TOPIC: Lack of Signage and Food choices in Lucas Oil

I have created a post on the GenCon forums, with what I feel is lacking from GenCon Support of True Dungeon. Please be constructive and positive with your ideas to help make the event space better next year. If enough of us post maybe GenCon will make some changes.

Thanks
FiannaTiger

Link to GenCon forums

GenCon post

Two separate problems here, so lets look at them one at a time. Remember though, that the lucas oil stadium has different policies than the convention center.

Signage: I don't recall hearing of widespread absentees from runs due to people not finding it. That being said, now that we know to enter the halls, you have to take the underground entrance from the convention center, signs indicating that outside of the doorways might be helpful. Also, we should see about getting signs for the above ground entrances directing people to the correct one. Ouside of that, I'd suggest better illumination for signs inside the event hall, since the stadium hall seems a lot darker than when we were in the center itself.

Food: For those of us who weren't at training Wednesday night, it was mentioned that the lucas oil stadium had a fairly strict "no outside food/beverage" policy. This I feel is going to be the biggest challenge in getting more concessions. See if it's possible to get permission, or to get them to set up things themselves if they're going to be insistent on that. It's not like they'd be missing out on much business if they're not going to provide it themselves.

Again, all of the above does hinge on what the stadium lets us do. While they permitted use of their facilities for the convention, they themselves are a separate entity from the convention center itself.

There were quite a few tickets returned on Friday and Saturday night, but I'm not sure if that was from people not being able to make the run or by people who bought too many tickets. That being said, I do know of quite a few people that had a hard time finding TD because of the poor signage.

As for food and the "No outside food and beverage" policy, for GenCon that is something that they can't enforce realistically . During a game sure, when they have tons of security, but they would have a hard time checking every bag from TD players and Cosplay people going down to that area with one 2-3 people they had at that entrance.

Yes, it's true that short of widespread bag checks, they can't really enforce people bringing stuff in.

But the policy DOES mean that it's nigh-impossible to get any food nearby. Anything set up nearby would have to be with the permission of the stadium.

That being said, since this is a football stadium we're talking about, maybe we'd be able to convince the stadium to open up some of the concessions that are usually open during football games? The escalators were right there in the lobby, and we weren't the only event using stadium space. Enough people convince them it'd be worth their time, and it might be possible

I do know on Thursday 3 of my friends went to the outside of Lucas Oil looking for the way in, got caught in the rain, and had to run to make our time slot

I wasn't going to say it, but...

Shelly and I talked about it. We loved the size of the space, and what the crew did with it. There can be a refinement or two, but it was a great first year. It was pretty amazing.

Personally, we really, really hope we don't go back to Lucas. It's too far away from everything else and too inconvenient. We lived in TD-land almost all weekend because there was no time to go anywhere else on a break. And that grumpy troll at the top of the escalator really seemed to dislike his job and everyone who walked past him.

And we are, I mean "know" some people who smuggled in sandwiches to eat twice a day, and want nothing to do with turkey until November. But it beat eating Jurassic hotdogs.

Clearly I need a nap.

The way to go here is to talk to Gen Con.

ICC wants to be able to use Lucas Oil as event space, so does Lucas Oil.

It's very unclear whether that will be viable (most exhibitors won't want to be stuck on the back end of nowhere).

Event coordinators high and low are watching the results of TD in Lucas Oil to see if that space is viable for other conventions / exhibitors - like literally articles are being written in trade journals for event management about what is happening with TD and Lucas Oil expanding the event space of the ICC.

Gen Con has some leverage therefore, the best shot for amenities changes will be for Gen Con attendees to convince Gen Con that it's important, and then for Gen Con to convince ICC it's important.

If ICC thinks it's important it will happen - Lucas Oil would be cutting off their nose to spite their face by refusing requests like that from ICC (fine... no outside food or beverage... it won't be a problem because we won't be expanding into your event space).

Brad Mortensen wrote: I wasn't going to say it, but...

Shelly and I talked about it. We loved the size of the space, and what the crew did with it. There can be a refinement or two, but it was a great first year. It was pretty amazing.

Personally, we really, really hope we don't go back to Lucas. It's too far away from everything else and too inconvenient. We lived in TD-land almost all weekend because there was no time to go anywhere else on a break. And that grumpy troll at the top of the escalator really seemed to dislike his job and everyone who walked past him.

And we are, I mean "know" some people who smuggled in sandwiches to eat twice a day, and want nothing to do with turkey until November. But it beat eating Jurassic hotdogs.

Clearly I need a nap.

Honestly though, the benefit of giving Hall A to the events hall and thus letting the Dealers Hall expand too was astounding. The walk down there wasn't as bad as I initially expected, though on at least one occasion, I did wish they had those moving walkways, like in airports. However, I was not volunteering on limited breaktime, so I imagine in that scenario it does get very rough, and I did see some of the clash over the food. I would have liked to see more signage in the ICC pointing the way. Would have been nice to see that instead of all the "This Way to Cool Stuff Inc" ads.

Also you have to admit, it is appropriate for a Troll to guard the dungeon.

I was less than impressed with the Lucas Oil Stadium.

1. The location was far from everything. As Brad mentioned, there is not much to do during your brief volunteer breaks.

2. The overall space definitely felt smaller (even though dimension wise it is supposed to be only slightly smaller than our old location).

3. The storyscape was a ghost town and outside it was too crowded and spread out. Thus there were few good trading opportunities.

4. Our Crown Plaza room was definitely smaller than the rooms we used to get at the Marriott. The Crown Plaza also had a host of other issues as well.

5. The security people were also super anal about the Lucas Oil Stadium. They seemed quite pompous and self-important, thinking everyone wants to sneak on to the field. Since I am completely uninterested in American football, I found this annoying and definitely not worth the hassle.

I had some small issues but I like to think of them as opportunities for improvement, rather than taking them in a negative light. To wit:

1) Lucas Oil, or whomever controlled the lone concession stand down in the TD area, was clearly trying to rake in as much money as they could. I mean, we all know that concession prices at a con, especially gencon, are going to be high but $5.75 for a hot dog?? Definitely needed more than one concession stand.

2) Remote is an issue. Once I had my build verified by the coach, I had to use the Adv. Guild coat check to store my tokens as there is no way I could possibly have gotten to my car and back and did NOT want to carry all my tokens with me! Luckily for me, MasterEd was selling the Adv. Guild badges for only $10. That made my experience MUCH more enjoyable. I have no idea what I would have done without MasterEd.

3) Security was being anal about the football field for a reason. Gencon didn't lease that space, so no one was allowed to use it. To make matters worse, gencon had several very, very rare pokemon around to appeal to pokemon go players and one of them was on the 40 yd line, almost dead center of the field. You had to me on the field to be able to get it. This only made them more anal. While I do play pokemon go, I was there for TD, not pokemon, so I didn't care.

4) Thankfully, the red shirt Gen Con staff were few and far between in the TD area. Sleeping anywhere in the actual con area is a no-no but thanks to their being stretched thin, I was able to grab about three hours of sleep in the TD area. Sleep that I really, really needed. Yeah I know... shouldn't have done it.

5) Information about how to do what is the most valuable commodity of them all and some of it was tough to get. Thanks to patience of a total stranger in the TD area, I was able to get a ticket for one of the afternoon saturday runs. He walked me through getting a ticket via the gencon website by using my cell phone (still learning it, my last cell was a flip phone). Several people around him said that there was no waiting at Will-Call. I went straight up to Will-Call only to be told that I was supposed to allow 2 hrs between ordering t ime and pickup time. I didn't have 2 hrs. Thankfully, they gave me my ticket anyway, since it was one of the more expensive ones at the con. A few posters walking folks like me through this with all the correct facts and info would have gone a long, long way.

6) Of all the cons that I have been to, this one had by FAR the greatest number of new players than I have seen in a very, very long time. Me and several other TD players did our best to explain how a TD run works but newbies have TONS of questions. It would have been cool if one of the Anime theatres that was showing movies all day long during the con had been dedicated to a film that explained the basics to new players. Also, maybe a room with veteran players/volunteers available to answer questions would have been very cool as well.

7) I would like to see TD sell starter packages for new players like TD Tavern and other websites do. I am not saying it needs to cover every slot but something that will cover the basics for new players.

8) Due to the upswing in new players, I would like to see TD sell badges to players saying TD Mentor or some such indicating that they can and are willing to answer questions about TD. I overheard several questions from new players. Things like, one player indicating that they had bought several tokens in the dealer hall $1 or $2 each. Were these good tokens? I helped as best I could and so did several other players. Raven was especially helpful to several players who were new to the whole TD experience. Go Raven!

9) Having the escalators and the lone elevator go down so much was seriously annoying. Yes I know they get a lot of use but if you are carrying a lot like I was, the LAST thing you want to hear is that neither one is working. One young couple I saw had a newborn in a stroller. They wanted to check out TD and see what it was all about. When they heard that both the down escalator and the elevator were not working, they decided to go elsewhere.

10) Stranded spouses. Saw quite a few of these. They weren't interested in watching the free anime movies and weren't interested in playing TD, they were just waiting for their spouse to get done with their run so they could move on to something they were interested in. The only solution that I can think of is providing Wi-Fi for those folks, so that they can do facebook/twitter/whatever to occupy their time. Hopefully someone else can think of a more practical solution.

This was by far the most enjoyable TD run that I have had to date and I can hardly wait to go again. TD is truly blessed to have such nice helpful players. A good player-base is ALWAYS a serious plus and TD has one of the best if not THE best player-base I have ever seen. I had a brand new build for my fighter that I was dying to try out. Then I learn that everyone wants to try Nightmare. I had put a lot of effort into my build but I knew it wasn't even close to being Nightmare quality. The guy playing the Paladin and the Cleric seemed to think that it would be fine and told me not to worry. I was reluctant but went along with it and to my amazement no one died! Of course we didn't have any wizards in our group (they do seem very, very fragile) so that might have had something to do with it but I still can't believe that *I* lived through it.

In closing, we did have some minor issues but all in all I think this was definitely TD's finest hour. Thanks again to MasterEd and Raven for helping so many new players. You two rock!

Thought TD went great, but LOS was so remote. I know of "people" who had to bring in snacks and drinks b/c they would be in the dungeon all day and the one concession stand was often closed (and way too expensive. I did like the water dispensers.

The Crown Plaza was overall good, but the room was smaller than those at the Marriott, and there were a couple service issues.

Hershel wrote: Thanks to patience of a total stranger in the TD area, I was able to get a ticket for one of the afternoon saturday runs. He walked me through getting a ticket via the gencon website by using my cell phone (still learning it, my last cell was a flip phone). Several people around him said that there was no waiting at Will-Call. I went straight up to Will-Call only to be told that I was supposed to allow 2 hrs between ordering t ime and pickup time. I didn't have 2 hrs. Thankfully, they gave me my ticket anyway, since it was one of the more expensive ones at the con. A few posters walking folks like me through this with all the correct facts and info would have gone a long, long way.

You could get tickets immediately through the GenCon HQ kiosks throughout ICC. The main one was in the center of the game hall. You go there and tell them what ticket you want to buy (cell phone helps there to get the right ticket ID) and they charge you and print the ticket. So you know next time.

Hershel wrote: we didn't have any wizards in our group (they do seem very, very fragile)

You haven't met the right wizards. My wizard build starts at 54 HP and can get up to 63. My AC isn't super-high, but I can usually take a hit or two just fine.