The Summer Grand Prix season is upon us, as well as the general Gaming Convention season. San Diego Comic Con was just this past weekend, along with U.S. Nationals. Congratulations to Charles Gindy, the 2009 U.S. National Champion. We Americans will definitely have our work cut out for us in defending our title. The frontrunners appear to be the Nakamura-led Japanese, with the Brazilians fielding a very strong team this year as well.
However, that’s not our topic this week. This week, we’re delving into Conventions. Now, when I say Conventions, I of course include typical conventions, like GenCon, New York Comic Con, Origins, Wizards World Chicago, and DragonCon. However, we’re also going to include most Pro Tour and Grand Prix tournaments as well. Basically, any sufficiently large gathering of game-playing folk with a schedule and large events qualifies for our purposes.
So, let’s start in the planning stages. Unless you’re independently wealthy, you’ll have to narrow down what kind of events you want to go to. Let’s start by looking at what questions you should be asking yourself as you pick which conventions to attend.
The first question to ask is how many can you go to in any given calendar year. I start planning my events in December for the following year. By that time the Grand Prix schedule is up, as well as the Pro Tour Schedule. Most conventions have their dates lined up as well. You’ll want to look at how much vacation time you have, whether it’s from work, school, or both. Then you can figure out how many of these events you want to go to. Personally, I try to attend 2-3 major conventions each year, as well as local trips like States, Regionals, and PTQs. This year, I went to Grand Prix: Seattle and GenCon. I’m leaving the option open for Pro Tour: Austin in October, which will depend on how much money I blow in Indianapolis, and how well the new Game store I purchased does in terms of profitability.
Okay, once you’ve picked how many, we need to pick which ones. You’ve probably already been thinking about that as you looked over locations and dates. For instance, I chose Seattle because it was a 12 hour drive from my home town, meaning I could save a little by picking up a passenger and driving rather than flying. I had planned to travel to Grand Prix: Minneapolis because Southwest used to run a non-stop from Boise to Minneapolis. However, they no longer do that flight, and since my cost has now increased dramatically, I altered my plans.
As you can see, location is just one factor in choosing which conventions to attend. Another factor is the events, obviously. If you like to play a large variety of games, you may lend more weight to a convention with more diversity in its gaming options, such as GenCon or Origins. The more Magic-centric conventioneer would probably rank a Grand Prix or Pro Tour higher on their list. Furthermore, look at the types of events you may want to play in. GenCon is traditionally the home of the Magic Vintage Worlds Championship, and therefore draws a fair number of Vintage crowd. Similarly, the Legacy crowd made a point to turn out for GP: Chicago this year in force, based as much on the format as anything else.
Another point to consider when picking our conventions is guests. Now, this could be an “official Convention Guest of Honor,” such as Stan Lee appearing at New York Comic Con last year. That prompted me to attend that year, forgoing GenCon for a chance to meet Stan the Man. Or, you could choose to attend based on non-official guests. For instance, another major reason I had in choosing to attend Grand Prix: Seattle was the chance to visit with a number of friends who would be there, such as Wizards of the Coast staff, as well as Pro Players I don’t get to see very often.
Finally, you will want to think about accommodations. Can you get a hotel room on the cheap? Or perhaps stay with friends who are local? Maybe you can stay in Elizabeth Taylor’s house, or some random Mansion in KC. Included in this is who might be going with you. Are you flying solo, or can you get company as you take the great American Road Trip? Hotel Rooms and Gas get a lot cheaper when split two ways. (Sadly, flights do not…)
Of course, all of this assumes you are taking this trip as a vacation. Things like being a Professional Player who expects to make money, or winning a PTQ which makes the trip a LOT less expensive, can factor in heavily as well. However, I would hazard a guess that the majority of you reading are in fact not gravy-training from Pro Tour to Pro Tour, and will be attending out your own pocket.
Now that we have chosen our convention(s) we will need to do just a little more planning before we head out. A lot of these are follow-through on the various items we pondered in our elimination phase.
First off, how are we getting there? Typically, a flight is in order, but we can also consider other options. One option is a bus, but I rank that just below jogging as a method of long-distance transportation. I mean, at least with jogging, I have plenty of space. Commuting by Train can be a lot of fun, depending on the train ride. Most of the East Coast train rides are pretty fast, and get you into the heart of the wherever you’re going. However, you may need to get a cab to wherever it is you may be sleeping. Once you get into the Midwest and West, train rides turn into enjoyable multi-day trips, and are quite a bit of fun. I’ve had the opportunity to travel by train from Utah to Illinois, and although it was a long trip, it was quite enjoyable, and we had ample space on the train to play games, sleep, visit, eat, and all in all have a good time. Stopping at various locations made for a fun trip. However, if you choose this method, make sure it’s with a group of people you can stand. I went with my wife and children, who I get along with okay. However, two friends of mine took a similar length trip, and after about 18 hours were to the point where one said to the other “If you so much as look me again tonight, I will kill you till you die from it, and serve 25 to life with a smile on my face!” Of course, things mended after a solid night’s sleep, but none the less, be cautious.
Traveling by car can be a little better, because as tempers flare, you can just pull over to give everyone a little space. However, you’re still traveling in a small area. A crew from Seattle rented a van to make the PTQ in Boise, an almost 9 hour drive, assuming you obey the speed limit. (Doubtful.) 7 people in a van is rather crowded, but the journey was probably acceptable. Another benefit of traveling by car is being selective about your companions on the trip. I’m sure that particular vanload of people was chock full of reasonable guys, and the conversation, at least among those that managed to stay awake, was probably acceptable. Traveling by automobile tends to be faster than most other options, as you have the option to push through and drive almost 24 hours a day, and speed as much as you choose to, although I should probably make some sort of comment on how mortality rates increase exponentially as your rate of speed increases. It also tends to be amongst the cheapest, too. Driving to Seattle was about an 11 hour trip, one way, and my gas bill stayed under $200. When split with my single passenger, we were each out about $90, and had plenty of space in the car. The best reason to drive, of course, is convenience. You leave from your house, and you arrive at your place of lodging. Plus, you have transportation while you are at the convention, which is another bonus.
Finally, there’s traveling by airplane. This is the fastest option, by far, as you can travel enormous distances quite quickly. It can be relatively inexpensive, depending on your destination, and if you scour the internet, you can get downright killer deals. The further in advance you start looking, typically the better price you can find. Transit from the airport to your accommodations can be difficult, but typically there are a large number of options to get you where you are going, such as shuttles, buses, trains, cabs, and even limos, which can be shockingly affordable some places.
Now that we know how we are getting there, we should get our sleeping arrangements in order. Sometimes you can just scrounge up a spot on someone’s floor on site, but I certainly don’t recommend it. You shouldn’t rely on lucksack topdecks in game, and you shouldn’t rely on them for your lodgings either. The last thing you want to be doing is wandering around at two in the morning looking for a place to sleep with all of your bags thrown over your shoulders. Worse still is trying to crash out on a random convention or hotel sofa, and getting thrown out, or worse, arrested. Don’t leave it to chance, kids. Get a room.
Or, if you can swing it, a mansion
Next week, we’ll look at how to prioritize our time at the con, and why too much planning can be a bad thing. Until then, this is Jeff Phillips, reminding you: Don’t make the Loser Choice.
P.S. Throwing out this bit from last week, which seemed to get lost amongst the signal noise.
“In other news, some of you may have heard that I’m actually buying into my local game store as a partner. I’m excited to start creating a store where players are going to feel welcome and invited. What does this have to do with you? Well, let me know in the forums what kinds of things your local store does that you like. More importantly, what kinds of things do they do that you don’t like? What do you wish they did that they don’t? Let me know in the forums, because if you like or dislike it, odds are a lot of people feel the same way that you do. I’m looking forward to your forums posts.”