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Getting excited for it already now that the new year is upon us. Gary Con in 2.5 months isn't helping either. I have to say I am feeling nervous about getting a hotel room. Last year was a nightmare, and I wish they would post the date of the hotel signups already so I can make sure I have an hour blocked out of work for it. As someone who flys in from the east coast I definitely need a room, preferably within walking distance or at worst on the shuttle line. Last thing I want to do is pay for renting a car after paying for a plane ticket.
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Jan 7, 2015 20:08
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I just edited out the info of people from 2014 in that spread sheet and opened it back up, so if anyone has problems accessing it via the 2nd post in this thread let me know.
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Jan 7, 2015 20:20
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head58 posted:The housing portal opens Sunday Jan 25 at noon eastern. Awesome, they must have just updated it today with the start of event submissions. I checked the website and official forums yesterday and the date wasn't posted yet.
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Jan 7, 2015 20:23
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Couldn't you have just up and left? I mean, that can be rude if the other people knew it was a 3 hour demo and you leaving kills it but if not, your con your time.
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Jan 7, 2015 20:52
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ritorix posted:They are doing away with the manual wait list for a hotel this year. Supposed to all be automated on the website now. And we know how well that website worked. Also you can't book individual nights, gotta book a block of time including saturday. Potential technology problems aside, this all sounds fine to me. Last year was horrible. I am still confused why so many people booked friday only when they had 4 day badges, since you can't even get into the hotel reg system without a 4 day badge. When I could drive to Gen Con none of this hotel stuff was a worry, but now that I have to fly it keeps me up at night worse than if I had a mindflayer sleeping under my bed.
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Jan 9, 2015 16:39
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LuiCypher posted:All in all, I foresee this - it will be a net improvement for network traffic because people will be using the system for less time overall. If you can just click on a hotel and be done, that's great, and it will discourage that weird behavior where people will take a $300/night hotel for one night, take a $250/night one for another night, then settle on a $150/night hotel for about two nights. You either commit to it all up front or not at all. I am all for saving money but that is craziness. The hassle of switching hotel rooms would suck. It almost happened last year, we had one hotel for wed/thrs nights and then we could only get a different one for fri/sat, but then about 2 weeks before the con the housing team contacted us and said they could get us all 4 nights in one place like we had requested. If I had a car out there it wouldn't be too bad, but as it is I need to either be within walking distance or in a hotel on the shuttle line (which isn't announced yet). Bah, at least this happens now, so once its booked I can stop worrying about stupid crap like this and get back to being excited to go to the con.
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Jan 9, 2015 17:56
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Quarex posted:Also is it narcissism if listening to myself talk about Gen-Con from 2009 gets me hyped up for Gen-Con 2015? No, you should totally do this every morning to gain maximum excitement. Actually, if anyone has any great podcasts, videos, blogs or articles on Gen Con's past they should totally post them in here so we can all get pumped up via nostalgia.
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Jan 13, 2015 15:38
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New housing process reads well. For those of you that didn't get the email, everyone with a badge is randomly given a time slot starting at noon to register for a hotel room. The only thing I a not fond of with the concept is it means you could be registering at noon or maybe 2 hours later depending how lucky you are so your Sunday could be kind of tied up to get a hotel room if you wanted to do something out of the house. Hopefully it works out ok, has to be better the how last year went.
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Jan 14, 2015 01:54
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Len posted:They also announced a price increase to $80 for pre-reg. My reading makes it sound like it's going to go up every year but I probably read something wrong. That's how I read it as well, a $10 increase each year? Though their use of year-over-year doesn't exactly make sense. I might check the Hilton suites, though I am guessing they are going to be too much. If I was going in a big group I am fine with splitting the room but right now its just me and hopefully my girlfriend (she wants to go this year but is a little intimidated having never been to a con of any size). Dropping a grand plus just to sleep for 4 days and keep stuff some where it shouldn't be stolen really sucks.
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Jan 14, 2015 16:37
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I've done True Dungeon a couple of times with mixed experiences. Its definitely all about the people you run with. If it wasn't so expensive I'd probably do it once a con just because, but as it is I think I would need to run with a group of friends or something to justify it going forward.
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Jan 14, 2015 22:23
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Quarex, which auction section do they usually put old gen con programs and memorabilia? I know I have seen the old swag bags at TOVA before but wasn't sure about programs. Want to try and fill out some program gaps if I can this year I think.
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Jan 15, 2015 05:01
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Quarex posted:That is indeed usually T.O.V.A., if not Collectibles/Crème de la Crème. There are usually a few up every year, though the most recent one I remember was a Gen-Con VII? advertisement poster that went to The Keeper, when he opened the bidding at $100 and that was that. Lots of miscellaneous programs/flyers/memorabilia from other conventions too, here and there, though. Ok great, good to know. If he got that poster for $100 it was a steal. He has a ton of good Gen Con related stuff and takes pretty good care of it so that's good. Always nice to learn when that stuff goes to people who appreciate it and have good plans for the items when they are done with them other than just sell it to the highest bidder.
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Jan 16, 2015 15:34
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Really hoping it all goes well Sunday. I have a list of up to 12 hotels I want to try and get into just in case. I do wonder how much needing to be the badge purchaser to reserve a hotel in the block is going to help. In the past everyone got codes which they could of course just share with whoever they wanted. I don't know if it impacted things much but I am sure it didn't help. Also, Len, if you didn't notice they already clarified they do not have current plans to raise badge prices next year or in the near future, so it looks like that mental block on $100 of gaming awesomeness admission is safe for at least a few more years.
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Jan 21, 2015 17:46
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Don't worry, I know what you mean. When I was a kid and it was $40 for a 4 day badge even that much was blowing my mind. Granted, I was like 12 and anything more than $10 blew my mind but numbers do weird things to us sometimes.
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Jan 21, 2015 20:00
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I have to wait till 1:07. I hope some downtown stuff is left...
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Jan 25, 2015 18:02
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We have no idea how many people are going in each time segment, so it might not be as dire as it seems. Will report back with what it looks like when I go a little after 1.
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Jan 25, 2015 18:09
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I took the shuttle 2 years ago when I stayed at candlewood. Was the first time they were doing it. It was reliable except for one afternoon when the driver on that shift was making pickups in the wrong place. It's definitely my plan B.
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Jan 25, 2015 18:15
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morcant posted:Okay, this is weird. Both my boyfriend and another friend just bought their badges, and were able to reserve a room immediately. If true that sounds like a super lovely flaw in the system.
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Jan 25, 2015 18:16
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Just got in and booked at the Westin with a king room. Was hoping for other downtown options that had a breakfast and a little cheaper but I'll definitely take it. Don't give up hope, seems to be a good bit of good stuff still.
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Jan 25, 2015 19:14
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Solvency posted:Nothing further is available within walking distance to the convention hall. Shittiest idea ever, I've been going for 15 years and they screw me over. What the gently caress. I dunno, they have to do something. The past few years have been a cluster gently caress for housing and event reg. the convention is growing at a crazy rate. This isn't the gen con of 2003 or even 2010. I wish they would release some numbers about this and previous year badge sales before both hotel reg and event reg to get a good gauge of that growth. This system, despite the glitches, at least was an attempt at fairness through randomization. I didn't have a glitch and my parents, who are attending their first gen con since it left Milwaukee, where also able to get a room without a hitch today 90 minutes after registration opened. I don't know what else gen con can do besides set up shanty towns or move, and the second option isn't happening until after 2020'if it even happens then. Btw, I wrote gen con customer service about people buying badges after 12 and getting to get a hotel room right away. They actually wrote back to me around 2 saying they heard about it and fixed it it away. I don't know if that's true or not but I am glad they were so responsive on such a busy and probably lovely (customer service wise) day for them.
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Jan 26, 2015 03:56
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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. The official gen con forums is making me kind of hate humanity. People quoting atlas shrugged and claiming the system shouldn't be fair but skewed so those able to either game the system or who have the most money deserve the best shots at rooms. Ugh, gamers sometimes.
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Jan 26, 2015 15:19
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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.
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Jan 26, 2015 17:37
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They aren't doing a wait list this year at all. People are not happy about it. edit: their official answer is reserve a room, go back to the portal regularly by hitting "modify my reservation" to see if something you would rather have has opened up, and then either change your reservation or don't.
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Jan 26, 2015 18:46
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Quarex posted:I DO, however, hear that Gen-Con is their overall favorite because it has the fewest harassment issues, I believe by a significant amount even. Go us! If anyone has a link to that I would love to see it. Excited to bring my girlfriend to her first gencon this year and that's one thing she is concerned about. Also trying to talk another couple into coming and sharing the room we got with us and it would be good for them as well.
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Jan 27, 2015 16:46
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Deathlove posted:Anyone have any experience with the shuttles? Reading the forums and such give it a negative impression, but that's forum posts and people who are happy with the shuttle system probably aren't rushing to post about how it went. I took the shuttles the first year they existed and liked them. Ran frequently and during good times. I only had problems one day and it was because the driver screwed up and was picking people up at the wrong spot. I don't know how they were last year, but I liked it enough that if I was stuck at a hotel outside of walking distance this year I would have used the service again.
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Jan 28, 2015 19:02
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Len posted:I wasn't paying attention was the Nazi booth back last year? Yup, it was there. It will probably always be there unless Gen Con decides to specifically exclude it. I don't know how you could miss it unless you just avoided the vendor hall. That booth and the giant t-shirt tower of tackiness are the two most obnoxious ones in the whole hall in both their appearance and how much obstruction to the isles they cause.
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Jan 29, 2015 14:55
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They might have had the nazi stuff in the booth last year, but they were definitely there. The both is large, has quasi walls, and is always playing war movies with war paraphernalia all over it with a bunch of their stock on the outside of their walls so the isles clog with people trying to look at what DVDs they have. Nazi stuff or not its an obnoxious booth.
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Jan 29, 2015 16:35
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Thanks for posting that Mudcrab Merchent! My girlfriend appreciated reading it and she feels a bit better about it all. She is coming to gary con with me as well and she tells me she is more worried about the crowd there now. Btw, if anyone else has some lady friends worried about being overwhelmed, I was glad to learn that the group Contessa is planning on running several games and events, including an off convention center house, that focus on women gamers. Contessa is an all female run group that hosts blogs on women and table top game topics and runs online games that are run by female DMs. Glad to see them bringing some of that to established conventions like this.
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Feb 1, 2015 19:31
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10am is when most things at the convention start. There are some games that start at 8am, but they are fairly sparse and people skip them all the time. Personally, I like to plan a packed schedule and then drop things as I go and need a break or whatever. Since you can return event tickets up to 30 minutes before an event for a refund I don't worry about having too many tickets. Plenty do do, ticketed or otherwise.
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Feb 4, 2015 02:13
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I don't know if this is useful for you first timers or not, but when it comes to event I (or me and my group if it is a year I am not attending by myself) use this spreadsheet format to plan out our weekends. It gives you an idea of how busy we like to be, and note that there is time built in there for the vendor hall, etc. This was our schedule for last year, I am the one listed as "Matt", and the only event I skipped is the Sunday Monster Mash events. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PvDeo9lL1-oCrecSYfiqIcDx43XM5kdfZWFMNvjTc8U/edit?usp=sharing
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Feb 4, 2015 21:53
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Is that a standard policy of theirs, or part of how you booked it? I am just surprised, as I don't know of any hotels that do that themselves. Though you certainly pay upfront if using something like travelocity. Weird, and that really sucks. If you are flexible you can also check back with hotels through the housing portal in late June and early July. That's usually when people lock their Gen Con plans in for certain, and a (relatively) lot of rooms open up then as people realize they can't afford it, have other vacations take priority, or other things just getting in the way of their awesome Gen Con fun time trip. Assuming you didn't get some kind of awesome and huge suite that is a crazy nightly rate.
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Feb 6, 2015 22:22
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I hope the Gary Con event registration today wasn't a preview of Gen Con event registration. It went up at 4pm, was up for less than 5 minutes and then their ISP took the site down and blocked everyone's IPs because they thought they were under a DDOS attack. They worked for like an hour with the host to fix it, got it back up, people registered for a minute before they took it down again and now event registration isn't starting back up again until Tuesday night.
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Feb 8, 2015 01:09
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Everything fills up fast. There are certain events that are particularly coveted, such as true dungeon and the D&D all access pass and popular systems that have fe Gams running them, like Call of Cthulu games.
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Feb 8, 2015 01:45
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I never understand people who have players make characters at con games, especially a game for beginners. Why would you want to waste any of your four hours on making a character for a one shot game?
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Feb 8, 2015 02:08
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Lawen posted:How do you guys figure out which events to sign up for? Just pick a game system you like and blindly buy tickets for a session based on the day and time? Find GMs you like and sign up for whatever they're running? Its all the above. Some GM's have a good reputation, so you can try and get games with them. Google some of them and see if anything, good or bad, comes up. Ask around as well. Michael Curtis, for instance, runs games for Metamorphosis Alpha and DCC and is a great GM. Otherwise, I just try to get into systems I want to play in to try out, or to get into events that sound unique or fun that I can't get into at home. The D&D All Access Pass was that for me last year, and the year before was the 1,000 player Settlers of Catan game. The important thing to remember is you can always just get up and walk. If it is really not fun at all for you just go. I am not recommending you screw over the other people at the table if they are having fun, but if the GM is that terrible they probably aren't having any fun either. Its only 96 hours of gen con, there is no reason to waste 4+ hours of it sitting at a table miserable because the person running the game is terrible at doing con games. Personaly, anyone running a con game that does character generation at the table doesn't know how to run a con game (exception being for sessions where people are there to learn how to make a character). I don't care if it normally takes 15 minutes, you are going to get people who don't know the system at all and everyone has to share 1 copy of the rules, and then there are people who come to games who just won't shut up talking about anything but the task at hand and drag it out to an hour. Come with pre-gens, crack that whip and get people moving and having fun.
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Feb 9, 2015 15:20
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Kaddish posted:I think I'm going to try for the All Access D&D thing this year. I roamed the Wizards hall last year and it looked fun. I'm a pretty casual pen and paper player. It was a lot of fun. I went with a group of 4 last year and we were all at the same D&D All Access Table and it was good. The Corruption of Kryptgarden event in particular was great. I don't know how good it would be if you are at a table by yourself, though the one single guy who joined our group seemed to enjoy it. It's a lot of D&D though, and I am glad we did the 8am games because there is almost nothing going on at the con before 10.
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Feb 9, 2015 15:21
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Len posted:I've never paid attention to it what's the D&D All Access? It sounds like it's a pass to just walk into a place and find a random D&D game to play. I'm not a big fan of D&D but depending on the hours of it that could be worth it. Its a guaranteed spot in all of the official D&D events run by Baldman Games on behalf of WotC for the con with the same DM and party for every game and at the same time slot each day. Last year it was $140 and for that you got a copy of the PHB, a copy of the Monster Manual signed by all of the D&D design staff (this was also 60 days before the MM was available at retail), and then a 4 hour game of D&D on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and for the Saturday night Kryptgarden event and D&D Celebration event.
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Feb 9, 2015 16:05
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Quarex posted:Were any of you there in 2002!? I WANT YOUR STORIES TOOOOO O KKKKKKKKKK I was there, but don't remember anything specific from that Gen Con. As someone who lived in a Milwaukee suburb at the time, I was very sad to see the convention go. I went with my family so we could all soak up as much Gen Con as we could before it left the land of beer and cheese, possibly forever. Since I was a local I didn't experience any grumpy hotel staff, and in those days I just brought food for lunch so generally didn't interact with any vendors that were not in the Gen Con vendor hall. It was lots of fun, and I was very sad to see it go especially since I didn't know how I could ever justify going to Indianapolis for it. At the time I was mystified that anyone would spend money on the hotel for Gen Con let alone the money to fly into the convention. After going to 10 or 12 Gen Con's in Milwaukee I wouldn't be back until the bug bit me out of no where and I drove down to Indianapolis with my at-the-time girlfriend to attend in 2008. I had to take a couple of years off after that from being broke from grad school and moving 1,000 miles away to start a new career but made it back in 2012 and, so far, every year since then. My most memorable year was 1994. It was just when the big card game craze really took off. I loved playing Magic, which I just discovered myself at the 1994 Gen Con, and started to get into it a lot there. My sister's and I really liked Spellfire at the con though because TSR was giving you a free deck of cards for trying the game. We spent the majority of the con playing Spellfire, leaving for a few minutes, then coming back to a different person running the Spellfire demos to get a new deck of cards and play some more. We must have picked up at least 75 Spellfire decks between the 3 of us doing that until they finally got wise on Sunday. Ah, good times. I also remember just getting more excited for magic because of the art. My 14 year old self was flipping through a dealer's card book and saw a "Wall of Flesh" card and thought any game with such crazy art must be awesome and I must have that card! Luckily that addiction didn't survive for me much past 1998.
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Feb 9, 2015 19:59
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You would think them getting almost all exhibitors a room would be easy since they know exactly how many vendors will be attending. There are only a limited number of booths, right, so why don't they just guarantee 1 room per floor space number you are buying (with the option to decline it) or something else like that?
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Feb 24, 2015 21:50
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clockworkjoe posted:Well, they're cutting back on rooms for exhibitors so I can't get a room through the exhibitor I work with (I don't have the exhibitor badge myself) so what are my options for getting a room within walking distance of the con center? I would say virtually none unless you find someone with a room already that wants another roommate. There will probably be some rooms that magically open up in late June through early July as people's plans are really solidified but they will be few and probably get snatched up fast. Its crazy how much these cons are growing and no one seems to know what to do about it. Even though it has 1/100th the attendance of Gen Con, Gary Con is running into the same issues and having a public discussion on what to do about it. Some of the responses just seem ludicrous (lets charge $500 for a badge so you only go if you really really want to and don't have to fly in or want to eat for the week!). http://garycon.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1430
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Feb 24, 2015 21:54
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