____________________________________________________ Alec Usticke, Unofficial Gen Con Indy Facebook Discussion Group
Officially we do not know or have what the total badge count is this year but all indications, it is a big increase over last year. It will be interesting to see all the numbers after the convention. I personally thought it was leveling off, as the last two years showed no growth and the late dates this year would compensate for it being the Hawaiian convention ( it's 5 O Dano ).
Anyone know what the attendance cap for the various parts of the ICC and Lucas Oil Stadium might be?
I recall one year at the SDCC where the fire marshall stepped in and started to limit the number of individuals into sections of the convention hall, including the 2nd floor, without any notice.
Another concern, that is fresh on peoples minds, are acts that would start a panic to exits, where people get trampled.
I call it a PR move. From the email, "As announced earlier today via press release, Gen Con 50 badges will sell out if current sales trends continue. " The key words there are "if current sales trends continue."
What do they consider current? I am guessing it's whatever it needs to be to trend out a sell out (like, hey we sold a ton of badges yesterday so at that pace we'll sell out).
If they really believed they'd sell out, they'd have said something like, "It looks like for the first time in our history, we are expecting badges to sell out." (Keeper - Would it be the 1st time?)
Just an anecdote. I generally buy a badge although I will get issued a gamemaster one, for housing, since you cannot reserve a room without a /purchased/ badge. Usually I remember to request my cancellation in time but in the times I have not, it was just a 'go to gm hq' to get it handled.
What does this have to do with attendance? Well, they surely calculate that by the number of badges there are. So if they were actually approaching a 'cap' then my having two badges would count as 2 people in their system. Well, for the first time ever, I received an email explaining that they saw I had two badges and were going to handle the refund for my purchased one for me.
So they are proactively weeding out the duplicate badges.
Feel bad for anyone told by a fire marshall that they can not go inside and have to wait until enough people exit out.
Not sure if it may or may not happen at GenCon.
Maybe t-shirt theme. I went to GenCon and all I experienced was a conversation with the fire marshall.
This year, for the first time in years, there is no badge price increase.
Well its only because being a 'geek/nerd' has been trendy in the last couple of years, so it's no longer the social stigma from outsiders that it used to be a decade or so ago. Think about it when even Gamestop a video game retail store is pushing for collectibles and board/pocket games it really brings numbers into perspective. On top of that it is the 50th anniversary so a bunch of people who maybe sat out a gencon or two will come out in force. It's almost the perfect storm of attendance you also have to factor in the hype from the people who run Gencon. It is a businesses and if it was run at a loss for many years it would not be around (unless they are hiding money but that's another thing lol) they want record numbers they want people to come out and to continue being one of the biggest.
Touching on that briefly yes there will be people who are turned off by 'it's getting too big' and don't like the crowds so either don't come back, attend a different convention or take some time off. There are always people saying 'oh have two gencons so it's not overcrowded' but i bet dollars to donuts that some of those people are thinking 'let other people go to second gencon the first one is mine'. Also people who mention that still want to be part of the bigger one just not the overcrowded one.
All a PR move? As someone said above this could just be 'hey guys shit or get off the toilet' moment where people who were stragglers who have gone to past gencons still didn't buy their tickets. I'm not saying that they don't have a valid reason not to have bought their badge yet. Hey we have all been the broke/budget gamer at one point or another. Hype sells and helps people move!
I'm not going into details or specifics here, I just want to make two points:
1. You can attempt to extrapolate theoretical fire marshal limits for all spaces, but remember that a fire marshal has an absolute right to shut down any area he feels is unsafe, even if it technically is not over the "limit"; if he deems a hallway or a room unsafe due to crowding, he can shut further entry, or clear the room; his word is absolute law.
2. This is, in no way, a PR stunt. This is a heads up to attendees so they aren't surprised should we be unable to sell more badges, which is a very real possibility, as stated in the newsletter.
Marian McBrine Event Coordinator Gen Con LLC
Thank you for the candid response, Marimaccadmin. It is much appreciated.
I, for one, am excited that GenCon may cap out attendance, even with the expansion into Lucas Oil! Of course, I'm used to SDCC, so GenCon feels like a smaller con to me. ;)
I'm excited to see what the overall numbers are for Gen Con this year and am glad the Con is growing. There are plenty of smaller Cons around but to me Gen Con is like the Super Bowl and should be big. Nothing beats it, and to have that many more gamers there is fantastic.
I would have thought with the addition of the LOS that attendance would have had a huge 'cap' increase since that place alone seats...how many? I mean, it can't be based on just one possible location since we would have gone over the cap in the smaller venues years ago. And there is no earthly way ALL attendees would be in one location all at the same time ever. We're just too much a variable bunch. Even the exhibit hall opening doesn't draw /everyone/.
That said. Wow. Just. Wow.
I suspect the crowd size would outstrip the ability of the employees and volunteers to provide good service before it got to the point of being an issue with the fire marshal. And if ensuring decent service is the motive for capping attendance, I say bravo to the Gencon management for prioritizing attendee experience over maximum growth.