Gen Con 2013

I’m not a hard-​core gamer by any means, but I am a Trekkie, Whovian, and Battlestar Galactica nerd who likes to PS3 in my free time. I’ve always wanted to check out Gen Con as it is kind of a big deal and looked super fun. Honestly, I just heart people watching, and I don’t think it can get much better than a gamer convention held in the Midwest.
1) Food truck bonanza! Kudos for the Georgia St. set-​up and lines of food trucks. So many awesome options! Super fun way to mingle with strangers.
2) Come prepared to spend some $$$ — I dropped quite some green on funny t-​shirts alone! I didn’t even consider buying games. So many vendors! It took my friend and me over 2 hours to meander around the all the vendors in the main exhibit hall.
3) If you are even an inkling of a RPG peep or gamer — just go ahed and spend the extra few bucks and get the full four-​day pass. It is way more worth the price than the day pass.
4) Have your camera/​phone ready for some photos! Some hard-​core people have awesome costumes and will gladly pose. Extremely fun to post on FB to prove your nerdiness.
5) Have an open mind and be patient. It’s crowded but everyone was very nice. Some may seem like total losers, but yeah, I was there!
I will be going back for sure — total blast!

There are good and bad things at large conventions like this. I’ll start with the bad… the housing department Gen Con had this year was horrible, I was on the waiting list from 6 minutes after the portal crashed on January 29^th and NEVER got a room, but they were quick to tell me if I upgraded to the Gen Con VIG package ($ 540) I could get a room in any of the three hotels I requested. I don’t agree with people trying to strong arming me into spending ridiculous money just to get a hotel room, because Gen Con takes all the rooms so you cannot book one on your own.
The next is the swag bag, I know it’s been gone for three years now, but it was awesome when they had it, the coupon book they give out sucks.
It was great to have games on Wednesday! I thank all the hotels for fresh ice water, the best bathrooms are at the JW…3^rd floor. Food was not a problem anywhere in Indy, food trucks were cool… except the nacho truck.yuck.
They need to up the prizes for the costume contest… there were better cosplay costumes not in the contest.
Gen Con needs to get Degree & a mouth wash company as sponsors… because this year WOW did people stink!
Death Storm is the best D20 game at Gen Con… D&D Next had to many rude people running games, disappointing. The Pathfinder games were great, but the prices at their booth were nuts… cheaper on Amazon.
The T Shirts vendors at $ 22 a T… out of line…$ 15 – 20 max.
The play test games in the hall were awesome, great patient people :)
The people working they JW and Union Station help desk were awesome.
Overall Gen Con is awesome, sure corporate greed oozes it way in and you have to look for deals and the games are priced very fair. We miss the play testing for prizes, but screw it we understand the bigger it gets the more they keep and stop giving away… that’s just greedy corporate agendas… sucks by that’s the world we are in.
If you are a gamer, love RPG’s, Cosplay, LARPING, this is for you. Just use some common sense, don’t be afraid to shop & ask for a deal, stay away from the nacho truck, take a shower and change your clothes everyday.please.