The Venue

[skinnyghost]

It was awesome. Not having to worry about organizing food, parking and a hotel and just having it all rolled in was a massive stress reducer. Seriously. Really great. The space itself was nice, too - the big room made for that parallel-play stuff and if you needed quiet space, there was plenty available.

My only concern was that it was sort of hard to find the game you were in unless the GM was walking around town-crier style shouting "MARVEL HERE, GET YOUR MARVEL HERE!" but otherwise, everything was totally fantastic.

[gammaraygames]

One idea to improve table finding would be to put placards (or some sort of easy to see/understand labeling system) on the tables/zones so that facilitators could simply write them on the sign up sheets once they knew where they were going to be.

[Ben Robbins]

Yes to all of the above. Another great idea that someone mentioned (Matthew?) was to have a designated rallying point for people who drifted in late, missed the Donut, but wanted to game. That way those people could easily find each other (or we could spot and rescue them).

[Hans]

The Good:

-A cheap package deal!
-Lodging right where the gaming was.
-Food right where the gaming was.

This is all really great. I click one button and everything's taken care of.

The Bad:

-Too big (space-wise)! I was discussing this on my way back from the con, comparing it to previous years (GPNW 09) and Gamestorm's Indie Hurricane this year. This is really a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it's nice to have a big space, and lots of little spaces spread out to game in a quiet place. On the other hand, it felt a lot easier to miss connections with people simply because of the space, and it was lacking a certain frothing creative energy that a jam-packed space creates.

The previous years/places I mentioned were tightly-packed, meaning it's much more likely that before/after/in-between gaming I can't help but run into people, go off with a group for dinner or drinking, or whatever. The large space this year means that when I finish my game in some far-off corner, I wander the hall hoping to find the folks I know, or run into people planning something interesting. Maybe there's a group of folks on the 12th floor having an awesome discussion, you know? But I don't know because we're so spread out. Ultimately that's life, and my beef is idiosyncratic, but I didn't like how the enormity of the space fostered those problems.

I was really hoping that an eclectic group would get together to go out drinking on Saturday or something, and I'm sad that didn't happen. However! If that's what I want it's my responsibility to put it in action, so lesson learned.

Thanks organizers!

[Ryan Macklin]

Actually, I liked the spaciousness. A bunch of us on Saturday night sat around and played Cards Against Humanity, which is something we couldn't have easily done in other environments, both to accomodate a bunch of people relaxing and to be far enough away from others to where we wouldn't disturb.

I will say that going up to the 12th floor to game was probably a mistake -- it broke away from the atmosphere.

- Ryan

[moleculo]

Another great idea that someone mentioned (Matthew?) was to have a designated rallying point for people who drifted in late, missed the Donut, but wanted to game. That way those people could easily find each other (or we could spot and rescue them).

A great idea, yes. My idea, no. I cannot take credit for "The Donut Hole" but we should implement it next year.

I differ from Ryan about the 12th floor. We had several great games up in the small meeting rooms up there and it was a key element of success in our 3:16 game. The squads were briefed by Captain Stacy (Neil) in the common room and then each entered their own "drop pod" and closed the door. Great fun.

[Ryan Macklin]

Sorry, I meant it was a mistake for me. Like, if you do a show in a place far away from the group, understand what that means...especially on Friday night, when people are also doing that thing where they're seeing who's around.

- Ryan

[skinnyghost]

I really liked the openness of the venue. Being able to be a little loud sometimes is nice. Hugo House was super annoying because the rooms were small (but not one-group small) and echoey. I'll take useful and fun to play in over cozy any day.

[Hans]

Yep, all good points! I figured my thing was idiosyncratic.

[LeeShort]

For me, the spaciousness was a win overall, but I do see Hans' point. And I certainly agree with Adam that the fast turnaround for the lunch break was a winner.