Politics In Gaming

As I was browsing The Miniatures Page Convention message board, I came across a post announcing the formation of an HMGS - Deep South chapter. I am not going to cross post the link because after I was done reading it, I was disappointed in myself for wasting the better part of an hour in the excruciating detail of how politics within an organization can poison our gaming environment. In the end, shouldn't these organizations be more focused on what makes a good convention experience for the GM's and players?

From this perspective, I have found that in many cases the mid-size cons get it right. At the larger cons, it is easy to get lost in the shuffle. Smaller cons often do not have the bandwidth to provide the little extra details that make our experience memorable. Our group was recently lucky enough to participate in a great example of convention organization done right - RockCon 2008.

Right from the start, the organizers went out of their way to make us feel welcome. Upon check-in, the badges for all of our team members were ready and waiting, no big deal, all conventions do that - the added touch was that our badges were grouped together next to the general attendee preregs. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the organizers has taken the time to download our logo and display it on the badge. They also put our group name along the bottom of the badge where you normally see a registration type (Fri/Sat/Sun/Weekend). This sounds insignificant, but for a group trying to publicize themselves, it is a much appreciated touch.

After sitting down and looking over the table assignments we found that the organizers had went through the trouble of scheduling all our games for the weekend on only three sets of tables (essentially next to each other). This meant that we could set up in one area and we did not have to lug all of our supplies around the show floor. In fact, after I had been sitting there awhile, the Con Director stopped by and apologized for allowing another game to be scheduled on a set of tables that were adjacent to ours during one of our Saturday sessions! She had hoped to give us additional setup space but could simply not spare the tables.

As the weekend progressed, our games were going off fabulously. Even a game that was mistakenly put in the wrong slot in the PEL was efficiently rescheduled. The reschedule notice that was posted drew a full roster of players (14) for the game. The capper for us though was cake. We were in the middle of our main event on Saturday night when an announcement was made that birthday cake was available to celebrate the xxth anniversary of the Con. A short while later, and without prompting, the Con Director came over to us and asked what flavor cake we would like. She promptly delivered cake to our entire team!

So does it take cake to make a great convention environment? No - but it does take a convention staff that truly appreciates the players and GM's for without whom they would not be in business. A little "cake" goes a long way in this regard.