I'll try to be brief.
Which for me is hard.
First want to say that I am a Game-O-Holic.
I'm Dave (All together now....Hi Dave)
This was my first GenCon in Indianapolis and I was really looking forward to it. And, in spite of everything that might have happened to the contrary, I had a great time.
Really enjoyed meeting all the BBGers there in the 500 Room:
Bob, Emily, Corey, Barb, Steve, Bryan, Jeff, Jordan, Adam, Dave, and the other Dave, Mike, Terry, Scott, Joe, (don't want to leave anyone out so, if I did, please forgive....)and on and on and on. I just had the BEST time. Met a lot of people that I will be friends with for life.
My purpose in this novel is to tell the tale.
So sit back... at the end you will get the "Attika" story you have heard floating around. I happened to me.

It started on Thursday after a bunch of us hit the dealer area and took our new products back to the 500 Room to find some open gaming.
We knew that many tables were assigned for ticketed events and we were respectful of that and looked for open tables not assigned to Game Base 7.

First we put up a simple 8 1/2 by 11 with a schedule of BBG people that had expressed interest in open gaming. That was taken down by BG7 clones without even a word.
Then, we had some paper with the words "Open gaming" set up at the tables we were playing (again, open tables not scheduled) and had that removed by another GB7 clone who looked at me in disgust.
OK, fine then.
Let the games begin.
Later that night outside of the 500 room I had a different GB7 flunky tell me would could not game in that room. I simply said I had paid my GenCon admission for 4 days and unless they had the power to bar me from anything there at the convention, I believed I could go anywhere I wanted.
Throughout out entire stay in the 500 room all of us were respectful of not taking up any space assigned for anything. We moved from table to table as new spaces opened up.
That did not stop the Game Base 7 people from inflicting themselves on us the entire time we were at GenCon.

Here are a couple more highlights.

At one point we were taking up two tables at the back of the room and were told we had to move. They were going to use those tables for role playing and we were in the way. One of us said they thought this was the board gaming room and that wasn't role playing going on in other places in the convention hall. This woman told us that she was with Game Base 7 and they needed tables "just like these" and we had to move right now.
So we did.
And saw that 4 hours later those tables still did not have anyone at them. Later that night, there was indeed some role playing going on at those tables. But we could have stayed and played if they were not so huffy about it.

There were several other stories of this kind where Game Base 7 employees/volunteers/who knows what, were making life generally miserable for all the BGGers that showed up to play.
I'm sure others can relate their stories in this thread, but let me tell you now the "Attika" story.

I went to the dealers room and bought a copy of Attika was tearing off the shrink as I was heading back the the 500 room. (Sidebar, I LOVE opening a new game. The crackle of the shrink as you peal it off. But my favorite is the punching..... OOOOooooo I love the punching. Especially one you been waiting to get for awhile, it is the best. Anyway, I know you all know what I mean.)

So, I get to the 500 room and 4 of us sit down to play. We are sitting at the back of the room at tables we know are not assigned and will not be assigned for 6 straight hours. We are good to go.
While we are setting up a board. Maybe the oldest clone at Game Base 7 comes by and tells us we are setting up in the wrong area.
I was thinking, Huh?
"You are in the wrong area the tournament is over at that table."
We all turn around and look towards the front of the room and see some folks setting up something but we have no idea what they are setting up.
"You will have to move up there", he says.
"We are not in the tournament", I tell him "We are just going to play my new copy here."
"You can't", he says
"Why not", me again
"Because they paid to play in the tournament"
"OK....I'm not follwing what you are saying here."
"You can't play a game thay paid to play" he tells us.
"Let me get this straight. You are telling me that I can not play a game I bought here from a GenCon vendor after I paid for my badge because someone else is in a tournament?"
"That's right" he says
"OK, I'm really trying to understand. Why can't we play a game that belongs to me?"
"You can play it later", he offers "When the tournament is over."
"OK, when will that be?"
"4pm" he says
"So over 4 hours from now, I can play. But I can not play my own game here with my friends at a table that is not assigned because someone else is playing the same game?"
"That is correct" he says satisfied that I may be slow but I finally got it.
What did he shirt say?
Any guesses?
Yep, Game Base 7 game moderator.
So we all try to look calm and I pull another game out of my bag and we go on with our day.

Game Base 7 tried to ruin GenCon for all the BGGers and you know what? We had fun anyway.
So before so Game Base 7 defender comes running to their rescue about how I don't know anything.
Let me tell you what I do know.
All of the people I ran into from Game Base 7 were rude and unhelpful.
They scowled at us and were just plain rude the whole time we were there. None of the people from that organization that I saw made any attempt to be polite or civil.

And before BG7 says "Hey, we don't make enough money for doing what we do." Let me clue you that I overheard a conversation from one of your officers who was out having a smoke break and I actually heard what your compensation from a convention like this is. So please don't plead poverty.

You may not make retirement money out of conventions, but you do make enough to put your folks through a little customer service training.
Because you know what? Those of us that purchased tickets are the customers. Never have a seen a group a people with so little power, try to weild that power so ruthlessly. We do not need stress at our conventions. We did not pick your career path, don't take it out on us.

I sure most of the folks here at BGG would pay a little more coin to have a area where open gaming is encouraged and supported. It's not like our hobby is so large we can afford to discriminate against those that want to game. In any form.

Yes, Game Base 7 left a bad taste in my mouth and did the same for many others at GenCon.

In spite of that.
I will be back next year.
So much for being brief.

Dave steps down off his soapbox and drags it behind the curtain.....

That says a lot about your willingness to game. Kudos to you! I went to Origins last year, and I was stunned at how little effort GB7 puts in to events we are expected to pay for.

It's wonderful that CABS took over open gaming in Columbus this year, because they actually seem to care about it. They are the only reason I'm considering returning to Origins in the future.

If my first experience with boardgaming was with GB7, I doubt I would have gone any further.

Just to clarify:

Ballroom 500 is split into two distict areas: GB7 and the Board Game Hall.

GB7's room and all of the tables in it are theirs to do with as they please. There are no open tables in that room, they all belong to GB7.

The Board Game Hall is where all of the non-GB7 scheduled board game events take place. The Board Game HQ controls that hall (under the direction of Lee and assisted by Kevin).



You were not in the board game hall, you were in GB7. Their room to do with as they please. They usually use it for board games, but they also have a large RPG presence as well.



GB7 may have had that table scheduled for an RPG event that didn't go off due to lack of players. It happens all of the time. If the table was scheduled for a game, then they needed to clear it off before the game was scheduled to begin but before they would even know if they had players for the game.

Mike Z

I have to agree. Last year GB7 handled the demos for FFG and it was a disaster.

For example, I had a few people last year play in my Doom events ,which I ran as an independent GM in the Board Game Hall, who had "learned" to play Doom from GB7. Before playing in my events, they were not impressed by Doom as the people in GB7 had not taught them the game correctly. They only showed up as they had pre-registered for the event several months earlier. After learning the real rules, they left with a much more favorable impression.

Mike Z

What is Game Base 7? The event organizers? Just wondering why the organizers of the event would do everything they could to make the event a terrible experience for those who paid to be there.

Continuing the saga... our first two scheduled games were GB7 sponsored... Struggle of Empires at 5 on Thursday, and Caylus at 9. They couldn't find their copy of Struggle, so I had to go get my copy out of the car to play it. At 9, guess what... no copy of Caylus. (We heard later that they found a copy, but still)

I wondered the same.
A bit of Google suggests this: http://www.gb7.org/

My only issue with GB7 was that we had a ticketed event for Caylus on Friday night and they didn't have a copy to play with. After discussion, it appears that the only copy they had was stolen the night before. That stinks. However since it was stolen the night before, you would think they would have hunted another copy down or at least cancelled the event before people gathered.

Fortunately we stalked a guy who had a copy until he sat down and joined in. He turned out to be a fellow Geeker... Arvedui. Thanks for the play! I should have given him a generic for playing but I didn't think about it until after the fact.

Our only other issue is when we attempted to get some open play area for 3 players next to the 500 reception room. The people at the desk were perfectly polite and assigned us a table that was open. 10 minutes later we were over-run by the "Out-of-the-Box" group who said they had had the same table and they knew it was theirs. We simply stated that we were only sitting at the table because that's where we were told to be... and moved to the next row over. Another 10 minutes later and guess who moves to the table that we moved to? Yep, Out of the Box! Looks like they didn't know where they were at afterall!

We thought about threatening them with the "we know this is our table" but we finished our game and moved on.

All in all, I would say everyone was most accommodating and as organized as possible for the "living environment" that GenCon is.

GB7 is an organization similar to the RPGA. The run numerous events at Origins, Gencon and a few smaller conventions.

The conventions like them as they organize themselves and run a large number of events.

Mike Z

Never heard of them either.



Apparently they don't run them very well either.



Well, there's the solution right there. Fellow Geeks "organize yourselves" and run some events, such as "open gaming," and show those disorganized GB7 geeks how it's done!

But seriously, this is the kind of behavior (described by Dave above) and lack of organization (described by others re: not even having the games available) that would turn me off attending conventions at all.

I mean, the very idea that Dave can't play his copy of Attika because someone else is holding an Attika tournament . . . ridiculous.

Sounds like a nightmmare. The wole bit with the tournament sounds really lame.

I have mixed feelings about GB7.

My only formal interaction with them this time was for a scheduled Give away the game Vegas Showdown event. My group showed up and played Havoc, at the table where the event was scheduled to be, while we were waiting. A little after 8 (scheduled start time), we hunted down a GB7