I was thinking of attending one of these and not playing in a Tourney. Is it really worth going? I'm worried that all I'll be doing is standing around being bored and marketed to. Obviously I want to play a few games, talk about gaming, maybe try something different. I emailed the organizer to the event I plan to attend. I'll have to take the Ferry there and back, buy food, buy tickets. I'd imagine it will cost me about $80 for the day after everything is said and done. Is it worth while?

Its an official event
http://www.gottacon.com/

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http://drinkingwotr.blogspot.com/ - Links to my CrAzY House Rules, Games and 'poor man's' terrain.

No two Cons are the same, so it's difficult to say whether GottaCon specifically would be worth the money or not. In general though, these kinds of things are a lot of fun. The whole idea with a con is to get people to come and visit, meet some new gamers, see some new stuff (or new ways of doing old stuff), learn a thing or two, buy something, and maybe get a game in.

I've been to a few now (plus I'm running one myself this year for the first time) and some of them were a bit boring, but others have been great. If you can combine the visit to the con with something else on the day, that may make the cost seem a bit less pricey.

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Dagster

That one looks a bit naff compared to even the smallest one in the uk as it has very few vendors over a wide range of interests, so probably not much fun if you are not playing. The UK ones are great as you have dozens of wargame vendors and manufacturers and plenty of participation games you can play for an hour or two, I'll going to at least 5 this year and running games at 4 of them. You need to look at them on their own merit and see exactly whats on at each.