One of the things that struck me about the dealer’s hall at GenCon this year was how much it seems to have evolved over the years from a place where the emphasis is on publishers selling their wares direct to consumers into a strange flea market of, yes, some games, but also a very wide variety of general geek-interest products. Keep in mind that this is a general sense I got; I’ve done no research, quantitative or otherwise.
One factor that I think gives me that sense is that the publisher-representing-itself booth is, frankly, disappearing from the vendor hall scene. Fulfillment and publisher-consolidation outfits like Studio 2, Adventure Retail, and IPR are, yes, more economically efficient for publishers, but each such agglomeration booth eliminates a half-dozen or more individual publisher booths of the kind that I remember from GenCons in the 80s and 90s.
Past the obvious and compelling economic reasons publishers will cite for not attending GenCon in the traditional fashion, I suspect that CenCon as an opportunity for publishers to meet their fans in person (and, you know, sell them books and games in person) has been supplanted by the Internet. These days, publishers can meet their fans and sell them books 24/7/365, in their underwear if they want to.
(Here’s a mental gift for you, Gameplaywright reader: Imagine, if you will, a horrible alternate universe where all GenCon attendees are clad only in their underwear.)
As the publisher footprint diminishes for whatever reason, it’s easier to see all of the weird crap vendors. It’s possible they were all there before and now it’s just easier to see them, but whether their numbers have maintained or increased, it’s hard to deny that they’re a more obvious presence at the show.
Now, don’t get me wrong about the generally compelling nature of weird crap. A lot of the thrill of the GenCon vendor hall is wandering around and making discoveries, and strange and wonderful impulse purchases. I, for example, bought six new victims for my My Little Cthulhu set.
But for me, GenCon is first and foremost about gaming, and a changing emphasis away from games and toward weird crap can’t help but feel like a change for the worse. GenCon is not, after all, the Best Four Days in Weird Crap. But I’m also certain that there’s a heavy dose of grass-is-greener nostalgia in my head contributing to my sense of gloom and doom. I’ve already been fitted for my “Kids These Days” t-shirt.
I’m curious to find out whether anyone else got the same sense I did of the changing dealer hall, and what value judgements other people attach to whatever change, or lack thereof, they perceive.
If only there were some place readers could offer, you know, their comments…
“But for me, GenCon is first and foremost about gaming[…]”
Doesn’t that mean that, by definition, the most important parts of GenCon happen away from the dealer’s hall?
I felt the same way about the hall this year, Jeff. There were a lot of “Weird Crap” booths, and there were also a lot of publisher booths that were chock-full of books and ended up looking uninviting due to the Too Much Stuff syndrome. To be totally fair, I think the Catalyst book suffered from this, too. We brought too much of some stuff and the sales area of the booth ended up totally stuffed to the gills. We took notes and won’t be doing some of the same things next year, even though we got a lot of compliments on the booth. Always room for improvement.
As for the internet supplanting communications with gamers, I think that’s true to a degree, but frankly, I would *much* rather talk to someone about gaming stuff at Gen Con or another convention or at my FLGS than over the internet. I might only feel that way because it’s not the norm — maybe if I was at conventions every weekend and only had to read email from gamers twice a year I’d love the email instead — but I think the level of positive and energizing interactions is far far higher in person than online.
Something else I noticed this year: at least one, and I think two, of the dice vendors had multiple smaller booths spread throughout the hall, instead of one uber-booth. That’s an interesting approach that seems to loudly say “Nobody gets to see the whole hall, so we’re going to divide and conquer instead.” I wonder if that might be a viable strategy for some of the larger consolidators such as Adventure Retail, or retailers like Troll and Toad, Crazy Egors, etc.
When I first went to GenCon back in…97? (think so)…I was struck by the kick-ass displays. A starfury over the long-forgotten company that was going to do a B5 video game. A 20′ battlemech. The WotC Castle. Hell, even Chameleon Eclectic, where I was volunteering, had the fake side of an office building with a mannequin dressed all Matrix or Rainbow Six, scaling it with an uzi in one hand and a laptop in the other.
In the last few years, I’ve noticed smaller and smaller displays. Oh, there are a few exceptions – the Fantasy Flight booth was so large it pulled people into orbit around it (to steal a line from Eric Lang or Patrick Kapera, forget which), and Catalyst and White Wolf/EVE also had large real estate, but the days of the Impressive Displays seem long gone.
(Don’t even get me started on the sad state of WotC’s booth)
Now, I imagine it simply is no longer economical for those kinds of expenditures (and maybe never was all that smart), but it is something that makes me a bit melancholy. This is GenCon – it’s supposed to be about the big displays.
And without that, publishers seem more, I dunno, ordinary, and I think the Weird Crap does get more visible.
Doesn’t that mean that, by definition, the most important parts of GenCon happen away from the dealer’s hall?
I guess I meant to write that the most important parts of GenCon are concerned with gaming. I think I would always, even before going pro, have thought of the dealer’s room crawl as part of that, even though it’s not the act of playing games.
(Although, there certainly is also the act of playing games physically present in the exhibitor hall, as well. I think that’s part of why it was so difficult to get around in and near the FFG booth. And by “booth,” I mean “starship.”)
Adam’s point about the multiple booths for Crystal Caste (I think it was them) is interesting. I think Marcus King’s “3 books for the price of 1” booth has also been split up in previous years, but I might be mistaken.
Certainly seems like it might work for Adventure Retail, as they have so much stuff packed into their long corridor of Cool Stuff (close cousin to Weird Crap, but y’know, Cooler).
Another thing that – I feel – added to the Flea Market feel. The video game corridor. For the past 2 years, I thought the video game segment was getting stronger and more professional. This year, with the exception of Champions Online, Pirates of the Burning Sea, and EVE) it felt like a hodgepodge of displays and companies with little rhyme or reason. Unlike some of my colleagues (I’m looking at you, Durall), I don’t lament the arrival of video game companies at GenCon. It’s obviously the future and I think we’d be dumb to ignore it. Still, though, when people like Bioware seem to be phoning it it (I mean, was their booth open for more than 2 hours a day!?), then what the hell is the point.
And to me it certainly contributed to the “Flea Market” sense of the hall, as you call it. (High def TVs notwithstanding).
Just took a look at the GC booth map and exhibitors list:
Chessex has 2 booths; one was 3 squares big, the other 5.
Cartoon Passion had 2 booths. I’m assuming that they’re a retailer of some sort? I did a web search and their domain was locked behind a password. One was 2 squares, the other 1 square.
Crystal Caste had 2 booths; one 6 squares and the other 2.
Off World Designs [t-shirt vendor] had 2 booths; one 1 square and the other 2.
Stylin’ [more clothes] had 2 booths; one 2 squares, the other 6.
I’m not bored enough to go back to last year’s list to compare … but I don’t remember anyone doing this last year [with maybe the exception of Off World Designs? But most t-shirt vendors look the same to me…]
Dice and shirts must such an impulse buy that stumbling across such a booth is the main factor in whether a given gamer makes a purchase.
Now, I imagine it simply is no longer economical for those kinds of expenditures (and maybe never was all that smart), but it is something that makes me a bit melancholy. This is GenCon – it’s supposed to be about the big displays.
Not everyone can afford to hang blow-up sex dolls dressed as superheroes above their booth…
My perspective on the lack of big cool displays: more companies are doing fewer shows, and it’s harder to justify the cost of a really cool statue or something like that if you’re only doing 2 shows a year, as opposed to six. Plus, rising costs of booths and rising shipping costs … all that stuff bites into the cool. 🙁
Definitely the flea market feel has increased in recent years, in fact, I had a feeling that something had changed, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I have always loved the booth crawl at gencon, looking for a new game I hadn’t heard of, or cool new miniatures to paint. (Gencon was the beginning of a somewhat short lived love affair with Rackham-no offense to FFG, but i was in it for the painting more than the game). I didn’t really get that this year, though i had my pick of places to get dice, a corset or steampunk goggles. Sometimes in the same booth.
I miss the “extravaganza”, the giant castle, or the big dragon.
Is it the “E3” curse thats killing stuff (where the cost to be there and keep up with the jones’ has gotten so out of hand companies don’t bother?)
The consolidation in the industry?
Or maybe just the mainstreaming of nerd culture? Perhaps there are not any fewer booths from game companies, but there is more of a market to sell gamers crap, so the “crap” booths have increased.
I find the last one a bit hard to swallow, iirc, gencon attendance has been more or less flat for the last several years.
Two other quick points.
1. It speaks volumes that WoTC did not release D&D at Gencon, in past years that would have been unheard of.
2. Rio Grand games skipped the exhibit hall entirely. They opted to have a Rio Grand room, just outside the hall. Nothing but tables with games all set to play, staff to teach the games and food/beverages. You could spend as much or as little time in there, have a snack and a drink(and avoid a $4 coke) and learn some new games.
It ended up being my standby “i’ve got an hour to kill” place for the con.
Cheers