My name is Andrew Lockwood, the RPG Director for Origins 2004. I was reading your post about low booth attendance, and I wanted you to know that Origins 2004 has a new policy in place to boost hall attendance this year. There is an event "blackout" period running from 4-6PM Thursday through Saturay, and 3-4PM on Sunday. The purpose of the break is to give players a chance to visit the exhibit hall before it closes each day, so this is a definite insentive to consider buying a booth at Origins this year.

Andrew Lockwood
RPG Director, Origins 2004
www.originsgames.com

God I hate it when cons do that.

During that time I have to put pick-up games together which decreases my playing efficiency. I doubt it'll be a problem at a big con like Origins, but at local cons it drives me bonkers.

Chris

Hello,

The above two posts were split from Origin Forge booth.

Best,
Ron

I think the event blackout is a good idea, personally. However, temper that opinion with the fact that I rarely participate in scheduled events at cons, and I'm not going to be able to attend Origins this year. Anyway, thanks for posting, Andrew, and welcome to the Forge!

I'm looking forward to seeing whether the black-out period works to increase sales. Unfortunately, my feeling is that it probably won't.

For one thing, people who want to see the dealer's hall pretty much find time for it somewhere in their schedule, especially during the slower morning hours when fewer events are running. For those people who don't really care for the hall, a black out period of events is going to mean tons of people in the open gaming area, where they can play for free instead of paying for another ticket.

It also mucks with my tried and true demo schedule: 10-12 character creation, 2-6 game, 7-11 game.

Anyway, I've already made alternate plans this year, but if I hear good things from other vendors and my own demo guys who will be there, I may reconsider Origins again in 2005.