GenCon 2007 Post No. 1

GenCon is too big to cover in just one post. It just is.

A LOT of exhibitors reported this as their best GenCon ever. In my opinion, a large part of that was how they arranged the exhibit hall this year.

In past years, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) was more or less centrally located. This year, they were located back in a corner. This meant that they only had neighbors on two sides, which caused less traffic congestion throughout the entire hall and the "distracted by the WotC Booth" effect hit a smaller number of exhibitors.

They also set up a specific area in the exhibit hall for video and electronic games. This also aided congestion (although there was a constant crowd around Pirates of the Burning Sea and the Conan booths, because their models were there to be photographed with the public).

I saw more and more boardgamers this year. Part of that was due to where I was working, but I saw fewer RPG booths this year. The booths I did see all seemed to be post-apocalyptic RPG's. Zombies also seem to be having a boom year.

A friend of mine who works for Warehouse 23 (or, more accurately, e23) commented on the growing number of women at GenCon. It was noticable, even to me - and this was only my third GenCon. And the "gamer funk" aroma associated with GenCon in the past was also noticeably down. I wonder if these two are related ...

I also saw more minorities this year - the vast majority of people attending GenCon were still Caucasians, but I saw more color in the crowd this year. Which is a good thing.

In my later post(s), I'll discuss what I demoed, who I demoed with and who I met.