End of a moderately attended era: SoCal is no more

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Gen Con SoCal 2007 is cancelled, as are all future SoCals. The press release mentions competing shows in the area, none of which I know of, so I hadn’t considered that as a factor, but in no way does the release imply that as the main factor. Peter Adkison’s writeup on the show’s life and death is a fascinating read; I’ll let the rest of you sort out the gems.

10 comments

  1. Its terribly hard for me to mourn the death of a western convention when we’re starved for anything of any big size here on the east coast (DragonCon doesn’t count – its deadsville for gaming).

  3. I imagine that it’d be just as hard to make a Gen Con work in New York (or Atlanta, or Orlando to be totally analogous) as it was in Anaheim. Given Peter’s claim that he could have cut features that didn’t make money, but didn’t because then it “wouldn’t be Gen Con,” I think what he needs is a new, distinct brand name, under which to do smaller shows.

  4. That’s a good point, Mike. ‘Course, why exactly do we need Peter? Community needs take community action after all… So, to get the ball rolling, how would such a thing work? Focused on a small subset of events with a marquee or more of a festival approach? How would you deal with high-end events like True Dungeon? Distributed (materials and framework put together and used by individual groups) or centralized (traveling troupe)? Just a thought.

  5. If smaller con organizers could do the sort of small shows that Gen Con LLC could do, they’d be doing it. And, arguably, a few are. But I think Gen Con could introduce a different animal, not least because there’s probably no one else that could really pull off anything like True Dungeon. If it were up to me, I’d go with one brand name that travels the nation, but who knows. I have a feeling they’ll come up with something that surprises us all (and that it will probably be True Dungeon-centered).

  6. I cannot think of any other established brand name for a major game convention circuit than “Gen Con.”

  7. use to live in orlando, so i’ve been to a few megacons (thats the one down there right?), it ws ok, nothing grand, but tne again it’s orlando.

    live in atlanta area now and went to dragon con. Have to say it was a big old disapointment, reallly sorta nothing with nothing. Certainly not worht layingg hard cash down for (i gort in free cause i was there with my schools art depatment)

    how cool is gencon? My freinds tell me comiccon in san diego was cool (course thats not gammeingg).

  8. I remember going to Gencon East in New Jersey when I was young. However, I think it had the same money problems because it only lasted a few years…

  9. A convention that’s not about unplugged gaming is not cool…

    …unless it’s a Trek-themed convention.

    😉

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