Will there be a CyberCon 2003?

[Michael Hopcroft]

Are there any plans for online conventions for 2003? If anyone wants to run one, I'd like to fffer my assistance, and if nobody is running one I'd like to start one.

I was thinking that the con would consist of three main areas:

* Panel discussions where people could come in through the chat server and partipcpate in special discussions.
* Online play of indie and conventional RPGs.
* A special link to the dealers space at RPGnow where people can immediately buy copies of their favorite e-published games, including the game they've just played or are about to play.

I was thinking sometime either in the summer or early fall would be nice, and that it should be inexpeneive enough that people who can't go to the summer conventions can have dealers space or buy memberships.

The membership fee shouldn;t be more than $10 or so, and since there are no accomodations or travel to worry about...

RPGHost tried a CyberCon last eyar and were not too pleased with the results IIRC. What si their opinion on this?

[rpghost]

Sorry, probably not. There hasn't been enough support or paid players to make it worth the huge investment in time. We are open though to people using the system to run their own mini-cons.

James
http://cybercon.rpghost.com

[Michael Hopcroft]

Then I just might take you up on that and run a con myself. I could use all the advice people could give me on making it work, of course, and as many e-publishers as vendors as feasible.

[Michael Hopcroft]

These may all fall through, depending on what RPGHost does, but this is basically what I'm looking at for my convention.

Name: Technocon 2003
Dates: Either August 15th-17th or August 22nd-24th, depending on everyone's schedule.
Focus: The Everything Con. A Science Fiction/Fantasy/Anime/Gaming convention held online. Hopefully I can invite writers, artists, game designers and publishers to participate in all fields.
Events: Panels (Online Chats), Parties (Unrestricted Online Chats), Online Games, Filk Lyric Exchange/Filk Link Exchange, 24/7 Vendor's room, Other Fun Stuff
Price: $10 pre-registration until July 31st, $15 thereafter, vendor's Booths to be determined (one free membership included).
Guests: TBA. Invitation process will begin as soon as the venue is cleared.
Mailing list: Technocon Yahoogroup
Needs: Publicity, gamemasters, program participants, members

I'd like to emphasize indie games at this convention. I'd like a lot of indie publishers to run their games or at the very least discuss them.

This of course all depends on whether this is acceptable to RPGHost. I'm just trying to get a general idea of what this group would like to see in an online convention.

[Michael Hopcroft]

The RPGhost server is unavailable to me. Bleep!

I'm looking for another way to put on Technocon, and looking for advice on how to do so. please contactt me if you are interested in seeing an indie-friendly online game convention happen in 2003 (with SF/Fantasy/Anime elements, of course).

[Gold Rush Games]

The RPGhost server is unavailable to me. Bleep!

  It was pretty much unavailable to most everyone for a while today, Michael. I recomend you relax a bit and contact the webmaster for details before you write them off completely.

[Michael Hopcroft]

The RPGhost server is unavailable to me. Bleep!

  It was pretty much unavailable to most everyone for a while today, Michael. I recomend you relax a bit and contact the webmaster for details before you write them off completely.

Perhaps I wasn't clear.  What i MEANT was that the Cybercon server was not going to be made available to me for Technocon. Or, to be even MORE specific, the scheduling and gateway options that would enable featues like membership sales and vending.

Step 1: Open mouth. Step 2: Insert foot. Step 3: Chew.

Basically this means that no matter what servers I end up using I would have to start from scratch, without being able to really use their convention infrastructure (which, after the apparentl failure of Cybercon 2002, has fallen into disuse).