HSG58: GenCon Survival Guide Part 8: History - a podcast by David Gillespie
from 2019-02-07T01:26:31
Rich and David are back to talk all about the history of their favorite gaming convention, Gen Con. How it got started, and what steps led to its enormous success. Everything from the humble beginnings as a place to play "Fight in the Skies!" and other war games to the ideal incubator for D&D and TSR. early on Gen Con becomes the place to launch games like Magic the Gathering, whos founding company goes on to purchase TSR and Gen Con... Really an interesting story.
::Correction! We claim Gen Con is the largest convention in the world... There is another. and it's an impressive 3x larger with 190,000 attendees! over in Germany: https://www.spiel-messe.com/en/
^ Turns out this convention does turn style accounting instead of estimating headcount. It's a fair bit smaller than GenCon. Unless it doesn't, then it is larger. We're getting conflicting reports and I can't read German.
Some additional resources:
Interactive site with maps, timelines, and every Gen Con program cover
40 Years of Gen Con, a hardcover book detailing waaaay more than we ever could
Listen now on:
iTunes GooglePlay Spotify Stitcher
Other places you can connect with the HSG Squad:
Facebook @High Shelf Gaming Podcast
Twitter @highshelfgaming
Friday Night Twitch /highshelfgaming
Discord Chat https://discord.gg/tMPCXgN
Further episodes of High Shelf Gaming Podcast
Further podcasts by David Gillespie
Website of David Gillespie