Gamer Con March 2017

0ph0rce0

Had a great day there today.

Arrived about 10 am had the VIP tickets so was grand, Skipped the queue at the first line then you went into the main one at the top, about 5 mins there and brought to the lane just around the corner and straight in. 10 mins max in the queue.

Went straight up to the Auditorium so the little ones could see little kelly and carley. No wait just straight in.

Went down to the meet and greet where you only got to meet One youtuber which was a bummer as they are a pair really. Got in the queue for that about 15 mins before and was straight in.

Retro section was cool, Arcade machines, about 50 consoles some counter strike source. No big queues for that you just stood behind the one you wanted to play and jumped on. Same with the games to the left at the gamerzone.

Booked the VR in advance so got on in the time slot.

Went off about 1 to rockets across the road for lunch when we came back in there was some crowd alright.

The things like the Playstation VR, Razer Bus were packed, And the queue for the Gamstop checkouts was a nightmare.


I guess they hoped that one crowd would get in at the start of the day and be gone then the next half later in the day but obviously didn't happen.


I planned the day checked the times and had a great day with the kids anyway.


I feel bad for people that didn't get in,

For the people that did get in some of them really have no patience, loads of moany bastards who just expect to walk in and jump on everything straight away. Cursing all over the shop being rude to everyone, pushing you and all. Madness.

It's like Disneyland, You want on the rides then you have to queue.

FutureGuy

da gamer wrote: »

Well everyone what did we you all think of gamercon? Had a great day up there. Heard a few people were stuck in que for a while. I walked straight up to the front door and got in. Had a great day with the VR, didn't even pre book it and got 45 minutes playing it. Cosplays were brilliant. I went as Kasumi from Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball. My only gripe would be that it was a bit overcrowded but all in all a great day was had. Can't wait for next year. GAMERCON!

K

Calhoun

I think the fact it made the national news speaks for itself on how well organized it was the exception here seems to be the folks who had a good time the rule was a poor time.

George White

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Glad I read this thread, I had plans to bring my son along but this whole event looks like a pitiful disaster and a blatant cash grab.
Poor organisation, no supervision, a-holes making themselves at home, lifting controllers, deleting games and ignoring rules.
Much of it would be tolerable if there were new games to be played, but no.
Over the years, mid 90s to mid 00s I was at a bunch of promo nights and events run by the likes of Sony, MS and even Sega and they were all a blast,.
And the likes of the Comic Con are run here and are successful enough, so what happened here?

It's a sham - Knew it would be a fiasco. The fact they had no real game developer guests aroused my suspicion. I asked them why and they told me, "well, maybe next year, we want to be mainstream this year!". THere's nothing more mianstream than the designers of some of the biggest entertainment properties. Other Irish cons here have gotten John Romero and Rhianna Pratchett!

ixoy

0ph0rce0 wrote: »

For the people that did get in some of them really have no patience, loads of moany bastards who just expect to walk in and jump on everything straight away. Cursing all over the shop being rude to everyone, pushing you and all. Madness.

They desperately needed more staff on site. There was no proper system for getting on to play any of the games and, as I mentioned above, nobody even supervising if kids were playing age-appropriate games (as they advertised there would be). It was too much of a free-for-all and that just doesn't work in an open plan like they had.
I think having someone monitor the games would have worked a lot better. The process would have been a lot smoother. It'd also have stopped people nicking controllers or deleting games. The fact that people had been queuing for hours outside meant they were probably far less patient than they might have been otherwise and acted up.

For myself, I only played a game if I saw a free slot and never stuck at them for long. If nothing else, I learnt that 'Gears of War' isn't a series I'm interested in...

0ph0rce0

ixoy wrote: »

They desperately needed more staff on site. There was no proper system for getting on to play any of the games and, as I mentioned above, nobody even supervising if kids were playing age-appropriate games (as they advertised there would be). It was too much of a free-for-all and that just doesn't work in an open plan like they had.
I think having someone monitor the games would have worked a lot better. The process would have been a lot smoother. It'd also have stopped people nicking controllers or deleting games. The fact that people had been queuing for hours outside meant they were probably far less patient than they might have been otherwise and acted up.

For myself, I only played a game if I saw a free slot and never stuck at them for long. If nothing else, I learnt that 'Gears of War' isn't a series I'm interested in...

Could have been better alright, I only went for the retro stuff myself and there was a guy looking after that all day. He was there in the morning and still there when we left, If you were hogging he was over getting the next people on, Maybe if they had that at each section then it would have been better. Also maybe some barriers for the queues would have helped

But still too many entitled arseholes there also.

As it's the first one they have done on that scale here hopefully they do it again next year and learn from the first years mistakes.

Blackhorse Slim

Complete disaster. Finally got in after an hour queuing, but left after 20 minutes. No information, no staff, far too many people, couldn't get near any games. Not allowed upstairs because it was "too full". No information anywhere. Feel sorry for people with kids outside who think they might be missing something. Those who saw the queues and went home straight away had the right idea.

omerin

I travelled from Cork with a teenager, left @ 7am, arrived to the centre around 10.30am and was inside around 11.20ish. To say that this was run in an amateurish way is being generous. Walking down the quay saw a large q and was peed off, only to discover that was not 25% of the q and had to walk further down passed the centre and around the block. Only 1 side entrance used for entry - such stupidity
Escalators broke down but to be fair were fixed after about 5 mins. Even when working they became a bottleneck as for some reason they decided to stop people using the stairs. As mentioned above the food is basic, overpriced and crap and you will have to q for the privilege.
As for the offerings - Christ where do I start. Overpriced merchandise - €20 for a t-shirt, some farmer's market type stalls and someone scoured the storage shelves at gamestop - you'd be better off going into the shop - less hassle. I think they were putting a nice profit margin on their offerings - a GOT board game €60, no thanks - but they have a captive audience and it's like shooting fish in a barrel. As a PC gamer the only keyboard I could see to buy was €200!
A lot of kids were playing FPS games, some if not all are most likely over 18s, in some cases unsupervised in most cases, not. I have to hold my hands up and say I have been guilty of it myself, but never in public and not with children who were so young. I couldn't believe that they were selling Pornhub Tshirts - nothing graphical, just the name, but you know kids and curiosity ..... and everyone has access to a smartphone these days. I saw an adult deliberately take a picture of it - couldn't miss it, it was hanging up front and centre and maybe on Monday this will be mentioned on Joe D.
Also they had some You tubers have a sit down, Q&A session in front of an audience of a few thousand, mostly kids. I didn't know these people but they showed a vid and there was some bad language. Again I am guilty of this particularly playing games, but they should know their audience and tailor their routine. Mostly kids were asking the questions and imo they were a bit dismissive of the kids.

There was nothing there to make someone excited about being there, at least me and probably the majority of people that have or will attend. When you break it down what it is (not including the negatives mentioned above as I'm not repeating them and my fingers hurt )

a few Youtubers
one room to play a few games - long waiting times
mediocre merchandise that you can buy there as opposed to ordering on line (at probably a cheaper price )

I expected to see some big hardware manufacturers and some of the big game developers, but there was no one. Remember that sponsors like these contribute to the running costs (and profit) of events and this extra revenue could have resulted in better amenities and a better customer experience for all. Instead they didn't appear and to an extent this is a worry - maybe they knew what the audience would be - mainly console users or they were presented with what the event would be like.... and ran a mile. My money is on the latter.

We left after 2 hours as both of us were bored. When you consider it was a 6 hour round trip, that'll give you some perspective as to how peed off I am.

Unless you have your travel paid for or cannot disappoint kids, I would give this a miss and get a refund. If it is a surprise for them and they don't know about it - DON'T GO.

FutureGuy

da gamer wrote: »

Well everyone what did we you all think of gamercon? Had a great day up there. Heard a few people were stuck in que for a while. I walked straight up to the front door and got in. Had a great day with the VR, didn't even pre book it and got 45 minutes playing it. Cosplays were brilliant. I went as Kasumi from Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball. My only gripe would be that it was a bit overcrowded but all in all a great day was had. Can't wait for next year. GAMERCON!

Genuinely curious. Apparently most people found themselves bored with nothing to do. Outside of VR, what was so amazing?

Lau2976

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

Have tickets for tomorrow but not a snowballs chance in hell I would go to that shambles.......they should be heavily fined for this.

I went today and it was crazy. Definitely wouldn't be back.

One thing I will say is you might not get a refund. It said non scanned saturdays tickets and afaik made no mention of Sunday tickets being refunded.

da gamer

FutureGuy wrote: »

Genuinely curious. Apparently most people found themselves bored with nothing to do. Outside of VR, what was so amazing?

1. VR
2. Razer bus
3. Rocket league tourney
4. Youtubers
5. Merch
6. No que (for me anyway)
7. VR

cherryghost

For anyone still having some will to go tomorrow, apparently in the AM they will only let in kids/families.

Zero-Cool

I got there at 12.15 had PSVR booked for 1 and was fully sure I'd miss it when I saw the queue. We had VIP passes and asked a steward where to queue. He showed me the VIP queue entrance but because the general queue went back around it, he said we had to join the general queue and then move into the VIP section when q moved forward enough.... Eeehhh no thank you sir, walked through into the VIP queue but then saw the queues all merged into one huge bundle of people. People saying "they're not letting anyone else in", then staff came up to us and said we all just have to wait outside for health and safety. Then the crowd in front of us started moving in so we just joined them. Got in at 12.50.

Made a beeline for PSVR got 20-30 minutes with it. London Heist VR is some of the best fun I've had gaming all year. Was my first experience with VR and it was amazing. People were complaining about having to queue for the VR (and other things) but a lot of people sounded like they weren't expecting any queues.

I didn't have much interest in anything else so just walked around. The queues were mad, waited about 2 minutes just to be allowed on the escalator.

The setup was cool in there and I was enjoying just walking around. I saw one free game, a racing game using keyboard and mouse..... No thanks.

Cosplay comp was poorly organised. Some great costumes but the crowd was so quiet for them. I've been at way smaller cons that made more noise for the cosplayers, especially the little kids. Saw some sleazy c*nt get escorted out after he was caught taking an up skirt pic. Bit of a weird crowd but I suppose I wasn't the target audience. Horrible seeing kids crying in there with their parents giving out about lil miss you tuber not meeting them even though they paid for it. I've never seen so many angry mother's in my life. Every where I went, a mother was giving out to staff about something.

Oh yeah, a tee stand was selling pornhub Tee's. WTF was that about!

I enjoyed my day but can totally understand peoples complaints and disappointments. I would be the same if I went there with the intention of meeting people and playing games all day.

End of the day, they sold WAY too many tickets. If they kept it within the limits, no one would have been turned away, queues would have been smaller, YouTuber's would have been met and would have been a successful con. They ruined it for themselves.

I hope this doesn't put people off going to other cons, especially if it was their first time out.

da gamer

cherryghost wrote: »

For anyone still having some will to go tomorrow, apparently in the AM they will only let in kids/families.

That's a good idea. The kids will be gone in the pm, less of a headache for the adults trying to play the vr then!

me_irl

da gamer wrote: »

That's a good idea. The kids will be gone in the pm, less of a headache for the adults trying to play the vr then!

"da gamer doth protest too much methinks!" :pac:

Also, if you paid for a full day surely you'd expect to get your money's worth and not be ushered out just to make room for more people?

Call me sensational, but c'mon... what respectful event would have PornHub t shirts for sale knowing the age range of the demographic?!

Saw it mentioned here... and on their facebook page.

There are way too many "timely conveniences". The website going down after allowing refunds, (and then coming back up... I haven't checked to see if they ninja-edited their terms and conditions to cover their ar*es again), and glowing posts contrary to the event itself.

0ph0rce0

Zero-Cool wrote: »

I got there at 12.15 had PSVR booked for 1 and was fully sure I'd miss it when I saw the queue. We had VIP passes and asked a steward where to queue. He showed me the VIP queue entrance but because the general queue went back around it, he said we had to join the general queue and then move into the VIP section when q moved forward enough.... Eeehhh no thank you sir, walked through into the VIP queue but then saw the queues all merged into one huge bundle of people. People saying "they're not letting anyone else in", then staff came up to us and said we all just have to wait outside for health and safety. Then the crowd in front of us started moving in so we just joined them. Got in at 12.50.

Made a beeline for PSVR got 20-30 minutes with it. London Heist VR is some of the best fun I've had gaming all year. Was my first experience with VR and it was amazing. People were complaining about having to queue for the VR (and other things) but a lot of people sounded like they weren't expecting any queues.

I didn't have much interest in anything else so just walked around. The queues were mad, waited about 2 minutes just to be allowed on the escalator.

The setup was cool in there and I was enjoying just walking around. I saw one free game, a racing game using keyboard and mouse..... No thanks.

Cosplay comp was poorly organised. Some great costumes but the crowd was so quiet for them. I've been at way smaller cons that made more noise for the cosplayers, especially the little kids. Saw some sleazy c*nt get escorted out after he was caught taking an up skirt pic. Bit of a weird crowd but I suppose I wasn't the target audience. Horrible seeing kids crying in there with their parents giving out about lil miss you tuber not meeting them even though they paid for it. I've never seen so many angry mother's in my life. Every where I went, a mother was giving out to staff about something.

Oh yeah, a tee stand was selling pornhub Tee's. WTF was that about!

I enjoyed my day but can totally understand peoples complaints and disappointments. I would be the same if I went there with the intention of meeting people and playing games all day.

End of the day, they sold WAY too many tickets. If they kept it within the limits, no one would have been turned away, queues would have been smaller, YouTuber's would have been met and would have been a successful con. They ruined it for themselves.

I hope this doesn't put people off going to other cons, especially if it was their first time out.

When we went up to the first meet and greet lots of the crowd in the queue didn't have the Meet & Greet Pass.

Loads of idiots just pushing the kids in and shouting at the staff, The staff just let them in then which was stupid.

If they controlled that better then it would of been fine. Also like I said in my last post, Too many entitled arseholes. If you didn't pay for the meet and greet piss off and don't ruin it for the rest.

Zero-Cool

0ph0rce0 wrote: »

When we went up to the first meet and greet lots of the crowd in the queue didn't have the Meet & Greet Pass.

Loads of idiots just pushing the kids in and shouting at the staff, The staff just let them in then which was stupid.

If they controlled that better then it would of been fine. Also like I said in my last post, Too many entitled arseholes. If you didn't pay for the meet and greet piss off and don't ruin it for the rest.

Yupp I did see a lot of people doing what they wanted mixed with very little staff and those working there looked so drained from been giving out to all day which I can understand as well. ****storm basically. I can't believe reading about missing controllers and people uninstalling games!

Turtyturd

Had contemplated bringing my son to this but having been stung by the blatant cash grab that was the Star Wars event in City West a few years back I never bothered getting tickets. When there's only one person trying to portray it as a good experience I think I made the right call.

sniper_samurai

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Yupp I did see a lot of people doing what they wanted mixed with very little staff and those working there looked so drained from been giving out to all day which I can understand as well. ****storm basically. I can't believe reading about missing controllers and people uninstalling games!

Well apart from the organisers there was a volunteer staff of barely over 30 people for the event, they were supposed to have 54. Still too low for a con this size to allow for a rotation of staff etc. Eirtakon in Croke Park had more staff at it for a daily attendance of around 2500.

me_irl

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Yupp I did see a lot of people doing what they wanted mixed with very little staff and those working there looked so drained from been giving out to all day which I can understand as well. ****storm basically. I can't believe reading about missing controllers and people uninstalling games!

Read other accounts where they didn't network the consoles correctly and had them running off the public wifi with thousands of other people connected too.

"Sh*tshow" doesn't do it justice.

Blackhorse Slim

Did the Counterstrike tournament ever get under way? I heard it was delayed because "they had no internet" :eek:

da gamer

Blackhorse Slim wrote: »

Did the Counterstrike tournament ever get under way? I heard it was delayed because "they had no internet" :eek:

Didn't see it myself, would have enjoyed it

CiDeRmAn

Is it just PS VR because, I've had time with the system and was underwhelmed.
Not sure what was worth queuing for on it, aside from maybe Thumper and Rez Infinite, both of which are also often on my plasma

Potential-Monke

Only managed to get 1 picture today, but I think it sums up the event in it's entirety. Here it is.

cherryghost

Blackhorse Slim wrote: »

Did the Counterstrike tournament ever get under way? I heard it was delayed because "they had no internet" :eek:

They played a few games. Then most of them had to wait 4/5 hours for the next game, until they were told 'it will be all sorted tomorrow'

sniper_samurai

If anyone with Gamercon tickets wants to go to a decent con.

[url] https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1287262947994877&substory_index=0&id=225123907542125[/url]

me_irl

da gamer wrote: »

Didn't see it myself, would have enjoyed it

Ah give over!

Seeing that you Cosplay, have you ever attended any other Irish gaming/cosplay/anime conventions (ArcadeCon [finished now], Eirtakon) and how did they differ?
How did this one stand out (apart from PSVR)?
What was your opinion of the floor layout? (enough room to wander about / spectate / participate)
Were amenities properly signposted?
Was there a member of floor staff / con staff to help with any queries?
What's your personal opinion on selling PornHub t shirts at a gaming convention?

da gamer

me_irl wrote: »

Ah give over!

Seeing that you Cosplay, have you ever attended any other Irish gaming/cosplay/anime conventions (ArcadeCon [finished now], Eirtakon) and how did they differ?
How did this one stand out (apart from PSVR)?
What was your opinion of the floor layout? (enough room to wander about / spectate / participate)
Were amenities properly signposted?
Was there a member of floor staff / con staff to help with any queries?
What's your personal opinion on selling PornHub t shirts at a gaming convention?

What's with all the questions? I'm guessing your one of the few that got caught out in the rain today? ðŸ˜

me_irl

da gamer wrote: »

What's with all the questions? I'm guessing your one of the few that got caught out in the rain today? ðŸ˜

"few"? Did you see the queue of people?

What's with all the avoidance? Surely you could answer these very easy questions and not immediately be on the defensive.

Your posts reek of shilling. And if that's true, absolutely horrendous to defend such an over-hyped and badly organised event.

Potential-Monke

da gamer wrote: »

What's with all the questions? I'm guessing your one of the few that got caught out in the rain today? ðŸ˜

Got caught out? That's a nice way to put it. I would have said left waiting because they deliberately sold too many tickets to make more money.