As Gen Con moves into next year and its 60th show, I hope we see more unique voices joining the table, which will help others find their seat and a welcoming space. Because at the end of the day, I am a firm believer that everyone has a game they just haven’t found yet.
Badge #383 reporting for duty!
I’m Sonja, from This Geeky Life, and I’m back. For the last few years, Gen Con has invited me to take over their socials during the con and write a blog about my post-Gen Con thoughts. I’ve been going to Gen Con for over 20 years. I went to my first game convention in 2004, and that was when my Gen Con journey began.
Instead of focusing only on this past year, I wanted to look at where Gen Con was when I started and where I hope to see it go by next year, its 60th anniversary. It’s wild to me that, at this point, I have been going to Gen Con for a third of its existence.
Back in 2004, it was a very different convention from what it is today, both in size and in its diversity. As someone who suffers from anxiety, Saturdays have always been the one day that sends it through the roof. For many years, I avoided the convention center on Saturdays, when it was at its busiest. Now, thanks to the craft room and the quiet room, I have places to hang out if I am having an anxiety attack until I calm down or feel comfortable enough to go back out into the crowds. I’ve talked to others who have used these rooms the same way.
When a lot of people think of growing pains for the convention center, they think of the carpet changing. I think of the Hoosier Dome’s demolition and the convention center’s expansion into what we know today. Looking ahead to next year, we will have a new Skywalk and a new hotel, the Signia by Hilton, which will add more rooms, meeting rooms, and 3 additional ballrooms. Every year, the convention finds new ways to take over the city. I feel like soon Indy will just become Gen Con City for 4 days a year.
Another growing pain I witnessed was Gen Con switching its badge and hotel registration systems to streamline the process for everyone. Before I started, I learned from a few people who have been going to Gen Con since its infancy that they used to mail in their hotel preferences, and it all depended on when their mail arrived and which hotel they got back to in Milwaukee. For me, it was a true Hunger Games situation: three days after buying your badge, you and anyone sharing your hotel room were waiting for noon on a Tuesday or Wednesday to hit and click your housing code. You would say your prayers to the gaming gods that one of you got through before the inevitable website crash. Thankfully, that system has since evolved.
This past year, I was reminded how international Gen Con has become. I talked to several people who traveled from various places for their very first Gen Con. One of them came from Argentina and told me how excited they were about the new Daggerheart expansion. It’s truly beautiful that as the industry grows and changes, more people are finding their voices and space at the table. Even more amazing, they are choosing Gen Con as their first convention.
As Gen Con moves into next year and its 60th show, I hope we see more of that. More unique voices joining the table will help others find their seat and a welcoming space. Because at the end of the day, I am a firm believer that everyone has a game they just haven’t found yet. Whether it’s Monopoly, Catan, Blood Bowl, or Pokémon, there is something for everyone at Gen Con.
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