If they do what they did last year, GenCon will have 24/7 will call pick up starting at like 10 AM Wednesday. Thursday morning is packed though, so if you can't get there before Thursday morning, I highly recommend paying the extra to have them mailed to you.

Any advice for those of us who have never been to Gencon before? what should we do when we're not playing X-wing?

Any advice for those of us who have never been to Gencon before? what should we do when we're not playing X-wing?

With any luck X-Wing will take up two days of your GenCon visit . outside of that there are thousands of events and boardgames. If you play other games besides X-Wing you will have plenty of opportunities to play games all weekend.

Only 4 tickets remain for the first flight, they will be gone today!

So I just checked and there were 2 tickets left. I bought one which means.... THERE IS ONLY 1 REMAINING!

26 Minutes remaining to say it sold out in the first 24hrs!

Any advice for those of us who have never been to Gencon before? what should we do when we're not playing X-wing?

The dealer hall is massive. Between the sheer number of booths and the dense crowd of people, it'll take multiple days to see everything in there (and you'll probably go back to a few booths that are tempting you, much to your wallet's chagrin).

Also in the dealer hall is a ton of games being demoed. New games, recently released games, and they're almost all free. You can just sit down at one and start being taught by someone from the company, or you can watch others. Demoing new games at GenCon is always a lot of fun.

There's a video game room where you can sit down at a TV and play a match or two of SoulCalibur, Call of Duty, Smash Bros., lots of stuff. Tournaments are run that you can hop in on, too, if you want. I got in on a Smash Bros. Brawl tournament at the last minute once (and got my ass kicked hard, heh).

You can walk around the gaming hall and watch people play various games. You can watch (or participate in!) the foam swordfighting that a group puts on in the corner of the gaming hall. You can drop a few bucks on getting a massage from one of the several masseuses in one of the hallways. GenCon is a zoo — you'll be hard-pressed to be bored there. =)

I still don't know if I'll be able to go, since I still don't know what my employment status will be this summer. Very frustrating to risk missing the tournament over stupid real-life stuff.

I still don't know if I'll be able to go, since I still don't know what my employment status will be this summer. Very frustrating to risk missing the tournament over stupid real-life stuff.

BTW Sold Out is flight 1! Good luck to those getting into flight 2.

BTW Sold Out is flight 1! Good luck to those getting into flight 2.

Well that didn't last long. I was traveling all weekend, so I'm really glad I saw this thread yesterday evening. Thanks, Osoroshii.

I still don't know if I'll be able to go, since I still don't know what my employment status will be this summer. Very frustrating to risk missing the tournament over stupid real-life stuff.

X-Wing is fun but does not put food on the table or a roof over your head. I would be more worried about not having employment that missing out on a Tournament.

In a weird way it's actually the opposite problem from being able to afford to go. My wife and I are moving at the end of June so she can take up a (great) new job, so there's no real concern with food or housing security there.

The problem is that it's very likely I'll be able to start working before the end of the summer, too, but it's hard to tell a new employer that you'd love to start at the end of July but you'll need a week off in the middle of August to be geeky with 50,000 of your best friends.

So really I'll only be able to go if I can't get a job.

BTW Sold Out is flight 1! Good luck to those getting into flight 2.

D'oh! Well, I can still hope.

People return tickets to events periodically, so people can always look later and maybe get lucky. I saw 1 available a few minutes ago.

On a somewhat related note - what does it mean that the event starts at 11:00 but registration closes at 11:50? Should one worry about being there ready promptly at 11:00 or do people just stroll in and register at some point during that first hour? I'm always running late for things, so I'm just wondering how much my panic level should rise if I happen to be pulling in to the parking lot at 10:55.

You just stroll in and register during that first hour. If you're in the parking lot at 10:55, you're going to be OK. If you're in the parking lot at 11:45, though, run.

Better yet, plan on it starting at 10:00 am....then if you are late, you'll actually be on time!

Better yet, plan on it starting at 10:00 am....then if you are late, you'll actually be on time!

Fine advice. But life with kids and a wife (a very great one who lets me go to things like Gen Con) sometimes just make it unexpectedly hard to get out the door. Right now especially with one newborn we're still trying to figure out how long things take now. Plan an extra 15 minutes, something comes up that takes 20 and so on. Plus when going out for a while and leaving the wife with the kids I sometimes feel guilty and delay as long as possible to try to help her.

I guess this is on a Thursday in August though, so kids will be in school/daycare by then.

And I'm not sure why I typed this since nobody cares but me.

Heh...I was just giving the advice I get from my wife ;-)