The reality is....no one is going to blame them unless things go bad IF things arise out of it.
They honestly are in a no-win situation. If they do not cancel, attendance, vendors, and dollars are going to be way way off and expenses are going to be hugely up. If they do cancel, there is at best, no revenue outside of people pushing their tickets to next year or merchandise sales online that I think will sell out as we all want to help support them. Worst case is that the ICC tries to hold it against them, but if they want them back not just next year, but five years from now, its not an issue.
As others have more eloquently said including the Mod (you have a thankless job bro, I've done it for online games, its not fun) there is nothing to report, so keep watching and waiting, and the fairegoer wants better communication. Again, no win.
Gen Con could, at their discretion, share two additional categories of information:
1. Activity information: What is being done - even without conclusions what activity is being undertaken would be interesting to many here. For example: "We are currently speaking with our exhibitors to gather their sentiment about possible social distancing rules." or "We are considering contingency plans for a fully digital check in and event ticketing."
2. Relevant factors: Without sharing any decisions or announcements, Gen Con could be sharing what factors they are considering. "We are awaiting clarification from the Marion County Deparment of Health for protocols for conventions." or "Our decision making process is guided first by the safety of our attendees, exhibitors, and EOs, and informed by our contractual obligations and regulatory groups A, B, and C."
Again - there is no obligation to share these things, but I have received more substantial COVID readiness updates from my local game store than I've gotten from Gen Con. Something to consider. Lest someone observe that my local game store probably has less problems than Gen Con, I've also received more substantial updates from several airlines, who undoubtedly have very complex problems as well.
Lets say only 40,000 people show up for opening day. If you start standing them 6 ft apart and use all 4 sides of a city block you would need...wait for it...190 city blocks to queue them all up. Then if you limit the entrances to 3, West St, Maryland, and Capitol, and it takes 15 seconds to take a temp and have the line advance it would take... drumroll please...55 ½ hours to screen everyone.
Those rules were announced for the events that are taking place at the ICC during phase 2. For which there are 1 to possibly 2 of them.
A 200 person seminar, and a 1,400 person awards event, which likely wont see anywhere near that.
They needed to announce it so attendees will know what they will have to do to comply.
If you read further into their announcement, they did state the rules will be updated as the situation changes and we progress through the other phases.
Mike
Hey All. Just doing another check in hoping you are all well. I honestly can't believe its mid-May. I've lost all concept of time lately.
Reality kinda hit me in the face today when I released my second child will be born no later than a month from today. These last two months have felt oddly fast and now Spring is almost over.
With Memorial Day around the corner it really got the blood pumping for some Gen Con Events. Yeah, I know they are delayed.
One nice perk was we haven't had to pay $300+ a week for daycare over the last two months, so Yay Gen Con budget surplus!
Anyway, hope you all have been doing as well as you can be.
Yeah, unless you walk up to a booth, put new gloves on, then toss those gloves when you leave, gloves do nothing.
Gloves serve a purpose as a barrier, both for outgoing germs and for incoming. They keep what's on something you touch off of your skin, and what's on your skin off of what you touch. Gloves do not, however, have any effect on transferring contamination from one surface to another. Since COVID-19 is not transmitted through the skin, gloves have zero effect.
If one person washes their hands and another washes their hands and puts on gloves, then both handle a contaminated door handle then pick up a game box, the results are identical. Put gloves on people and let them all walk through a hall for an hour and the result will be the same as if they'd never worn them.
Add to that that people who have not been trained in how to wear these barriers don't know when to change them, how to remove them (which is a big deal), and tend to not understand that after you take gloves off, you still have to wash as though you never had them on. This leads to untrained people wearing gloves taking fewer precautions and actually increasing their risk rather than reducing it.
tl;dr - wearing gloves for COVID-19 is likely worse than not wearing them.
This comes from years of practice and training in bio-hazard exposure and containment.
To follow up on mhayward’s excellent previous post, even a reply saying “We have no plans to make updates regarding any of your suggestions at this time” would be a step up communication-wise.
They have a whole page with the most current info available. I don't get what is so hard about that for some people.
Do they really have to say 'nope' to every idea posted in an 1100 comment forum?
I just recieve this from portal games, does this means that they are not going to gencon no matter what?:
The impact of the COVID-19 virus has been felt in every corner of the globe and has impacted the board game industry with the closing of many favorite summer conventions. Fans of Portal Games have asked for an English edition of PortalCon for many years. “Since we cannot meet our fans in person this year, we thought it would be a great time to host this online convention,” said Ignacy Trzewiczek, Portal Games CEO.
I cannot believe that GenCon is still planning to proceed at this time! It is irresponsible of GenCon to continue to host a convention that involves masses of people sitting closely next to each other for long periods of time.
It is time for the organizers to wake up and look at what's happening in the rest of the world and to review the reports of the world's leading doctors and scientific community. Until there is a vaccine, no one should be congregating with strangers in mass public events like GenCon. This will likely be the state of things until early 2021. If you are not practicing proper social distancing and taking appropriate precautions until a vaccine is developed -- then you are a part of the problem!
While I have chosen not to attend GenCon this year, I am really looking forward to attending it next year. I hope GenCon has a good liability insurance policy though, because if they proceed with GenCon 2020 and WHEN people contract the virus from others attending, there will likely be law suits against GenCon from the families of anyone who dies from the disease.
Or perhaps GenCon's plan is just to hand out bleach-infused energy drinks to people attending?
(I'm guessing that with GenCon's reluctance to cancel the event that they did not buy event cancellation insurance? Perhaps something to consider in the future?)
Mike, the post above (tzimmerman) is not only adding nothing new , but he is actively being hostile to the company that puts this event together. Can you take that post down.
Most of us get that there are a plethora of reasons why Gen Con is at the point it is with announcements on anything. All he is doing is being a troll and a hater in a situation that neither is called for or appreciated. Believe me, if there was any opportunity to troll, I'd jump on that in a heartbeat.
https://www.lucasoilstadium.com/icclos-response-to-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR2XzqJLcfIbtY_L_47qOQ-aR-8dCCfKPN_DJT3h3clUsaTrRL1bkjAXkQc
does anyone know how GenCon can proceed with this measure in place? do we soon get an update on new gencon plans?
Those are their initial procedures that may, or may not, be in effect when/if Gen Con happens.
*Subject to change based on ongoing guidance from the Indiana and Indianapolis public health departments.
That means these requirements might be different come the time GenCon rolls around.
Now tzimmerman has had theirs.
Keeping this thread open has been a chore for sure. Gen Con can take our lumps for whatever people believe or do not believe about us. All that matters is the end result and we are not there yet.
As a forum manager one has to have a thick skin.
My philosophy for forums has always been (Paraphrasing):
There are three truths: Your truth My truth The truth And they are rarely all the same.
No one is saying they have to respond, But a “no” at least shows that the question has been heard and given attention.
So I just scored a room at the downtown Embassy in the housing portal. Which is awesome, but worrisome at the same time.