What an experience Gen Con was this year!
After some discussions with Gen Con earlier in the year we had the amazing opportunity to have a booth at Gen Con. We had no idea what was in store, but we were excited!
Virtual rewards for gaming in the real world
The main goal we had this year was to work on our system for giving rewards on the site for real life activities. You could gain Gamer and Explorer XP for demoing select games in the exhibit hall as well as gain Gamer and Competitor XP for participating and/or placing 1st, 2nd or 3rd in select tournaments. You could also get rewarded for participating in the quests that a company called Cheese Weasel had going on, which guided you through the exhibit hall and emphasized learning about some of the smaller publishers.
Only a select group of companies were invited to participate, and we had some big names like AEG, Cryptozoic and Asmodee to name a few. It was an absolute success!! We’re very excited to take what we’ve learned and improve the system we have in place, and launch some very cool things in the future.
A new class under developement
Wait… did I just say Competitor XP? We have a new class under development. We’re talking with publishers and local retailers and are very excited about the possibilities this new class could bring!
Your local game store
We’ve also made the decision to pull discount online retailers from our site and focus on local retailers. We want to be a positive force in the board game industry and felt that this was the right move to make. We’re now working closely with local retailers and publishers to create new and innovative ways to bring these communities together.
Photos of Gen Con 2012
If you’d like to see photos of our experience, check out our Gen Con 2012 photo album on our facebook page.
Because we were so busy at the convention, our photos are mostly of us at our booth and our exhibitor next to us that created a 15 foot tall fire breathing dragon out of balloons!
A special thanks
We have to include a special thanks to Gen Con for giving us this opportunity. We also need to thank all of our prize sponsors and Gen Con Quest participants!
I had a ton of fun. We always do the cheeseweasel quests.
Liked your booth, wish I had won a prize…
At Gen Con 2012, I played in two true dungeon runs. The Dragon Lich combat and the Griants Travil. I really enjoy these dungeons I am not normally a big LARP person but I found this last year and glad I did.
I’ve been looking around for that picture of me trying to fit into the giant bag. Here it is! Haha, what a good time that experience was.
I had a blast at GenCon and it was great to meet you all and quest throughout GenCon! We had a wonderful time withe the demos! It was a SWEET surprise to meet Grant Wilson at Rather Dashing Games as well! I hope there will be more fun quests to come!
Being part of the GenCon questing was a great idea! As store owners we spend most of our time in the Exhibit Hall checking out the lastest and greatest of games or just trying some that we have not had the chance to demo in the store. Your quests gave us a great way to track our progress and we did focus some extra time checking out games that were part of your quest.
There is never enough time to play every game, but I enjoyed most of the games at the booths particpating in your quest – we even picked up a few for the store. I am excited to be involved with your site – both as a gamer and a retailer. We were glad to meet you at GenCon. Hope to see you next year!
I had a great time “playing” GenCon with you and CW. Thanks for making it possible.
Kicking myself that I didn’t take more time to check out the whole quest thing while I was there. I saw it multiple times and keep saying “that looks cool, I wonder what it is.” Now wish I would have put more effort forward. Looks like it was pretty fun. Well, heres to next year!
Thank you for putting the GenCon quests together! It was cool to have an extra reward for demoing great game!
talk about a coveted badge! I’m just the slightest bit jealous of you guys achieving those Gen Con badges!
Big winners for us:
Ascension: wife really enjoyed it. Great demo was a big help
Smash up: seems like a light fun game and then you play it and see the depth the game has
DC deckbuilding game: mish mash of good deck building mechanics and great superhero license.
Fiasco: “the genie bottle looked like a bottle of beer…this was not a promising start to getting rid of our werewolf problem…”yes Fiasco was the most fun I have had in a role playing game in a LONG time. Having it Run by the creator of the game was just awesome icing on the messy cake that was the double werewolf. table next to us had 2 london gangsters trying to steal a rare cat from an old lady…
Epic Spell warz: light on strategy but a lot of fun to play…and I got to use my “ice king” voice the whole time
Losers
Ninja: too complicated and brain twisting for us…too many “band aid” feeling rules
Thunderstone: felt too generic too us…mechanics were good but the game didn’t hook us.
Dungeon command: it might have been that it was the very last day of the Con (brain…full…can’t…learn…any…new rules) but this game just didn’t do it for me.
missed out on Star Wars LCG and 3012, next year we plan to play in a DC deckbuilding tourney and more Fiasco.
Gen Con was fun and it was good to meet you guys as well. Were you there for the destruction of the giant fire breathing balloon dragon? It was pretty epic. Gotta find the rest of my codes so I can get the Gen Con badge, I seem to have packed them away somewhere and I can’t find any more of them!
@ Andy
BG-CON would be awesome, barring extremely costly travel, I’d totally be there. It’s definitely something to think about as a long term plan.
How long before you start advertising for a Boardgaming.com-Con (or would that be Boardgaming.Con???)
The pictures/T-shirts/prizes/booth look great, I hope a ton (unless we’re talking true weight, in which case, MANY tons) of people had their eyes opened to how awesome the site is and join in on the fun!
Great update, and really happy to hear about the success! Definitely looking to participate next year!
GenCon was great, you guys were great, these new changes sound fantastic.
So bummed I couldn’t make it and get some of those real world points;) Keep up the good work guys!!!
Wow, looks sounds like a great weekend all around.
And as for starting to focus on working with the FLGSes out there: *stands and applauds* Bravo! Good for you.
Ah man, this looked awesome – only wish I’d been there. That last pic looks like the guy is trying to struggle out of the bag! What do you find inside them?
It was great to meet you and learn about this wonderful website. It is a novel approach which I find completely engrossing. I’d say more, but off to find more goodies on the site!
I love my AEG bag, and really enjoyed the quests because they got me to try some games i might not have other wise tryed. Cant wait to see you guys next year their.