UK Games Expo 2015

[Zarniwoop]

Well another year and another #UKGamesExpo over. Despite the added marquee and the addition of the food court the venue was heaving again with people on the Saturday. Some of the queuing problems with the food court might have been due to the tournament folk being kicked out all at the same time for lunch, given some of these were large maybe staggering the lunches or giving them more time might help. The other possibility is maybe arranging some light buffet especially for the tournaments?

I didn't really bother to look at anything on the Saturday but rather scouted around to see what to look at on the Sunday when the crowds would be thinner. Friends who also went over the weekend reported that there were issues with the free gaming space, this has been an issue in the past but will always be a tricky one to resolve.

My hats off to the organisers of this event it has become very successful and has grown exponentially over the last few years, not something I would like to tackle!. There will always be people, myself included, that will pass comments on how they think it could be done better or what was done wrong but in the end we are not privy to what has been discussed behind the scenes or discussed with the venue around those same issues. Given that changes have been made and a lot of those for the better, it is obvious lessons are being learned and the event is getting better as it grows. Next year will be interesting as they spread into the NEC halls for the traders but whether the parking costs prove to be an Achilles heel for them only time will tell.

All in all I enjoyed the show again this year but with no real "Hot" games or exciting newly released games to grab the attention it did feel a little meh for me this time.

[Pallet Ranger]

I went along to Expo on the Friday this year. It was my first foray to Expo for 3 (maybe even 4?) years, and I took on the added responsibility of taking the family too. All in all we all enjoyed the day (even Mrs Ranger who really, really wasn't looking forward to it). I think it was the giant Ticket to Ride that swung it for her 

The only "complaint" was the treasure hunt that first edition daughter spent the day frantically searching for the answers to. Eventually, having completed the hunt, and answering the puzzle we handed in the entry form only to be told the draw had already been made!!

Then, to add to the confusion, I received a phone call from 'Barbara' on the front desk on Sunday afternoon at around 3:30 saying that we had won the treasure hunt and could I come and collect the prize "before we close at 4". Of course, being around 50 miles away and having 30 minutes to get the kids into the car, drive to the NEC, park, obtain entry to the show and finally find the mysterious 'Barbara' to claim my prize sounded like far too much effort. So I elected to not say a word to eldest daughter, who remains blissfully unaware of the reward her efforts led to, not to mention her father's subsequent silence...

 

[Zarniwoop]

Good to hear you all enjoyed the day, shame about the confusion over the Treasure Hunt. It will be very interesting to see how things pan out next year with the planned expansion into Hall 1. I hope they are following the comments on BGG and talking with the Traders as I keep hearing a rather pessimistic and negative vibe over the proposed changes. Though some of this I suspect is from the limited information on how this will work that has been put out so far.

Once they have recovered from the frantic efforts over this years events I'm sure they will be more forthcoming on how things will work in 2016/2017.

[Bruce]

I had a great time.  This was my second year attending and running games.  It's hard for me to compare experiences because last year I went on the Friday which was much quieter, with no trade halls.  This year I was there early on the Saturday.  It was pretty packed this time and I can see why they want to move the trade area into the NEC proper.  I just hope it's not to the detriment of the traders, as I expect there will be fewer spontaneous visits to the traders between games and so on.  

There was a better variety of food available this year, although as usual with these kind of events it was expensive if you were going to survive purely on the on site catering!  I was able to meet up with a few friends, even if some of those were just passing greetings in the busy halls and corridors!

I thoroughly enjoyed running my DCC RPG game (blatant plug/link to my blog here) and was pleased to find one player had returned after enjoying last year's game.  I hope to make more of a weekend of it next time.

Bruce