What if anything is being done differently regarding the gaming situation at this year at MEGA-BabelCon? From reviewing the previous year's accounts I am wondering if a different approach is being used.

I understand that BabelCon isn't a "gaming convention" though as an unelected and unauthorized representative of New Orleans NoLarp gamers, what's in it for us?

hewhorocks wrote on Aug 17^th, 2010 at 8:23pm:


Those are good questions. The biggest problem we've had is getting someone (or a group of someones) to run the gaming room. This lack of volunteering by local gamers has led the other BabelCon board of directors to believe gaming is "of little interest anymore". Thus, we have had a shrinking game room, and it drives me crazy!  Why?

Because I know this isn't true, but without gamers volunteering to run a game area (and actually showing up at the con once they volunteer) there isn't going to be much gaming at BabelCon. There is some, but not much. We typically have 15-20 games scheduled. But we have enough people and potential space to accomodate hundreds of games.

Now, I am a gamer. I wrote a published D&D book, for goodness sakes. But being on the board of directors, I can't focus JUST on games. So what we wind up with is a 30x40 room with 20 tables and 15 scheduled games, and a book by the door for signing up for said games. Thats not where I want to be in terms of games being run at the con. I want the game room to be in the 150x150 room with 100+ games scheduled.

Most cons have a dedicated volunteer or group of gamers who enjoy organizing the game room. If we had this, BabelCon could be the largest gaming con in the region. We have the resources, we have the space, we have the gamers willing to play games - we just don't have any gamers willing to take up the management gauntlet. I can't do it alone.

So my question is, are there any gamers willing to volunteer to help run the game room? With 3,000+ attendees, this will not be an easy task, but the rewards are well worth the effort.  And the con will support any volunteer efforts to beef up the gaming.

~Randy

Understood. But gaming-interested volunteers is the one link in the chain we are missing. Without the manpower, all we've got is me, and as you said, its not a one person job. Everything else is in place and ready to go - marketing, gaming company support, and local game groups.

Last year we had a local 12-person gaming group who invested time and effort to come to all our monthly meetings, sign people up on our website, and then on the day of the con they never showed - all of them. Each one had a separate individual excuse, so it was apparently not a group protest or anything. Anyway, so all we had was the signup book on game day - again. Thankfully I had the sense to copy all the info to a book the night before, off the BabelCon website.

Oddly, last year we only had one complaint, and thats because the Warhammer guys did not show up to run their game. This was, of course, the same local game group who were no-shows. Go figure.

But this problem is ongoing. Gamers volunteer to work, and don't show when its go time.

The con is scheduled for November 2010. Since all your suggestions are in place, I am open to ideas on how to jumpstart a great gaming area.

hewhorocks wrote on Aug 18^th, 2010 at 5:35pm:


If the con was in New Orleans (or even Slidell or Covington) I'd be all over this but Baton Rouge is far enough away and enough of a pain to go to that its just not worth it to me.  I can't speak for everyone but I just don't find the con experience worth the drive to BR as an attendee anymore, much less as someone helping to put it on.

For me, ebay ruined the only real reason to go to cons.

I can't promise anything, but I am currently communicating with Chris Johnston on possibly holding a sort of "Bayou Wars at BabelCon" gaming event, either for 2010 or 2011 MEGA-BabelCon, or both. So far he seems open to the idea, so cross your fingers.

beyonder wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2010 at 2:27pm:


The coordinator of Bayou Wars.

Still,

If Bayou wars were at the same place there is much more cross over between wargamers and rpg'er than with the science fiction population at large. It would make for some easier transition to organize some additional events, well I would think.