If you played Gaslands Friday morning @ 8AM then you were at my table.  

Couldn't pinpoint the time, but it was afternoon on Friday in Hall A.

The Good:

• Less people meant smaller lines.  It was nice not to have to wait in line forever at a food truck or the customer service booths.
  
• The new restaurants that I tried this year were very good. Enjoyed Weber Grill very much and also Connors.
  
• Playing games we brought to GenCon at the hotel with our group was a blast!
  
• Spending time with friends and family during the con!
  

The Bad:

• Being forced to wear a mask while being fully vaccinated and GenCon deciding this policy change mere days after their self-imposed refund deadline.
  
• Whatever happened to the rule of supply and demand?  Demand was down significantly for hotels yet prices never dropped.  Also service at the hotels regarding room cleaning was reduced.  I found this ridiculous.
  
• Many many less events available to play.  Also many less pick-up games in the convention hall where you could just meet new people and join in.
  
• Closing the convention hall at night for "deep cleanings".  What a joke.  If you don't have the staff for 24 hours just say so.
  

I think this one was more the ICC than the Con folks; from what I'd overheard out on Deception Alley, ICC staffers were on deck and ready to go more or less at midnight sharp for the cleaning process.

• Indoor space =  wear mask, accept it and move on.
  
• 30k+ people still exceeds the hotel space.  I know that my hotel was sold out (connected) and i expect that all the other connected hotels were too.  Even at half the size hotel demand exceeds supply.  Also, nearly every hotel everywhere in the US (I have to travel for work) has removed daily room cleanings and gone to a "on request" model.
  
• This was a side effect of the compressed time table, limited space (no LOS) and social distancing requirements.  
  
• Based on what I saw, it didn't appear to be a "staffing" issue.  It appeared that the ICC went out of its way to make the cleaning staff visible (I liked that).
  

Good: 
Harry Potter D&D - Always a good time.
Inexpensive Escape Rooms - Just a good as the professional rooms, did three amateur and one professional.
D&D Mini trading - More dragons for my collection.
Math Trade - Ran as smoothly as that chaos can run.
Giant Galaxy Trucker - These are the games I go to cons for.
One of the Trade day events didn't have a host so I stepped in with a couple who run a game store.

Bad:
Magic event ran without enough time to finish a single game as we were kicked out at midnight.
A game demo that started with "I've played this game once in 2019" by the demoer.
Unexplained $200 charge on my hotel bill.

Ugly: (WARNING: COVID RANT AHEAD)
My friend and coworker died on GenCon Friday from Covid. She was a poster child for the anti-vaxx community. She was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday and never recovered. (Ironically, I haven't seen her for several weeks as we have overlapping vacations. Working the Lexington Comic and Toy Convention kept me from being in contact with her and possibly getting Covid.)
I found out Friday when I looked at my phone and saw a text from a coworker that read "Hey, do you know how Tess died?" As this was the first I heard about it I started screaming and cursing like a madman as I walked down the streets of Indy. I'm actually surprised I wasn't stopped by the police or the like.
I skipped out on three events, did some non-GenCon shopping and crashed at my hotel with a pizza. Saturday and Sunday were busy days so I didn't think about her. I returned home too late to attend the funeral. I grew up catholic so I didn't realize some folks have funerals on Sunday.
Today, I packed up her personal belongings and took them to HR to be shipped to her husband. I'm mad and angry and crying because I feel like a bad friend who couldn't convince her to get the vaccine. But I'm getting better each day...

GenCon 2021 will forever be "the year my friend died during the convention".

 

I'm sorry your friend died and it will get better over time, keep remembering the good, the funny, the inside joke.

For those who are still trying to convince their friends/family/other, ask them "What would it take to convince you"
 

Good:

• Being back to GenCon!
  
• The crowd was friendly as usual.  I didn't have any social issues.
  
• I found a few really good games that were new to me.  I want to highlight Happy City from Gamewright, which was a great find.
  
• There was an overabundance of dice vendors.  Some might call that "bad," but since I collect dice, it was awesome!  Some otherwise good vendors might have been lost in the din because of the number of dice vendors there.
  
• The Gamers Live show that I attended was excellent.  I've never seen one, but I'm a fan of their work.  That really made the con for me.
  
• There was a pen vendor that I enjoyed.  I know, it's a game convention, but I love that there are these other things that I can't browse for elsewhere.  The variety is really nice.
  

Bad:

• I didn't see any downtown businesses themed or their crews dressed up.  I miss the uniformed hotel staff, the Ram and Scotty's crews dressed, etc.
  
• I didn't see a single fez or pith helmet for sale!
  
• Politics entered GenCon again.  I hesitate even mentioning that, but I fear it won't get better.
  

The Tuesday of Gencon week there were rooms at the Crowne Plaza still available outside the block, and for less points than I originally booked for. My friend booked a room there two weeks before for just Friday and Saturday night and there were also quite a few people checking in Saturday for the football game, so  so they evidentially had enough rooms to get rid of their minimum-night requirements.

Unfortunately (well not for me, I don't like housekeeping in my room) Traveller is correct that full-service house keeping has not been available at most hotels in the US even after Covid restrictions were lifted. Honestly I think at this point it is primarily a staffing shortage rather than any "safety concerns". Many, many people were laid off and they are just not coming back to work very fast. 

Speaking of Hotels, since Gencon 2022 is less than a year away, booking is open for August 4-7 2022 outside the block. Get em' while they're hot.
 

Gencon has long been political. My first Gencon in 2015, they were quite clear about being unhappy with some thinly veiled discriminatory legislation being aimed at the LGBTQ+ community, and with the sad state of affairs in the US, simply declaring themselves to be an open and welcoming community is 'political' in some views.

I'm not saying this is how you meant it, simply saying that on some level politics permeate our lives and spaces, and everything (including doing nothing and accepting the status quo) is a choice with political ramifications for someone.

Believe me, I'd love to see things get less heated, but I don't see that divide changing anytime soon. I hope I'm wrong.

I appreciate that.  I still feel weird for having written that, by the way.  I use gaming as an escape from the world.  Like many people here, I think everyone needs to be included, welcomed, and respected.  I've played games many times with a few people that I wouldn't otherwise want to be around.  This isn't for bias, but simply because these few individuals aren't pleasant people in their own right.  We all still had a good time playing together.  I think that judging people for who they are or what they've done in the past isn't at all what board games are all about.  I feel great going to GenCon and meeting new people, and I hope that they feel the same about me.

One more "good" item is that after one event, I talked with a person that was alone (and somehow had a whole slice of pizza at the time, despite having no time to buy it after the event and the 2-hour length of the event --- why did they still have the entire, presumably cold slice?), and we talked gaming.  I have no idea what this person's real life is like, and we didn't care at all about that.  We laughed about some game topic.  That type experience is worth the cost of the con.

The Good:
Being at Gen Con.

Meeting artists and game designers (I met Christian Petersen of FFG and he was great).

Able to visit non-convention sites, like the Zoo and the park.

Tried some new restaurants. 

Buying games I had never heard of. Found some cool new dice.

The Bad:
No True Dungeon. My wife and I were so disappointed. 

So few vendors. It seemed like half the hall was blocked off and there were open spaces where others just didn't show up. 

A lot less gaming. A lot fewer games to play. I miss seeing and playing Werewolf at 11 pm with a dozen other groups in the hall. I miss seeing RPGs starting after midnight. 

I miss the rush of people, the crafts and ballroom dancing, the cosplay parade, and so much more that makes Gen Con different from local conventions. 

Whatever you think of masks, I missed seeing the smiling faces at the Con and just people sitting along the wall of the ICC comparing stuff and just having fun. People seemed subdued. The crowd just wasn't the same. 

If you were going to miss a Gen Con, this was the one. The wife said if it doesn't go back to normal, she doesn't want to go, and I agree.