Roleplayer #18, February 1990
On the Road Again
The convention season is just beginning. As I write this, I'm about to take
my longest convention trip ever . . . to Paris. No, not Paris, Texas. France.
I'll be the guest of two French game companies, Jeux Descartes and Ideojeux,
who publish the French-language versions of some of our games. (No, GURPS
isn't available in other languages yet. . . but give it time.)
Most of our convention trips, though, are closer to home. SJ Games staffers
attend at least 20 game conventions every year (and we'd like to make more).
We always attend Origins, Gencon, and Worldcon (though when it's out of
the U.S., as it is this year, we're likely to hit the NASFiC instead). And
we make as many other game conventions, from large to small, as we can.
Sometimes it's a Big Company Presence; sometimes it's just one or two people,
playing games and meeting people.
Why do we attend conventions? Several reasons. It's good publicity, and
when we set up a dealer table at the big shows, we actually make some money.
It's a great way to do market research. . . you can learn more by actually
playing games with people and listening than you can any other way. It's
also a fantastic opportunity to playtest new products. And it's a whole
lot of fun.
We also try to support as many conventions as we can, even when we won't
be attending. If you're holding a convention which will include tournaments
in our games, send the information to our Convention Liaison. We'll almost
always come through with some prizes or other useful graft.
Our convention schedule for the next few months:
March 23-25: Magnum Opus Con 5 in Greenville, SC. Monica
Stephens and I will be there.
April 20-22: Swampcon 9 in Baton Rouge, LA. I will be a guest.
May 11-13: Miscon 5 in Missoula, MT. I will be a guest.
June 1-3: Springfest in Jackson, MS. I will be Gaming Guest of
Honor.
June 8-10: Glathricon '90 in Evansville, IN. I will be Gaming GoH.
June 28-July 1: Origins 1990 in Atlanta, GA. Most of the SJ Games
editorial staff will be there, definitely including Creede and Sharleen
Lambard, Loyd Blankenship and myself.
August 7-13. GenCon in Milwaukee, WI. As for Origins, more or less.
We hope to see you at some of these. . . look us up!
-- Steve Jackson
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