After 3 hours of fighting through crowds in the expo hall in a scooter I have an idea for next year. What if Gen Con allowed early, or after hours, access to disabled badge holders? It would be so nice to actually get to see the stuff in the booths.
After hours I guess I wouldn't mind so much as it keeps being disabled from having any kind of line advantage in the mornings. (Though I can't imagine many booth workers would be terribly jazzed at having to stay even longer)
Before anyone goes off on 'having a disability not being an advantage', as some who worked at Disney World for quite awhile that most of the time that is absolutely true, but there sure as hell are times when having that disabled status allows you privileges that other people don't get. I'm not even accusing anyone of abusing it, even though I could almost guarantee it happens.
In one instance, an acquaintance of mine who is legitimately disabled saw me in the con (we didn't travel together, just ran into each other) and I told him how I just saw the line for a booth was too long for me to wait in at the time. He asked what I wanted, walked up to the booth, showed his disability badge and skipped the entire line to the register and got what I had wanted for me. I accepted it because he did it of his own volition, but I still feel kind of guilty about it. And this is like 4 years later! I can't imagine how much more difficult his day to day life must be for him versus mine, but in that instance, it sure must have been nice.
Early access won't happen because people will abuse the system to buy out hard to get items before the public gets in.
After hours wont happen because vendors already have setup + 8 hours a day with the public. They aren't going to stick around for a few hours at night with a handful of customers in the hall.
Dealers already have a 10 hour day. They can only arrive 1 hour before open and can only stay 1 hour past close. And for those shops that don't have a large staff (not everyone is Pazio or FFG) that is a long day, and most will still have to do daily bookkeeping....
I think if it wasn't for the Press, they would probably close down the early admit on Thursday....
Over the 4 days, the vendor hall is open for 30 hours. Even at the snail’s pace a scooter can make there, that should be sufficient time to visit every booth you’d want. Of course, if you’re only there a day or two, it makes things tougher, but expecting the dealers to stay open extra hours is not a solution. If they keep the hall open, every dealer has to extend their hours, to prevent theft from their booths.
Every year livingdice has a page linking to all the vendors’ websites. Use that, and the vendor hall map to target those booths that you most want to hit, then use any leftover time to wander and explore.
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