Comic con Weymouth

[martin goddard]

Sunday 25th March. Comic con in Weymouth was a great show. The attendance numbers were very large indeed. More than most wargames shows. There were loads of things to do for all ages. There were fights, photos. monsters and miniature games.
What can we glean from this show?  Just some thoughts. The variety of attractions seemed to go down well  This might translate into getting the live action role players along. Participation activities for the youngsters, instead of the usual "dad dumping" , whilst dad goes off to do his shopping etc.
Personality photos were popular.  Maybe photos with manufacturers and gamers of note?
At one US show they had a person there doing 3D sculpts of customers.
Maybe painting tutorials, assembly tutorials etc???  Paint and take if some company funds it.
Of course ideas are cheaper than action, but maybe this area of conventions could be discussed.

I like variety at wargames shows. There does seem to be a minority (faction) of show people who want games to be big, impressive and feature high quality vignettes. The game itself does not get done. They are part of the "show organisers should judge whether games are visually impressive enough for their show".  If there were a conflict, I would rather games be smaller , welcoming and interesting to play. Fine modelling would be an extra not a pre-requisite!
A show full of games judged "great/suitable"  on a purely visual consideration will not be enough to interest me in attendance.
One show was asking for photos of the game in order to apply their value judgement of "worthiness". Urgh!! No thanks.

[Leslie BT]

Did you take a game to play?

[martin goddard]

We went along with Hammerin Iron.  Duncan and Mike took dark ages. Good response from players. Hope to get some new club members out of it...

[mellis1644]

Wargames shows over this side of the pond and especially in the 'frozen north' are much more about participation games than showing wonderful scenery or selling stuff. Of course both those happen but the participation games are the big thing which changes the focus a lot. Now they are smaller, even the big ones getting low hundred's of people for those in Ontario, not thousands but still it makes for a different focus. Only the big show in the US model the UK shows and even then there tends to be a lot more focus on participation games.

You get some good looking games etc but it's all about getting people playing and hopefully having fun. All the games tend to have some visual appeal but they are often not all 'magazine class' products. It's big difference than traditional UK wargame shows.

It's nice to hear war-games been shown in different events though in the UK and promoting the hobby.