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GenCon "vs" WorldCon

Companies and where they will be Aug 6-8

Compiled and accurate as of Feb 10, 1998

The issue is that some major companies are chosing not to attend GenCon '98 this August. In the past, not attending GenCon has generally been thought of as "your company is about to go belly-up". The pullouts this year, however, are different-- healthy companies are chosing not to go for a variety of philosophical and business reasons. And, at the same time, other companies are planning to attend, again for philosophical and business reasons.

There is a lot of heat on all sides of this issue. The best way to get the real scoop is to read what the different companies have posted as statements on their web pages, and make your own judgement. The split is largely between attending GenCon, and attending WorldCon. Below is our current account of which companies are where, as of Feb 10, 1998. We'll happily accept updates at press@rpg.net.

Key:

• Attending WorldCon instead of GenCon (o)
• Not Attending either, as of yet
• Attending GenCon (x)
  * = WotC or WotC affiliate, or has card game produced by WotC affiliate

Who's Where?

• Dream Pod 9
• Grey Ghost Games (o)
• RPGnet (o)
• Steve Jackson Games (o)
• Tri Tac
• Palladium
• R. Talsorian
• Archangel Entertainment (x)
• Chaosium (x)
• Chessex (x)
• *FASA (x)
• *Five Rings Publishing (x)
• Gold Rush Games (x)
• *TSR (x)
• *White Wolf (x)
• *Wizards of the Coast (x)

Our Story

Our own take is, when it comes down to it, it's important that GenCon be a choice, not a burden that each company must endure to remain viable. So, our own stance is that we support both the companies attending and those not attending (i.e. we're apolitical). We do not support companies that claim "you MUST attend GenCon" (of which Andon's ill-phrased early remarks and the famous Usenet "GenCon non-attending wussies" thread coming to mind here). You would think that standing against peer pressure would be a good thing, but as I said, it's a heated matter to some.

The two most visible entities for each side are Steve Jackson Games and Andon Unlimited. Dwarven Tavern Cyberzine has interviews with both, and we recommended you read their statements. We (RPG Web Services) fall into the side of "not attending for business reasons"-- WorldCon and Pennsic are concurrent, and we decided some weeks ago (well before the crisis) that we'd be skipping GenCon (though we may have a volunteer rep or two).