Behind the Scenes at Gen Con 2023

When you're part of the media, your participation in an event will differ from that of most people — and I thought I'd give you a sampling of what that's like by talking about nine media events that I attended during Gen Con 2023.

[jimgrant]

Notes for next year would be for people to follow Eric around to pick up his drink tickets when he inevitably loses them! Thanks for an interesting perspective that most of us will never see.

[Erril_Ferndal]

By tearing the card, you wanted to make a stand that your opinion cannot be bought. I respect completely your decision. Publisher try to influence Content Creator with their gifts, which is not okay. You did the right thing 👍

[doggosplosion]

Because something given for free is selling for 30 dollars online, doesn't mean it will always be bought or has sold.
For those cases the phrase of "a fool and their money are soon parted" holds well.

[saintsalieri]

Media events are not designed to transmit information. They are advertisements directed at promoters so they will give favorable reviews. There is no corner of boardgame media that is not simply an affiliated or unaffiliated advertisement arm for toys. I don't know why this would be surprising. Many people would enjoy the gift of free drinks and entertainment and go home with rosy feelings towards a publisher, who will later send a review copy. No viewer of boardgame media should be under the impression there is any sort of ethical barrier to this kind of intentional influence.

[levimote]

Would you say it was more of a failure on the part of publishers to adequately describe their events?
Also, you can donate those collectibles to charities to be auctioned off.

[abastecki]

Interesting video. My primary takeaway is that you need to keep better track of your drink tickets.

[cursivecurses]

Did you not attend one of the AEG events in the hotel? I thought it was good in terms of providing information

[jartree]

To be fair to Ravensburger, they did indeed give out those promos to everyone that purchased anything at their booth (even if it wasn't a Lorcana product). There were thousands distributed. They likely did not expect them to be selling for $200 on ebay. Nor are they worth that to any sane person but anyway, I applaud your stance/opinion here.

[suryadnb]

You could have sold the promo card and used the money to buy a second deck to try the game...

[iGotUrEspada]

Could've auctioned the promo for charity. Not much in the grand scheme of things but as part of a set of auctions, could've made a difference. Just seems like a waste imo.

[the_luggage]

Surely it's better to give the card to someone who'd enjoy it rather than rip it up...

[KabukiKid]

LOL! Oh man... you ripping that card surely stabbed at the hearts of some gamers out there. ;-)