So me and the extended family went up to Gen Con this Sunday. 7 of us in the new minivan (which rocks). We're within 2 hours of Indy and the Family Fun Pass at 4 people for $30 makes it (mostly) worth it. I do wish there was a cheaper option to just shop the dealer room each day.
Thanks to an "unfortunate event" about 3 years ago, I took some time off from the show.
While I know the industry has changed dramatically in that time, the show put its right in your face.
While I loved WotC's set up, I miss the old TSR castle from the Milwaukee days, more now than ever.
The show was packed and ICV2 is reporting record numbers, which I can believe. We were hardpressed to move and barely made it through the room in 4 hours.
I'm not sure I'll go back though, and here's why: It was exhausting pushing through throngs of people and since my interest is in RPG's, I felt left out. T-Shirt, weapon, anime, and CCG vendors dominated the show...which is fine, but that's not where my interests lie.
I was glad to pick up Zener Cards for Conspiracy X from Eden Studios (good to see you, George); Carcosa (it is a gorgeous book, I'm not a huge fan of LotFP, but Raggi outdid himself in the look of the new edition) from the OSR Publishing booth, an oasis from the rest of the show (thank you guys for probably my fondest moments at the show); Iron Heroes from Drivethrurpg's booth (Steven Wieck is true gentleman), what can I say? I've always wished I'd picked it up.
I also picked up FFG's Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beta...and I'm not sure I'm glad about it. I'm not a big fan of their edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (even though I always wanted a Descent RPG). This uses "funky dice", like WFRP 3E, and it just doesn't look that appealing. I picked it up to demo it to my customers and hopefully build some hype (myself included). So we'll see.
I wish I'd bought some inked Zocchi dice sets, but I just didn't make it back to the booth. And Troll Lord's new printing of the Castle and Crusades Player's Handbook looked great (I really dig that Greyhawk inspired logo, too), but I already have 3 printings of it and I'm just not that fond of the Siege Engine.
I can say my primary reason for going in the future will be if the kids want to go back. I've never been big on gaming at Cons and shopping at them has lost much of it's appeal for me.