I am repeating my observations from another thread on TMP.
My impressions (and I think they are shared by many of the HAWKs) are briefly:
- There was insufficient parking for GMs. I arrived Thursday afternoon and got one of the last spots in on the 4th floor roof of the parking garage. This meant that I had to unload in the pouring rain. The route required three elevator trips a ramp, and winding through an insufficiently wide aisle in the Commonwealth room to get to my tables. I ran seven games over the weekend (if you count the 15-player Hoth games as two each), beginning Friday evening and ending Saturday at 2300, so I had a LOT of crap. Even with my cart, and help from another HAWK with a dolly, it took 4 trips. It took a really, really long time.
- The convention validated parking, and that worked for me.
- As result of (supposedly) late-breaking changes to room availability, they seemed to have added a row of tables to the Commonwealth room. The effects of this were enough to make me think twice about attending Historicon next year. (I haven't made a decision one way or the other, but am leaning toward running many fewer games.) The extra row of tables made the gap between tables very tight, which impacted game setup, hauling stuff, and getting everyone around the tables while leaving room for people to walk. The extra row of tables meant that they couldn't deploy the partitions to break the Commonwealth room into three or four rooms. This made the rooms unbearably loud. After my Thursday night game -- and it got way, way, way, WAY worse on Friday and Saturday, I almost cancelled my games and left. I shouted myself hoarse by Friday mid-day. People couldn't hear me during a small, six-player game, and I couldn't hear them. It wasn't artillery barrage painful, but rock concert painful. I have tinnitus from the Army anyway, but today, I still cannot hear conversations at a normal volume, because the ringing in my ears is so severe.
- The Heritage room on the 3rd floor seemed to be the same size as the Commonwealth room, but didn't seem to be as loud. It could be by the time I got to the Heritage room on Saturday, my hearing was already impaired. It seemed to be just as crowded as Commonwealth, but that is just an impression, without any facts to back that up.
- The Commonwealth room was dark. Old gamers need light. We didn't have much. Was it Distlefink dark? I'm not sure, but the difference was probably just a handful of lumens.
- We were told last year that clubs would continue to have their own rooms that could be locked at night. That turned out to be untrue. We were all in the Commonwealth. The room was locked at midnight. We pre-coordinated and were told the room would be reopened each morning at 0730. At 0800 on Saturday forty people were waiting outside the locked room sweating whether they would have time to set up their tables before their 0900 games. If you open late and don't let GMs stay late the night before to set up their games, you are adding unnecessary stress to the GMs. In the HAWKs room in the past, we had late guys who would get the Paradise room locked and an access roster of folks who could get our room opened in the morning. With ten clubs in a room, I guess that wasn't practical. I also felt less sanguine about leaving my boxes of figures, terrain, etc. in a room with 1000 of my closest friends, but as far as I can tell nothing was molested or is missing.
- The convention volunteers were excellent. During the incident of getting our room open described above, an "orange shirt" managed to figure out who was needed to open the room and got it open. Except for some of the folks walking around collecting game demographics, all of the staff were friendly, helpful, conscientious, and other positive attributes that don't come quickly to mind in my sleep deprived state.
- I like the location of the flea market. The offerings seem to have been limited, but the location, organization, lighting, etc. were good. The lighting was good, not great. I think a lot of people (flea marketers and GMs) took the "wait and see" approach to the new venue. More on that later.
- The convention staff made a good call to move the handful of Sunday games to the dealer hall gaming area (where I think the tournaments had been all weekend, but I'm not sure). This placed the Sunday games close to the dealer hall and the flea market for those last minute purchases. (I have long suggested that at the Host all the Sunday games should move to Paradise so that the convention could turn over most of the venue [and save money?] and the games would be close to the vendor hall.) That's when I noticed that this area near the vendor hall was SIGNIFICANTLY better lit and quieter than the Commonwealth room.
- I liked the layout, light level, etc. of the dealer hall. The aisles were wide enough that you could continue to move even is someone stopped to view the products at vendors on both sides of the aisle.
- The Lancaster market diagonally across the street from the convention center was an excellent resource. I got four meals there during the convention. My only disappointment is that the market closed at 1400 on Saturday, so it wasn't available for dinner. I am on a somewhat restrictive diet these days, so I brought a lot of my own food, but the restaurant in the hotel and the food they set up for quick bites in the hallway seemed like sufficient variety. Each day, they had different menu items set up at lunch and dinner outside the Commonwealth room. Options included bratwurst, meatball subs, chili, tacos, chicken quesadillas, and pulled pork. I didn't taste any personally, but the consensus seemed to be positive. The hotel didn't need to provide as extensive a selection of food as the host, because there were many choices readily available within walking distance. The hotel breakfast buffet was not as extensive as the Host, but the food was tasty, and I think the buffet was cheaper than the host.
- We stayed at the Marriott, and it was Marriott quality, except the first night they didn't give us enough towels or provide bedding for the sofa bed.
- There were a number of people who were not gamers who were staying the hotel or lived locally who were allowed to wander around the gaming areas (without paying admittance). Most were idly curious about this thing going on in a hotel where they were staying for business, but as a method of evangelism, I supposed it raised awareness of gaming, which is good, and gamers, which is perhaps not so good. :)
- I suggest that the convention staff consider moving the showcase games out of Commonwealth to a more visible area, such as hallway space or a lobby. The ticket booth could have moved someplace else perhaps and left a large, well light, and 1000db quieter area for Little Wars TV, MBA, or the other showcase games to be more visible. There were three long tables set up all weekend for a number of games. If these were moved to a more visible area, that might have mitigated the overcrowding in Commonwealth.
- I think a lot of GMs took a cautious approach of not coming at all or reducing the number of games they normally run to let the maiden voyage of the SS Lancaster Convention Center Historicon shake out any issues. Without facts to back this up, I think the number of games seemed to be lighter than normal. The impact of that is that we had no trouble filling our games. Our impression in HAWKs land is that about half the people who sign up for games don't show up. This is often compensated for by standbys, but not always. All but one of my games filled in pre-registration. In almost all cases everyone showed up, and I still had standbys. I don't think our offerings in HAWKs land were too different than what we normally do, so I don't attribute that to a sudden spike in game quality, topic, relevance, etc. I think that was because there were fewer games than normal or more gamers than normal, so from a gamer perspective it was get in this open game or sit around and watch Desperate Housewives of Lancaster County for a few hours until another game was available.
- We seemed to have fewer kids than normal. The HAWKs usually dedicate one table to kids games all day Saturday. We had an excellent Lionheart game Saturday morning at 0900 for which not one single kid showed up (but I think all the tickets had been taken). The Armies for Kids game -- at which we we GIVE each participant (under 10 years old) two complete, painted armies, rules, dice, rulers, etc. to take home and play with their friends -- only had five kids. Really? Only five kids managed to attend a FUN game after which they go home with a trunk full of loot? If someone had given me enough stuff to run my own wargames when I was nine years old, I would have urinated all over myself with joy!! (One of the girls who played in one of our early Armies for Kids game some years ago won a PELA award as a GM at Historicon.)
- Game courtesy was lacking as usual. In general in our society, rudeness is the new normal. Gaming is no different. Gamers, show up on time!! The GM has a standby list with people staring at him with puppy eyes, and would like to start his game on time. Be there on time. When you are late, you are inconveniencing a lot of people. We know its all about you and the other gamers don't matter, but try to be on time. Ditto for GMs. If your game is supposed to start at 1000, be ready at 0945.
Warn the GM if you are going to leave early. I added three players to our Hoth extravaganza because people were giving the puppy dog eyes to get in. Three left in the middle of the game without telling me, the other GM, or their fellow players. People didn't realize that units weren't moving until later, so this was not only rude, but it affected the game. That was a 15 player game so the loss of three people is not catastrophic. I had a six-player game in which two people on the same side just stood up and announced that they were leaving. I don't think this was some sort of GM call protest or dissatisfaction. It would have been nice if they had warned me before the game began that they had to leave at a certain time. I would have put them on different sides to minimally impact the game right in the middle of a turn.
- There seemed to be a larger than normal number of adolescents and twenty-somethings. That is a good trend. The younger guys seemed to be able to grasp the rules and concepts quickly and not have to be hand-held by the GM all turn, slowing down the game for everyone. We've all seen those guys who just refuse to learn the mechanics during a game, complain that they don't know what is going on, and just wait for the GM to help them execute every action. The younger gamers I saw were unusually polite (for today's society), engaged, and positive.
- I saw some really nice games. I think GMs are doing their part of up their game and promote the hobby. If you don't want to play a game, turn your ticket back in.
