Gen Con Indy 2012
Aug 16 to Aug 19 in Indianapolis, IN

Gen Con Information

Type of Convention: Art, Gaming

In favorites:

I attended!

Gen Con is one of the largest and most prominent annual gaming conventions in North America. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card-style games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, board games, live action role-playing games, collectible card games, non-collectible card games, and strategy games. Gen Con also features computer games. Attendees engage in a variety of tournament and interactive game sessions.

Gen Con 2010 brought in just over 30,000 attendees, which makes the convention similar in size to Dragon Con and FanExpo's Game Expo, larger than Origins (14,000+), and smaller than E3 (40,000+).

Gen Con began in 1968 as a wargames convention, held in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, by Gary Gygax, who would later go on to co-create Dungeons & Dragons and by doing so initiate the roleplaying game phenomenon. The convention's main site was moved to various locations in Wisconsin from 1972 to 1984, until settling on Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1985. Other Gen Con conventions were held sporadically in other locations around the United States. Beginning in 1990, Gen Con conventions were also held in several European locations, as well as in Australia as Gen Con Oz from 2008-2010.

Gen Con became the property of TSR, Inc., the gaming company co-founded by Gygax in 1976. In 1997 TSR (and its owned property Gen Con) were acquired by Wizards of the Coast, which was subsequently acquired by Hasbro. Hasbro then sold Gen Con to the founder and former CEO of Wizards of the Coast, Peter Adkison, in 2002. One year later, the convention relocated to its current home in Indianapolis, Indiana (although that had been planned prior to Adkison's purchase).