Summary of Gen Con 2021 – Thursday and Friday

The ‘crowd’ to get in to the main floor on Thursday. This is five minutes before the door opening. Way smaller than in previous years.

It was my intent to do my usual three-day Gen Con experience, but with a paired down convention, we decided to bail after two days. We simply had done all of the things we had planned. The following is a mix of personal experience vs. overall impression. 

So how was it?

It was okay. COVID definitely knocked down the convention’s hit points badly.  Everyone wore masks and socially distanced where practical.  Let me say this, you can’t have a convention and social distancing. Gaming, by its very nature, is a social experience.  People spread out fairly well on Thursday to get into the main hall, less so on Friday.  Aisles were congested at times but for the most part, people didn’t deliberately bunch up – but it does happen.  Some booths had lines.  Anyone thinking there was going to be strict social distancing at Gen Con was delusional.  The people whining online about it being a ‘super-spreader’ event were likely jealous they weren’t there and wanted to try and shame people that did go. This year’s ‘con-crud’ will likely be labeled as COVID this year, so prepare for that. 

I was hoping the experience would be like rolling the clock back 10 years to when Gen Con was 35k people or so.  It wasn’t.  There were far too few events for the number of attendees and the infrastructure (food-wise) was strained. 

Key things I noticed:

The crowds were smaller, as was the number of vendors in the main hall.  Gone were the big bags filled with games.  People were buying stuff, but with some of the big vendors not there (Fantasy Flight, Paizo, etc.) you didn’t see massive promotional bags that much.  Having said that, people were plopping down cash, which is good for the industry.  Some booths had decent lines to get in, at least on Thursday.  By Friday, more people were in the gaming area rather than the main hall.  Thursdays folks try to get in and purchase the new products first and foremost. 

The number of events was dramatically cut.  They were cleaning the few mini events down between rounds, to the point where I saw clear plastic sheets covering some of the maps.  Sanitary?  Maybe.  The events that were there, sold out fast.  I got into a game at Ares (Sails of Glory) because a guy bailed, but there were not a lot of events to get into in the first place.  No Masters and Minions tournament this year, not a lot for kids (we took my grandson with us).

The food situation was sad. Thank God for the food trucks.  They came through.  Restaurant-wise, downtown Indy has been devastated by COVID.  It was carry-out only at Steak and Shake.  I’m not a huge fan of their food, but for a lot of folks, going there is a tradition.  We were in two restaurants that were out of some food due to supply chain issues.  PF Chang’s was out of white rice – for example, Thursday night.  Many restaurants were simply closed, permanently.  Others only stayed open until 6pm due to staffing challenges.  You have to have places to eat for a big convention.  Again, the food trucks saved this aspect of Gen Con but if the weather had been bad or the crowd larger, it could have been a big issue.  

This was not the Steak and Shake experience many were looking for.

Some vendors bailed at the last minute – so there were weird gaps on the show floor.  It actually was a blessing so you could step out of the aisle to make calls or adjust your purchases.  It wasn’t helped that Gen Con kicked out one vendor, slapping up “No Harassment” signs on all of the doors.  I won’t go into the controversy, but it was ridiculous to have a convention exclude a vendor while preaching inclusiveness. This was a year that they should have embraced all vendors that wanted to come.

The booth demos were down dramatically.  I live for these because it’s a chance to test play games.  Steve Jackson was doing them but most places scaled them back dramatically or did away with them entirely.  That was disappointing and I think it may hurt their sales.  It was understandable given the restrictions.  My grandson loves wrestling and was looking for a game.  SRG games did do demos and they were fantastic; lots of crowd engagement, characters dressing the parts, etc.  They invited us to their tournament too, threw in some freebies for my grandson, etc.  The guys running the Supershow game demos deserve an award for making the con for my family. Result – we plunked down a good chunk of money with them and my grandson is running around wearing one of their hats.   

There were some convention exclusives, but they were limited.  Catalyst had a ‘megamap’ (rename suggestion was Jumbo-Honking Map) and they had Creative Juggernaut Bit Bags (our salvage parts) which were selling strong. The maps were incredible, large, and quite heavy.  Other companies like SRG had convention exclusive cards, which were great too. 

The art area was much thinner.  I spoke with a few vendors there and they were selling well, so the cash was flowing. 

Costumes were few and far between this year. 

Miniature games were dramatically cut.  One thing I look forward to is walking through the game hall and marveling at the mini game terrains and set up.  This year it was almost non-existent.  Even the big Camospecs diorama was not present – there weren’t enough staff to cover it.  This visual experience at Gen Con was sadly missing. 

Friday – the main gaming area

It was hard to find people when you can’t see their faces because of masks and their badges were flipped backwards half of the time.  I did get to meet a lot of fans, sign stuff, have some fun conversations. Likewise there were some fans I simply couldn’t find in the crowd because, well, we all were dressed the same and wearing masks. 

Thursday afternoon, the open gaming area is quite open.

One benefit to the reduced crowds was that you could get into Paint and Take with no line.  It was repositioned in the gaming area and we got in mid-day on Thursday.  That’s a little disturbing too.  Usually you have to wait for a while to get in.  Games Workshop donated paints and minis this year, limiting you to choose between one of two minis.  Still, they were pretty awesome and actually did some coaching/selling of the contrast paints for newbies, which was brilliant on their part.   

Paint and Take – Friday at 10am. Lots of empty seats

I checked out the indy press scene and saw a lot of new products. None really captured my attention other than having some intriguing or bizarre premises.

Some vendors simply were representing companies. I wanted to pick up one game that I can get for $135 online.  In my FLGS, it is $145.  At Gen Con, where I thought I would pick it up, it was $178.  Sorry, the business is going to go to my friendly local game store guys. 

This was my first time getting a hotel downtown, which was fantastic.  I did have a creepy encounter with a guy following me back to my hotel after drinking with some of the Catalyst guys. I could tell this guy was not a convention goer.  It took me back to the Gen Con Milwaukee years in that respect.  Overall, I can’t complain.  I honestly didn’t expect much this year.  I did manage to squeeze into a few games (thank you generic tickets and no-shows) and came home with a backpack of reading and gaming material for months.  I can’t help but wonder if vendors that didn’t come this year will bother next year.  I also wonder if downtown Indy will recover enough to support a convention as big as a normal Gen Con.