U-Con Report

[nemorathwald]

I just got home from a long day of sitting in the Operations/Registration room at U-Con, not playing games. It has certainly not been a fun con for me, (except when I ignored my responsibilities and went to my game-designing happy place).

So I got home past midnight, needing to go to sleep in order to get up early enough to go back in the morning. In my living room was a group of my friends, playing a roleplaying game. The room was more full than some of the rooms at U-Con.

One of them complained about me not participating in the regular game night in my own home. Apparently she did not know that she could have played the game at the local game con, put on with great blood, sweat, and tears, which I told them about over and over, repeatedly, for months, particularly while they watched me put together the program book. The game master replied to this by asking if I was referring to a game con in Ohio.

Balls.

This is not one of those "stay the course" moments. My apartment is a vital hub of local gaming, to whom U-Con is utterly irrelevant. It is not a good sign for a game convention to be the thing that keeps me away from games. This realization strengthens my resolve not to do any work for U-Con during the con weekend in the future.

I would much rather contribute to U-Con's online scheduling software, a task which engages my mind. In return for my contributions, it will be made open-source.

Comments

[desfontaines.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that I had to "abandon my post," as it were. The annual fall sinus infection is about a month later than I ever remember it being, but arrive it has! :(

I actually liked working reg room yesterday morning.

[amanda_lodden.livejournal.com]

U-Con needs better marketing. Until last year when you put out your call for help, I had never heard of U-Con. When I told people I was going to work in Ops at U-Con again this year, I got a lot of "What Con?" or "I thought YoumaCon was last month." Some of these people are people who drive 6 hours to go to GenCon every year, so them not knowing about a gaming convention close to home is a Bad Thing. They're your core audience.

However, it appears that this is not the particular failing for this group, since they had someone telling them about it repeatedly. For that, I can only offer platitudes, which would annoy you, so I'll skip it.

(Of course, U-Con might do better if they chose a location that had convenient hotels nearby, even if they're not in the hotel itself. Those of us who live more than an hour away are disinclined to drive that far, especially not three days in a row.)

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

It's too bad you live so far away. I really enjoyed meeting you and would love to hang out again some time. I'll be at Confusion, so I hope you'll consider coming.

If you're really interested in how U-Con could market itself better, I'm sure they'd love to have you on board working on that throughout the year. Don't let them make you conchair for at least two years though. ;)

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you weren't around for more of the three hours I was in Ops. At least, I had a nice time hanging out there and I have the impression the atmosphere had gotten more busy and less fun just before you showed up...

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Does UCON interact with the Metro Detroit Gamers at all?

Michicon last summer was a lot of fun and had a pretty good turnout.

Their next con is WinterCon December 3 and 4th.

http://metrodetroitgamers.wordpress.com/gaming-conventions/wintercon/

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

No, it doesn't interact with anything that I know of. What kind of interaction?

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

They could publicize each other and share gamemasters' contact information.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a good idea.

[parslaanna.livejournal.com]

I'm hardly a gamer, and I've heard of U-Con! That could be, though, that I was much more of a gamer when I was going to school at UMich ...