So I'm walking through a giant gaming convention in Columbus, Ohio called 'Origins'. While traversing this paradise, I wasn't seeing any FFG supplies. So I'm a bit disheartened. Then, lo and behold, I see a kid standing before me in a blue FFG shirt that read, 'Demo Staff'.

I approached the young man to ask if FFG had a booth here, and he said, 'no, but there are some booths here that sell FFG supplies'

So I inquired further, and he asked, "What are you looking for?"

I replied, "well I'm just looking for some Game of Thrones LCG cards."

And he said to me, "Oh, well that game is like six years old, so we don't really care about that one so much. It's just too dated."

Is that the case? In aGoT a dated after thought , fan service deal for FFG? Or should that punk be fired?

*On the plus side I was able to find the "Ice and Fire" aGoT CCG starter set for 3 bucks

I'm not really sure he should be demo staff if he isn't actually up to speed with the companies products. And I don't mean knowing what they all are, how to play them, etc. I just mean knowing at least what games are popular, what games are doing well, and either way he shouldn't be talking down on a game FFG supports...

Huh? Technically, the LCG is only about two years old, so I doubt FFG looks at it as a six year old game that they don't need to support.

A friend of mine was at Origins on Friday and he said he did see A Game of Thrones at at least one booth.

That demo staffer's ignorance is rather astounding. I wonder if they just sent some intern to cover the con.

Trust me AGoT LCG is alive and well and not going anywhere any time soon. I know in the past "Demo Staff" have been volunteers, this cat may have no affiliation beyond having been a fan of a specific game or two and volunteered to demo them. If he is not an LC gamer, he may only be tacitly aware of the state of FFG's other games. From outside, especially those with a CCG bias, switching from CCG to LCG seems like the move of a failing game with little or no effort or thought being put into it from the companies perspective, not a clever shift in the way the company has decided to sell card games.

Then again Origins is about the new and shiny so his statement may have translated to, "it is not part of our new product line-up so we don't feature it at cons like this." Though if that was what he meant his communications skills have suffered from an epic fail.

Who knows who this dude was. He might actually just be wearing a demo shirt from a previous year's convention. And to say that the company doesn't care about a game that is 6 years old when they are obviously putting time and money into the game and the current OP structure is beyond me.

I do know that FFg has been scaling back its presence at conventions in the last several years (they even stopped attending the GAMA Trade Fair for retailers, wholesalers and the like a few years back), so I'm not surprised they don't have a booth at Origins (and considering how GAMA/Origins appears to have been treating new FFG product over the past few years it is kinda hard not to blame them still have no idea how BSG wasn't even nominated as one of the best new games of 2008). Also, when FFG does attend a show, they will naturally take away from sales from general vendors, so not sure if this plays a role in their decision not to attend with a presence.

Now don't quote me on this because I'm not 100% sure I've got it right but... I had noted that all of the "FFG Demo team" members seemed to be around 17 or 18 years old which seemed odd but it was mentioned to me that a teacher from I believe Kentucky used his students to help with the demos which may explain their lack of knowledge of all products and their current level of support.

That said if you'd come by the Catalyst games demo booth Me, Stephan, and a certain Maester would probably loved to play a little Thrones (after hours of course) and would have known way more about the GoT LCG status than John Q High School Student.

I know they get a lot more bang for their buck at GenCon - they have had Epic successes there lately (selling out of multiple new games easily on the 2nd day).

This is all good news. I assumed that there was a good reason for it. And after reading what FFG posted about their transition to 60 card chapter packs, I'm quite reassured that things are going well for aGoT.

The 'kid' you saw was not a hired person official under the employ of FFG. He's a part of a group that goes about and is a great support for FFG's board games. I was unable to infiltrate that group this year, as real life work interfered (which would have been nice, cause I live in the city that Origins is run in), to have promoted FFGs LCGs.

So 1.) take it easy on the 'kid', he probably has little idea of any games outside the few board games he knows and has been taught to demo 2.) he's not required or needed to know about every product on the FFG line-up 3.) apologize to the guy right now for the volunteer work that he DOES do. 4.) I could be wrong and he/she IS a total jerk

No, you are likely right. He seemed kind enough. I was more concerned that he was actually speaking true than accusing him of some grievous injustice. But it would be foolish on my part to assume "Demo Team" to mean "Official Representative".