How much of the "other factors" is vendors getting antsy about having their staff hotboxing an entire convention's worth of unmasked breath in the dealer hall for an entire long weekend? Given the prospect of a fatality is no longer hypothetical after PAX, I could see them pushing hard for enhanced measures.
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If you want to talk about kids not doing things the way you did, you might start up a new subject. Or take it somewhere else, since it has little to nothing to do with Gen Con.
Roderick Robertson Forum Coordinator Gen Con, LLC.
Also, I do not really expect another full health update until late june or early july where a finial decision will be made so people can prepare in which ever way they feel comfortable (I assume some will return tickets and others will look to purchase more).
I really hate to "what if" these kinds of things and am part of the "will grudgingly deal with it" crowd, but you have to wonder.
Mike
The CDC is, as of May 3rd 2022, recommending masks in "indoor areas of public transportation (such as airplanes, trains, etc.) and transportation hubs" which is a pretty good description of Gen Con. Masks still serve a purpose and more inconvenience now can eliminate it total later.
Last year's attendance was way down, the vendor hall has cut way down, there were a lot of empty spaces in the hall, and a lot of duplicate vendors filling space (multiple dice vendors. MULTIPLE!) I doubt that was all that Gen Con wanted to fill. Shall we bring up the smaller event catalog?
Lack of big names kept a few people I know from going, letting them dictate some terms so they show up is not a bad investment to increase attendance.
... they are all replaceable.
2. Origins once thought as you do. They had to change because without happy vendors there is no convention. Selling generics and events won’t pay for the ICC by itself.
3. People are going to attend, even if masks or vax are required.
Origins unfortunately is poorly run so I don't even put them in the same conversation as these other cons. They always screw things up. They barely had 10k people attend last year, about 50% of normal attendance. Gencon had almost 4 times that amount in a hard year.
Never said people would not attend, of course they will, and if its like some of the other good size midwest cons they might get 70-75% of normal attendance. Would Gencon be okay financially with that is the question, especially after 2 very bad years of revenue. Long term that's probably not a good path to be on, as their size is whats gives them leverage with the ICC, the hotels and the city.
As noted, Reddit is just an echo chamber and FB isn't much better. Most people don't use social media or bother to post in forums. Most people I know would rather eat their own arm than use forums.
And while we go round and round discussing masks and what GC is doing, there is a subset of people out there that think any of us attending, no matter what protocols are in place, believe everything is too dangerous still and we are all idiots for attending.
If the companies don't feel they can be there safely, they'll pull out taking their events with them, which will drive down attendance, which will attract fewer companies, and so on in a spiral. But in this example of chicken & the egg, companies not being at the show to run events comes before people not being at the show.
When I started attending Gencon there was no true dungeon, Paizo, TSR did not run events, the RPGA handled D&D, and magic was some new card game that just come out. Companies would step in to fill the void with Paizo like magic and D&D. True dungeon isnt going anywhere, this is their big event for the year. Last year I think had more to do with them not being able to use the Colts stadium than anything covid safety related, and in their cancelation email they said they would be back for 2022 before they even knew what safety precautions were in play. Companies would fill the void to replace these events like whats happening with official D&D and Magic. As long as Gencon sticks to the experience of being the best 4 days of gaming, gaming companies would show up.