GamerCon Con

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.

https://gamer-con.com/

website fooked too. Can't claim refunds




*gets popcorn

Would there not be grounds here for some sort of class action lawsuit?

Id imagine if this happened in the States that's what would happen. from listening to adverts on tv when i was last in the States, they love a good class action lawsuit.

Now, they are saying the mornings are for kids/families only.

What a disaster.

I presume tomorrow will be another unorganised mess.

I don't know who in their right minds would go to these "Cons" in places where they are relatively well run, let alone attend an amateur hour one in Ireland like this.
Hordes of people, mass queuing to go in, mass queuing to get out, queues for bad food, queues for toilets, ridiculous queues to see/do the thing you paid good money to come for in the first place. Sounds like hell.

Yeah Dublin comic con is in the same venue and always a great event.

I'll be quite disappointed if Joe Duffy doesn't cover this on Monday. It has all the marks of being a good and lively Liveline. If the Facebook comments are anything to go by, there'll be lots of stories of people travelling from afar (Cork) with their kids who got tickets for Christmas and spent hours in the rain, only to be turned away. Not to forget those who made it in but there was no food left and there was Pornhub t-shorts for sale... it'll be great.

That said, I feel fierce sorry for those who did wait in line with kids.

It seems to be every one of these "Con" events are poorly managed, subscribed to as close as health & safety will allow and the content underwhelming.

It is amazing that people think that "this will be different".



Also, I despise greatly people who describe themselves as Geeks or Nerds. I think they are vile and need to be eradicated from society. That's not really the point of the thread but needs to be highlighted. Scum.

Deleted User wrote: »

Eh. Why do you hate geeks and nerds so much? I'm a nerd.

Let the troll have his little moment.

Richard Hillman wrote: »

People who call themselves "geeks"/"nerds" because they like extremely popular and mainstream Comic Book Movies or play extremely popular and mainstream computer games. These people are not geeks/nerds. They are just bellends who have watched the Big Bang Theory too many times.

So you hate people who use the term geeks and nerds, as opposed to the people who play or practise it?

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

So you hate people who use the term geeks and nerds, as opposed to the people who play or practise it?

I don't hate people who actually can be described as a geek/nerd. I hate people who describe themselves as a geek/nerd. It seems to be a fashion statement now.

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I don't hate people who actually can be described as a geek/nerd. I hate people who describe themselves as a geek/nerd. It seems to be a fashion statement now.

Oh yes, I see what you mean now.

Apparently family VIP tickets were €120?! Standard tickets were 20/22 quid odd?

I hate to say this but this has a really bad smell of oversell the tickets and then issue the following statement " sorry we're bankrupt and can't refund your money " in a few days.

It wouldn't be the first time something like this happened and certainly won't be the last. I'd imagine they've a lot of the cash spent already. I really hope I'm wrong

A term and condition on the GamerCon website, which is printed in a different font to the other terms and conditions, says that “access (to the event) is not guaranteed” as the organisers “are required to maintain a safe environment for our attendees at all times and as such are subject to the capacities of the venue and the rooms/halls therein”.

http://www.thejournal.ie/gamercon-queues-3294444-Mar2017/

Cowboys!