Tagged as the “Four Greatest Days in Gaming, GenCon is largest tabletop gaming convention in the world. This year more than 56,000 gamers traveled to Indianapolis to demo games, play in tournaments, craft, attend seminars, hear the latest gaming news and walk for hours in the 283,000 sq. ft. vendor hall. However, there were many more gamers left sitting at home watching the social media feeds of those in attendance and wishing they were there. I was one of those gamers. My son was moving into college that weekend so I knew months before the event that GenCon 2014 was not to be. So what was there for us? For the gamers who wanted to have a common event that during that time? Enter Gen Can’t 2014.
Gen Can’t 2014 has it’s early roots from board game and app reviewer Suzanne Sheldon. She posted a few tweets the Tuesday and Wednesday before GenCon using the hashtag #GenCant2014. A couple other content providers and I jumped in and started having fun with it – making jokes about what we were doing compared to GenCon attendees. For example, jokes were made how at Gen Can’t there are no crowds, no lines, easy to get to and you can save tons of money. We are were getting a laugh out of it.
Then someone suggested we should have a contest for all of the jokes and pictures being posted. A few of us from various gaming media sites volunteered to contribute prizes – offering up games from our library, gift cards, etc. A few of us took the conversation offline, developed the contest rules, created a quick website, and within a few hours, voila, the #GenCantPhotoContest was born.
The rules were simple, post a picture on Twitter of your Gen Can’t experience with the contest hashtag. On the last day of GenCon, a group of judges voted on the top entries plus random drawings were made for lots of other prizes.
Once the contest was announced, pictures started flying in on Twitter with some hilarious captions. As it caught on, more people started using the #GenCant2014 hashtag in their own posts. At one time the hashtag was actually trending higher than #GenCon2014 itself. All of the sudden, there was a community for those of us who couldn’t attend GenCon. We shared our gaming experiences, discussed news coming out if Indianapolis and got some great laughs about our unconventional unconvention.
Eventually, those at GenCon even took notice and publishing companies at the show provided us prizes to give away from our contest. Among these were big convention hits such as Doomtown:Reloaded from AEG and Tragedy Looper from Z-Man Games. The photo contest came to a close that Sunday night at midnight. At that point several of us voted on the semi-finalists (seen here) and we started awarding prizes. Most were done through a random drawing with each donating party responsible for shipping the prize. As the winners were announced, many were thrilled to be able to win and shared their enthusiasm on Twitter.
Gen Can’t 2014 started as a little joke, but grew into a movement and a major success. As I was one of many who wished they were at GenCon, it provided a fun outlet. While I wasn’t able to see all the new gaming goodness or be a part of all the hype, Gen Can’t made me feel like I was still a part of something big in the gaming community. Plus, being able to help organize prizes and promote the contest gave me a chance to give back to the community, which is always a great feeling.
So will there be a Gen Can’t 2015? You betha’! We’ve already started the early planning phase for next year and with this much of a head start, it will be even bigger and better. Stay tuned!
