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GENCON GAMEFAIR 2000

During the week of August 11th, Hasbro Interactive and a very small delegation from Cyberlore Studios went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to eat bratwurst, drink beer, and attend the annual Gencon Gamefair.

Gencon is the single largest gaming convention for gamers of all types. It's run by Wizards of the Coast - makers of fine games like Magic: The Gathering® and Dungeons & Dragons®. Every year thousands of gamers descend upon the show for the sole purpose of immersing themselves in gaming.

This year the second biggest thing being shown at the convention was the latest edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook (which, as I write this has already sold over 500,000 copies). Of course, the BIGGEST thing there was Majesty: The Northern Expansion (TM) . Hasbro Interactive had a very impressive display and many gamers got their first glimpse of The Northern Expansion right there.

The following is a series of photographs taken by Jay Adan during his stay at the Gamefair. You'll get a glimpse of some of the reasons that this convention is the show that gamers all over the world look forward to every year..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before the show opens you have to do a little setup. It took a team of experts a full day to prepare the HI booth for launch.

Once the show opens you can see that it's all worthwhile.

WOTC sent around their film crew to document the wonders to be seen at our booth.


Even though there were several computers running The Northern Expansion at any given time people often had to wait in line for a chance to try it out!

 

Other computer game companies were at the show as well. Activision was showing off their latest batch of fine Star Trek games as well as a fantasy game called Wizards & Warriors.
These two ladies were serious Majesty fans (as well as being Vampire LARP players as well). They hung around for most of one afternoon running the game through its paces.

Miniature-based tabletop strategy games are extremely popular at Gencon. This group is playing Warhammer 40,000.
Speaking of miniatures. One of the things I spotted at the show were these cool new STARCRAFT miniatures. This shot features the Zerg.

The miniatures will come in three boxed sets from Wizards of the Coast. This set features the Protoss.
Due out shortly, these miniatures are a one-time event. There is no game that you can use with them but they are the same scale as many popular gaming miniatures. Here's the Terran set.

The Majesty ButtonMen went over very well at Gencon. I couldn't be sure if this guy was an avid collector or has just found a new form of armor.

If you look closely you can see Dirgo there near his armpit. That was one of the two buttons that we brought with us last year.

D&D has come a long way from a bunch of guys sitting around the dining-room table with some graph paper and markers.

These dungeon pieces come fully painted and ready to play. You can buy different sets and combine them into any dungeon rooms that you need. It's somewhat more expensive than graph paper.

If you're a fan of Battletech, or Mechwarrior as it's known in computer gaming circles, then you probably recognize this guy. This is a model of the Atlas battlemech from a company called Armorcast. They make terrain and models for gaming, but these look good just sitting on the shelf.

Wizards had a number of fun events running at their booth (which is really a large castle in the center of the exhibition hall).

This is BEER, The Game. I didn't play it but being a big fan of Beer, I thought that it was worth at least taking a picture of it.

A trip to Gencon isn't complete without seeing at least one woman in a chainmail bikini.

All photos © 2000 Cyberlore Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.