The Good:
Getting to go to Gen Con. It is by far my favorite time of year and I have a running countdown until the event. I got to play some good games Thursday.

The Bad:
See below, explained by "The Ugly"

The Ugly:
Tested positive for Covid Friday morning thus ending my Gen Con. Felt unwell Thursday night, and tested to be safe. Positive. So I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday locked in my hotel room. Why only "Ugly"? Well, due to a screw up with the hotel, I ended up with two single queen rooms rather than a queen/queen. That turned out to be a Godsend since I was able to stay, as were our friends in the separate room. Plus since our hotel had no breakfast, I had planned on packing lunches so I had an ample supply of sandwich fixings, hard boiled eggs, fruit, microwave breakfast sandwiches and trail mix. My friends dropped off some orange juice and cup-o-soups too. I also happened to grab Final Girl on my brief foray into the dealer hall Thursday so I got to play that during Big Bang Theory and, happily, Star Wars on TBS Saturday night. Plus I felt better by Sunday and tested negative. I blame the Monday night phone message saying "There is a problem with your hotel reservation" and The Gate Ten debacle for my night of no sleep and off the chart stress for my illness.

The Bad:
Paper tickets!!!
Since I was sick, my wife didn't come which meant her badge and all her paper tickets for crafting events could not be turned in. That meant the hosts who undoubted spent money for supplies did not get compensated. She emailed them letting them know she couldn't make it, but that doesn't help really. Most of my events were electronic, so I wasn't out anything beyond some generics, but come on.
I think we are resolved going forward to not do any events with paper tickets just in case.
What century is this? Why are paper tickets still a thing?

Crowds. Can't do too much about this, but wow it felt like a lot of folks. It was hard to find a quiet corner to sit down for a bit. Even Lucas Oil seems packed now.

Lesson Learned (bonus section):
By happenstance I threw a pack of plastic ware from a take out order in my overnight bag, so I had a knife, fork and spoon! That proved to be crucial for my sudden exile. That and a few salt/pepper packets may become a permanent addition to my packing list. Plus my utility tool had scissors. Also new mandatory.

The Good:
Literally no wait time at will call. Okay, it was noon on Wednesday, but still, after all of the horror stories, I was expecting at least some line.

The Bad:
My hotel room (Fairfield Inn at 21st & Shadeland) had an on-and-off drip directly above the toilet. I asked about it, and the engineers said that it was caused in part by somebody in the room above mine taking a shower.

The Ugly:
Tough call between the line for the swag and the line to get into the consignment room.

The good: lucked out on Homewood Suites, which is not in the room block, having award space available.

The bad: I’m out of Hilton points.

The ugly: board game backpacks are an absolute menace and should be banned from the dealer hall.

At some point it might become necessary to meter dealer hall admission with $0 tickets.

The good:

• Booked a room at a brand new hotel, might have been a bit of a drive, but the room was awesome. (Non-housing block)
  
• Overall event choices. Nice range of games to pick from.
  
• Exhibitor Hall, much easier to get around. I actually avoided it last year due to crowding.
  
• Giving vendors options to buy space outside of the exhibitor hall to sell longer than the hall hours.
  
• Homelessness near the convention area. Still had some, but greatly reduced this year. I know they can't help their situation. But many people don't like getting accosted by homeless, or watching as someone dose their business on the sidewalk like I witnessed several times last year.
  

• Housing portal. I posted earlier this year about my phone giving different results than my PC. Later I learned that wanting a room from Wed - Mon was actually losing me many results than if I chose Wed - Sun. Why I would lose results for wanting to stay Sunday is beyond me. How many DT room chances I lost on is beyond me.
  
• Spread of events was getting tiring. For example, first event on Thurs was all the way up at the Hilton Circle Center, which hardly showed on the interactive map app. Followed by my next event at Lucas, after that I had to get to Hall B. My whole con went on like this running from the ICC to Lucas to Crown Plaza or some other hotel.
  
• Program book. I didn't find/get one till Saturday. Last year I never got one at all as they were always empty. If GC is trying to cut down on the program book cost by limiting them, then make them part of your grab bag/coupon book pickup booth. One per person there, with an option to maybe buy extra at the GC sales booth for say $5. Then you ensure everyone can get one.Crowne Plaza
  

• Hall way from ICC to Lucas. Just way too packed, some people trying to eat there clogging up traffic, the pinball machines with gamers and the high traffic of people. I found it was actually faster to walk outside to get to True Dungeon than to try and walk that hall. And the hall is a direct route to TD than walking outside.
  
• Parking. Even trying to use parking garages 4+ blocks away are getting ridiculously high. Or hard to find space to park. Losing that one across from the ICC hurt.
  
• Unnecessarily oversized packs and luggage carts in the exhibitor's hall. They take up so much space, people trip or get hit by them. May be time for GC to start enforcing a leave it behind rule for entering the hall.
  

The Good:

• I had great players for the RPG's I ran.  Everyone seemed to have a good time.
  
• My wife ran games for the first time.  They went off without a hitch, and she's looking forward to doing it again next year.
  
• Had great GM's and players in all the games we played.
  
• Got to catch up with a bunch of old friends.  It made for some late nights but it was totally worth it.
  
• Really enjoyed the art show this year.
  
• The Marriott brought back food kiosks in the lobby.  The selection could use some work but it was really convenient, and a nice change from ICC food court food.
  
• The quiet room is a godsend.
  
• We didn't have anything in Will Call this year, but every time I went by there the line was much shorter than previous years.  Well done!
  
• Monte Cooke games really stepped up to turn what could have been a bad into a good.  Had a GM no-show for a Sunday game.  MCG really had to scramble, but eventually found someone, who did a great job.
  

• I never made it into the auction store because the line was absurdly long every time I went by.
  
• We chose to skip most of the dealer hall and schedule events this year instead because of past bad experiences in the hall. We got a lot fewer bruises but it felt weird.
  
• The D&D museum was a huge disappointment.  I expected something similar to the exhibit put on for the 50th Gen Con.  
  
• Limited hours for the quiet room.  It would be nice if it were open longer than the dealer hall. 
  
• Whomever placed the quiet room right above the performance area is either evil or oblivious.  It was far from quiet.
  
• The official D6 has logos on both the 1 and the 6.  Which is which? 
  
• The costume photo area extends way into the hallway.  All the costumers stand right up to the line, and the people taking pictures have to stand back some distance from them.  Between them they're eating up half the hallway.  Why not move the line closer to the wall and regain some hallway?
  

• The proliferation of Backpack of Bludgeoning, +2 Cursed Berserking has really gotten out of hand. 
  
• Ditto the wagons and rolling luggage. I get that some folks really like to buy lots of stuff in the hall.  I also get that some of those folks can't carry much in a backpack for medical reasons. But that doesn't give them to right to make getting through the hall more difficult for everyone else.
  

The Good
*The weather: Other than a storm late Thursday afternoon, I thought it was perfectly acceptable. It’s Indiana in August. You’re not likely to get highs in the 70s and dew points in the low 50s. I hit the food trucks and ate outside on Friday and Saturday and I didn’t have a problem with it. It could have been worse.
*The extra shaded space at the Block Party: That definitely helped. Maybe they can add more of that.
*Greeting cards in the artists area: I like sending cards to my friends but I never see artists selling them. Charles Urbach was selling some of his art on cards, so now I have awesome birthday cards for my gamer/nerd friends.

The Bad
*Crowds in the vendor hall: I’m happy so many people show up and put all that extra money in the local economy. Just maybe make the aisles a little wider.
*Fewer restaurants: Especially ones that go all in for the convention. I really miss the RAM and Scotty’s.

The Ugly
*Nothing too terrible, although my friends and I all had various degrees of the crud after the convention.

The Meh
*The official Gen Con beer. 

I run games at Gen Con, and I use paper tickets.  Hosting games is nerve-wracking enough without adding tech problems to my worries.  It has nothing to do with lacking a phone.
 

It's nice that you contacted the GM to let them know of your situation. But unless the GM stated in the event that pre-reg was required, the GM likely would have brought extra along for those who didn't buy tickets in advance.

But I know that doesn't help you with your ticket cost issue. Did you attempt to contact customerservice@gencon.com about a refund on the event tickets? The badge would have been a loss after the June cutoff date, but you may have been able to get a refund on the tickets.

All refund requests must be made by the purchaser by email to customerservice@gencon.com. Refund requests must include the first and last name of the attendee, Gen Con account number, and email address associated with the account. Badge types and Game IDs, along with a description of the items to be refunded is greatly appreciated (i.e. a 4-Day badge and eight generic tickets, or three Saturday badges and three True Dungeon tickets, Game ID#________).

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