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Man that hotel poo poo is nailbiting now, even more so than the mad rush it normally is. Luckily I talked my girlfriend into getting a badge early and she managed to get assigned a time slot immediately on the opening of the reservation system. Gotta make a habit now to have anyone going with me to register early if this is the system they're going to stick with, more chances to get in early.
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Jan 26, 2015 13:51
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nesbit37 posted:I think for future years I am seriously considering just booking out the block a year ahead of time, probably at a hotel on the shuttle route since I can't afford the rack rates at the downtown hotels, just to make the whole hotel experience less nerve wracking. I am glad the convention is growing so much but this stuff does really suck for attendees. Soon we will have people sleeping in vans and hallways like Milwaukee all over again. You could always book one separately and then see if you can get one in the hotel block via gen con. Then you're free to cancel the more expensive one if you do. I'm considering that as a backup plan in the future myself. If you get a downtown hotel it should be pretty easy to find some people that want to double up to cut the cost down too. Sloober fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Jan 26, 2015 |
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Jan 26, 2015 17:01
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nesbit37 posted:From the forums and my own experience it seems downtown was essentially gone at the 1 hour 30 minute mark. I know there were several downtown options when I got on at 1 hour 7 min. My parents got on at 1 hour 11 minutes, and then they had a couple issues because they didn't put their desired booking dates in, so once that was sorted it was about 1 hour 20 minutes and they only could see 1 hotel within walking distance for Wednesday through Saturday nights. There were people reporting that they were getting downtown rooms after the 3 hour mark but they seem pretty sparse. I checked my login time which was around 3 hours after opening and it still showed some stuff within a half mile open. Hell the hotel I wanted was still open - about a half mile down on ohio street. Luckily I didn't need the room then, I probably would have gotten it if I knew enough people going that would still be looking though.
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Jan 26, 2015 17:52
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No wait list is a kick in the junk with their lottery system. I feel bad for folks that didn't manage to get one. Edit: I'm probably not going to know the answer to this until June or July but I might have a spare room at the Sheraton Indianapolis City Center, my group booked two because we have several people that couldn't commit immediately, and/or tried to rely on a different person they barely know that's never been to gen con before to do the booking. I even warned them it was lottery as soon as I heard that's what it was. Sloober fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Jan 26, 2015 |
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Jan 26, 2015 19:06
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Quarex posted:Were any of you there in 2002!? I WANT YOUR STORIES TOOOOO O KKKKKKKKKK Only time I was at GC Milwaukee was 97/98. I don't recall much about the experience beyond it was a fun way to spend a Saturday. I was still dumb and ate crappy food from vendors in the building so no commentary there, except the local mall has gone even more downhill and is sort of a ghost town these days. There's another game/larp convention starting up in the area though, Midwinter - which is in January. Still very small and having a lot of growing pains. It's located in the hotel right next to the Midwest Center where Gencon moved to in '98. Milwaukee is not a good city for cons though, not enough hotels, food places etc.
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Feb 9, 2015 22:23
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Len posted:I'm glad to hear that Gencon is a friendly con. I was always afraid the cosplay deviants were setting themselves up for a weekend of hell. Nerds can be pretty creepy and entitled and I just imagine a lot of them go "I can buy sexy pictures of you? That gives me right to be ultra creepy." Good to hear I can have faith in Gencon. If anything it can be a little too puritanical since someone railed at me when I got a little drunk, like barely buzzing at a late night event, I think it was about 1 AM and we were getting some lovely burgers from Steak N Shake and all I was doing was chatting with folks, then this lady called me rude and how I was somehow a bad person because I consumed some alcoholic beverages. I never even talked to her jeez. Rude. But yeah the crowd is pretty good, I've been to a number of different cons and this one has always been about the best - although I wish they stressed the "Stop and take a shower" thing every now and then. E: I actually almost wished she'd yelled I'M STRAIGHTEDGE at me Sloober fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Feb 26, 2015 |
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Feb 26, 2015 15:12
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Quarex posted:I was shocked, too, when I found out that Gen-Con was their favorite. But delighted nonetheless. It makes sense; something has to be the sterling example! I didn't think that type of person was anything more than an internet construct but I was proven wrong that night. Also sadly my spare room will be being used this year, and i'm using it to cordon off the heavy snorers I had to deal with last year.
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Mar 4, 2015 17:22
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Countblanc posted:Everyone should experience the joy of eating nothing but a loaf of bread and maybe some peanut butter and sleeping under a sink for the weekend. I slept under a desk last year does that count? It was in a hotel room I guess.
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Apr 1, 2015 02:48
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I try to eat at off hours so my waits are usually really reasonable. I think my worst is at the ram for maybe a 15 min wait. Lunch at 11 usually means places are empty.
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Apr 6, 2015 00:04
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There's also gonna be several hundred tardis dresses. But I sort of despise doctor who for personal reasons.
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Apr 16, 2015 12:44
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Sort of, but I also had a really terrible now ex GF that was majorly into doctor who, and has lead to me swearing off the show and cats. One of my every week gaming friends is into the show bigtime, I just do my best to ignore it, since he's a good friend that I've gamed with for years.
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Apr 16, 2015 12:55
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Texibus posted:Welp, waiting it out paid off again, managed to nab a room in the city centre for me and my two bros. We're sleeping head to toe in one King size bed like dwarves, but we're staying at SHERATON INDIANAPOLIS CITY CENTRE HOTEL, which is only four block away from the Con. Plus, I can keep looking for something better and change with no fees, not a bad fall back. That's the hotel i'll be at - last year they embraced gen con more and offered free wi fi for the duration, and opened their basement level room as a board game area - turned out to have a good number of folks playing games there at any given point. I will probably be hanging out there for a good bit of Wednesday provided they do the same again.
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Apr 20, 2015 16:24
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Quarex posted:And if you are at all interested in buying things, you can EASILY spend the entirety of one day just wandering the exhibit hall and the Auction Store/hanging out at the Auction for a section you are interested in. In fact my usual pre-Auction-volunteering years I usually spent ~4 hours a day in the exhibit hall alone; it is funny how your inner shopper light gets turned on when literally everything around you is of at least some vague interest, as opposed to the usual mall store where you might see one thing in the entire store that is vaguely appealing. Exhibit hall is basically crack and it's hard to not spend some time in it every day ZachAttack posted:I am heading to gencon for the first time this year and I was wondering how packed I should make my schedule. I want to do some of the all day miniature tournaments and a few other events here and there, but I still have a good two days or so open. Should I go out of my way to sign up for stuff? If I show up with some minis will I be able to find pick up games for stuff like Dropzone Commander or X-Wang outside of the 'official' tournaments? Don't pack it. First time there's a lot to see and admire and wish you had a lot of dollars to spend.
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May 15, 2015 16:33
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I'm slightly bummed, there was only a couple games of Terra Mystica on the event list and both were sold out by the time I got to look due to a break in at my place (was out buying sliding door security bars). I really want to try that out before i fork out the cash for it, just in case I end up hating it.
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May 18, 2015 21:19
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Bottom Liner posted:Yeah, I'm betting GoT will be a hot commodity. How are prices at Gencon usually? Good deals for buying directly from vendors or premium convention prices? Coolstuff has a booth usually and they are of course about 20-25% under MSRP and also hand a coupon out for $$ off their website, but in general don't expect the discounts at other booths, but drop by on sunday for the last few hours prior to packing up and some folks slash prices so they have less poo poo to haul back.
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May 31, 2015 15:30
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Direwolf posted:Never doing my hotel booking through the Gencon website again. Just found out our reservation was maintained but they changed our room layout, so we can't have a cot anymore due to fire hazard, which means my best friend can't sleep in the room as he has a medical issue, meaning we have to somehow find a new reservation 2 weeks out within walking distance that can fit 4 people and doesn't quadruple our reservation costs. woo. Did you contact the gen con housing board and/or the hotel? They're usually fairly accommodating when it comes to this, particularly if you made the reservation due to the setup specified. On top of that hotels are pretty generous when it comes to shuffling you around rooms if they didn't fit what you specifically went for.
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Jul 14, 2015 18:39
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FFG/Privateer I think have the huge ones. You can get one from coolstuff too, but its not as big.
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Jul 27, 2015 18:39
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QnoisX posted:Okay, so I'll just bring the tablet bag and get one there then. A backpack being huge doesn't seem to stop a lot of people from using them all over the place
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Jul 27, 2015 19:03
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The amount of stuff people get there is pretty crazy to me, but i'm super cheap.s. Only picked up the expansion to Terra Mystica and a couple of old promo planet packs for Eminent Domain. Buddy of mine picked up Codenames, otherwise I probably would have. Only hung out with the GenGoons a little bit though, but it was largely due to what few events I did being smack dab in the middle of whenever it ended up going down. I did find an RPG system I enjoyed though - Paranoia was rather amusing. Normally I just can't get into enjoying any of them but the ridiculousness was good.
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Aug 3, 2015 17:20
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It was more a general "wow people buy tons of poo poo' than "indolent bastard is bad with money"
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Aug 3, 2015 17:29
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Bucnasti posted:Somebody mind explaining what's up with Codenames? Why was everyone so keen to get hold of it? Codenames is a Vlaada game which explains the hype and all that. It's also pretty fun to play so yeah. The gist is there are two spymasters, and 25 words laid out in a 5x5 grid. The spymasters know which ones are their dudes (There is a large selection of cards that show which ones are yours, and the card itself can be rotated for more variance), and have to give a word + number for a concept behind specific words and the number of words you are linking to that concept.Your team then chooses which words they think you are implying. If they pick the right ones, you can keep guessing (using past clues or whatnot, or even just by chance, which is largely not a smart way to do it). However if you pick the other team's dudes, they basically get a free word completed for them, and if you pick a bystander your turn is also done. There is an assassin word that basically ends the game and your team loses if you were the ones that picked it. It's fun to do both the roles so good stuff. I also appeared to have caught somebody's cold down there, luckily I stayed home from work today to recover from con overload.
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Aug 3, 2015 22:13
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Stopped at h&I and had their pizza - was pretty good for $12.
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Aug 8, 2015 01:32
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Len posted:Was I just blind or was there a lack of anime body pillow cases for sale? I don't remember seeing rows of them hanging above booths with post it notes covering the porny bits. They were at a booth right in the exhibit hall by the Magic tournament/gaming area in the big playing hall. Like right by the Z-man booth.
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Aug 8, 2015 15:14
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Didn't feel any more or less crowded than normal. I guess maybe less so, since i never had to wait more than a few minutes for a table at a place to eat whereas i had to wait for some points last year.
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Aug 20, 2015 18:14
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Got my usual sheraton city center, i feel lucky about it since everyone in my group but her got an over 2 hour wait - hers was 45 minutes. As always it is like a massive stone weight is removed from my chest now that lodgings are secured.
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Jan 25, 2016 14:23
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Exmond posted:I got the Courtyard for my hotel. Is it any good? Can a Standard Double/Double host 3 people? You can host as many as you can cram in there per gen con standards
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Jan 25, 2016 20:49
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:Depending on how you stack them a Queen room can fit dozens, hundreds of people even. Just think if you cram a hundred you're probably paying about 2 dollars a night. Sweet deal
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Jan 25, 2016 20:56
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:This might be contentious, but on the subject of food, skip the RAM. They're a perfectly fine and serviceable bar, but you're gonna be waiting an hour for a table then another 45 mins for food and drink. It's always ultra packed and I've never found the wait to be worth it. Others may disagree though. I usually go to the ram at a friend's insistence, but i usually pick the time so it's an 11 AM lunch when you can snag a table right away. I sort of wish they weren't bought out by privateer press every year though. For sure they get busy as gently caress since they're right on the main drag, it makes me wonder why the steak place - st elmos - across the street is usually empty though, maybe the preconception of a pricey meal?
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Apr 4, 2016 21:09
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Slandible posted:I came to this thread almost every night last year and was never disappointed. The ram is basic brewery restaurant food - i live in WI so brewery restaurants are a dime a dozen here. It's not terrible by any means but it isn't a particular standout. If you're gonna go, go on off dining hours. It really is busy as hell most of the time. Sigma-X posted:Trying to get a group of like 6 people, one of whom doesn't shower, and one of whom only drinks mountain dew, means it will be difficult to get those 6 people to all agree to be seen and order in a place where a meal starts at like $30 when you can go to Noodles & Co and eat for like $8. I'm glad i go on vacation for dining experiences as much as I do the event. I try to stay away from chain places unless i really do need the convenience.
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Apr 5, 2016 12:48
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Sigma-X posted:Paranoia is the best RPG and while it can be a bit intimidating for newcomers it is also the only RPG that really encourages loving with other people and sending notes to the GM so sign up for that, it's fun even when run badly. I'm not at all an RPG person but paranoia is good fun, sign up for it for sure.
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May 11, 2016 00:37
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i only bought like 3 things. i ended up having to dump my duffel bag of travel wear into the GF's car so my passengers had space for all of their poo poo. Had to carry some poo poo in their laps and what little free space we had in the car itself
Sloober fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Aug 7, 2016 |
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Aug 7, 2016 23:00
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Nerdstank is an aura of infectiousness
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Aug 11, 2016 01:00
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Already ready for GC2017. This year was great, I met Vlaada Chvatil and he signed my space alert box.
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Dec 1, 2016 16:52
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nesbit37 posted:I'm extra excited as well because I am working on a Gen Con research project which means its all Gen Con, all the time for the next year! We are currently digitizing the event listings from all the Gen Cons out of their programs. All the way back to 1968, and luckily I have all of the event info from the Indy cons in database form already. We are parsing out the events into spreadsheets and when done plan to do some data science stuff on them to learn what Gen Con tells us about how games have changed over time and then, assuming I can get permission from Gen Con, sharing the event stuff online so others can bask in the glory of looking up any event they want from the 50 years of Gen Con. I'd actually really like to see the results of this
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Dec 1, 2016 21:02
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Pez posted:I had to miss this year due to being poor, but come hell or high water I'm going next year. The day I'll be flying back is the same day as a total eclipse over much of the US, should be interesting. Hey be nicer to yourself, you are not large enough to block out the sun over continental US.
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Dec 10, 2016 13:15
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Texibus posted:I honestly just want the room perk. Getting into the vendor hall first just means I'd spend more money at Gencon, which I don't need to do. That's what i want. I have an agreement with friends if someone gets it, we all chip in for it since the benefit on room alone is huge.
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Jan 31, 2017 17:35
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8one6 posted:The room is honestly the number one reason I've never considered dropping out of the VIG program. You're inviting people to consume you for your power
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Jan 31, 2017 20:42
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I've been staying at the sheraton city center every year, because it is reliably still open when i typically get in, and i like the convenient food walk to non-food trucks
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Feb 1, 2017 19:42
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