Updates to drafts

Author: chrisglein

_drafts/2024-08-16-The-Cody-Scale.md

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ My friend Cody has been pitching a replacement for the granular [10 point BGG ra
 2 - didn't care for it, won't actively try and play it again  
 3 - liked it, would definitely play again, maybe even buy it   
 4 - actively want to play again and would like to buy so I can play as much as often as possible   
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 To avoid confusion with BGG number ratings, I’m going to use ⭐️ for the Cody scale. You didn’t pitch it as a star system, but it’s hard to compare without some different indicator, sorry Cody. 
 

_drafts/2024-08-19-How-To-GenCon.md

@@ -3,44 +3,52 @@ layout: post
 title: "How to GenCon"
 ---
 I first attended GenCon 9 years ago in 2013. I came to it as a PAX West regular (attending every single year since 2009), and to me GenCon was strange in comparison. Here I hope to share some of what I’ve learned about how to make the most of the show. 
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 Some context first. GenCon in Indianapolis is the biggest convention for board games in the US, with around 70,000 attendees in 2023. PAX West in Seattle is bigger with 120,000 attendees in 2023, but the board games are a small side gig while the event is predominantly video games. PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia has a similar focus on tabletop RPGs and board games as GenCon, but smaller with “only” 30,000 attendees in 2023. All this to say, at GenCon you can absolutely feast on board games for four days straight and never get close to seeing everything it has to offer. 
 
 Here are my tips for making the most of the experience, followed by explanations below as necessary. 
+
+Before you travel
+- Yes, travel and lodging is going to be expensive; consider that here are other cheaper and less iconic but still good shows to attend
+- It’s okay to stay further from the convention center, but have a transportation plan (bus line, ride share budget)
 - Pay to have your badges mailed to you before the show
-- Avoid anything with paper tickets
-- “Fly standby” for free but ticketed events
-- Buy a small and/or reasonably vetted game on your first day of the show
-- Book time in a few evenings at the BGG Hot Games room
-- Spend some time in the evenings or mornings on research
 - Travel with a checked bag that has room to add a couple games
-- Have a system for tracking what you played (photo camera roll, app, etc. ) and what you want to return to later (notes with booth number)
+
+Before the show
+- Use the convention online book to build a wishlist of things you want to check out (ideally with booth numbers)
 - Visit a grocery store before the con, get what you need for snacks, drinks, and packed lunches
 - Plan to pack in your own water, because the convention hall water is awful
-- It’s okay to stay further from the convention center, but have a transportation plan (bus line, ride share budget)
+- Book a few evenings at the BGG Hot Games room
+- Avoid booking anything with paper tickets (and don’t bother getting paper “generic” tickets)
+
+While you’re there
+- Don’t wait in long lines
 - If there’s a demo with a slot open right now, take it (you never know!)
-- Don’t wait in lines
-- Research before the show to build a wishlist of things you want to check out (ideally with booth numbers)
+- “Fly standby” for free but ticketed events
+- Have a system for tracking what you played (photo camera roll, app, etc. ) and what you want to return to later (notes with booth number)
+- Each evening spend a little time researching what you saw at the show to know if you should follow up
+- Buy a small and/or reasonably vetted game on your first day of the show
 - Take the time to visit the art district on the convention floor; gather cards and QR scans of the artists you vibe with
 
-The most stark difference is that the event passes for the show itself are relatively cheap. Four days at GenCon will cost you around $100 where for PAX West that’s $300 and PAX Unplugged that’s $200. The difference is that at PAX you can get by with buying your pass and not making another purchase, but at GenCon you cannot. It’s more like flying a budget airline, where your ticket is cheaper but you end paying for bags and seat choice and boarding and for any beverage or snack and the privilege of talking to an actual human. At the end maybe it’s still cheaper and maybe it’s not, but you certainly will have to get used to experiential micro transactions. 
+The full weekend four day event passes for GenCon are reasonable, working out to around ~$35/day. For PAX West it's $65/day. PAX Unplugged pushes a more attractive weekend pass that works out to $30/day. The difference is that at PAX you can get by with buying your pass and not making another purchase, but at GenCon you cannot. It’s more like flying a budget airline, where your ticket is cheaper but you end paying for bags and seat choice and boarding and for any beverage or snack and the privilege of talking to an actual human. At the end maybe it’s still cheaper and maybe it’s not, but you certainly will have to get used to experiential micro transactions. 
 
-The most obvious manifestation of this is the game library. Every board game convention I’ve been to has had a library of games you can check out for a few hours. For all of those that experience has been free… except GenCon. There is a library at GenCon (in the Lucas Oil stadium on the field no less), but you have to pay to use it. And it’s not cheap. The typical use of a library like this is for playing games with friends in the evening after the main exposition hall closes. At GenCon that’s going to cost you $14 per person, either by prebooking that time slot or assembling a bunch of paper “generic” tickets. You and 3 people want to play a game and wind down together? That’s going to add up to $42. You know what else costs around that? A brand new game from the show floor. 
+The most obvious manifestation of this is the game library. Every board game convention I’ve been to has had a library of games you can check out for a few hours. For all of those this experience has been free… except GenCon. There is a library at GenCon (in the Lucas Oil stadium), but you have to pay to use it. And it’s not cheap. The typical use of a library like this is for playing games with friends in the evening after the main exposition hall closes. At GenCon that’s going to cost you $14 per person, either by prebooking that time slot or assembling a bunch of paper “generic” tickets. You and 3 people want to play a game and wind down together? That’s going to add up to $42. You know what else costs around that? A brand new game from the show floor. 
 
-These economics, where it’s cheaper to just buy a new game rather than try it from the library, really distorts behavior. You really should be trying to pick up a game or two early in the show so you have something on hand for later. And everyone is shopping the show, so the vendors sell out. See a game that intrigues you in the first day? There’s a very real chance it won’t be there two days later. This creates a pressure to impulse buy. Which frankly in the world of overblown Kickstarter releases is not energy the board game community needs more of. 
+These economics, where it’s cheaper to just buy a new game rather than try it from the library, really distorts behavior. You really should try to pick up a game or two early in the show so you have something on hand for later. And everyone is shopping the show, so the vendors sell out. See a game that intrigues you in the first day? There’s a very real chance it won’t be there two days later. This creates a pressure to impulse buy. Which frankly in the world of overblown Kickstarter releases is not energy the board game community needs more of. Please, exercise caution, do your research.
 
-There is a midway solution to this. And no it’s not paying the $58 per person for an all weekend pass to the library (which is an option). It’s the BGG Hot Games room. This is another paid ticketed event, but it’s better in many key ways. First, the library is small but curated to new but purchasable games, exactly the set you’re probably at the convention to evaluate. Second, it’s booked in two hour increments which scales better; the example above of a single game with 3 people is going to set you back $18 ($6 each for 2 hours) instead of $42. We found a sweet spot to be to grab the 5-7pm (discounted because it overlaps with the expo hall) and 7-9pm slots, giving enough time to dig into a few titles for the cost of $10 per person. And the ticketing is digital, so if you’re having a good time you can add the next slot on your phone (assuming it’s not sold out, which is unlikely for the late slots), and never leave the table. Do I love having to monetize my play experience? No, but if I’m going to this is definitely the better option.
+There is a better alternative to this. And no it’s not paying the $58 per person for an all weekend pass to the library (which is an option). It’s the BGG Hot Games room. This is another paid event, but it’s better in many key ways. First, the library is small but curated to new games, exactly the set you’re probably at the convention to evaluate (and on this the stadium library has weak selection). Second, it’s booked in two hour increments; so the example above of a single game with 3 people is going to set you back $18 ($6 each for 2 hours) instead of $42. And you can book adjacent time slots, and we found a sweet with the 5-7pm slot (discounted because it overlaps with the expo hall hours) and the 7-9pm slot, giving enough time to dig into a few titles for the cost of $10 per person. The ticketing is digital, so if you’re having a good time you can add the next slot without leaving your seat (assuming it’s not sold out, which is unlikely for the late slots). Do I love having to monetize my play experience like this? No, but this is definitely the better of the options.
 
-The game library is not the only part of GenCon that asks you to schedule in advance and spend extra money. This is also true of some game demos. You can crowd into the publisher’s booth and get a demo, but some offer the ability to get a scheduled teach and full/partial playthrough. These seem to most often rely on the paper ticket system, which is a hassle. But also if the slots are not showing as full on the website you can likely drop in and take an opening on a first come first served basis (like flying standby). It won’t always pan out, but more often than not it will. 
+The game library is not the only part of GenCon that asks you to schedule in advance and spend extra money. This is also true of some game demos. You can crowd into a publisher’s booth and get a demo, and I do a lot of that to get initial information on games. But some publishers offer the ability to book a scheduled teach and full/partial play-through. These most often rely on the paper ticket system, which is a hassle. But if the slots are showing as available on the website you can likely drop in and take an opening on a first-come first-served basis (like flying standby). It won’t always pan out, but more often than not it will. 
 
-Let’s talk about the real cost of paper tickets: the will call line. Most people seem to get their passes for the show from will call (as opposed to having them shipped, which is the standard for PAX). The obvious downside of this is that tens of thousands need to all queue up in the same place on their first day of the show. I’ve waited two hours in that line, as it wraps through and outside the building, into the summer heat outside. It’s a staggeringly awful way to start your GenCon experience. You can pay to have your passes shipped to you instead, which I highly recommend if you value your time (and you should, because flights and hotels for GenCon are very expensive). But if you ever want it add any paper tickets on the fly (for example after seeing a game at a booth and wanting to take a deeper look), you’re only option is to pick them up in that same accursed will call line. My most recent trip to GenCon I was able to never wait in that line, which I did by paying to have my badge shipped, sticking with digital ticketed events, and flying standby for the rest. 
+Let’s talk about the real cost of paper tickets: the will call queue. Most people seem to get their passes for the show from will call (as opposed to having them shipped, which is the standard for PAX). The obvious downside of this is that tens of thousands need to all queue up in the same place on their first day of the show. I’ve waited two hours in that line, as it wraps through the building and into the summer heat outside. It’s a staggeringly awful way to start your GenCon experience. You can pay to have your passes shipped to you instead, which I highly recommend if you value your time (and you should, because flights and hotels for GenCon are very expensive). But if you ever want it add any paper tickets on the fly (for example after seeing a game at a booth and wanting to take a deeper look), you’re only option is to pick them up in that same accursed will call queue. My most recent trip to GenCon I was able to never wait in that line, which I did by paying to have my pass shipped, sticking with digital ticketed events, and flying standby for the rest. 
 
-A supposed solution for this are the “generic” tickets that have a fixed $2 cost and you can use for paid events (like the library or a paid demo). For many years I would follow people’s recommendations and get some of these “just in case”). I might as well have lit money on fire, because I never used them. Now I just avoid the system entirely, hoping that GenCon will over time modernize onto a more flexible digital ticketing system. 
+A supposed solution for this are the “generic” tickets that have a fixed $2 cost and you can use for paid events (like the library or a paid demo). For many years I would follow people’s recommendations and get some of these “just in case”. I might as well have lit money on fire, because I never used them. Now I just avoid the system entirely, hoping that GenCon will over time modernize onto a more flexible digital ticketing system. 
 
-I do recommend buying games at the show, just show some restraint. Yes you can get games months earlier than their retail release. But most games that are good are going to get that retail release and you can get them later. Mostly. Small publisher games are different, as they may only hit Kickstarter but not a large retail distribution. So be willing to grab a game or two early in your show so that you have something to play after hours. 
+I do recommend buying games at the show, just show some restraint. Yes at GenCon you can get games months earlier than their general release. But most games that are good are going to hit retail and you can get them then (when you don’t have to stuff them in a suitcase and when there are more reviews available). Mostly. Small publisher games are different, as they may only hit Kickstarter but not a large retail distribution. So be willing to grab a game or two early in your show so that you have something to play after hours.l (or if you just want to treat yourself). 
 
-Use your evenings for research. Check up on the titles that intrigued you (I recommend taking photos as you walk around so that your camera roll can function as a research todo list).on research. Check up on the titles that intrigued you (I recommend taking photos as you walk around so that your camera roll can function as a research todo list). Look up the vibes on BGG or watch a video. Often you’ll find that well produced product that was getting you excited isn’t a safe bet and maybe you should find a way to try before you buy. 
+Use your evenings for research. Check up on the titles that intrigued you (I recommend taking photos as you walk around so that your camera roll can function as a todo list).on research. Look up the vibes on BGG or watch a video. Often you’ll find that the well produced product that was getting you excited isn’t a safe bet and maybe you should find a way to try before you buy. It’s easy to get excited, but trust me there are plenty of fish in the sea. 
 
-If you are expecting to buy some titles, and as mentioned above I believe you should, I’d suggest checking a back that has some room preallocated for games. 
+I’ve only been talking about board games here, but GenCon’s past is entangled with role playing games. This 2024 show was the 50th anniversary of D&D, which showed up as all the new hotness during the 7th ever GenCon (back when it happened at Lake Geneva and the name GenCon made more sense). I personally play role playing games with multiple groups of friends, but curiously I’ve never played any at GenCon. I have played RPGs at conventions like PAX (I have fond memory of “dungeon delves”, 1-2 hour D&D one shots). The main reason I don’t engage with this at GenCon is that I want to play RPGS with friends not strangers, and my RPG friends aren’t the same friends that will make the journey to GenCon. I know RPGs are there in a big way at GenCon, but I don’t have tips to share. 
 
-GenCon’s past is entangled with role playing games. This last one was the 50th anniversary of D&D, which showed up as all the buzz during the 7th ever GenCon (back when it happened at Lake Geneva and the name GenCon made more sense). And I personally play role playing games with friends, but curiously I’ve never played any at GenCon.
+Hopefully there’s some advice in here that helps you have a better time at this convention.