Fauxcon. There's a version of GenCon running in Brisbane next year, and I've forgotten the names of all the Sydney cons; included are MacquarieCon, Sydcon and Necronomicon. There's also a couple in Canberra; CanCon and Phenomenon . One annual con in Adelaide that I've heard of.

More information c

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[Macgrrl]

I so can't spell today.

Quite a few of these conventions also have Wargaiming events and Collectable Card Game (CCG) events if that's your thing.

We have looked at CRPGs at conventions, but the cost/risk doesn't fit the rest of the events we are running. Australia gaming conventions are typically low cost events - the Arcanacon GEt Wrecked option is usually aroud $60 for 4 days of roleplaying events.