Gen Con anyone?...

[Hoosier]

Wrapping up at work and reviewing schedules and tickets for Gen Con.

Everyone else avoiding the nuttyness, or should I be lookin' to buy a fellow Hoosier Vaper a drink at the con?

Have more stuff planned this year than ever before.

It's going to be a blast!

 

[rockyroad]

hey what's up...sorry for the ignorance but what is Gen Con?

 

[Hoosier]

The second biggest money maker for downtown Indy all year for most Hoosiers.

It is 4 days, 24 hours every day, of games. Every game you can imagine and thousands you have never imagined are being played. Heck, I'm even taking a Ballroom Dancing class with the GF as one of my events. Computer games, video games, card games, board games, war games, role playing games, anime (which is not my thing), costumes, and thousands upon thousands of gamers hit Indy to buy, swap, sell, play and party.

Hint, don't come unless you planned ahead. It is really hard to grasp the scope of it unless you've been to one. It took me 2 years to figure out a fraction of it.

The local stations will be there and usually have some kind of story by a reporter that is completely confused as to what it is about.

So, if you want to rubberneck at the nuttyness, just cruise downtown Indy.

 

[rockyroad]

Wow is gen con an abbreviation for something? can't believe I haven't heard of this.

 

[Hoosier]

Yeah, the name is unusual and a product of popular abbreviation.

It started as a large group of friends getting together at one guy's, Gary may he rest in peace, in Lake Geneva, WI. It grew by word of mouth too big for a single home fairly quickly and was referred to by attendees as Gen Con as short for annual convention at Lake Geneva. It became a business in and of itself and was located in Milwaukee, WI until it out grew that city. Now Indy is the home for Gen Con and of the three guys who really started it all, only one remains, but it has been a business separate from them for most of its history. Some of us old dogs keep passing the history down.
(Got some folks together and played a game that Gary wrote the week after he passed as our tribute. Then did the same when David passed.)

 

[rockyroad]

Found it lol... Gen Con LLC Indy 2010: Home I had no idea. This looks pretty cool. I'm gonna see if my daughter wants to go this weekend. thanks for the info

 

[Hoosier]

The costume parade starts about 3pm on Sat and will go through the main hallways of the convention center.

If you spot the parade I'll be Little John, GF will be Maid Marion, oldest son will be Robin Hood, youngest son will be Will Scarlet and we also have Blinkin, Rabbi Tuckman, Latrine, and Achoo with us. Instead of cartoons we do Mel Brooks movie casts. (Last year was Blazing Saddles and when my avatar pic was taken)

 

[0smitty]

Man, makes me wish I was still into M:TG...Used to go to GenCon every year back in those days, made Pro Tour qualifiers once. Then I realized you have to have money to make money in Magic, so I decided to just play casually.

I just got back from the MI Vape-In, so my traveling's pretty much done-for until the cashflow builds back up. Speaking of, I gotta put out a role-call for those going to VapeFest!!

 

[Hoosier]

Well, here's a video of me at Gen Con...

I'm the big guy, they only call me Little John.

One of Many on YouTube

 

[VaporPhreak]

*sigh* Another GenCon missed... thats 3 in a row... think I have to formally relinquish my label of Geek at this point. LOL. So do the freebie bags still have the little six sided die in em? Used to collect those but as I have missed 3 cons now.. kinda pointless.

 

[Hoosier]

So do the freebie bags still have the little six sided die in em?

Only 25% of the bags had the collectible dice, so it was a pot shot. Scotty's Brewhouse had some different ones from the same manufacturer that they gave away with any Gen Con menu item. (ie; Troll Toes for their fried pickles. Which are even better than Hooter's fried pickles BTW)

 

[ndfourleafclover]

Great job on the costumes. The song and dance were great, just like the movie. And congratulations on the engagement. I had to play the video twice to make sure that I heard it correctly. The audio was kind of low.

 

[Hoosier]

Great job on the costumes. The song and dance were great, just like the movie. And congratulations on the engagement. I had to play the video twice to make sure that I heard it correctly. The audio was kind of low.

Thanks! I thought making the block molds for the hats was tough until I started the effort to get all the parts of the proposal together. Turns out working with wood and fiberglass to make a pressure mold for felt was easier than navigating the various coordinators to get the bard there at the right time.

Low audio was my fault. Didn't speak into the mic. Heck, even forgot to get down on one knee like I planned.

Caught her completely by surprise though and that was cool.

 

[four2109]

The second biggest money maker for downtown Indy all year for most Hoosiers.

As usual, The hell with the rest of us.

Seriously, How many hoosiers, that don't live in Indy, have ever even heard of this? Hope you had a great time!.
Now, let me go send Indy some tax dollars...

 

[Hoosier]

As usual, The hell with the rest of us...

Seriously?

Did Gen Con LLC make Indy build the ICC? Nope. It never asked for nor received tax concessions like many business seem to do now days.

Did Gen Con make every 30k+ attendee pay the new convention center tax? Yes.

Where all dealer hall transactions subject to Indiana sales tax? Yes.

The majority of attendees are from out of state. Did they pay that 17% hotel tax that is suppose to be paying for the stadiums and ICC? Yes.

So you would rather the existing structure that is eating up tax revenue to pay the bond issues go unused instead of having over 30 thousand people pay those taxes and support local businesses that also pay taxes?

How does Gen Con screw over Hoosiers? The last host city for Gen Con treated it like a red headed step child so that city's contract was not renewed and moved it to Indy. It fills the entire ICC, all connected hotel meeting rooms, and 5 unconnected hotel meeting rooms completely. They never blackmailed the government, like a sports team, for money. It is contracted to be in Indy through 2015 without any tax concessions or promises of their own building being built at tax payer expense.

Seriously?

Yes, my family and friends had a good time. It is the annual family vacation and it will be no matter which city the Con is held. If enough Hoosiers think they are being screwed over by the event, it will move away as the company headquarters are in Washington and only a very small majority of the vendors are from Indiana. How many Washington state businesses are paying the city of Indianapolis and the state of Indiana tax? The vendor I purchased the most from is from Illinois and I paid Indiana sales tax on those purchases. The second largest amount spent was with a Texas company and Indiana got their cut of that. The people working from those companies stayed in the downtown hotels and ate out downtown and paid those ridiculous taxes.

It is the second biggest money making event for Indiana government and downtown businesses. I, for one, am glad it comes to Indiana and helps put some money in our government coffers so they have to steal less from me and my family the rest of the year.

 

[four2109]

WOW, chill out a little. I think you missed my point completely. Which was in reference to your assumption that MOST HOOSIERS even know what Gen Con is. It seemed to imply that Indy is Indiana. Which in a way, it is. But you have to remember that some of us can't even get there from here.