PLAY EXPO (formerly Replay), 13-14 October 2012, Manchester

[Helensification]

I read the last couple of pages with interest and was intending to put my tuppence worth in earlier but got sidetracked and now after seeing the latest posts, I see that mk has eloquently stated everything I was thinking.

£20 is totally reasonable for the weekend when you consider everything that is available and the hidden costs of putting on such a big event that people do not always appreciate.

Shame about the booking fee but that is the way things work these days whether we like it or not. I paid £5.65 booking fee on tickets to concert at the MEN Arena. Now that is extortionate.

[DPrinny]

Booking fees are the work of Satan's leed accountant thought

[markopoloman]

£22 is a problem? Wow!

Where else can you get what is on offer for that amount?

[samhain81]

would love to go, but Manchester is just too great a distance from where I live. Shame

[Antiriad2097]

You live in New Zealand?

[psj3809]

Where do you live then ? Theres a chance you may be able to get a lift with someone, theres people coming from all over the country, Scotland, Bournemouth, Kent, Bristol etc.

Plus booking a train months in advance is cheap as chips. Looking at your previous posts you seem to be Watford way. Easy as anything getting a train to Manchester.

Its the UK, its not New York- Los Angeles or that ! You can venture up to these scary cobbled streets of the North you know !

[consolepassion]

Last year we had visitors from Norway, Italy, Holland, Denmark, Spain, Ireland and Belgium!

[subzero]

does the tickety place take paypal?

[StarshipUK]

I have a valid point and am disgusted everyone is taking this p1ss (and organisers are calling me a troll), especially after someone posted a thread complaining about the venue location (which was stupid) and just got sensible replies.

To be fair steve, i only ever notice negative posts from you reguarding ANYTHING by the replay events team! you obviously see them as competition for some reason, and I can only assume that you are bitter that they have achieved somthing that you couldn't!

Negative? In most cases I have tried to help them out - E.g. pointing out several mistakes on the Geek 2012 website where the content was obviously just lifted from another website and not checked/corrected. You were also probably akin to accessing and reading the posts on the "Private" forum about the things that went wrong at the first Replay event that I was involved with, and I expect if they had not been pointed out clearly by someone, the improvements would not have been made for the next one - which I heard was much better organised.

Competition? You could not be further than the truth and I have lost a lot of interest in gaming events after providing kit to several events (upon their request), getting nothing in return and sometimes not even a "Thank You", in some cases having kit go missing or getting damaged and in one case having a specific piece of equipment stolen which led me into a depression and almost resulted in me selling up everything I own. Recently someone involved with an upcoming event has asked me to take a specific piece of kit to it, where someone else involved with it has then told me not to take it and I can't be bothered with all these politics and hassle anymore. I can assure you I do not class large commercial events (or any event to be honest) as competition as they are all different and unique. I ran my own little local "Essex" event last year and got a better turn out than I expected, but did not enjoy the hassle of organising and running it (while also trying to run my own business which takes up a lot of my spare time). I doubt I will run another one as it is a lot of hard work, generally in return for nothing (in the case of my event I lost money from it, paying for everything out of my own pocket). At the moment it even looks unlikely I will be going to RV2012 Part 2. I am quite tight when it comes to money (probably something to do with being in debt) and have always been against these ticketing companies charging excess fees and overcharging. In most cases you can get around these fees, but sometimes you cannot- its normally worth asking to find out.

Those are pretty harsh words you have said (I can only assume that you are bitter that they have achieved somthing that you couldn't!) and I will be happy to talk to you about it more when I see you next weekend. I will also want to talk to Dave regarding his comment.

Another point to mention is we're VAT registered now so 20% of ticket sales go straight to HMRC but we didn't put our ticket price up meaning we are 20% out of pocket on ticket sales compared to previous shows...

Just my tuppence.

AndyB

Being VAT registered works both ways. You will also be able to claim back VAT on expenses such as Venue Hire, Vehicle Rental (travel), Fuel, Hotel Costs, Advertising Expenses etc... You would not have been able to claim back the VAT on these expenses before now. I expect most of the commercial exhibitors at the event are also VAT registered. Also if you are expecting 10,000 visitors (as I read on a website somewhere), then you will make more money overall from the increased ticket sales.

[mohicankid]

not harsh, honest, and if i got the wrong impression from your posts, well what can i say, thats the impression i got, but hey, like you say, we'll talk next week, and i'm ALWAYS happy to talk!

[EDIT] you know what, i'm having a good day, so i'll extend this post a little! i'm very suprised that you say you have recieved "nothing in return, in some cases not even a thank you" firstly what were you expecting, and second, i can only suggest that if you have never recieved a thanks from replay, then you havn't stuck around long enough, they have always thanked me, and i and lots of others have always benifited from a post event meal!

it is a shame that you have lost equipment in the past, its always one of the risks, i can only suggest that you talk to the organiser of the event, and hope he was insured!

i can also sympethise on the loss of money thing, the lucky dip has left me a LOT out of pocket over the past few years, but fudge it, its only money, and its always fun! or it always should be!

i always got the impression that holding the smaller events was always about the challenge, the challenge of setting it all up, getting all the equipment together, making the flock gather, making people smile, and hell if your lucky, you might make SOME of your money back! some come back for more, most don't! i'd like to see you run more events, as i'd like to make it to one, but thats all on you!
again like i said already, my coments are not supposed to be harsh, but honest and as i ALWAYS say...
Honesty IS the best policy!


even when the truth hurts!
see you next week!

[StarshipUK]

My opinion, but I still think it is harsh to say I am "bitter that they have achieved somthing that you couldn't" when that is not the case at all and you have not properly heard my point of view (which I will talk to you more about when I see you). I was also an early part in what they have achieved during the CGEU philosophy stage, up until r3play.

I'll admit that Dave (Arcadian) has thanked me in the past and been appreciative (I have always got on with Dave so don't really understand his recent troll comments and attitude), as has Markie. As well as R3play I also helped out a lot with the pre-r3play promo events at other gaming events including VCF at Bletchley Park, RCGF and a Pinball Show. I have to say that VCF was my favourite event that year, and the set up with systems and games we chose was fantastic even though there was some equipment failures with my SNES dying and a Vectrex dying due to what we later thought might be due to dirty power (the people in the tent came off even worse with dampness problems).

What was I expecting- from the events in the past I helped out with that were for charity just a meaningful "Thank You" would have been nice. I also will not donate my time or equipment to a commercial organisation for free when people who are doing less are getting paid for it and I am not. I would expect most people would agree the same, but perhaps not in this mad, mad world.

Again I will admit I eventually got some money back off r3play to pay for damaged equipment (only what I had paid for it) and equipment I sold to them, but for the Multicart that was stolen at RCM I never saw a penny, and they generally seemed very disinterested about it being stolen.

The lucky dip is a bit different as that is done for Charity and has a good reason and meaning. The event I ran made nothing for charity and I lost a lot from it (leaflet printing, time promoting it, competition prizes etc...). The only place which made money was the pub from increased bar sales from the extra custom I bought them, and I did not even get a free drink or "Thank You" from them for that.

For me the smaller events were about being a part of the community and giving something back. Its always nice when the event visitors thank you for taking the equipment along. Seeing people using the equipment and having fun also brings some pleasure, but I have always hated the setting up and even more so the packing away part, and for some events in the past having to also unload and load all the equipment to your vehicle on your own without anyone (organisers) offering to help or helping (which helps when you have to load and unload all the equipment at the other end on your own anyway).

[sscott]

Well I thanked you at Rewind, the TVs you brought in particular were a life saver, anyone of us who have hosted an event in the past has spent money you will not get back (but personally I couldn't think of a better way of spending money and I'm gonna do it again next year), I brought 40 of my own systems and two were broken and sadly that's probably how it is, thefts are completely unforgivable of course but that too is a risk that you can't prevent. I think attendees are very appreciative of the effort that anyone puts into funding, organising and volunteering at events though the thanks often given retrospectively when the organised chaos is over.

[Lorfarius]

When I did Retro North I had a couple of pieces of my own kit broken, including a recently bought Vectrex which cost me round £75 at the time. It was a shame but I was so happy everyone had a good time and just put it down to part of running an event. Sadly these things happen but its best not to focus on it.

[DPrinny]

Had two games nicked at the Lass.
Mario kart 64 and Perfect Dark
Ok not a huge wad of cash for them, but I have had Perfect Dark since it came out. (so £40 then)
Mario Karts price has gone way up (was the pubs)

Now I have flash cards and tape.

[SirClive]

Guys I am sorry but this really isn't the place for this discussion. Please allow people using the thread to get information on the event the courtesy of not having it polluted with issues from previous events.

If we can please limit the thread to Play Expo discussions, anything off topic can be raised in a separate thread.

However, one last point from me...
Steve - for the record if I have been one of those who have not thanked you in the past then I sincerely apologise and would like to state that the support and kit you provided to Retro Reunited was absolutely invaluable and I could not have put that event on without you. Sometimes when you have a lot of people providing different types of support it is easy to miss someone off, so sorry if I did that.