Recently the other guys of Comic issues and i have had the pleasure of going to one of the few remaining gaming conventions here in San Diego, Kingdom Con. This convention is a three day event held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel full of classic roleplaying and strategy games galore. This convention was an important one to attend as there are few gaming conventions in Southern California, and I wanted to discover what this convention, in its sophomore year of being held, had to offer the local gaming community.
In my review of this convention, i plan to critic it in four aspects which I feel are universally held throughout all conventions regardless of their focus. These area are as follows: Organization, Events/ Seminars, Atmosphere, and Vendors. This critic is from the perspective of attending all day Saturday and discussing with other convention attenders their views and experiences of Kingdom Con.
Organization:
When I arrived at the hotel around 7:45am i was surprised to see that no one was downstairs setting up registration given that the morning events were set to start at 8:00am that morning. No one could be found until 8:25am to which the Kingdom Con crew stated that those who had morning events could go to their games and come back for registration. Though i was disappointed at the lack of preparedness i was pleasantly surprised at the trust and “honor code” they had in their attenders. These was some misdirection as to where events were being held given that they were spread apart from one another without many signs directing attenders to go, though every area was given an ample amount of room which was encouraging to see. Lastly in this area, i was severely disappointed to see that the prize room, a room held to earn prizes from cashed in tickets earned for attending games, was closed far earlier than the last event of the day was done (which was 11pm) thereby leaving others, including myself, with a grip of tickets that seemed to be a waste. Another issue that would help in the matter of direction is if there was a definitive way to pinpoint the staff from the convention attendees as the staff was donning the Kingdom Con shirts yet was also selling the exact same shirts to attendees. Even if all the staff have yellow badges, that works for me!!!!
Events/ Seminars:
The events held at Kingdom Con were very nice and well thought out. These games ranged from: Munchkin, to Pathfinder, to Tinstars & Tinhorns Dead Lands LARPing, to Hordes/ Warmachine, to Figure Painting contests and tutorials, some Warhammer 40K, and even some Game of Thrones got tossed in the mix. These games covered the gambit for gamers of every type and it was awesome to see and be a part of it!! Nothing really constructive to mention other than maybe having some smaller games, which are easier to play and finish, be available outside of the three time slots that the conventions was structured around so that new gamers can come and be immersed in other gaming aspects without having to wait until the next event.
Atmosphere:
Atmosphere is a difficult area to judge for the fact that it also takes into account the attenders of the convention in addition to the environment that the convention portrays and establishes. Kingdom Con has a lot of skilled Game Masters which helped bring about some order and structure to the conventions thereby making the experience more enjoyable for the gamers. The GM I had most of the day was excellent and I had one of the best sessions with a group of strangers in the last Pathfinder Society event on Saturday!! Most of the attendees were laid back and easy going, with the occasional kill everything newbie gamers. Overall it was peaceful with a dash of chaos.
Vendors:
Sadly it is not the amount of vendors that i was astonished by but the lack of impact from most of the one that were there. I spoke with every vendor yet the only one that resonated with me was the booth from Pair-A-Dice games in Vista, CA. Now I will admit that some of the other vendors were focused in other aspects of gaming that I do not participate in, but that did not excuse me from not approaching their booth and discovering what their involvement was within the gaming community. the vendors were given half of the room upstairs though i would much like to see more vendors, more companies, and more artists ( including miniature painters) within the vendor areas in years to come at this convention.
Overall:
At the end of the day it was a fairly good convention. One that I hope to see grow and flourish for years to come as I plan on going to see what areas have been improved and play these awesome games which I love. If you have never gone to a gaming convention, it is a must see event…so pick up some dice, grab a character sheet and maybe next year i will see you at Kingdom Con!!
