That said, I want to go on record as saying that Matrix did the right thing in unveiling the game at Origins. Origins is historically the largest board wargame convention in the US, and where bette to introduce your product to other people who might be interested, but we not aware of your product. My hats off to them for getting a few advanced copies ready to sell there. Each copy that they sold at Origins will help them recover the costs spent for the game, and may even lead to other copies being sold as well. You have to remember that Origins is a GAMA show, and many wargame distributors and retailers were there. You want to have them see the product and maybe pick up a few copies to take back to hobby shops.
Even if they had not sold copies at the show, we probably still would not have been able to get the game any faster. Origins, and to a degree Gencon, has always been about new releases, and when I used to go to one (or both) of the shows each year, it was always coolto be able to pick up copies of stuff that wouldn't be hitting the stores until the week after the convention. It aded to the fun.
Sadly, Gencon is no longer in Milwaukee and the cost vs fun factor of cgoing to Gencon or Origins can't compete with Historicon. For those who don't know, Historicon is in Lancaster, PA July 22-25 and is an internationally known wargaming show. Unlike the others, Historicon is an all miniatures convention. No RPGs, just miniatures. It costs a lot less to attend ($20 admission, all games are free). For a grognard, you have a better chance of finding that historical game from your favorite period. The convention theme this year is D-Day, so there will be a bunch of Normandy invasion games running (10-20), but hundreds of games covering all periods will be going on. I plan to get in on some WWII naval and air battle stuff myself. Shame Matrix isn't coming. I'd bet they could sell a few copies at the ocnvention there as well. I remember Talonsoft used to come back when they were publishing Grigsby Games.
