Through helping
Spirit Games at their Stalls for the last few years Oskar and myself managed to get to see a lot of conventions.
Now that we have the extra responsibilities at home we may not be able to help out meaning we would have to attend these conventions normally. This has meant me looking seriously at which ones I would consider worthwhile going to...
To be honest given the costs of a lot of them, believe me I understand the cost of peoples time, advertising, venue etc etc there are not many I would consider going to to just play games.
UK Expo may still be worth a visit as a chance to see new games demo'd and a cheaper alternative to going to Essen which is way out of my league at the moment.
Beer & Pretzels is certainly good value for money as a weekend event.
The rest of the calendar has events costing around £10 a day or more which for two of us for a whole weekend means I am spending the price of a new game to just go and play with no guarantee of getting a chance to play anything new.
I understand the chance to play with new people, to catchup with old friends or a place conveniently in the middle of old friends as a once a year chance to get together and play. For me personally it feels like going to play games at one of these events means I would be unable to buy anything new. Maybe once I fill my shelves and can not bear to part with anymore old games I will find that these become more appealing to attend but for now it feels like an expensive way to play games.
The smaller one-day events on the other hand can be a lot cheaper, with smaller venues thereby feeling more intimate and friendly. I think I will have to spend some time finding a few more of the one-day style and seeing if there are any that are not to far to travel too in order to fill my gaming needs.
I think it is great that we have so many conventions going on around the UK catering for all styles of gaming and long may it continue and for those that enjoy going to them more power to you.
These are just my thoughts and I welcome your opinions.
