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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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Joined: 4/14/2008
Posts: 110
Location: Olivet MI
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SWM Community,
I come bearing bad news today. I will not be able to take time off of work to attend GenCon this year. I have been trying to figure out a scheduling solution, but because it is now at the start of the college school year, I can’t make it work. If anyone wants to try to run some games, I’d be happy to help out on the backend but I will not be on site, and won’t be able to bring down games. I was waiting until the last minute to make this announcement because I truly wanted to fin a solution, but that didn’t happen. Again, I’m sorry I can’t be there.
-James Wyszynski
SWMGamers Events Coordinator
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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Sorry to hear that James
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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wow, James, your contributions will be hard to replace. we appreciate all you've done  
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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It will not be the same without you JW
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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So with James being out, what does that mean for us as a group. Just asking because I know badge registration opens this weekend and it says it will be limited numbers?
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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I'm curious: Who plans to attend GenCon in person this year?
I'm wondering if doing it on Vassal might be better. I know that there are pros and cons to either option.
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Rank: Moderator
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, Moderator
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I won't make an in-person GenCon this year. I might make it to a GenCon Vassal tournament.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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thereisnotry wrote:I'm curious: Who plans to attend GenCon in person this year?
I'm wondering if doing it on Vassal might be better. I know that there are pros and cons to either option. I think virtual GenCon for SWM should happen, but in August like normal. That way it doesn't have to be a one or the other thing. Heck - make it its own thing. SWMcon. I am going to try to go to actual GenCon, and I'd be willing to run a "championship" there. But I imagine our numbers would be small (even smaller than usual), so I would assume 1 tournament would be about the best we could do.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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I would be absolutely thrilled to have Gencon on Vassal again this year! Could we please make this happen?! SWMcon sounds good...or BlooCon...just throwing that out there   It'd be a good opportunity to unite all star wars mini's players all over the world for a number of events on Vassal again. I had a blast playing in it last year and I am looking forward to joining even more events this time around. I don't know how much our participation was last year compared to other years. I'd love to attend Gencon one of these days, but its a 12 hour drive from where i live, so it's not the easiest thing to plan going to. This past year and 2021 thus far have been a huge success for Vassal tournaments...we've had a ton of different formats/regionals and the turnout/feed back/results have been very good! I think we could keep the momentum going for a world championship on Vassal and get the word out early for hopefully even more people to join this year! If we want to have prize support, i don't mind chipping in something to help make it more special.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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Well, I was planning on going to Gencon, but if there isn't going to be much in the he way of SWM gaming then I would probably reconsider as that is the main reason I go as I don't regularly play any other games. I wouldn't participate in an online event as it isn't the same for me. I enjoy sitting down in person and rolling dice which is the whole reason I took up a tabletop game. Sadly the experience just doesn't translate well for me on vassal the few times I have tried it. I will continue to monitor the situation so I can make a decision regarding Gencon attendance.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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I feel like Greg. If it's either/or I'd much rather play in person. If it's both, I could go for that. If Vassal only ,I will have to think about it, it's just not the same. I plan on going to GenCon.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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just throwing this idea out there, but we could do a zoom/skype meeting before and after the vassal Gencon event if we do that so that people can chat and get some association that way. Kinda more personal than just calling over the phone/discord/Facebook messanger. It doesn't of course make up for the rolling of physical dice on a table with the map and minis in front of you. Although maybe you could do that via a personal zoom/skype video chat during your game and have the dice roll show on the screen? That way you know what is rolled and are just using the vassal map to move people around and check LOS/hp/fp and all rolls are with a physical dice on a table of your choosing. Just throwing that out there...not sure if it's been tried before but i don't see why it couldn't work..
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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Mando wrote:just throwing this idea out there, but we could do a zoom/skype meeting before and after the vassal Gencon event if we do that so that people can chat and get some association that way. Kinda more personal than just calling over the phone/discord/Facebook messanger. It doesn't of course make up for the rolling of physical dice on a table with the map and minis in front of you. Although maybe you could do that via a personal zoom/skype video chat during your game and have the dice roll show on the screen? That way you know what is rolled and are just using the vassal map to move people around and check LOS/hp/fp and all rolls are with a physical dice on a table of your choosing. Just throwing that out there...not sure if it's been tried before but i don't see why it couldn't work.. Discord. It's made for gaming, free, and awesome
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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TimmerB123 wrote:Mando wrote:just throwing this idea out there, but we could do a zoom/skype meeting before and after the vassal Gencon event if we do that so that people can chat and get some association that way. Kinda more personal than just calling over the phone/discord/Facebook messanger. It doesn't of course make up for the rolling of physical dice on a table with the map and minis in front of you. Although maybe you could do that via a personal zoom/skype video chat during your game and have the dice roll show on the screen? That way you know what is rolled and are just using the vassal map to move people around and check LOS/hp/fp and all rolls are with a physical dice on a table of your choosing. Just throwing that out there...not sure if it's been tried before but i don't see why it couldn't work.. Discord. It's made for gaming, free, and awesome i'm mostly just familiar with Discord for voice/text chat. does it do video also? i do like Discord a lot for getting things organized.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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Yes, Discord has a video component.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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I like the idea of actually rolling a dice. Can't stand virtual Vassal dice
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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While I agree with everyone who has expressed a desire and preference to play in person, without an organizer like James to take the lead on this, I don't know it could happen. Further, without that leadership, already dwindling numbers would be reduced even more. I think before a discussion of online vs in person takes place, we should first see if someone can step into James' shoes this year. Those of us who are veterans of multiple GenCons know just how big those shoes are. Is there anyone who can do that?
This game would not have become as dear to me and I would not have made the lasting friendships I have in this game if not for my GenCon experiences. (My regional appearances all came AFTER my first GenCon.) Having tournaments live at GenCon are important to the future of our game. I can't make it this year, but I'd rather see a robust National Championship in Indianapolis that I couldn't participate in than settling for an online Vassal tournament that I could. The in person experience can't be duplicated online. That's not to say that I wouldn't participate in a Vassal tournament... I would! And if we are forced to go Vassal this year, let's make it a great one. I would just like to see us exhaust all possibilities for Indianapolis first.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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To be clear:
I’m happy to run it on the back end organizing. On site I’d need someone to collect tickets and turn them in. If we had enough events to get a badge or two, someone would need to collect them from GenCon.
The sad truth of how we run GenCon is that the SWM tournaments don’t net that many gaming hours. Our group stays afloat (gaming hour wise) on mass battles (specifically the 12 player ones).
We can run events. I can set them up. We might have hours for a few badges. I just need 1 (or a few) people on site to do some easy paperwork.
Let me know what y’all want to do. Feel free to text me or Facebook me, since we all know I’m not the most active bloomilk poster 😂😂
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With them limiting number of badges there’s no guarantee everybody that wants to go will even get in. I think badge sales open soon, so once I confirm I have one I would be railing to run one “main event”.
The truth is that I don’t think we’re going to be able to have the numbers to do much beyond that. Let’s get all the minis players that go to Gen Con and do one main event. Maybe another fun alternative event on top of that.
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Rank: Advanced Bloo Milk Member
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This is some good discussion. I hope that something can happen in-person at GenCon! (I won't be able to attend, but I hope that many others of you can.)
I think we should try to get as many attendees as possible for the World Championship event. If our numbers (for argument's sake) would be 6 in-person at GenCon and 12 on Vassal, then I think the best decision would be to hold the Championship on Vassal...and vice versa if we would have more players in-person at GenCon than we would on Vassal. The Championship should be THE biggest and most competitive event of the year, with attendance made up of as many highly-skilled players as possible.
Also, if we do end up holding the Championship on Vassal, then I really hope we can get some NZ players in for it if possible (/subtle hand wave) and I think we should schedule it with that in mind.
Obviously, all of this is my own personal opinion, so take it for what it's worth. And also, I'm obviously coming from a very specific bias (because I won't be attending GenCon this year), so that's a factor too. Regardless, I've now given my perspective. Let's see what others think too. Regardless of how this specific decision (re: the Championship) goes down, I'd be more than happy to do whatever I can on my end to help set up some GenCon-ish festivities over Vassal...I thought that GenCon 2020 was a blast!
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