Sean Turner
United States
Columbus
Ohio
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I went to GenCon this weekend, and overall had a very pleasant experience. The biggest negative I had was most of my experience with Mayfair. I thought that the overall attitude of the people working were elitist, and they were not very helpful.
Examples.
1) My friends and I paid $8 (four of us paid $2 each) for one of the gaming sessions to play Setters America. We showed up on time, were handed the game, and were told that someone would be over in awhile to teach us the game. One of us had played the game at Origins, so we started setting it up. Still no one came over, and we read the instructions and started to play. There were three to four people behind the desk this entire time. After we were 45 minutes into the game, someone comes over and asks if we need help, He then looks and sees what were playing, and says that he doesn't know this game so he can't help us. My question? What did we pay for?
2) The next day, we had signed up to play the beta game Aeroplane. Five of us bought tickets, and we added a sixth (Scott who we just met who had played it at Origins and wanted to play it again. $12) So we sit down with a member of the Mayfair Team who was actually pretty helpful in getting us rolling. They would leave and come back every once in awhile to see how things were going. No issues with them. More than an hour into the game, another Mayfair person walks buy and tells us that the game is not supposed to be played with six players, it is only designed for five. he says that we are not really getting the feel for the game since we have the extra player. He then has a "talk" with the person who helped us set up the game. My question? Your staff are the ones that told us we could let Scott join us. Don't belittle us since we don't know the rules.
3) We finish Aeroplane after two and a half hours. Loved the Game, and after I made a daring move at the end to win, we were all standing there talking about the game. A third Mayfair rep walks up, looks at the board, and ask how I made my last move. I told her, and she states that it was an illegal move. All six of us at the table agreed that according to the rules that we were told, the move was legal. She says "well it wasn't" we proceed to start discussing the rest of the game, and all of us had made similar moves during the game. 2.5 hours later, apparently we had played the entire game wrong. We'll take your $12, and then tell you that you wasted 2.5 hours unbelievable!
4) The raffle and the great ribbon quest. I won't go into a lot of detail here but a couple small points. To get the second tier ribbon, you had to demo three games. They only had four games set up to get those ribbons. Not knowing, I demoed two of those to get my first five ribbons. When I tried to get my second tier ribbons, they knew I had played them, and stated that i could only get one ribbon from each game. In other words no way to get all the second tier ribbons. We even went into the paid gaming area and offered to pay to play a different game. Again we were told that we could pay, but there was no one there to help us.
5) Finally, the raffle. I am a little confused why the raffle was put off on Sunday for more than an hour. You have 500 people waiting on a raffle and you hold it up to finish one game. When I mentioned to someone that we had planes to catch I was given a "sorry about your luck". nice
Overall, GenCon was a blast. But all of us were disappointed with Mayfair. As I said, there are more examples that could be given, but I think just mine are more than enough. i hope Mayfair realizes that those you Crap on when you are on top, you have to pass again on your way down.
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Jeff M
United States
Windham
New Hampshire
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Mayfair actually charges at a board game convention to try out their games??? I guess this must just be common at these cons with "scheduled" events?? Why I only go to cons with opening gaming only
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Sean Turner
United States
Columbus
Ohio
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They have both, but you can specify and buy 2 hour time slots. that are supposed to let you play an entire game, and I assumed give you someone to help you along when needed. The settlers issue is even worse because my one friend owns the game. If we wanted to teach ourselves we could have done that back at the house.
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Sean Turner
United States
Columbus
Ohio
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One last point, While we were waiting the extra hour for the raffle, we went into the paid area at Mayfair and they were pretty much cleaned up and all their games put away. We started to use one of their tables to play Quarriors, and were told that these were for Mayfair games only. It was Sunday afternoon, and they were packing up. They must of had 50 tables, and one of them was being used. Sure it wasn't a Mayfair game, but we still were waiting for Your raffle.
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Katrina
United States
Indiana
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Interesting post. I would suggest in the future that if you want to play any Mayfair train games, that you play the ones sponsored & run by the TGA (TrainGamers Assoc.) rather than Mayfair. I have always been impressed w/their organization and helpfulness, this year being no exception (I played Settlers of America and Metro through them).
The raffle drawing was only postponed about 20 minutes - it was supposed to start at 2:30 (though I'd been told 2:00 when I traded in my ribbons, so I was frustrated about that as I'd have squeezed in another game). I totally understand waiting so that the participants of the championship Settlers game could participate though.
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Adam Brocker
United States
Cincinnati
Ohio
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I also showed up for a scheduled event on time (Rise of Empires). I was then told by those that were already there that no one was available to help us with the game. I had played once before, so I thought I might be able to work through the rules. I looked around and there were no rules available for the game... I waited about 10 minutes to see if someone would show up to help. I then got up and left.
I've learned my lesson from this and past cons: Never sign up for a Mayfair event.
NOTE: I have been very happy with the games that I stumbled upon where a Mayfair rep was present or at their games in the Exhibit Hall. I played both Aeroplane and London at Origins and had a great time at both (bought London at the show).
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Anton der Grosse
United States
Zionsville
Indiana
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Saltone wrote:
5) Finally, the raffle. I am a little confused why the raffle was put off on Sunday for more than an hour. You have 500 people waiting on a raffle and you hold it up to finish one game. When I mentioned to someone that we had planes to catch I was given a "sorry about your luck". nice
In their defense, that "one game" you mention is the Catan Championship game that was being played right there in that area. I was told when I asked when the raffle was going to happen was 2:30 pm or when the championship game was over - whichever was later. It was later.
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James Hébert
United States
Topeka
Kansas
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Since it's likely only a small percentage of BGG members have had direct contact with Mayfair (through support or trade shows like GenCon), bringing it up here is likely to have a lesser effect than direct communication.
Whether you find a majority of people experienced the same thing, you would do well to contact them and let them know the extent of your disappointment. Urge others with similar experience at GenCon to do the same.
Mayfair should hear about it.
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John Perry
United States
Burbank
California
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I've never paid for any scheduled event at the Strategicon conferences other than the entry fee for the Settlers of Catan national tournament thing.
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James Hébert
United States
Topeka
Kansas
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LibMats wrote: I've never paid for any scheduled event at the Strategicon conferences other than the entry fee for the Settlers of Catan national tournament thing.
It's not like we're wine tasting at the same time.... then it would be worth it.
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Martin
United States
Bainbridge Island
Washington
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I saw 500 people who all seemed to be having a blast as the Settlers champ was announced, swag thrown randomly about, and the raffle numbers called out. Many smiles were observed.
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Tara Roy
United States
Fairview Park
Ohio
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We had a similar experience at Origins. Paid $2 each to play some Mayfair game, showed up, and there was no one to help us. When we asked what we had paid the money for, we were told "Access to the game."
Well, hell! We could have had access to the game in the Vendor Area! What we wanted was to *play* the game, all the way through, with someone guiding us through the setup and rules.
Also, at Origins we have the Board Room. I had "access" to the game through them, or through my LGS. If GenCon doesn't have something similar, perhaps that's how Mayfair's been getting away with doing this. Origins seems to be trying to get them to stop it. For my part, I'll never do a Mayfair Room event again.
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Brandon M
United States
Branchburg
New Jersey
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What does any of that have to do with ego?
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Patrick C.
United States
Milford
New Hampshire
Labyrinth: The War On Terror is historically inaccurate & politically biased. It's the one popular game that violates BGG's requirements to keep politics out of gen. discussion. And yet it receives special treatment =US-centric views of this site.
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Too big of an ego=arrogance.
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Rick Baptist
United States
Redlands
California
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Horrible service and experience, thanks for the heads-up. I can't believe you have to pay to play the games, though. It seems like a psycho alternate universe that companies are charging people to demo their games at a convention, to see if you will then buy it for MSRP.
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Jeff Khoury
United States
Coulters
Pennsylvania
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Saltone wrote: Mayfair . . . Is their ego too big?
I've been saying that ever since . . .
 :WARNING! POTENTIAL THREAD DERAILMENT!
Well, I've been saying that for awhile.
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Brandon Pennington
United States
Springfield
Missouri
If your orange juice doesn't burn on the way down, then you need more vodka!
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I didn't pay for any of the Mayfair events, but I did demo a couple of games in the vendor area. Two of the games the 'helpers' were working with three different tables at a time so it was a little frustrating, but I understand them not wanting to have 100 people explaining games. The gentlemen I had teach me Automobile was very professional and knowlegable. I really enjoyed that demo very much and it led me look at acquiring the game. I didn't want to buy it there at the con though as I already had spent my 'souveneir' money
The pay for events don't bother me when some IS there to teach you the game. Fantasy Flight seemed to be pretty good with this, so it is disappointing that Mayfair was lacking. I also tried to play a game in the Rio Grande room (it was free) but we could never find anybody to help us learn a game so we left. I don't fault them really, but I don't want to read a rulebook during the con and play a game, it just takes too long where I could be doing something else. That is what the game library is for in the evenings and they had nearly every Rio Grande game I could think of.
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Ken Grazier
United States
South Euclid
Ohio
Check out my boardgame demoing website! www.geek-craft.com
Near northeast Ohio? Come to one of my game nights! www.geek-craft.com
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Saltone wrote: I went to GenCon this weekend, and overall had a very pleasant experience. The biggest negative I had was most of my experience with Mayfair. I thought that the overall attitude of the people working were elitist, and they were not very helpful.
Examples.
1) My friends and I paid $8 (four of us paid $2 each) for one of the gaming sessions to play Setters America. We showed up on time, were handed the game, and were told that someone would be over in awhile to teach us the game. One of us had played the game at Origins, so we started setting it up. Still no one came over, and we read the instructions and started to play. There were three to four people behind the desk this entire time. After we were 45 minutes into the game, someone comes over and asks if we need help, He then looks and sees what were playing, and says that he doesn't know this game so he can't help us. My question? What did we pay for?
2) The next day, we had signed up to play the beta game Aeroplane. Five of us bought tickets, and we added a sixth (Scott who we just met who had played it at Origins and wanted to play it again. $12) So we sit down with a member of the Mayfair Team who was actually pretty helpful in getting us rolling. They would leave and come back every once in awhile to see how things were going. No issues with them. More than an hour into the game, another Mayfair person walks buy and tells us that the game is not supposed to be played with six players, it is only designed for five. he says that we are not really getting the feel for the game since we have the extra player. He then has a "talk" with the person who helped us set up the game. My question? Your staff are the ones that told us we could let Scott join us. Don't belittle us since we don't know the rules.
3) We finish Aeroplane after two and a half hours. Loved the Game, and after I made a daring move at the end to win, we were all standing there talking about the game. A third Mayfair rep walks up, looks at the board, and ask how I made my last move. I told her, and she states that it was an illegal move. All six of us at the table agreed that according to the rules that we were told, the move was legal. She says "well it wasn't" we proceed to start discussing the rest of the game, and all of us had made similar moves during the game. 2.5 hours later, apparently we had played the entire game wrong. We'll take your $12, and then tell you that you wasted 2.5 hours unbelievable!
4) The raffle and the great ribbon quest. I won't go into a lot of detail here but a couple small points. To get the second tier ribbon, you had to demo three games. They only had four games set up to get those ribbons. Not knowing, I demoed two of those to get my first five ribbons. When I tried to get my second tier ribbons, they knew I had played them, and stated that i could only get one ribbon from each game. In other words no way to get all the second tier ribbons. We even went into the paid gaming area and offered to pay to play a different game. Again we were told that we could pay, but there was no one there to help us.
5) Finally, the raffle. I am a little confused why the raffle was put off on Sunday for more than an hour. You have 500 people waiting on a raffle and you hold it up to finish one game. When I mentioned to someone that we had planes to catch I was given a "sorry about your luck". nice
Overall, GenCon was a blast. But all of us were disappointed with Mayfair. As I said, there are more examples that could be given, but I think just mine are more than enough. i hope Mayfair realizes that those you Crap on when you are on top, you have to pass again on your way down.
As someone who volunteered for Mayfair in the Dealer room at Origins and GenCon this year, I'd like to give my opinion as an attendee, not as someone who works for Mayfair, since I don't, but believe that the facts should be laid out.
1) I can't speak for everyone else, but I know if I know a game, I'll teach it, even if I'm not currently volunteering. I taught Station Master to at least 3 groups in the Mayfair room while the other "on the clock" volunteers were busy teaching other games. If I don't know the game, I'd go to find someone who did or do my best to help you through it. Just because someone volunteers doesn't mean they're going to do a great job, unfortunately. If I could have taken the place of the person who didn't help you, I would have. If you are at GenCon or Origins or any of the small cons near Cleveland, please let me know and I'll be happy to teach you any Mayfair games I know.
2) I know nothing of Aeroplane nor what happened, so I'll just point at my #1.
3) See #2.
4) At least 5 of the games were set up for every day for demoing games. I know that Patrician, Bacchus's Banquet, Lascaux, La Strada, and Theophrastus were available at all times, while Horus and Monuments were available most days. I know that 4 of the games were on one side (Patrician, Bacchus, Lascaux, and La Strada) while the others were usually on the other side. If you're interested in playing any of these games, please see my first point.
5) The big event for GenCon is the final round of the Catan tournament. I believe the raffle was supposed to start whichever happened second: At the end of the Catan tournament, or 2:30. That one game allows someone to fly to Germany to compete in the world championships and represent the US. I know a lot of people couldn't be there at the end, but the company is allowed to do their drawing whenever they want. I went over to the CoolStuffInc booth to enter their drawing for a $100 gift card, but apparently they had drawn it on Saturday. Not saying there couldn't be a better time, but the end of the convention is tradition and it closed at 4 PM.
Sorry to hear that Mayfair didn't live up to your expectations, but I hope you're willing to go to another gaming convention, and assuming I'm there, I'd love to meet you and sit down to teach you or play a game.
Edit: And when it comes to paying to play games, if you played in the Dealer room, all of the games were free to play. In the Mayfair room, you did have to pay a generic token to play a game.
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Anthony DuLac
United States
Minnesota
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Yeah, I find myself somewhat agreeing with the OP on this. I find their annoying "work yourself to the bone for a discount on one of our over-priced games" schtick at GenCon always fairly annoying. I just avoid them in general. And I'll back up with the OP has said here as well about the booth staff - over the years, I've rarely had a decent experience with them.
Avoid. 
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Kevin Rutherford
United States
Perrysburg
Ohio
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I know where the OP is coming from. I had a similar experience a few years ago at Origins where I signed up for a Mayfair event because I had one of their games that I'd never played but read the rules. When I showed up the Mayfair rep asked if I knew how to play. When I said yes he replied "Good, then you can teach it" and walked away.
When I posted it here on BGG Alex Yeager of Mayfair jumped in to defend Mayfair. Others joined in to complain about Mayfair at Origins, too. The thread went on for three full pages. Mayfair, not it's volunteers, have never responded to posts regarding their lack of GMs for their events they put on ever since.
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Ken Grazier
United States
South Euclid
Ohio
Check out my boardgame demoing website! www.geek-craft.com
Near northeast Ohio? Come to one of my game nights! www.geek-craft.com
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kevruth wrote: Mayfair, not it's volunteers, have never responded to posts regarding their lack of GMs for their events they put on ever since.
...I just responded, and I was a volunteer. I explained what I saw and felt to be true. I'm not saying that there aren't GMs who just know one game and teach that one game, but there are people like me and a few friends I made at Origins and GenCon who do their best to learn a multitude of games so they can teach what others can't.
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Kevin Rutherford
United States
Perrysburg
Ohio
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Kengi wrote: kevruth wrote: Mayfair, not it's volunteers, have never responded to posts regarding their lack of GMs for their events they put on ever since. ...I just responded, and I was a volunteer. I explained what I saw and felt to be true. I'm not saying that there aren't GMs who just know one game and teach that one game, but there are people like me and a few friends I made at Origins and GenCon who do their best to learn a multitude of games so they can teach what others can't.
I said Mayfair employees, not volunteers.
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Ken Grazier
United States
South Euclid
Ohio
Check out my boardgame demoing website! www.geek-craft.com
Near northeast Ohio? Come to one of my game nights! www.geek-craft.com
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kevruth wrote: Kengi wrote: kevruth wrote: Mayfair, not it's volunteers, have never responded to posts regarding their lack of GMs for their events they put on ever since. ...I just responded, and I was a volunteer. I explained what I saw and felt to be true. I'm not saying that there aren't GMs who just know one game and teach that one game, but there are people like me and a few friends I made at Origins and GenCon who do their best to learn a multitude of games so they can teach what others can't. I said Mayfair employees, not volunteers.
...and I read it as the word "nor", not "not"... I think I need to go home, this day at work is messing with my eyes.
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Kevin Rutherford
United States
Perrysburg
Ohio
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Kengi wrote: kevruth wrote: Kengi wrote: kevruth wrote: Mayfair, not it's volunteers, have never responded to posts regarding their lack of GMs for their events they put on ever since. ...I just responded, and I was a volunteer. I explained what I saw and felt to be true. I'm not saying that there aren't GMs who just know one game and teach that one game, but there are people like me and a few friends I made at Origins and GenCon who do their best to learn a multitude of games so they can teach what others can't. I said Mayfair employees, not volunteers. ...and I read it as the word "nor", not "not"... I think I need to go home, this day at work is messing with my eyes.
No worries. 
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Sam Browne
United States
Pennsylvania
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I can personally understand why Mayfair charges to play games in their room. Mayfair puts a good bit of money into renting out those spaces so that people who enjoy their games can come play them. As someone who volunteered for their booth, I had a lot of people tell me that they don't spend a whole lot of time elsewhere during conventions. In Mayfair's defense, they wanted to do a ribbon that you could buy at the beginning of the convention which would let you play any of their games in their room without having to pay any generic tokens, but sadly something was messed up and they weren't off (needless to say Alex Yeager was less than happy about this).
When it comes to the ribbon quest, a lot of people enjoy doing the ribbon quest and don't feel that it's a waste of their time or that they have to work hard to get it. I know whenever someone asked me what games they could play to get their commodities I would point them to the (5 - 7) games that they could play to get them, and try to give them a general idea as to where they were. I will admit that the tables would get a lot of people around them and sometimes you had to wait to play a game, but you could easily have played these games in their room after 8. As from 8 - 12 every night you could pay two generics to have opening Mayfair gaming.
I've personally never had an issue playing games in the Mayfair room, sometimes it takes a little while for someone to get over to you, but you also have to realized Mayfair had over 2,000 people in their room this year. They had a considerable increase in number of people and I don't think they were quite expecting it and I have to say I think they may have been a little understaffed. I know a lot of the people working in the room did their hardest to teach people who needed help, but I also know there were a few at GenCon that I particularly did not like and felt were less than helpful.
As for you sitting down in the Mayfair room to play Quarriors, you have to understand, they rented out that room for the sole purpose of offering space for people to play Mayfair games. I sat down with one of the other booth volunteers to talk about what we were going to do and he wanted to read through the directions of a non-Mayfair game he had just picked up and was asked to put it away. So it wasn't just limited to you. I can understand why you were a little irked because it was on Sunday after they had finished packing up and were beginning to inventory their games, but there was a dedicated area for opening gaming.
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