Hello, this will just be my 2nd GenCon (the first being 3 years ago) and I'm just trying to plan as much as I can.  I know the event catalog just went live today...and I'm just feeling like there are a number of things missing.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm seeing things that I THINK should be there (after looking at the offline catalog from previous years) that likely WILL be posted...just not sure when.  Things like:

Magic the Gathering events (ran by Pasttimes and I see that others have said usually posted late...but how late?)
Writing / Author seminars (maybe I missed them in the catalog search, but seemed like more of these in past)
Other stuff?

I know things just went live today and that we're still 2 weeks before we start registration...so definitely just happy to see some stuff up that I can check out...but also unsure on when ALL items will be posted.  And I figure I'm missing a lot of stuff I just don't have a clue about.  So, 2 questions for folks:

1.  Any major stuff that is currently missing that we know WILL likely be there?  (For myself and for others)

2.  Any ETA when said items will be posted? (based on past precedence or just because you know - will be by X date)

Thanks for the help!

Link

It was mentioned in this thread there are sections which are not active yet, some events are still going through the approval/posting process, and there are a couple technical glitches they are working through.

It feels really…sparse right now. Lighter schedule from, for example, MCG, and overall just less stuff that stands out to me. 

I also really wish GMs would get a little bit better at describing their games if they target people without prior experience but that’s an uphill battle. 

I'm glad it's not just me feeling this way

Event signup is earlier this year, so I'm not surprised that more people missed the deadline to submit events. Looks like there are currently about 13,000 events, versus 16,000 when the catalog went live last year. As others have noted, Paizo is the biggest name missing at the moment, and it seems safe to assume that'll be addressed shortly.

M:TG is apparently always late to submit events, unfortunately.

In terms of MTG, I did message Pasttimes.  They said they are waiting on WotC approval and hope to have it all up within the week.  So...at least some kind of timeline there!  

True Dungeon also cut the number of events by about 200, so that has an impact too...

-
Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

"learn to play our new game" as a description isn't much help when trying to pick events, is it.

There is no Killer Breakfast, but I suspect that it's not coming.

I don't see any of the Writers' Symposium events either.

I monitored last year's event catalog right up until gencon started, and there were many days where groups of new events poured in. I wouldnt consider the catalog settled yet unless gencon says differently.

I know that Paizo is a big event organizer at GC, but I am not seeing a lot of games listed with their name as host.  I got confused last time by events that used PF rules (sort of) but that wasn't sanctioned PF events.   

Am I missing something or have they not put up their stuff yet? 

It was mentioned in another thread. Paizo events aren't done yet. Soon

Locations for about half the games are missing and will NOT be posted before event registration :(

There aren't any Ascension (Playdec) games listed. They always have game play events and a tournament.

On the much-discussed subject of Paizo events, it looks like they're planning to launch with a smaller number of events than normal, then add spots later based on demand: http://paizo.com/community/blog/tags/genCon2018

Between that and the reduced number of True Dungeon tickets, I'm getting the sense that May 6th is going to be quite a scramble!

It would be nice if all events were released the same day, not having to come back every few days to redo schedules because something finally pops up.

Main thing I see missing is a functional search engine.

I’m really surprised by all the complaints here.  The GC crew can only process the events if they come in on time.  They literally are processing over 10k events.  I’d love to see the events which haven’t been posted yet, but that is the fault of the event submitters (I’m looking at you Magic the Gathering).

Also, I think the search engine is fine.  But I also use highprogrammer or that other one (forget the name) to help supplement if I need to. 

GenCon is a massive undertaking.  I’m frankly impressed at how well GC handles it all.