DLCon the 6th: Texas, Take Two

[superaielman]

Maybe, depends on school/work. Would prefer a central house. Hotels lead to way too much fragmentation, which sucks. A house gives us one place to meet and just hang out, and not have to worry about bedtimes and the like. It also gives us a big enough place to do and set up group functions.

[metroid composite]

Totally planning on it.

Will need some level of privacy+clean space at some point during the con.  (Much less frequently than at DLC5, though!  Yay!)  This will probably mean not sleeping on a couch.

[Halbarad]

I'll be perfectly blunt: a big part of the reluctance with the rental house for me is the finances involved. I don't know what Gate and QR's experience has been with the ones in Cali, but the rental we tried for DLC2 required half the rental cost as a deposit up front just to reserve the house (and this was never fully refunded). Given that the places that look to be our best options are running $750 a night, a three day rental is going to run us $2250 in total, and I have basically zero ability to front even a quarter of that as a deposit on my own any time soon. It'd mean I have to start hitting confirmed people for deposit money rather soon and given the disaster that happened at DLC2, I'm very hesitant to dun you guys for money that I might not be able to return again.

As far as group activities go, arrangements can be made to have those at other locations - like going out to a restaurant or having them at my parents' place. There's very little at the con that requires the whole group to be together (the music quiz is about the only thing I can really think of), the rest of it is just convenience for hanging out with folks.

[Meeplelard]

Tentative Yes for now, supporting the house.

[Tide]

Will have to get closer to the date to be sure
I am *likely* going to be working. I say likely because I said that last con, and hey, look what happened >_>. And, if I am, it would depend completely on whether or not I can get a couple of days off.

[metroid composite]

On house rental...my honest opinion is that it won't work without QR (contract ninja).

Did you know: every successful contract has ten hidden QRs? (You just can't see them).

[OblivionKnight]

Will post more later, just saw forums up, drove 2 hours through the snow, need to run to work.

The biggest issue for me time-wise are students.  This mostly, for me, cuts out August 15th and beyond.  July to before that time is best, but I can do June too (I have students, but I also have a slave resident that will be there at the same time who can do a lot of the work with them).  After August 15th is hard, but I may be able to do it. 

Prefer a house if possible. 

Planning on renting a car.

[VySaika]

Our experience with the houses in Cali are that they do indeed usually want half up front as a deposit to reseve the timeslot you want the house for.

Also, note that both years we did cover roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the costs for the house ourselves. (Not because anyone stiffed us, but because we did it on purpose to keep the prices down for other folks and because we had the money to do it).

So yeah, if renatal house can't be swung I will definately understand.

Though, on that note, Hal does your appartment complex have any sort of party room/meeting room/whatever space that could be rented for a couple days? Some do and some don't, so I figured I'd ask. If so, that may be a reletively cheap way to swing some more gathering space.

[QuietRain]

Our experience with the houses in Cali are that they do indeed usually want half up front as a deposit to reseve the timeslot you want the house for.

Actually, they always wanted the full amount up front.  Just saying.  I always paid out of my March bonus check from work that was enough to cover it and just got it back (mostly) after the con.

[Halbarad]

They do have a meeting room, but it's only available in the evenings (it's the leasing office, so they need it for conducting business during the day). It's not terribly expensive - I wouldn't have an issue covering that cost entirely myself if it came down to it - but we'd only have it from 6 or 7 pm until midnight.

My biggest qualm with the rental is "is it really going to be worth the extra effort, trouble, and cost when we could do quite well - maybe not perfectly - with a lot less struggle?"

I also have a pretty strong feeling that either way, most of the console gaming is going to end up at my apartment anyway just because I've got a pretty nice setup for it and I'm not terribly inclined to rip the whole thing apart and move it around.

[Tide]

Whoops, herp derp. I forgot important accounting dates, I am silly :|. If its in June, its better if its in Early June then Mid/Late. June 15th/30th are typical deadlines for self employed business people to file their taxes in Canada. So if the con is then, I will likely be busy and will be unable to afford time off. Early July is typically going to be the best date because its just after the last time crunch, meaning their is typically little work. Also, Canada Day is July 1st, meaning that early July period is ripe for taking a few extra days off.

Of course, none of this applies if I am working in Hong Kong because this will probably change just about everything.

On the issue of house or not, I prefer having a bed to sleep (think I mentioned it in chat). Sleeping on the couch the first day at Pyro's did not work for me and I got sick when I came back to Toronto. However, if nobody else wants to do housing (like in Mini-meet), I can make that sacrifice as necessary!

EDIT NOTE: In case that wasn't clear, Early July is much better for me in terms of showing up. Still Maybe for now, but probably unlikely.

[Yoshiken]

On the housing thing, I'm content with pretty much anything so whatever's decided on is fine with me. Generally speaking, the cheaper, the better, but odds are if I can afford to go to DLCon at all, I'll be able to throw in whatever extra.

[Lady Door]

The logistics of renting a house do really suck, and it's definitely something we should look into.

I far, far, FAR prefer the house rental.

Meeplecon was great, but it felt very different from the cons immediately before and after. I got to meet Soppy's mom (who was great), have home cooking (also great), and hang around with a smaller group of people (again, great!), but I DEFINITELY missed out on some of the things that happen simply because you have a large group of people all together in the same place, like the drinking excursion, early morning gaming, late late late late night gaming, etc.

That said, that sort of thing can more or less be approximated if we happen to steal a portion of a hotel's inventory for the DLers.

The need for a big central meeting place is fleeting but, again, being able to herd cats into a big room is a lot easier than trying to convince them to cram themselves into X's room at 3pm. Plus it's nice to be able to find somewhere to wander to where you know something will always be going on and not have to try and PLAN things (and just to reiterate, planning really does not work so well with the DL <_<).

In the end... dunno? Obviously don't want to bankrupt anyone over this, and we should consider making this a little more Organizer Friendly if we want to keep holding it. Various methods to that end -- like opening up a Paypal account into which people who are going can drop a deposit -- are worth looking into.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I am against a house. Basically only because I hated sleeping on the floor at DLC5.

[Halbarad]

For more info on using my apartment as a meeting space (for those not in chat):

My current apartment is pretty sizeable. I have a large living room and dining room, a separate den, a decent-sized (not huge) kitchen, and a bedroom. Given the furniture I have (or will have by con time), I estimate we can probably fit people as follows:

Living room (contains console setup): 5-7 people
Dining room (will have a table, can likely set up Arkham or other board games here): 5-6 people
Den (PC setup): 3-4 people, PC gaming or other activities
Bedroom: 3-4 people, talking or card games (not a lot of extra floor space in here)

The bedroom would be a bit cramped with 4 people unless people sit on the bed, but aside from that the other rooms should fit that number of people fairly comfortably. This gives us space for anywhere from 16-21 people in my apartment at any given time.

Cons have been running in the 20-25 person range from what I recall, so this would let -almost- but not all of the con be at my apartment at any one time.

[Idun]

I will pitch in on a rental home deposit. I'd like a little more information about the place though (how many rooms, etc). I'll still be planning on a hotel room, with a kitchen (:, in case this plan falls out.  . . .  you rang for room service? (:

If the date is late June, when would you need a deposit?

Is there a commuter train/transportation in Austin?

[Hunter Sopko]

I would also pitch in to any pre-con House fund. Hill adjacent is preferable, as long as there is no Betrayal.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Aww... this doesn't look good. I was really hoping to go to the next Texas con because it's close enough to my native US city in Florida that I could drive there.

But I won't be back in the states until mid-August...

If postponing passed the summer and into the fall is even slightly an option here, I would like to know what people think as I -really- want to go to DLC6. It seems like it would be an awesome welcome home to the US.

If it just screws everything up and it's too late to move dates around, then I understand, but I'm hoping it'll be an option for people.

[Talaysen]

I'm really for the house since it sounds like any other way so far has us really cramped if we all want to do something together, and that's no good.  And also what Lady Door said.  The sleeping arrangements do suck, though.  I personally don't mind sleeping on the floor as long as I have a sleeping bag or blanket (that was the biggest problem last year; no blanket meant it was FREEZING), but it seems to be a problem for others.  Willing to go either way here, but yeah, leaning towards house at the moment.

Also, willing to help pitch in for deposits for whatever.

[Idun]

This may sound silly, but I do have air mattresses.

[OblivionKnight]

*Comment deleted due to being inappropriate*

[Idun]

/:

[metroid composite]

(that was the biggest problem last year; no blanket meant it was FREEZING)

Texas.

Problem Solved.

[Halbarad]

Okay. After reviewing with Alex and discussing options, I'm pretty much set on the hotel/apartment option. The rental houses are about as much of a commute as the lake house from DLC2 would have been (for taking international folks over), and not in a particularly convenient area for stuff like food or entertainment without driving. We've walked over the apartment and have both agreed that we can fit probably 80-90% of the con in here at once without too much trouble. We've got enough folks coming that we might be able to arrange a group discount on hotel rooms, and if we need a large group meeting area for an evening (such as for the music quiz) we can rent the leasing office at my apartment complex for a night.

Given this option, I'd budget $30 per night for housing, plus whatever your personal preferences are for food - the hotel should have breakfast available most days, but lunch/dinner we'll be eating elsewhere.

Given that there will be a decent amount of car trips needed (if not very long ones), it'll be to our advantage if one or two people can rent cars in addition to having myself, Alex, and Idun as drivers. OK's volunteered for one, but having another wouldn't hurt at all. If you're not renting a car, consider setting some money aside and chipping in to help cover for the folks that are.

[VySaika]

Once things get further along(after March at least, since that's when the bonus thing happens), I'm down for doing what I did at DLC2 and reserving a room in advance and letting whoever stays in it pay me back at the con for thier shares.

After Hal talks to the hotel about the group discount thing, of course~