I still want to see where it says in policy that swag bags are included! Not to mention the misconception so many people have that GEN CON supplies that Crystal Caste d6.

I was disappointed we didn't get a bag, too. They're good keepsakes!

Hopefully we'll get one next year, for 50.

Not sure why you think there was a swag bag. I havent seen one given out since 2010. IN 2011 they switched over to just having the coupon book. last year they gave out an empty cloth bag, but there was deffinetly NO swag at all. Perhapes that it was was meant when you were told that the bags were not delivered in time.

OK Some facts about swag bags.

The only people swag bags are guaranteed to are the VIG's.  It is/was part of the VIG package.  It's in the VIG description.

Gen Con was not paying for / providing the items in the swag bags.  A company needed to be a sponsor or pay a premium to put items in the bag.   On top of that fee they had to supply the items at cost.  Currently if wanted put something in the bags you would have to provide a minimum of 60,000 "freebies" ... so the cost in addition to the bag fee might be a much $60,0000 if your item cost you $1 to make and ship to Gen Con plus the bag inclusion fee.   

Not everybody wanted everything in the bag so a company with a sizable investment in the bags might see a lot of their product go to waste with very litll foot traffic driven to their booth or after increase in after con sales... the point of putting stuff in the bags.

And apparently not much swag / or swag bags at  Dragon Con either- https://www.reddit.com/r/dragoncon/comments/2aw7pa/its_gotta_be_askedhows_the_convention/
 

I miss the swag bags too, but rbree has it right...Gen Con is too big for swag bags to be worth it to the companies involved. Every item in the old swag bags had to be provided by the company that sells them, which is a loss for that company. Then they also had to pay the convention to include the item, because swag bags don't stuff themselves - each one has to be packed by some Gen Con employee. Not many companies can afford tens of thousands of donated items, plus a fee. The return on investment just isn't there.

Did I like getting free booster packs and minis and dice and so on? Sure. Did I ever go buy stuff from those companies? Rarely.

I am so happy this person is never coming to Gen Con again.  If this is how he gets over something that was never promised or even mentioned as a perk of the con, can you imagine how he would react over something truly important going wrong?

Also, kudos to everyone else in this thread.  He keeps being insultive but everyone else has been respectful to clever to helpful.  Good on us.

I prefer just the coupon book, which is what we got this year.  Crystal Caste did give out free dice for a portion of the cover of your coupon book.  They told me that they got the request in too late to get the free dice coupon in the book.  There were several old favorites that did not happen this year.  Things change.  I threw my bags away with 90% of what was in them, in years past.  The gaming community is spread over D&D, C&C, board games, horror, super-heroes, war games, cosplay, crossplay, gaymers, vegan gamers, meat-eating gamers, True Dungeon, films, books, miniatures, Steam-Punk, etc.  You cannot pack a swag bag that will interest everyone.  Just aint happening.  It became land-fill anyway.      

I only remember getting the nylon, pseudo-messenger style bags for the last two years.  

From what I remember of the bags from previous years, there was "swag" in the bags (mostly flyers), but the bag was a heavy plastic flat shopping bag style.

I'm happy with the coupon book only: less waste.

From what I gather from the OP there was supposedly a swag bag (free non-disposable bag) that should have been there on time and was not and they couldn't find a program book when they checked in one location.

If you're deadest on getting the bag, I don't think anyone got one.  Email possibly Gen Con find out who was suppose to provide the bag and get an email, offer to pay the S/H and see if you can get one.  If this doesn't work or fit into what you wanted what would you do to get this bag?

For the Program Book it's too late now but I would have checked around at other locations or if you wanted to just look something up I guess ask someone if they had a program book borrow it and give it back, there was also the digital pdf version on the Gen Con site.  If you wanted one as a souvenir now I guess Email Gen Con and offer to pay S/H if they have extras now.  If this doesn't work or fit into what you wanted what would you do to get this book?

My wish here is that this thread stays open and the OP keeps talking about how screwed over he feels for not getting a swag bag.  Keep going OP!  Pure comedy.

They do seem to have had a dreadful time, as they've also voiced displeasure over the way the Will Call line was handled where it intersected with corridors, and at having to pay for video games.

All that said, this whole thread is pretty silly.  It's an obvious troll, and a bunch of people feeding it.

I must say that I am TERRIBLY upset at the lack of a jetpack being included in my nonexistent swag bag. Gencon PROMISED every attendee a jetpack, and then when we show up...no jetpack. 

Look Gencon, a jetpack is a PART of the badge cost that my mom pays for, and IF I don't get a jetpack, then my Con IS wasted. 

Unbelievable. I can't believe ALL of you fanboys defending Gencon WHEN they go back on their jetpack-based promises. 

I asked some dude on the street about the jetpacks, and he said "can you buy me some food?" Clearly Gencon doesn't train their people to BE knowledgeable ABOUT the promised jetpacks. Incredible. 

Now that's a protest I can get behind, brotherbock!

Damn...given how delayed my flights ended up being, if they'd given me a jetpack (preferably fully fuelled up) I would probably have got home faster.  Way more fun, too!

OK, GenCon, there's your challenge for next year: free jetpacks for all! :)

Any convention, including Gen Con, sells sponsorships to their exhibitor for things like:

* Lanyards
* Swag bags
* Wifi sponsorship splash screen
* Program adds / inserts
* Various levels of signage
* Entries in promotional emails
etc.

The most likely explanation is that GenCon had a bag sponsorship option that would have covered their expenses, and no exhibitor bought it.  Which also makes sense - with 10's of thousands of attendees it just doesn't make sense for an exhibitor to pony up for bags for everyone.  This isn't Oracle World...
 

At any rate the OP is wrong as the bags have never been apart of ticket price since GenCon didn't pay for them. Gen Con just organized and filled them with the things the sponsores gave them to put in. Sponsors don't want to give away quite that much any more and would rather you came to the booth so that you are more likely to buy something. So no more swag bags. Just occasionally we get a loot carrying bag.

That being said. I did like them and do miss them even when they had stuff I wasn't really interested in.
It's also funny that the OP has declared his intention to go to Dragoncon instead when Dragoncon won't be giving him a swag bag either.

*I may have the exact year wrong, I don't remember exactly myself but there was a period of a few years at least between the swag bags and the messenger bags.