The worst part of moving gaming off the Mezz is that it will make
gaming invisible to a large part of the con. The fourth floor is more
difficult to reach, and if things are set up the way that they were
the last time that gaming was moved there, the game rooms will be off
at the extreme end of a corridor - effectively nowhere. People won't
be passing by, won't be aware that there IS any gaming at the con.
Effectively, it was a kind of internal exile.

A large sign-up board down near Stanbro would help a little...but
probably not enough. For one thing, it wouldn't be practical unless
someone stood by the board constantly, calling up changes to a gaming
coordinator on the fourth floor. That's not likely to happen.

Instead, people would put up games that wouldn't happen, or would be
moved at the last minute due to a scheduling conflict, etc. etc. etc.
Communication and scheduling problems galore, resulting in plenty of
pissed-off people.

And there's a HUGE difference between seeing games listed on a board,
and actually *seeing the games*. A newbie would have to be pretty
desperate to push through the crowds and make it up to a distant
corner on the fourth floor, whereas they can't *help* but see gaming
when they walk by Stanbro. So my guess is (and I'm not attributing
malice to anyone, or anything like that; I'm not on the ConCom),
gaming is going to take a pretty serious hit in participation at
Arisia this year.

And that increases the chance that it will receive still less
consideration from the con *next* year; after all, you can't expect
them to support unpopular events! (/sarcasm - sorry, couldn't help
myself)

Are there any other ameliorating factors that could be implemented?

Coffee service, maybe. Soda and snacks might help. Of course, the
problem is that if those things are equally available elsewhere,
people won't bother to make the trek to fourth floor gaming for them.
And it's not like you can ban those things from the rest of the
con. :D

What's more, people would have to somehow be informed that that was
the place to go for snacks. Hell, you'd probably need to put the con
suite right in the middle of gaming in order to draw even a *quarter*
of the same foot traffic as at Stanbro. And realistically, the effect
would not even be 1/4 as good; most people would simply get food and
leave. We've all seen enough cons to know that food is a lousy
inducement to get people to do anything other than stop by, load up,
and take off with minimal eye contact.

Would a lot of publicity help? Probably not much. Posters and signs
and announcements don't have the same impact as actually seeing
people having fun playing a game.

So what WOULD work? The only thing that I can think of would be to
set up something really cool, something so compelling that everyone
at the con would want to see it. Last year some guys set up a sort of
cool-looking room with a huge castle wall and fake flames; I don't
know what they were promoting, but it was definitely pretty neat-
looking. Something like that, only more complex and involving, would
be perfect.

The problem is, we don't HAVE anything like that. And we're not
likely to find one.

So the upshot is, while it would certainly be nice for the con to
take whatever ameliorating steps they can for gaming at Arisia,
realistically there is GOING to be a diminishment this year. The only
real solution is for those who care to get involved in the next
Arisia VERY early, get on the ConCom or whatever, and push to
increase the exposure of gaming at Arisia 2007 - put it back in
Stanbro if at all possible.

I don't know how likely that is, though.

->Peter