[Deptheads] So Cal ASL Demo

Fri Apr 4 11:41:03 PDT 2008

For the record, I lobbied Eric for the cancellation of private rooms for RPGs and pushed for a price increase on badges.   

  The con needs more money and we need to rise our prices to the level of ConQuest, KublaCon and DundraCon.  $40 pre-reg and $50 at door is the going rate and we need that for the con finances.   We are doing $35 for pre-reg for Gamex because there are already people who have pre-reg'd so that's fine.  

  We need to bring back ASL hardcores to lure in ASL softcores.   That goes the same for EVERY gaming niche.   You support the hardcore who then do lots of word of mouth to the softcore.  It's not rocket science.   By supporting the Camarilla, we encourage the flow of all LARPs as the most vocal fans talk to people who are on the fence about attending. 

  That's why I say throw a Welcome Back for them ESPECIALLY since they were literally asked not to come back previously.  You gotta extend some kind hand to mellow egos.  Talk is cheap.  Even if all we do is $100 in prizes and a highlighted spot in the booklet and a "Welcome Back SoCal ASL!" banner from somebody's printer and taped it to the wall, then I am sure we can smooth egos much quicker than just talking. 

  We do NOT have years to wait for people to return to the con.  Going to cons is a habit.  It is either part of your hobby identity or it is not.  For most of our attendees, going to every Strategicon is a no-brainer.   It is part of being a gamer for them.   However, once people break the habit, then that part of their hobby identity drops away.  Push hard to change their habits and you make ongoing customers. 

  Spending money on RPGs will not stop the hemorrage there and ASL won't 20% loss there (but even 10% beats 0%).  If the money should be spent anywhere to maximize growth, it should be spend on video game tournaments.  We could hit every high school with "$1000 Halo Tourney" and we would double our attendance IF we could handle the huge technical and security needs.  If you really want to attract today's gamers, you go electronic. 

  - R

Karl Kreder <zeotter at gmail.com> wrote:
  I am not going to stand by and listen (read) this any longer.

If you were at the last meeting, which you were not you would have heard Eric and Mark say money is tight.  Spending other peoples money irresponsibly is a sure way to kill this con.

I know the ASL guys they have a game day at Gameology every month, do you know them?  Do you know what they want?  

Before you just assume money will fix every issue maybe you should talk to them.  They are not greedy, they just want to find more players like every other gaming group does.  Patrick has talk to them even more than I have he may just know what he is talking about.  I know Patrick doesn't just spout out made up facts on whim.

Board gaming exists in high numbers because it has drawn tons of people into the hobby not because we "throw" $1000 bucks at it.  Your not going to surge RPGA attendance up to the numbers board games draws because they have a $1000 in prizes, there not that many RPGA's who would come no matter what you did.  

Everything moves in cycles, in the 80's and early 90's RPG's carried cons, they were the big draw.  Now board games have the scene, this isn't about ego's it's just a fact.  More people who would never come to the cons before are here now because they play board games, PERIOD.

We should be trying to find ways to save the con money not pay more out, if we give these guys money now they may just expect we pay them every con.  If anything use that money to fine ways to make the RPG's life easier?  Sound partitions for the open RPG's areas maybe, hhhmmmmmmm?  Or try to find other ideas that will stop the possible RPG hemorrhaging.

Not to mention there is not way on this Earth ASL is going to make up a 60% loss of RPG'ers is that is even a semi-accurate prediction.  Thinking they are going to cover that kind of loss is insane.

And just for the record Patrick and I are not "bullshitting" anyone, we are interested in one thing and one thing only the con running in the black, PERIOD.

  On Fri, Apr 4, 2008 at 8:57 AM, Robert Lionheart <spinachcat at yahoo.com> wrote:
    Patrick, don't bullshit the bullshitter. 

  Boardgaming exists because we throw money there.  Throw $1000 at RPGA and they will triple in size too.  Prize money brings attendees and keeps them coming back.  Offer $200 Halo tourneys and we will be swamped with Halo players.  

  We just saved $5000 by throwing RPGs under the bus.   The loss of private rooms will diminish RPG attendance by anywhere from 25% - 60%, depending on the reaction of the GMs so we need to fill those numbers from somewhere else.   Just for comparison, when Conquest SF dropped private rooms, they lost 40% of RPG attendees and the difference in RPG between Conquest LA 1 and 2 was an 80% drop.   Hopefully the D&D 4e push will minimize the loss for us. 

  If we could entice 50+ ASL people to come by putting $500 into prizes for a Welcome Back tourney, that would be very good business.   I suggest these prizes be bought with our wholesale license instead of dealer dollars to maximize the amount of goodies. 

  Strategicon has had new ownership for a year.   That was the soft sell time.  Any group that has not returned needs a hard sell.  

  - Robert

Patrick Havert <patrickhavert at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
    Robert,

  Their peeve is the previous admin asked them to stop coming to the con, as they took space away from CCG players.

  We will NOT throw money at anyone.  The SoCal ASL club comes so they can recruit more people to play ASL.  They provide some prizes, and sell ASL in the dealers room.  It is a win-win for both of us, even if we do not run a giant ASL tourney like they do.  Hopefully they'll be willing to run their february con here at our february con, but hard selling them is a bad choice, and one we don't have to make.

  In Boardgames we have $1000 less then the previous admin to give prizes, so we need to use them judiciously.  This is a BUSINESS, and we need to take that into consideration, as otherwise this con will be gone.

  -Patrick
    ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Robert Lionheart 
  To: deptheads at strategicon.net 
  Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 11:18 AM
  Subject: Re: [Deptheads] So Cal ASL Demo

  What is the ASL's main peeve? 

  If we want to lure them back, how about giving their leadership Special Guest status and throwing several ASL tourneys with lots of prize support.  If we really want them to show, then throw dollars at the problem.  

  If dollars doesn't heal the rift, then its time to develop our own ASL team.   We can throw in a case of Ensure as a peace offering.

  - R

thatericn at aol.com wrote:
  Hey all:

Actually last year, a few other club members came by as well, purchasing badges.  What was nice with this year's negotiation was that it really wasn't a negotiation - I just reminded them of the event and re-extended the invite... Done.  

My suggestion would be to inquire about possibly getting them more involved in the future.  Orccons are probably out of the picture now, since they have a competing event in Feb., but maybe we can strengthen their interest, and get them to Gateway too.  If we can build trust, my hope would be that down the line we could get them with us at Orccons, possibly running a con-within-the-con, not unlike the Warhammer event.

No matter what, it feels better to have some of they old rifts healing or vanishing.  Having a healthy ASL presence is likely to be a strong word-of-mouth topic with about 20% of our attendees; especially if it shows up in reviews and blogs.

Eric N.

-----Original Message-----
From: Heather Hughes <heather at gibsongirl.net>
To: deptheads at strategicon.net
Sent: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 7:01 pm
Subject: Re: [Deptheads] So Cal ASL Demo

    That's good, Devi contacted them a year ago, and told them about the new convention ownership.  They still were not very interested in coming.  We know they are a group of about 75 members, but I guess 3 is better than none, and maybe they will continue to come in greater numbers as time goes on.  

  Heather

  On 4/1/08, thatericn at aol.com <thatericn at aol.com> wrote:     Hello all, but particularly Patrick and Eric A.:

I got an enthusiastic response from the So Cal ASL Club.  Their president, Jim Aikens, has confirmed their attendance, with the same number of badges as last year (3).

Patrick, if you'd like, I'll pass along your e-mail address to him, if you want...

Eric N.

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