The UK Games Expo Survival Guide

That time of the year is upon us once again. Spring gives way to summer, and the halls of the NEC open their doors to the throngs of excited gamers heading to the UK Games Expo. If you’ve never been before and have no idea what I’m talking about, then picture this.

Three enormous halls, two of them crammed full of vendors, publishers and designers who want to help you part with your cash, and the third a massive open hall full of tables for tournaments and open gaming, where you can sit down to play your newly acquired games.

We’re not talking about hundreds of people here, like you’d expect at a bigger local convention. We’re talking about tens of thousands of people. It’s huge, it’s noisy, it’s incredibly busy, and if you don’t know what to expect, it can be very daunting too. I’ll lean on my own experiences here to help you make the most of your trip, while helping to avoid common problems and pitfalls.

I’m not talking about maintaining Victorian standards of modesty. Nobody is going to faint if you show your calves or don’t have your undershirt buttoned up to your throat. I’m talking about making sure you remain as comfortable as possible over a possible three days, which can easily run past 12 hours each.

Wear decent footwear! I cannot overstate this. If you’re not a wheelchair user, wear comfortable, supportive shoes. If you wear flip flops, your feet will be squashed a hundred times a day. Wear decent shoes or trainers with some arch support, ideally. I live a pretty sedentary life, and the sudden transition to doing 25,000+ steps a day for three days is a shock to the system - and the feet.

It gets hot too, so if you’re going to dress warm for the trip in, or for the trips to and from the car park or hotels, wear layers. The halls do have air conditioning, but when you’re in a space with 30,000 people all generating body heat, not to mention the sun beating down on the building (if we’re lucky), it can get very warm.

Oh, and please practice good personal hygiene. I should feel bad mentioning it, but people get sweaty, and it can get really ripe in there, so double up on antiperspirant if you’re worried about it.

There are food and drink places in the NEC, but they are expensive and very busy. If neither of these things bothers you, then it’s not so much of a worry, but for the rest of us, some forward planning pays dividends here.

Bring a bottle of water with you. Yes, I know it’s another thing to carry, but you’ll want to stay hydrated. It can creep up on you, so keep drinking. Note that there are water bottle refill stations around, including one outside near Halls 1 and 2, but they can be busy.

It’s a similar story for food. The eateries get very busy around lunchtime and teatime (dinner time if you’re that way inclined), and the food trucks in the venue itself are pricey. There’s a convenience store across the plaza outside of the halls where you can get sandwiches and the like, but expect to pay twice what you would in the outside world.

I suggest taking something with you or heading out of the NEC, around the edge of the lake. There’s a big shopping complex there called Resorts World, which has lots of restaurants, but be aware that some of them require booking in advance.

For £3 a day, you can secure a box in the Shop & Drop area. They give you a ticket that lets you go back and forth during the day to drop items off in your box and/or retrieve them. This means you do not have to lug everything around with you for the entire day, and it doesn’t just apply to the things you’ve just bought. If you brought some games with you to play in Open Gaming in the evening, or even your lunchbox, you can drop it off and go back later for it. And you can do it as many times as you like during the day.

The only thing to be aware of is to make sure you retrieve everything by the end of the day. If you don’t, anything you leave will be held for auction. You have been warned.

The vast majority of places where you can spend money in the halls take contactless and debit/credit card payments. If you’re planning on shopping at the popular Bring & Buy, though, be aware that it is CASH ONLY.

There are ATMs dotted around the NEC, but I think I’m correct in saying that in every previous year, these have been emptied of cash before the end of Friday. If that happens, you’ll be forced to look further afield.

It’s sad that I have to add this at all, but past experience tells me that I need to. I’ve seen so many people walking the halls of UKGE with big bags. I’m not just talking about big rucksacks, which would be bad enough on their own. I’m talking about those huge board game bags which masquerade as backpacks. When you have one of these on your back, you become at least a foot longer, but people either forget this or just don’t care.

I’ve seen - more than once - someone wearing a big backpack turn to look at a stand and wipe someone out with it. From fully grown adults through to kids and disabled people. I fully understand that our hobby is amazingly inclusive and has plenty of neurospicy folk, but for most people, it’s no excuse. If anything, it should be the number one thing to try to bear in mind. To remember that you are not the only person there, nor the only one whose experience matters.

If you wear some form of noise-cancelling rings or earplugs, again, just take the time to think and have a look around you when you turn or step out into a thoroughfare. The same goes for those partaking in the seemingly growing practice of pulling a cart/trolley around the halls to load their loot into. You do not take priority over other paying visitors. If you insist on dragging something like this around behind you, be patient.

In essence, do everything in your power to make sure that people around you who may not enjoy the same levels of health, ability, youth, and mobility can enjoy the convention as much as you do.

Those are the big things to bear in mind, based on my own experiences over the last four or five years. How about you, though?

What do you wish someone had told you before you first attended, and what advice would you give to new attendees this year? Let me know in the comments.