ConsimWorld Expo 2008

I'm pleased to announce with this update of the Attendees and Game Sign-ups page, that we have officially equaled our record pre-registrations from last year! We now have 220 participants officially registered, and it appears we will shatter last year's attendance record as sign-ups are continuing at a healthy clip. Thanks to everyone for making this year's expo our biggest yet!

As we approach 220 pre-registered attendees (update to site coming shortly!), we've added new content to the FAQ section to help address those attending, or considering to attend, CSW Expo for the very first time. This was prompted by an e-mail recently received, which made us realize that more care should be taken to help address any concerns for someone not familiar with our venue...especially if their experience has been influenced by other game conventions. You can check out our Newbie Concerns FAQ section here (and don't forget about the rest of our FAQ page!).

I'm happy to announce that we have updated the Attendees and Game Sign-ups page. We have already secured more than 180 participants and game sign-up activity has been fast and furious. I'll be looking to provide more information and continue to update this site over the weekend.

One of the most exciting facets of CSW Expo are the many dedicated gaming venues and special activities planned. Towards this end, we have posted the Special Events page and will be updating it throughout this week as we add Seminars, Game Demonstrations, Playtest Sessions, and Organized Tournament Play. We have far more seminars already scheduled for this year, and as always, I expect a very strong showing in terms of playtest sessions and game demonstrations.

The Game Sign-ups page has been updated to reflect the 35 new registrants we have processed. Major activity took place for the Open-gaming venue thanks to the evangelistic efforts of Michael Day who has signed up his group of nine young and enthusiastic gamers to play a series of games, including Advanced Civilization, The Napoleonic Wars, The Republic of Rome, and Sword of Rome. If you have any interest in these games I encourage you to join in on the fun, as Michael always delivers one of the liveliest and fun gaming experiences one can possible ask for. We will be spotlighting these games on our Special Events page shortly, as Michael does a great job on putting together an organized tournament for each of these games.

Meanwhile, Kevin Kinsel's efforts continue to pay off as he is now up to eight sign-ups for Empires in Arms. This is one of the more enthralling monster games one can choose to play. Meanwhile, Case Blue remains the clear favorite amongst monster gamers at this time, having already achieved 15 sign-ups with 5 alternatives. I have just confirmed that Highway to the Reich, 2nd Edition will be available and shipping in time for CSW Expo, so I am curious to see how many gamers may decide to sign-up for this brand new game designed by Joe Youst.

I'm now in the process of catching up on all the registration activity we have generated. The Attendees page has now been updated, and includes 35 new registrants. As you can imagine, the process of updating the Game Sign-ups page is taking some time, but I hope to have this completed by end of today, to then be followed by our all-new Special Events listing page! Alrighty, back to work I go....

To facilitate gathering all special event proposals for CSW Expo 2008, we have created a Special Events Submission form. Typical venues are playtest sessions, organized tournament-format play, and seminars. We encourage all publishers, designers, and developers to submit their special event (typically, playtest sessions). We will have a Special Events page that lists all venues available shortly.

Over at the CSW Social Network, Justin Rice has started this game replay of SPI's The Next War. This is a brigade/divisional level simulation of a Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of the central European front of NATO in the late 1970's. The most notable mechanic is the combination of combat within the movement of land units, with the ability of units to greatly exceed the basic movement allowance at increased risk of fatigue/attrition. As listed on our Game Sign-ups, both Robert Flores and John Rainey have selected this game as their first choice, and David Murray has it selected as an alternative.

This promises to be one of the more dynamic and entertaining monster games to be played.

In case you missed the big announcement, we've launched the CSW Social Network. It's a great place to really network with gaming colleagues and form groups of like interest. We invite you to join our CSW Expo Attendees group, along with the other 55+ groups that have already formed since we launched this new service. So far, we have 15 members in our expo group, and I hope to welcoming more of you there as well.

My apologies for not posting here earlier, as we recently updated the Attendees and Game Sign-ups page. While we have 100 attendees listed, our sign-ups have actually increased to 105 and I'm sure they will be higher by the time we update our pages again (which will be next weekend). Props go to Case Blue that is off to a flying start, with 16 attendees selecting this game as their first choice. In fact, over on our Discussions, a Case Blue topic been started by John Kisner to help attendees begin to coordinate on pre-game activities. We encourage attendees to create their own discussion topic in support of their game.

Meanwhile, over at open-gaming, it's s three-legged race between Combat Commander, Here I Stand, and Twilight Struggle (not to mention the other 40+ open-gaming selections). My gut instinct is the Valley Games reprint of Hannibal will be a strong draw, along with FAB: The Bulge and the CSR award-winner, A Victory Lost. Again, I could be wrong, but this is what I predict may happen.