With every year we try to publish random statistics about the Digital Gaming area of Dragon*Con.  This year was the best year ever for us in many ways but not the best in all ways.  All in all, Digital Gaming was a great success, much in part to the dedicated staff, support from Dragon*Con, and as always, the sponsors.

Receipts

Dragon*Con 2009 was a disappointment in terms of receipts.  We operate as a LAN Center environment charging a nominal fee of $5 for 2 hours of gaming.  Receipts were down roughly 50% this year due to several factors:

• Increased number of tournaments limiting the amount of free time available.
• Introduction of console gaming, which was free to play.
• Introduction of Rock Band area which was free to play.

Receipts are by far the smallest indicator of success since we really only charge to help keep people from hogging the computers during open play.

Tournaments

We held 18 tournaments over the course of the convention.  By far the most popular tournaments were Battlefield 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Halo 3, Gears of War 2, Street Fighter 4, Counterstrike: Source, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress , and of course, Rock Band 2.  Some tournament ideas were busts (Mechwarrior 4 and Madden come to mind), others had lots of promise but bad time slots (DotA).

The plan next year is to have fewer tournaments centered around what has become gaming prime time (6pm - 2am) and leave the rest of the time for open gaming.  We'll also probably compress the tournament times rather than blocking an entire 4 hour block for tournaments, utilize two hour blocks for quicker tournaments and then four hour blocks for longer tournaments (such as double elimination tournaments).

Featured Events

The Global Agenda preview was a huge success with a line outside of the gaming area of folks waiting to get in to preview the next generation MMO from Hi-Rez studios.  Hi-Rez was out in force with people, giveaways, and other great items and decorations.

The FunCom event was pretty good as well.  Smaller but cozier giving those who attended an up close and personal interview with Glen "Famine" Swan and several of the developers involved in the Age of Conan game and upcoming expansion.

The charity Rock Band tournament was a huge success with many bands participating and friends and family cheering them on.  Battle and Brew did an awesome job emceeing the event and lots of fun was had by all.

Prizes

This year was a banner year for prizes.  With high profile prizes by iz3d and Coolermaster and lots of other prizes by all of our other sponsors, this year was not lacking in the prize department.  As always, we love and thank our sponsors for Digital Gaming events.  These events would simply not be as fun or rewarding without you.

Foot Traffic

This year was a banner year in terms of foot traffic in the area.  Despite last minute moves in location (exactly one floor up from where we had planned to be), we still had record numbers in terms of people who managed to find and enjoy the area.  An estimated 4,500 people stopped by the Digital Gaming area in large parts due to iz3d who had a demonstration area showing off their 3d monitors and the Rock Band station which attracted people far and wide to come play and de-stess for the evening.

As in previous years, the 6pm - 2am time slot were the most popular times for people entering the are, some to cheer on those participating in tournaments; others coming in to play or watch those playing Rock Band.

Web Traffic

The website had great numbers this year with over 2,500 unique visitors from August onwards and over 7,000 page views.  Other statistics include:

• Average time on site: 2 minutes and 44 seconds.
• Number of sponsor banners served:  24,549
• Largest sponsor banner click through percentage: 3.40% (iz3d - 127 click throughs)
• Largest Traffic Sources:  Dragon*Con Gaming Website, Direct, Global Agenda Forums, Facebook, and Livejournal.
• Most popular pages: Tournaments and Gaming Catalog.