indiana convention center location s indianapolis indiana country united states inaugurated 1968 attendance 60 819 in 2016 1 organized by gen con llc website http www.gencon.com gen con is the largest tabletop game convention in north america by both attendance and number of events . it features traditional pen and paper board and card games including role playing games miniatures wargames live action role playing games collectible card games and strategy games . gen con also features computer games . attendees engage in a variety of tournament and interactive game sessions . in 2015 gen con had 61 423 unique attendees 2 making it one of the largest conventions in north america . citation needed established in 1968 as a wargames convention by gary gygax who later co created dungeons & dragons gen con was first held in lake geneva wisconsin . the convention s location moved between various sites in wisconsin from 1972 to 1984 before becoming fixed in milwaukee wisconsin in 1985 where it remained until moving to its present location indianapolis indiana in 2003 . other gen con conventions have been held sporadically in various locations around the united states as well as internationally . in 1976 gen con became the property of tsr inc. the gaming company co founded by gygax . tsr and gen con were acquired by wizards of the coast in 1997 which was subsequently acquired by hasbro . hasbro then sold gen con to the former ceo of wizards of the coast peter adkison in 2002 . gen con spent a short time under chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to a lawsuit brought against them by lucasfilm in 2008 . 3 4 the organization emerged from bankruptcy protection a year later while still holding its regularly scheduled events . contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 tsr 1.3 mecca 1.4 wizards of the coast 1.5 indianapolis 1.6 international 2 events 3 issues 4 timeline 4.1 1967 2002 gen con 4.2 1976 1977 gen con west 4.3 1978 1984 gen con south 4.4 1981 1982 gen con east 4.5 1990 2008 european gen con 4.6 1994 2004 gen con barcelona 4.7 1998 2008 gen con uk 4.8 1998 2000 gen con benelux 4.9 2003 2006 gen con socal 4.10 2003 present gen con indy 4.11 2008 2009 gen con australia 4.12 scheduled future events 5 footnotes 6 citations 7 sources 8 external links history edit early years edit part of the exhibit hall space during gen con indy 2010 . the international federation of wargaming ifw hosted a number of small regional conventions in the months following its foundation in 1967 including the first annual club convention in malvern pa in august . 5 some ifw gamers in the chicago area could not make the journey to malvern so they had an informal gathering that same weekend at the lake geneva wisconsin home of gary gygax . 6 7 later this gathering would come to be referred to as gen con 0 . in 1968 gygax rented lake geneva s horticultural hall to hold a follow up ifw convention the lake geneva wargames convention later known as the gen con gaming convention . 8 9 the ifw which gygax co founded put up 35 of the 50 horticultural hall fee to sponsor this first gen con . 10 8 almost 100 people attended . at the second gen con in august 1969 gygax met rob kuntz 11 and dave arneson . 9 12 13 during these early conventions the events centered around board games and miniature wargames . 8 gen con s name is a derivation of geneva convention due to the convention s origins in lake geneva . it is also a play on words as the geneva conventions are a set of important international treaties regarding war the subject of many of the early games . 14 starting in 1971 gen con was co sponsored by the lake geneva tactical studies association . 15 tsr edit beginning in 1975 gen con was managed and hosted by tsr inc. original publisher of the dungeons & dragons role playing game . 16 during the following decade the event grew and was hosted at a variety of southern wisconsin locations including an american legion hall george williams college and the former lake geneva playboy resort . in 1978 the convention moved to the university of wisconsin parkside campus in kenosha where it remained through 1984 . 17 a gen con west was held in california for only two years 1976 1978 . 18 from 1978 to 1984 gen con south was held in jacksonville florida 18 and gen con east was held in 1981 and 1982 first in cherry hill new jersey and then in chester pennsylvania . 18 mecca edit in 1985 gen con moved to the milwaukee exposition & convention center & arena mecca in milwaukee 17 due to a need for more space . 19 after the move attendance steadily rose from 5 000 to a peak of 30 000 in 1995 making gen con the premier event in the role playing game industry . 20 21 in 1992 gen con broke all previous attendance records for any u.s. gaming convention with more than 18 000 people in attendance . 19 gen con briefly joined forces with its major competitor the origins game fair 19 and the two were run as a single convention in 1988 . wizards of the coast debuted magic the gathering at gen con in august 1993 ; the game proved extremely popular selling out its supply of 2.5 million cards which had been scheduled to last until the end of the year . 22 the ensuing collectible card game craze has been credited with generating the extra attendance that produced the 1995 record . 23 a sculpture of a beholder in the convention center complex gen con indy 2010 . wizards of the coast edit wizards of the coast purchased tsr in 1997 which was in turn purchased by hasbro in 1999 . gen con moved to the midwest express center mec now the midwest airlines center in 1998 . in november 1999 wizards announced that gen con would leave milwaukee after the 2002 convention . 17 peter adkison founder of wizards of the coast purchased gen con from hasbro in may 2002 24 forming gen con llc to run the convention . the first show under adkison s leadership took place that august in milwaukee . 25 indianapolis edit the convention moved to indianapolis in 2003 . peter adkison attributed the move to the lack of hotel space the convention center layout and frequently broken escalators in milwaukee s convention center . 24 26 a game of the settlers of catan being played at gen con indy 2003 in indianapolis the convention now called gen con indy continued to draw between 20 000 and 30 000 visitors each year at the indiana convention center . 27 28 wizards of the coast helped celebrate the 30th anniversary of the dungeons & dragons game at gen con indy 2004 . 29 in 2005 gen con indy generated the most direct visitor spending of any annual convention in indianapolis . 30 adkison also restarted the convention in california this time named gen con socal . smaller than its mid western counterpart it drew approximately 6 300 attendees in 2005 31 making it the third largest consumer hobby game convention in north america . it was held in the anaheim convention center . in spite of adkison saying that he did not want gen con to become a mini e3 in 2003 24 when e3 downsized in mid 2006 gen con llc announced it would provide more show space for video game businesses . 32 gen con described their intention to pick up where e3 left off . 33 also in 2006 gen con llc ran the official star wars convention called star wars celebration which was held in the banner years of the franchise . the indiana convention center completed a major expansion in 2011 in large part to accommodate increased attendance to gen con at a cost of over 275 million . 34 international edit gen con was held in europe in the 1990s with the first annual european gen con held in sussex england in 1990 and gen con barcelona in spain in 1994 . the european convention was held in england for 8 years through 1997 . there was no european gen con in 1998 but it reappeared in belgium in 1999 for a single year before again reappearing in paris for three years between 2006 and 2008 . benelux gen con was held in the netherlands in 1998 and re occurred there in 2000 . gen con barcelona occurred five years in 1994 6 1999 and 2004 . gen con uk was held between 1998 and 2008 . 18 a gen con was held in brisbane australia in july 2008 and again in september 2009 . a third gen con australia was scheduled for 2010 but was canceled . 35 events edit the gen con indy 2003 exhibit hall cardhalla at gen con 2005 the convention features a large exhibit hall filled with game publishers artists and related businesses wherein most attendees spend at least 100 . 36 the only game to be on the event schedule every year since the convention s inception is fight in the skies 8 37 later renamed dawn patrol . the d & d championship series formerly the d & d open is a long running series of dungeons & dragons games at gen con beginning in 1977 . 15 the rpga beginning in 1981 has run large numbers of events at gen con so extensive they have been given their own category . the rpga events are primarily living games where players create characters who persist between events . the rpga first ran events in 1981 . 15 the game base 7 games library from the 2003 gen con indy in 1987 a games library was added from which attendees could borrow games . 15 appearing in 1994 was the first magic the gathering world championship won by zak dolan who defeated france s bertrand lestr e in the finals . gen con has featured a number of events that raise money for a variety of charities . these include cardhalla in which donated cards are used to build a large city . attendees are then invited to throw coins at the city to destroy it . the coins are collected for charity . cardhalla was first run in 1999 . the gaming group nascrag has run dungeons & dragons events at gen con since 1980 . nascrag events sometimes donate their ticket fees to charity . the games run tend to be humorous . the gen con live games auction is another long running event though the majority of the auction including the consignment store is not run for charity . original editor of dragon magazine tim kask runs a dungeons & dragons game at gen con 2009 . a colossal d20 and nearly as colossal d8 remain calm at gen con 2007 . the en world rpg awards the ennies are an annual awards ceremony devoted to role playing games . established in 2001 the ennies have been hosted at gen con indy since 2002 and are organized and owned by en world a d & d d20 system news website . 38 a sculpture mock up of the famous red box dungeons & dragons set gen con indy 2010 . true dungeon is an immersive life sized dungeon crawl live action role playing game larp run at gen con since 2003 featuring a series of puzzles and scenarios designed to recreate a d & d environment . issues edit 2008 was a tumultuous year legally for gen con llc . on january 10 lucasfilm filed a lawsuit against them claiming breach of contract conversion