Valerie Putman:  Prose on Cons—Gen Con, 2008

Despite the awesomeness of the Board Room at Origins, I think I’m going to have to give the win to Gen Con this year in the Orgins vs. Gen Con convention rivalry.  Take a look as I compare the two conventions on a number of different categories.

Exhibit Hall There were far more booths at Gen Con than Origins.  Also, Gen Con didn’t fill the space with random stalls for foot massages and shower installation kits.  Also, some of the big names that were missing from Origins (Fantasy Flight, Days of Wonder, Wizards of the Coast, etc.) had huge booths at Gen Con.

New Games Generally, any new game that debuted at Origins was also at Gen Con.  So, if you wanted to be the first kid on your block with Blasphemy (see Dale’s Origins report), then Origins is the place to be.  But Gen Con did have a few new releases that didn’t quite make it for Origins.  Rio Grande games had two titles that weren’t out yet in early July, Batavia and Witch’s Brew.  I was excited to see Battlestar Gallactica at FFG.  (I’m a fan of the show, not cooperation games, but a traitor game mechanic is right in line with BSG).  If you go to both shows, then Gen Con probably had fewer “new” things for you to see, but not by much.

Open Gaming Clearly, as a member of the Columbus Area Boardgaming Society, I’m going to be biased and think that the open gaming in the Board Room tops anything at Gen Con.  But if I compare the official open gaming area of Origins (in the Table Tops Hall) and the open gaming in the 500 suite at Gen Con, there isn’t much difference.  The library at Gen Con was better than previous years and they have improved the availability of table space for open gaming.  Gen Con did have some publisher specific open gaming spaces.  I was in the Rio Grande room all week where we had about 20 games out for demoing.  Fantasy Flight also had a game room.  Of course, these gaming opportunities weren’t well advertised and were spread out all over the place, but there was plenty of gaming if you looked.

The Generosity of Rio Grande Games One thing that stood out to me at both Origins and Gen Con was the “give back to the customer” attitude of RGG.  They had an amazing game give away at Origins and free food at Gen Con.  I want to personally thank Jay Tummelson for everything that he does for the gaming community.

Food and Housing You won’t go hungry at either convention.  Origins has the amazing North Market food court/farmer’s market across the street.  There are also plenty of nice restaurants along High Street in the Short North.  Gen Con has hundreds of places to eat within a few blocks of the convention hall, some with special themed Gen Con menus.  Housing is pricy if you want to be within walking distance and in Indianapolis, you can’t even book a room at a nearby hotel without first getting access to the Gen Con room block by registering for the convention.

Famous People I saw Reiner Knizia at Origins and Alan Moon at Gen Con.  That’s almost a toss-up (except that I have a huge fan-girl crush on Dr. Knizia).

Scheduled Events While I try to avoid the nickel and dime drain of the many other opportunities available at these conventions, I did find that Gen Con had a more interesting assortment of choices.  The Live Dungeon, while pricy, is just such a cool idea.  And on the quirky side, I walked past a display of entries from the Spam carving contest one afternoon.  Gen Con also has a costume contest (encouraging more Cos Play overall at the convention) and I heard one girl mention dances at night.  Dragon*Con is one of my favorite events of the year, so it might be no surprise that I like the mix of gaming and geek-oriented entertainment.

Speaking of Dragon*Con…I’ll be there in Atlanta next weekend!  Time to get out the fishnets and the camera!

I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman

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