The first issue of Polyhedron has a nice interview with Gary in which quite a bit of meta-discussion is had pertaining to AD&D, styles of play, and thoughts from Gary on the hobby at that time. One of the more interesting aspects of the interview was his personal thoughts on conventions, and I think he nails my own feelings when it comes to the differences between the small and large conventions.
RPGA: Skipping over to a wider field of gaming, the Gen Con® convention started "way back when". "Were you there at the conception and the first ones?
EGG: Well, what happened is that the year before the Gen Con convention started, I invited a number of fellows up to my place in Lake Geneva for a gaming session, and as I recall, about a dozen showed up. We played Avalon Hill games, and some miniatures, and so forth. I still have pictures! One of the original fellows there who's still in gaming, actively, is Bill Hoyer. A lot of the others have either disappeared or dropped out, at least, from the active ranks, but Bill and I also belonged to a group called the IFW (International Federation of Wargamers), and I was one of its officers, and Bill was eventually president in a couple of years. I suggested to Bill Speer and Scott Duncan, who were president and vice president - I don't know, maybe
I was vice-president and Bill was secretary - but anyway, I said "We ought to have an IFW convention". And they said, "Hey, that sounds like a great idea! You're it!"
So I put the first Gen Con event together, and we held it in Horticultural Hall and had about a total attendance of about fifty or sixty hard-core gamers who came from all over the country. We had a Canadian or two there; we had some people from out on the west coast, from the east coast, from Texas. There just weren't too many of us that were aware of each other - then, at least. There were probably more out there, but it was hard to get to them. We did have a lot of walk- throughs, even the first year; the total different people there - I think there was something over 150 at the first Gen Con convention that was run at Horticultural Hall, here in beautiful Lake Geneva.
RPGA: It's sure grown since then. Do you like the way the Gen Con scene has gone? There are mammoth, incredible problems involved these days in handling the thousands of people who show up for the various games.
EGG: It's all right. We had incredible problems handling the fifty people that were there the first year, so we just have more people to deal with. I ran the first one all by myself, virtually, with some people to help me set up. It was a one-day show, and I was there the day before and the day after, first setting up and then taking down and cleaning up. From a personal standpoint I don't like the large ones as well, because you can't possibly know all the people there, and a lot of the feeling of camaraderie is gone...the closeness, the general tenor of things has changed considerably.
On the other hand, it does give a chance for many, many more people to come and see what gaming is all about, get into things, take a look at the new projects that the companies have produced, and meet their friends. I still see a lot of the old timers there, and say " hi" to them. It gives a better exposure to the hobby; in that regard it's great. It allows more competitive gaming; you can have 500-man tournaments, 600-man tournaments, that is marvelous. So I think the big convention is a very good thing, and it's here to stay.
That's why we also run the three small conventions every year, too. And these are more like the old-time Gen Con events - such as the Spring Revel we just had here - because there you recognize the people, and can sit down and talk with them. It's not a mob scene; things are a little chaotic-some of the games don't come off like they should have, or you go change and play in a different room, or play something different - but it's fun, and everybody has a good time, and that's what the small convention's all about.
