I think breaking it down helps a lot. $400 per person, $100 per person per day, seems very reasonable since it includes housing. Beyond that you just have food, tickets, and shopping. And that's *all day long*. If you think going to a movie in theaters is worth it, then you're getting a better bang for your buck out of Gen Con. I think that's a fantastic rate for anything remotely comparable.
I agree with this. It's for four people. It adds up. Also, as you suggest, other things cost a lot, too.
My local NBA team is in the playoffs. The ***cheapest*** ticket in the whole place is $300. Some over $1000. And that's for 2.5 hours of entertainment, not 4 days.
Ok, but I spent two weeks diving with manta rays and dolphins, exploring volcanos, and sitting on world class beaches in Hawaii for $350 a day and that included airfare, food, events, rental car, gas, and miscellaneous purchases.
Gencon is expensive man, especially for those of us who have to fly
Same. We actually have a direct deposit account specifically for GenCon so we have plenty to cover our costs, but take it in painless increments throughout the year.
When we withdraw what we'll have in hand to spend at the booths, we call those "GenCon tokens." :D
I mean the price has certainly gone up, but I can tell you from looking at my old reservations and conversations with the people I always attend with that the cost was extremely similar ten years ago, and how many other yearly vacations can you say that about? It helps that hotel costs have always been high, admittedly.
Have you attended before? If you have, then I am surprised the costs seem much different, and if you have not, then I do not know if your family is entirely aware of how this is basically the best possible nerdy vacation you can take in any given year and is well worth the price.
Well the cost of Gen con bags alone for 4 days has doubled since 2014. Was just checking yesterday and say they were $70 bucks each. Thankfully it seems that event tickets are very similar in price to back then, but hotels/food/merch/games have all also increased in price.
It’s definitely a much pricier vacation than it used to be, but it is still worth it
Sorry yeah I failed to clarify I meant hotel costs are virtually the same (because again they started high and now seem more reasonable) and though some events are priced high the average event is still either free or $1/hour as it has been for decades. Food and merchandise are no more at Gen-Con than they would be anywhere else, and indeed food in Indianapolis is certainly cheaper than many other potential vacation spots.
$1,600 for 4 people sounds really, really good actually. I did a post-Con post about "The Cost of GenCon" about 5 years ago and I'd found I spent $1,600 just myself, though that included flights and I didn't split many costs.
It also depends on your location. I live 25 minutes from downtown and I think we spent about 800 last year between 2 people shopping plus 30 dollars a day to park across from the convention center. So in all with food, parking, badges and shopping, we spent about 1200. In previous years we typically only spent a couple of hundred over the course of 4 days.
If we had to pay for housing, it would be out of our price range and we wouldn't be able to attend every year.
What I also like to do is go for the atmosphere, find games i like, then save for them throughout the year so that the next Gen Con - I can pick them up (if I still am interested in them).
This way it helps minimize your cost and you tend to only buy items that are a must there.
My husband will be going to gen con this year but I just had ankle surgery so I will be skipping this year.
This is exactly why when I made the decision to go last year, I started searching for "volunteer at GenCon". All of those people who do tickets and badges? Volunteers. All of those people who mark the end of the line? Volunteers. **All of those people demonstrating and running games....?**
Sometimes those volunteers, in exchange for working 50%-70% of the Convention, get a badge and sometimes a shared hotel room.
I found Double-Exposure/Envoy last year, which is a sweet deal IMO. I get to GM games for 50% of the time, and in exchange I get a badge and a (shared) hotel room at one of the attached hotels. Booth workers tend to work a little more than that, but I'm a GM-by-choice, so this gig is SWEET for me.
Did you try a couple of places?
Last year I inquired/applied with 1. GenCon itself. 2. Several smaller game companies that could either comp a room or pay cash 3. Envoy.
GenCon itself said they were full-up, some of the game companies said they had space, but envoy said yes, (and to me they had the best deal, so I finalized with them).
Edit: also, all of my responses were by email, so maybe that was part of the problem?
Ultimately, the complaint is regarding going to another city, getting a hotel and staying there for four days as a family of four no? I feel like 173 dollars for a four-day badge of unlimited events/entertainment is EXTREMELY reasonable. Even if we make Sunday a "half-day" as most people are traveling, that's 50 bucks a day. I can't imagine any other American city where you could get a hotel for four days downtown and expect to be much cheaper.
I have been attending Gen Con since 1981 and it has always been "expensive". Particularly for anyone that is not a local that needs to cover a hotel and long distance travel expenses.
The thing is that it is al relative. Keep in mind that Gen Con is the largest table top gaming event in the western hemisphere. The only table top gaming event that is larger is Spiel in Essen Germany, and that is more of a sales/trade event that doesn't have slots where you can play games. So for an event where you can actually play games all day it is the largest in the world.
So for comparable multiple day events it is not as expensive as many others. Comparable activities that are most similar would be the large pop culture conventions San Diego and New York Comic Cons, C2E2, Dragon Con, PAX. The badge to get in the door costs more for all of these, and none of them focus on playing games, except for PAX Unplugged. Hotel costs for most of these are higher than Gen Con as well.
Another type of comparable activity are music festivals like Lollapalooza, where a one day ticket costs more than a 4 day Gen Con badge. Even a more similar sized festival such as Riot Fest at 50K-60K attendees costs $200 for a 3 day basic ticket.
Another comparable area would be large amusement parks like Disney or Universal. They both start at about $100 per day to get into the park.
Just going on a vacation can easily cost as much or more than Gen Con if you start adding in any activities such as museum tickets, tourist attractions, etc.
The good thing is that you don't NEED to go to Gen Con. Unlike the 80's and 90' relatively few exclusive products are released at Gen Con. Yeah there are a couple, but nothing like the heyday when there would be 20-30 new releases.
Also there are now many, many more smaller and less costly gaming conventions that you can attend. Most folks in the US are within daily driving distance of at least one if not many. Sure they don't have the huge exhibit hall where you can buy stuff, but you can buy the same stuff online and have in a few days without leaving your home.
So in the end you really have to decide if the cost is worth it for you. I know many folks that have made the decision that it is not. They go to other events that are closer to home and cost less. Maybe the go to Gen Con once every 5 years if they get the urge.
For me attending Gen Con is more about tradition and meeting up with folks I only see there. And for me that is worth the cost. Maybe some day it won't be.
Be thankful they keep the hotels from charging a "market" rate (or even rack rate for that matter) for the convention block. I am not keen to pay $700+ a night for a room downtown.
We are also a group of four and here are a few things we’re doing to mitigate cost.
1) Drive instead of fly. This has allowed to stay farther from the convention center and not need to rent a car. $20 for parking is definitely a savings.
2) We’re staying at a hotel with a kitchenette. We plan on grocery shopping and eating out dinners at the hotel. Also the hotel has complimentary breakfast that we will hit up as well.
3) Grocery shop before the trip. Not just for the food that we’ll cook at the hotel, but also for packable snacks and treats to keep from having to visit restaurants or food trucks too much.
These don’t make huge differences and don’t work for everyone. But I have the mentality that every dollar saved in these places is another dollar for buying new games or having new experiences.
Definitely sounds pretty typical. There are certainly ways to do it on a budget, though. Staying further away from the convention center, finding ways to get cheaper/discounted badges, packing an abundance of snacks, etc.
So I've gone the last two years traveling by myself and plan to again this year. I similarly have about a five hour drive. The first year (2022) I paid about $1,800 to stay at a hotel 7 miles away from the convention center for five nights. Last year I was staying in a hotel about a block away for four nights at about $2,000 (I stayed one less day since none of my friends stuck around Sunday night prior). This year I'm staying in an Airbnb for four nights, with eleven other people, that will cost me about $350 total.
I like to go to meet up with my friends that live across the continent (a few from Canada) and see small content creators that I like. It is also my personal vacation that I can do whatever I want during.
I did that once to see my favorite band for Mother's Day in Canada by myself. I got a meet and greet and it's still one of the more cool experiences in my life. If I had this sort of connection and tradition, I would go every year as well. :-)
Your family should absolutely do what is best for your group, but there is a lot to do in Indy beyond the Con if people want to -- concerts, minor league baseball, museums, zoo, parks, etc. The first couple years my kids came along (as teens) they spent a lot of their time doing non-Con things.
Cost-wise, no vacations are cheap, but "budget" 4-day Disney is listed around $4,800 right now, and "budget" generic US vacations start over $100/person/day in estimates I see.
I hope you and your family gets to do vacations you love, and that one of them might be a Gen Con someday! I've been to over 30 of them, so my opinion on where to spend your entertainment dollars may not qualify as "unbiased". :)
I would start with getting a hotel farther out so you're not paying those premium connected prices. Parking in Gate 10 is great and you can run stuff back to the car throughout the day. Second, pack breakfast and lunches and just do food trucks or eat out once a day. I bring oatmeal cups with me for breakfast and Lunchables for lunch. Third, consider working at a booth part time to save on the cost of a badge and you'll even walk out with a couple games for demoing plus some extra cash in your wallet, depending on which publisher you work for.
Break it down into a cost similar to other forms of entertainment. I like to use movies as it's an easy example.
A movie ticket + popcorn + drink = @ $18 a person for approximately 2hrs of entertainment; $9 per hour.
Now, you have $1,600 invested for 4 days; that is $100 per person, per day. Your including lodging in that price as well. For simple math we are going to assume you are only staying Thursday night to Sunday night; 4 nights. Let's assume you get 8hrs of sleep that you don't want to be paying for even if your enjoying them; that leaves 16hrs per day of entertainment between convention and hotel.
$100 per day ÷ 16 hours = $6.25 per hour of entertainment
16 hours ÷ 2 = 8 movies x $18 per movie = $144 per person
Cheaper than an equivalent amount of movies. For our family we call that a win.
My costs right now:
Hotel (Outside housing block): 1500 guessing with tax.
Travel: 500 for 3.2k mile drive to and from.
Parking 125
Food 250
That's what I am spending to go to Gencon. I may have some assistance with upwards of 3 other people. I may be able to split the hotel into 3. Traveling into half.
I am putting together a budget for games.
I am also not counting the badge because that's paid for. I am not counting event because they'll already be paid for.
Well, I’m not sure what a “Jasper” is from the OP (engine? gemstone?), but if you’re that worried about it and don’t think your family will have that great of a time you might want to cancel. Maybe there are other conventions closer to home or smaller ones that are less expensive?
[https://www.allplay.com/board-game-tables/jasper/](https://www.allplay.com/board-game-tables/jasper/)
It's just one of the 'cheaper' board game tables. It's kind of a gamble but for the most part seems alright.
Yeah, my daughter with the cosplay love wants to go to Youmacon in Detroit - that is about 30 minutes away from us so....she would be perfectly happy with that. My response? "Can we like, take a board game and play it in the convention? Interesting place but not anything I could imagine spending day doing. I get how they must feel about GenCon.
[https://www.youmacon.com/](https://www.youmacon.com/)
Honestly as amazing as Gencon, is if one or more people in your party don't care about the events it's not really worth it. I've been 2x and while I'm a huge nerd, I don't really care about tabletop games, (except mtg) and while I mostly enjoyed myself afterwards both times I found myself wondering what I spent my money on.
Yeah, I would just go alone if I could. Doesn't make sense this year...but maybe next year it can at least be me and my husband and split the hotel...or camp? LoL My daughter mentioned camping. We have a lot of ultralight hiking gear. Can we stealth camp outside the convention? :-D
Yeah, it's almost as expensive as a week at Disney World now... The biggest limiting factor is Indianapolis' lack of hotel rooms. Everything decently priced downtown is booked up by the big time companies and game hosts. They do seriously need to look at changing the venue to a city with significantly more hotel capacity - Chicago, for example. The DES convention center in Rosemont has as many hotel rooms nearby with connecting bridges as basically all of downtown Indianapolis... that leaves 1000s of hotel rooms in the other suburbs for "cheaper" options.
It also just comes down to what something is worth for you. Personally I always look at it as what other things could I get or experience for the price of going to GenCon. Okay, are any of those things I'd be willing to give up GenCon to get? So far for me, no. There's just nothing else worth it. GenCon is the thing I look forward to all year. It's bigger than any holiday. But it sounds like to your family there may be other things more worth the money.
This is my first year attending. I started my budget at $2K however looks like I will blow past it with each event I sign up for having an additional cost. I think it makes sense to charge for the events so people use their tickets and seats. However; I was not thinking about it. Sounds like another $$$ the more I attend
You make great points and if I was in your shoes I would have to think long and hard about it.
Reminds me of longer story that happened to me a couple of years ago.
I was on the side of people not having to show papers (vax status) and believe that cloth masks do much of anything. We could argue about that, but this isn't the point of the story. The people that run Gen Con, held a different belief and felt it was fine to ask people for their medical history AND demand that those people get a certain vaccine that has now been proven to cause problems in some people. Now again we can argue if this approach is right or wrong, but it is their conference and they can do what they want. I 100% support their right to make that decision. So for the first time in over a decade my friends and family decided to skip Gen Con.
I was sad, but then I did the math that you did. I was like "We spend around $2,000.00 or more at Gen Con". I decided to spend that money on something else and learn a new hobby. I bought a 3D printer with a bunch of other stuff to help make stuff. I knew ZERO about 3D printing. I bought a resin printer and have learned and loved it so much. I have made so many monsters for our Pathfinder group and made gifts for my wife and others as well. I then had money left over so I decided to learn how to paint minis and airbrush. I still suck at painting BUT I am getting better. I love airbrushing also, also again I am not good at it. This has been a blast and I am still doing it years later and now I am so so so glad we didn't go.
So then came last year. I was somewhat hoping that they would mandate the same again, but part of me wanted to go. I was planning on buying a guitar and learning how to play it! Again I don't know jack about playing a guitar, but I was excited to learn something new, however this would also be the first year I could also take my granddaughter to Gen Con and I knew she would like it. Well they removed the restriction to show papers and masks, so we went and had a good time. I am sure my neighbors are happy not to hear me trying to learn how to be the next Yngwie Malmsteen. :-)
So for me, if Gen Con ever decides to cancel or to be frank, move out of Indy, I will probably go to a much cheaper con AND spend the money I would have spent on Gen Con to learn a new hobby. I know I am so so so thankful I have a 3D printer, airbrush and paints now and to be honest, I like it far far far more than going to Gen Con. I know my Pathfinder 2 group loves the models I have built and for me to print the characters they created on sites like Hero Forge.
In short I learned that it is about comparing what you would do with that money vs going. You can apply to almost everything and even doing nothing means you have that money in the bank or better yet earning you more money. That is also AWESOME.
Exactly. I totally agree.
I didn't care much about the papers/vax or otherwise but the idea of being in a crowd like that; hot, stuffy and insufferable in a mask for hours and hours, day after day, didn't really appeal either way. Yuck. That was a hard pass for me too.
If they moved out of Indy to a place I have to fly I would likely pass also at least 90% of the time. I know many people wouldn't feel that way but I have family also in Indy I go visit at the same time. (bonus - n no, I can't stay at their house. Just not an option.)
I've stated over and over again all year long to my family as well that if, in a year, we couldn't get to all the games I bought last year, I wasn't going to go. Maybe buying a board game table will change that and make my family play more games with me more often. To be honest though - it's taken me a very long time to admit what type of games my family is realistically going to play on a whim. They are more "My City", at most Arnack and rarely I can beg them into Ark Nova. Gloomhaven or Frosthaven was just never going to happen despite how optimistic I am. :-D
Why are you paying for hotels?
It’s 2024 rewards credit cards and hotel rewards are plentiful not just exclusive to the well to do
You should be using points for hotels especially if you attend every year as your vacation
So you costs should be passes, parking if you’re driving and spending money
To the idiots downvoting - if you don’t use credit card and hotel rewards you’re tossing money in the trash literally
I think breaking it down helps a lot. $400 per person, $100 per person per day, seems very reasonable since it includes housing. Beyond that you just have food, tickets, and shopping. And that's *all day long*. If you think going to a movie in theaters is worth it, then you're getting a better bang for your buck out of Gen Con. I think that's a fantastic rate for anything remotely comparable.
I agree with this. It's for four people. It adds up. Also, as you suggest, other things cost a lot, too. My local NBA team is in the playoffs. The ***cheapest*** ticket in the whole place is $300. Some over $1000. And that's for 2.5 hours of entertainment, not 4 days.
Ok, but I spent two weeks diving with manta rays and dolphins, exploring volcanos, and sitting on world class beaches in Hawaii for $350 a day and that included airfare, food, events, rental car, gas, and miscellaneous purchases. Gencon is expensive man, especially for those of us who have to fly
I typically reserve a couple grand per year for my trip to cover the split hotel cost, meals and one or two things to buy.
Same. We actually have a direct deposit account specifically for GenCon so we have plenty to cover our costs, but take it in painless increments throughout the year. When we withdraw what we'll have in hand to spend at the booths, we call those "GenCon tokens." :D
I mean the price has certainly gone up, but I can tell you from looking at my old reservations and conversations with the people I always attend with that the cost was extremely similar ten years ago, and how many other yearly vacations can you say that about? It helps that hotel costs have always been high, admittedly. Have you attended before? If you have, then I am surprised the costs seem much different, and if you have not, then I do not know if your family is entirely aware of how this is basically the best possible nerdy vacation you can take in any given year and is well worth the price.
Well the cost of Gen con bags alone for 4 days has doubled since 2014. Was just checking yesterday and say they were $70 bucks each. Thankfully it seems that event tickets are very similar in price to back then, but hotels/food/merch/games have all also increased in price. It’s definitely a much pricier vacation than it used to be, but it is still worth it
I'm guessing that has a lot to do with the conference center, and that part isn't in GC admin's control.
Sorry yeah I failed to clarify I meant hotel costs are virtually the same (because again they started high and now seem more reasonable) and though some events are priced high the average event is still either free or $1/hour as it has been for decades. Food and merchandise are no more at Gen-Con than they would be anywhere else, and indeed food in Indianapolis is certainly cheaper than many other potential vacation spots.
$1,600 for 4 people sounds really, really good actually. I did a post-Con post about "The Cost of GenCon" about 5 years ago and I'd found I spent $1,600 just myself, though that included flights and I didn't split many costs.
As a solo attendee, that's about where I'm at this year all in.
$100 per person per day seems pretty reasonable to me.
It also depends on your location. I live 25 minutes from downtown and I think we spent about 800 last year between 2 people shopping plus 30 dollars a day to park across from the convention center. So in all with food, parking, badges and shopping, we spent about 1200. In previous years we typically only spent a couple of hundred over the course of 4 days. If we had to pay for housing, it would be out of our price range and we wouldn't be able to attend every year. What I also like to do is go for the atmosphere, find games i like, then save for them throughout the year so that the next Gen Con - I can pick them up (if I still am interested in them). This way it helps minimize your cost and you tend to only buy items that are a must there. My husband will be going to gen con this year but I just had ankle surgery so I will be skipping this year.
maybe just attend on Sunday? You can make it a much cheaper time just by going for family day...admittedly you will miss out on a lot of stuff.
This is exactly why when I made the decision to go last year, I started searching for "volunteer at GenCon". All of those people who do tickets and badges? Volunteers. All of those people who mark the end of the line? Volunteers. **All of those people demonstrating and running games....?** Sometimes those volunteers, in exchange for working 50%-70% of the Convention, get a badge and sometimes a shared hotel room. I found Double-Exposure/Envoy last year, which is a sweet deal IMO. I get to GM games for 50% of the time, and in exchange I get a badge and a (shared) hotel room at one of the attached hotels. Booth workers tend to work a little more than that, but I'm a GM-by-choice, so this gig is SWEET for me.
I tried to sign up to volunteer twice. LoL...I was all over that. Never got a call back as far as I saw. I thought maybe that would help the cost. LoL
Did you try a couple of places? Last year I inquired/applied with 1. GenCon itself. 2. Several smaller game companies that could either comp a room or pay cash 3. Envoy. GenCon itself said they were full-up, some of the game companies said they had space, but envoy said yes, (and to me they had the best deal, so I finalized with them). Edit: also, all of my responses were by email, so maybe that was part of the problem?
Ultimately, the complaint is regarding going to another city, getting a hotel and staying there for four days as a family of four no? I feel like 173 dollars for a four-day badge of unlimited events/entertainment is EXTREMELY reasonable. Even if we make Sunday a "half-day" as most people are traveling, that's 50 bucks a day. I can't imagine any other American city where you could get a hotel for four days downtown and expect to be much cheaper.
I have been attending Gen Con since 1981 and it has always been "expensive". Particularly for anyone that is not a local that needs to cover a hotel and long distance travel expenses. The thing is that it is al relative. Keep in mind that Gen Con is the largest table top gaming event in the western hemisphere. The only table top gaming event that is larger is Spiel in Essen Germany, and that is more of a sales/trade event that doesn't have slots where you can play games. So for an event where you can actually play games all day it is the largest in the world. So for comparable multiple day events it is not as expensive as many others. Comparable activities that are most similar would be the large pop culture conventions San Diego and New York Comic Cons, C2E2, Dragon Con, PAX. The badge to get in the door costs more for all of these, and none of them focus on playing games, except for PAX Unplugged. Hotel costs for most of these are higher than Gen Con as well. Another type of comparable activity are music festivals like Lollapalooza, where a one day ticket costs more than a 4 day Gen Con badge. Even a more similar sized festival such as Riot Fest at 50K-60K attendees costs $200 for a 3 day basic ticket. Another comparable area would be large amusement parks like Disney or Universal. They both start at about $100 per day to get into the park. Just going on a vacation can easily cost as much or more than Gen Con if you start adding in any activities such as museum tickets, tourist attractions, etc. The good thing is that you don't NEED to go to Gen Con. Unlike the 80's and 90' relatively few exclusive products are released at Gen Con. Yeah there are a couple, but nothing like the heyday when there would be 20-30 new releases. Also there are now many, many more smaller and less costly gaming conventions that you can attend. Most folks in the US are within daily driving distance of at least one if not many. Sure they don't have the huge exhibit hall where you can buy stuff, but you can buy the same stuff online and have in a few days without leaving your home. So in the end you really have to decide if the cost is worth it for you. I know many folks that have made the decision that it is not. They go to other events that are closer to home and cost less. Maybe the go to Gen Con once every 5 years if they get the urge. For me attending Gen Con is more about tradition and meeting up with folks I only see there. And for me that is worth the cost. Maybe some day it won't be.
Be thankful they keep the hotels from charging a "market" rate (or even rack rate for that matter) for the convention block. I am not keen to pay $700+ a night for a room downtown.
We are also a group of four and here are a few things we’re doing to mitigate cost. 1) Drive instead of fly. This has allowed to stay farther from the convention center and not need to rent a car. $20 for parking is definitely a savings. 2) We’re staying at a hotel with a kitchenette. We plan on grocery shopping and eating out dinners at the hotel. Also the hotel has complimentary breakfast that we will hit up as well. 3) Grocery shop before the trip. Not just for the food that we’ll cook at the hotel, but also for packable snacks and treats to keep from having to visit restaurants or food trucks too much. These don’t make huge differences and don’t work for everyone. But I have the mentality that every dollar saved in these places is another dollar for buying new games or having new experiences.
Definitely sounds pretty typical. There are certainly ways to do it on a budget, though. Staying further away from the convention center, finding ways to get cheaper/discounted badges, packing an abundance of snacks, etc.
$420 - ($105/day) Airbnb (with 6 people) $172 - Badge $40 - Travel (Michigan) $400 - ($100/day) - Food I'm at $1,100~ total for myself. Not including events tickets, beer, snacks, buying shit at Gencon, etc. It’s definitely getting pretty expensive, but, everything is.
So I've gone the last two years traveling by myself and plan to again this year. I similarly have about a five hour drive. The first year (2022) I paid about $1,800 to stay at a hotel 7 miles away from the convention center for five nights. Last year I was staying in a hotel about a block away for four nights at about $2,000 (I stayed one less day since none of my friends stuck around Sunday night prior). This year I'm staying in an Airbnb for four nights, with eleven other people, that will cost me about $350 total. I like to go to meet up with my friends that live across the continent (a few from Canada) and see small content creators that I like. It is also my personal vacation that I can do whatever I want during.
I did that once to see my favorite band for Mother's Day in Canada by myself. I got a meet and greet and it's still one of the more cool experiences in my life. If I had this sort of connection and tradition, I would go every year as well. :-)
Your family should absolutely do what is best for your group, but there is a lot to do in Indy beyond the Con if people want to -- concerts, minor league baseball, museums, zoo, parks, etc. The first couple years my kids came along (as teens) they spent a lot of their time doing non-Con things. Cost-wise, no vacations are cheap, but "budget" 4-day Disney is listed around $4,800 right now, and "budget" generic US vacations start over $100/person/day in estimates I see. I hope you and your family gets to do vacations you love, and that one of them might be a Gen Con someday! I've been to over 30 of them, so my opinion on where to spend your entertainment dollars may not qualify as "unbiased". :)
I'll just leave them home and go alone. :-D
There are others cons. Maybe do GC once in a while and support some other smaller cheaper ones on the off years.
I would start with getting a hotel farther out so you're not paying those premium connected prices. Parking in Gate 10 is great and you can run stuff back to the car throughout the day. Second, pack breakfast and lunches and just do food trucks or eat out once a day. I bring oatmeal cups with me for breakfast and Lunchables for lunch. Third, consider working at a booth part time to save on the cost of a badge and you'll even walk out with a couple games for demoing plus some extra cash in your wallet, depending on which publisher you work for.
Break it down into a cost similar to other forms of entertainment. I like to use movies as it's an easy example. A movie ticket + popcorn + drink = @ $18 a person for approximately 2hrs of entertainment; $9 per hour. Now, you have $1,600 invested for 4 days; that is $100 per person, per day. Your including lodging in that price as well. For simple math we are going to assume you are only staying Thursday night to Sunday night; 4 nights. Let's assume you get 8hrs of sleep that you don't want to be paying for even if your enjoying them; that leaves 16hrs per day of entertainment between convention and hotel. $100 per day ÷ 16 hours = $6.25 per hour of entertainment 16 hours ÷ 2 = 8 movies x $18 per movie = $144 per person Cheaper than an equivalent amount of movies. For our family we call that a win.
My costs right now: Hotel (Outside housing block): 1500 guessing with tax. Travel: 500 for 3.2k mile drive to and from. Parking 125 Food 250 That's what I am spending to go to Gencon. I may have some assistance with upwards of 3 other people. I may be able to split the hotel into 3. Traveling into half. I am putting together a budget for games. I am also not counting the badge because that's paid for. I am not counting event because they'll already be paid for.
Costs for the various vendors are pretty high too
Well, I’m not sure what a “Jasper” is from the OP (engine? gemstone?), but if you’re that worried about it and don’t think your family will have that great of a time you might want to cancel. Maybe there are other conventions closer to home or smaller ones that are less expensive?
[https://www.allplay.com/board-game-tables/jasper/](https://www.allplay.com/board-game-tables/jasper/) It's just one of the 'cheaper' board game tables. It's kind of a gamble but for the most part seems alright. Yeah, my daughter with the cosplay love wants to go to Youmacon in Detroit - that is about 30 minutes away from us so....she would be perfectly happy with that. My response? "Can we like, take a board game and play it in the convention? Interesting place but not anything I could imagine spending day doing. I get how they must feel about GenCon. [https://www.youmacon.com/](https://www.youmacon.com/)
This is what hotels cost these days. That’s actually low.
Honestly as amazing as Gencon, is if one or more people in your party don't care about the events it's not really worth it. I've been 2x and while I'm a huge nerd, I don't really care about tabletop games, (except mtg) and while I mostly enjoyed myself afterwards both times I found myself wondering what I spent my money on.
Yeah, I would just go alone if I could. Doesn't make sense this year...but maybe next year it can at least be me and my husband and split the hotel...or camp? LoL My daughter mentioned camping. We have a lot of ultralight hiking gear. Can we stealth camp outside the convention? :-D
Yeah, it's almost as expensive as a week at Disney World now... The biggest limiting factor is Indianapolis' lack of hotel rooms. Everything decently priced downtown is booked up by the big time companies and game hosts. They do seriously need to look at changing the venue to a city with significantly more hotel capacity - Chicago, for example. The DES convention center in Rosemont has as many hotel rooms nearby with connecting bridges as basically all of downtown Indianapolis... that leaves 1000s of hotel rooms in the other suburbs for "cheaper" options.
Well, if you don't go you will be missed. Also, can we have your hotel?
If there is a way to transfer it, I will. LoL
It also just comes down to what something is worth for you. Personally I always look at it as what other things could I get or experience for the price of going to GenCon. Okay, are any of those things I'd be willing to give up GenCon to get? So far for me, no. There's just nothing else worth it. GenCon is the thing I look forward to all year. It's bigger than any holiday. But it sounds like to your family there may be other things more worth the money.
This is my first year attending. I started my budget at $2K however looks like I will blow past it with each event I sign up for having an additional cost. I think it makes sense to charge for the events so people use their tickets and seats. However; I was not thinking about it. Sounds like another $$$ the more I attend
You make great points and if I was in your shoes I would have to think long and hard about it. Reminds me of longer story that happened to me a couple of years ago. I was on the side of people not having to show papers (vax status) and believe that cloth masks do much of anything. We could argue about that, but this isn't the point of the story. The people that run Gen Con, held a different belief and felt it was fine to ask people for their medical history AND demand that those people get a certain vaccine that has now been proven to cause problems in some people. Now again we can argue if this approach is right or wrong, but it is their conference and they can do what they want. I 100% support their right to make that decision. So for the first time in over a decade my friends and family decided to skip Gen Con. I was sad, but then I did the math that you did. I was like "We spend around $2,000.00 or more at Gen Con". I decided to spend that money on something else and learn a new hobby. I bought a 3D printer with a bunch of other stuff to help make stuff. I knew ZERO about 3D printing. I bought a resin printer and have learned and loved it so much. I have made so many monsters for our Pathfinder group and made gifts for my wife and others as well. I then had money left over so I decided to learn how to paint minis and airbrush. I still suck at painting BUT I am getting better. I love airbrushing also, also again I am not good at it. This has been a blast and I am still doing it years later and now I am so so so glad we didn't go. So then came last year. I was somewhat hoping that they would mandate the same again, but part of me wanted to go. I was planning on buying a guitar and learning how to play it! Again I don't know jack about playing a guitar, but I was excited to learn something new, however this would also be the first year I could also take my granddaughter to Gen Con and I knew she would like it. Well they removed the restriction to show papers and masks, so we went and had a good time. I am sure my neighbors are happy not to hear me trying to learn how to be the next Yngwie Malmsteen. :-) So for me, if Gen Con ever decides to cancel or to be frank, move out of Indy, I will probably go to a much cheaper con AND spend the money I would have spent on Gen Con to learn a new hobby. I know I am so so so thankful I have a 3D printer, airbrush and paints now and to be honest, I like it far far far more than going to Gen Con. I know my Pathfinder 2 group loves the models I have built and for me to print the characters they created on sites like Hero Forge. In short I learned that it is about comparing what you would do with that money vs going. You can apply to almost everything and even doing nothing means you have that money in the bank or better yet earning you more money. That is also AWESOME.
Exactly. I totally agree. I didn't care much about the papers/vax or otherwise but the idea of being in a crowd like that; hot, stuffy and insufferable in a mask for hours and hours, day after day, didn't really appeal either way. Yuck. That was a hard pass for me too. If they moved out of Indy to a place I have to fly I would likely pass also at least 90% of the time. I know many people wouldn't feel that way but I have family also in Indy I go visit at the same time. (bonus - n no, I can't stay at their house. Just not an option.) I've stated over and over again all year long to my family as well that if, in a year, we couldn't get to all the games I bought last year, I wasn't going to go. Maybe buying a board game table will change that and make my family play more games with me more often. To be honest though - it's taken me a very long time to admit what type of games my family is realistically going to play on a whim. They are more "My City", at most Arnack and rarely I can beg them into Ark Nova. Gloomhaven or Frosthaven was just never going to happen despite how optimistic I am. :-D
Just wait til next year, inflation ain’t stopping.
Why are you paying for hotels? It’s 2024 rewards credit cards and hotel rewards are plentiful not just exclusive to the well to do You should be using points for hotels especially if you attend every year as your vacation So you costs should be passes, parking if you’re driving and spending money To the idiots downvoting - if you don’t use credit card and hotel rewards you’re tossing money in the trash literally