Was anybody else disappointed at Wizards presence at Gencon. Yes, the life-size game was somewhat entertaining, but what else? Didn't see much new on display. Didn't see demos of Conquest of Nerath or the other boardgames. All I saw was them showing the Neverwinter videogame. And were you even able to buy anything? I wanted to buy some of the fortune cards, but didn't see them anywhere, throughout the exhibition hall. I think people need teasers, and not all of us go to the seminars. One other thing. With Borders shutting it's doors I now have nowhere to buy D&D within 15 miles of me. Come on Wizards. Have your salesmen do their job and get your products into some mainstream stores.
15 miles? Lucky you - I'm 60 miles from the nearest game shop.
Was anybody else disappointed at Wizards presence at Gencon. Yes, the life-size game was somewhat entertaining, but what else? Didn't see much new on display. Didn't see demos of Conquest of Nerath or the other boardgames. All I saw was them showing the Neverwinter videogame. And were you even able to buy anything? I wanted to buy some of the fortune cards, but didn't see them anywhere, throughout the exhibition hall. I think people need teasers, and not all of us go to the seminars. One other thing. With Borders shutting it's doors I now have nowhere to buy D&D within 15 miles of me. Come on Wizards. Have your salesmen do their job and get your products into some mainstream stores.
15 miles? Lucky you - I'm 60 miles from the nearest game shop.
Same.
My big problem is that looking at product is my main reason for going, and spending all that money on a ticket to get into the Con just to shop is rather expensive. (Like having to pay to get into WalMart.) As such, I can only afford to go every few years. I really wish they would sell a "buyer pass" so that I could visit the vendor area without getting access to seminars and game play. I would buy that.
However, once I go I usually find it to be a great experience. So many companies selling new stuff, used stuff, dice, and all kinds of goodies I never even knew existed. A fantastic experience in general. I have a whole list of merchant booths I like to visit and find it to be neat that you can often stand around and actually talk to the designer of some of the games. One year I spent about half an hour chatting with John Wick. Another year it was Richard Iorio (Rogue Games). Every time I go to see the Troll Lord guys to chat about Castles & Crusades. That kind of experience is pretty much unique to a major game convention.
Having said that, I missed GenCon this year and don't know how the WotC booth was run. Sounds strange that they weren't trying to demo their new products. I can't figure out what would be up with that.
60 miles?!?!?! man i feel sorry for you guys.
'Local Game Shops' tend to open and close with rather distressing regularity and as a result, I usually buy my D&D stuff from either Amazon or Paizo. When the marketing team at Wizards decided to restrict sales of Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium only to those who shopped at a 'Local Game Shop', I decided to simply regard the potential existence of that book as vaporware.
Back in the 1980's, I bought my stuff from Wargames West and I was as happy as a well-fed dragon, but Wargames West faded and that left me with Amazon or Paizo as my choices of Reliable Vendors.
Was anybody else disappointed at Wizards presence at Gencon. Yes, the life-size game was somewhat entertaining, but what else? Didn't see much new on display. Didn't see demos of Conquest of Nerath or the other boardgames. All I saw was them showing the Neverwinter videogame. And were you even able to buy anything? I wanted to buy some of the fortune cards, but didn't see them anywhere, throughout the exhibition hall. I think people need teasers, and not all of us go to the seminars. One other thing. With Borders shutting it's doors I now have nowhere to buy D&D within 15 miles of me. Come on Wizards. Have your salesmen do their job and get your products into some mainstream stores.
The demos for the board games were going on in the board game rooms and Sagamore, Legend of Drizzt and Conquest of Nerath were bering played a looooot. Sorry nobody at the booth pointed you that way : /
Being in the UK, I think there are something like two FLGS stores in the entire country ;). There is a game shop about 18 miles way, but bizarrely they don't sell any D&D merchandise whatsoever (mainly it's Warhammer 40k).
Here is a good group to join. I'm in Ireland and I only know of two stores in the Dublin area.
'Local Game Shops' tend to open and close with rather distressing regularity and as a result, I usually buy my D&D stuff from either Amazon or Paizo. When the marketing team at Wizards decided to restrict sales of Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium only to those who shopped at a 'Local Game Shop', I decided to simply regard the potential existence of that book as vaporware.
As been said plenty of times already, they will be available online through those same LGS online frontstores (many of those are available through Amazon Marketplace).
'Local Game Shops' tend to open and close with rather distressing regularity and as a result, I usually buy my D&D stuff from either Amazon or Paizo. When the marketing team at Wizards decided to restrict sales of Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium only to those who shopped at a 'Local Game Shop', I decided to simply regard the potential existence of that book as vaporware.
As been said plenty of times already, they will be available online through those same LGS online frontstores (many of those are available through Amazon Marketplace).
unfortunately, the Amazon Marketplace option does not apply in Illinois; the state government tried to 'persuade' Amazon to collect state sales taxes from those 'local game shops' that participated in Amazon Marketplace and Amazon responded by cutting the Illinois-based 'local game shops' from Marketplace
unfortunately, the Amazon Marketplace option does not apply in Illinois; the state government tried to 'persuade' Amazon to collect state sales taxes from those 'local game shops' that participated in Amazon Marketplace and Amazon responded by cutting the Illinois-based 'local game shops' from Marketplace
Even so, there are other options, like online GS storefronts and ebay storefronts.