[Deptheads] Comments on a local board

[Robyn Nixon]

Just wanted to pass these onto the dept heads:

State of The Hobby - My thoughts on the subject
Posted by: "sirhelene" fadingsun at prodigy.net   sirhelene
Tue Dec 30, 2008 7:16 am (PST)

2. Declining attendance at the local Southern California gaming
conventions. The attendance has been dropping for several years
since the mid 1990's. I would used to see alot of familiar face at
the cons but with every passing year, I see less and less of those
faces but with only smaller attendance at conventions.

I know that all of us in the hobby are getting older and more
responsibities are coming our way and with changes to the things we
do. Health matters,starting a family and rising of the family, and
deciding to leave or moving away.

3. Convention management of the Los Angeles conventions. I am
wondering if the cnvention management could do a few things to entice
people to come back or start up a few new things at the convention(s).

It seems that the gaming conventions in Northern California are
run alot better than the ones in Southern California. I could be
wrong.


Posted by: "Bill" vonkluge at ca.rr.com   vonkluge2001
Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:41 am (PST)

I quit going to the airport cons as it became to difficult (load in
and out) parking, and costly. I am by no means a "cheap" gamer..lol
Those who know me know I spend $$ on my games but I got tired of the
hassle of the airport with little support. The food situation stinks
there! (oh, oh, there I go again! bluntly stating my opinion, the
hate mail is going to roll in...lol)Remember I was going to Airport
cons and putting on 3 day games 15 years ago and I did games there
for years! Jose M. has done a great job with what he has to work with
over the years but I feel it's a losing battle as long as it remains
at the airport location. Personally I think keeping it there is
silly! You could probably find a better deal away from there and
really how many people are "flying in" for those cons? If people are
then a short ride to another spot is not that much harder! compared
to what all the other locals put up with to go to the airport. I have
had setups at the airport and had no one there to play, others to
have had this happen. I also must admit to do to my work having had
to cancel more than one game and not show. This is a big NO NO, as
people who read about you game, travel there to play, pay their
money, and get zilch are not apt to return! This can be dealt with by
having others able to take and run your game with out you. If you
keep you games simple this is much easier to do.

The HMGS cons are quite a different deal, easy load in, relaxed
atmosphere, fairly centralized location, ect. You can drive in and
out to get food at no cost! no Stairs (makes a difference when you
bring in and out 10 boxes). There are drawbacks to it though, small
turnout, same old crowd, don't get me wrong I love all you guys!, but
I would like to have a few new faces coming in and joining our games.
Most of the problem is our fault. Like I said before we need to
promote better! If we build it they will come! but we have not built
anything! so no one but the usual suspects show up....

Posted by: "Chris Lundgren" natashasdady at yahoo.com   natashasdady
Tue Dec 30, 2008 1:07 pm (PST)

 All true.

 Chris here I go to the Cons still but not for the whole 3 days to
expensive. I go to the Monthly  small Con in Anaheim to play at St.
Crispin's.  We avg over 80+ people.  We have the support of all the Local
game stores and  GW now is on board.   Now we even added a RPG night on
Mondays. So there is hope for our hobby. I love the idea of Alternate Time
lines.

**End of comments******



We have an uphill battle folks!
Happy New Year
Robyn