Gen Con 2013 is less than two weeks away, and it's a very exciting time for VG30. As table top gamers, there is no other event that we look forward to more, and right now table top gaming is HUGE. Last year's attendance was 41,000, more than a 12% increase in attendance from the year prior. It is easily the largest gaming convention in the US, and it's just getting bigger and bigger.
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| And bigger, and bigger, and bigger... |
So what is it?
Gen Con is an annual four day convention in Indianapolis that primarily focuses on table top gaming, but you can find pretty much anything here from Angry Birds to Smash Bros Tournaments happening around the clock. Catan, Dungeons and Dragons, or Magic: The Gathering, if it sits on top of a table, you can find people here who want to play it. In fact, there's over 11,000 events that are taking place across the weekend.And... why do I care?
With some help from Kickstarter and Wil Wheaton's Table Top series, table top gaming is bigger than ever. Even major department stores like Target are now carrying games from Mayfair and Steve Jackson Games. Getting together with friends, sitting around a table, and having fun is the name of the game, and more and more people are entering the hobby every year. Gen Con has been doing this for almost 50 years, this is where games are born and the public's chance to try them out before taking them back to their own tables.Why go to Gen Con instead of say, Origins or Burning Man?
Gen Con is gaming Mecca. There's lots of reasons for this, but the primary ones are that the convention was once in the Milwaukee Exposition Convention Center & Arena, so we got to say we were going to MECCA and the name kinda stuck, but more importantly than that, it's truly were gamers come from across the world to play games, see the newest releases, and make new friends who share the same love and passions as you do. Unless you've been to Spiel in Essen, Germany, there isn't another gaming convention that comes close. If you're a table top gamer, you owe yourself a trip here.Sounds great! But what's there to actually do there?
If there's a game that you like to play, it's probably here, but you don't just want to go to a convention to do things that you can already do with friends at home. You want to do cool things, like True Dungeon (www.truedungeon.com) or play in the Guinness Record breaking game of Catan (www.mayfairgames.com) You'll want to wake up early for Hickman's Killer Breakfast, and stay up late for AEG Gaming night. VG30 will be covering all of these events so you can see what they're like, but there's no end to what you can do at Gen Con. It's a different experience for everyone, and it means something different to everyone.We'll be posting several more articles in the next two weeks including what to bring, where to eat, and what the hotness of the convention will be, plus all of our onsite coverage so keep visiting and make sure to follow us on twitter @videogamingat30 and on facebook.com/videogamingat30. Happy gaming!
