To con...or not to con.

[DarkShadow]

Question: Is it worthwhile for a small company that has had success in the past, but do to time constraints mixed with finical constraints has not produced a new book in two or three years to go to a con that is considered upper tier? Hypothetically speaking. If someone buys the company from the owner and has enough resources to put into making more books for the game but not enough to just throw away willy nilly, should he/ she take the company to cons like GenCon or Origins?

I ask because others have told me that small companies are better off not going to them till they start getting name recognition. Which the company has to a degree but they said on the scale of Palliadium /Fasa/ WOTC extra

[James Wallis]

Originally posted by DarkShadow
I ask because others have told me that small companies are better off not going to them till they start getting name recognition. Which the company has to a degree but they said on the scale of Palliadium /Fasa/ WOTC extra

Whoever told you that is on crack, and pretty skanky crack too. How are companies supposed to get name-recognition if not by attending conventions? How are they going to get actual feedback from fans and potential fans, let alone retailers and distributors?

Every major games distributor in the world will be at Gen Con, looking for cool products to stock. So you've got a choice: you can have them come up to your booth, where you can talk to them face-to-face and put a copy of your game into their hands yourself, or you can track down their address and phone number, send them a package -- hoping it'll get to the right games buyer in the company -- and talk to them on the phone, when they're probably busy.

And it's valuable hard-knocks market research. If you go to Gen Con and don't sell enough to cover the cost of your booth, just accept your product isn't commercial and start again.

[unheilig]

(cue: william shatner)

"C-O-N!"

seriously, you must con. if you can't make it work there, you can't make it work. a con is the single easiest and best place to pimp your wares, and get that name-recognition.

if you haven't, take a convention support seminar. learn the tricks of the trade. even if you think you know ( you'll find out you didn't.)

unheilig.

[Samurai]

If you have not produced anything in 2-3 years, and you have nothing new in the works to show, then I would say go as a participant, not as a dealer booth.

If you have something new that you can show, especially if it is close to final production and you can give out flyers, have demonstration games, etc, then go as a dealer maybe.