I ran demos for a lot fo games, I can tell you that Bottom of the Ninth went over extremely well at Gen-Con and we sold out of the Big League expansion and put a hurt into the supply of the base game. Finding out you get the whole game and 20 characters for $20 was a huge selling point.
First two games I ran went to bases loaded and 2 outs. One ended with a 2-2 Grand Slam, the other ended with a walk off walk on a full count.
Later in the Con I was explaining the Crush mechanic and stated we'd never had a first pitch Home Run, and it happened right then, batter rolled 2 sixes and that was it. They only knew a part of the game and it was over.
Best sales pitch ever: Couple walks up to me, "What's this game?" - "It's a baseball game, would you like to try a demo?" - "No, we're just going to buy it." That's Guise-level salesmanship right there folks.
Demoing SotM I ran into a situation I thought was rare, I had over a dozen people play the game for the first time, and quite a few bought the core game right away. Note that I ran SotM demoes for roughly 1 1/2 days of the con.
Ran an OblivAeon demo for a group that had all played before, but only 2 were real hardcore players. They all loved the game, said the whole thing felt incredibly huge and epic. We're still working on improving it, but the overall feel to the fight is where we want it. Meeting a lot of playtesters and talking shop about OblivAeon was a fantastic experience.
My experience with Laser Ryders:
Saw it on the table being played, thought, "Wow that looks lame, why is that here?".
Next day found out GtG is making it, watched a game, thought "Hey, that could be kind of fun."
Next day sat down and played a demo. I was Laser Shark. I loved the game, and with real components (instead of cardstock) the game is going to be super fun. I will be backing it. Doesn't take itself seriously, but is well designed and both strategic and competetive in great ways. Not hard at all to learn either.
Ran a Fate of the Elder Gods demo, and because I got one major rule wrong the game lasted 2 hours. Once we found out what I was doing wrong the game ended that round. Everyone had fun, and agreed that the spells made more sense and the game would have been even better if I hadn't screwed up. It is a good game.
Meeting 2 members of the Adaptive Subroutines was really cool. Sadly we failed to get a game of tactics in, but it was great to meet and talk Tactics with one of the tournament teams when I play a much more casual game of tactics.
Not everyone appreciates constant Star Trek IV jokes when they are playing New Bedford or Nantucket. This is a sure sign that our society is heading in the wrong direction. (Seriously, if you use the right light filters you can see the shimmer of a Klingon cloaking device on one of the "empty sea" tokens)
Isle of Train puns is a good game, (don't play with eviltoon, he's not very helpful) as is Heartland Trucking company. Even if my trucking career ended with me and a bunch of pigs in the back of the truck eating our undelivered soy beans because we were broke and out of gas.
Spirit Island is a fantastic game. I really enjoyed finally getting a chance to play it, even if it was the demo and therefore a bit simplified.
One of my favorite moments was running a Villains of the Multiverse promo for a group that I found out part-way through had never played SotM before (up that total to 15 people) but had played Tactics. They won, and really liked the game. As a playtester, that meant a lot. We worked hard on that expansion and seeing people enjoy it like that was really cool.
Found out a few neat things in the meet and greet.
1. The new foil cards are gorgeous. I told Adam (only half-joking) that if they had advertised it as meet and greet the new foil cards they would have had a bigger crowd. People loved the new powers and the new heroes, but the work on the foil was the most impressive. I was expecting better foil work than you get with most CCGs, but this went far beyond even that. The Fanatic cards were my favorite, and the Extreme Prime Wardens were all breathtaking. I can't say enough about what a great job Adam and Jennifer (she did the foil design work) did on these cards.
2. The saddest art in the game is the Lifeline incap. Adam said that, and I agree.
3. Some of the characters in SotM are from an earler comic Adam drew, including Apostate, who was apparently based on Christopher at the time.
4. The secret to getting cool info about the characters is to talk to Adam when Christopher isn't around, Christopher like to be cryptic and leave you looking for answers, Adam will tell you a lot more about the characters. (that whole Apostate angle started to make sense there, Christopher really enjoys messing with people)
Very interesting that Scholar is kept alive by the stone and that the events of Guise melting on the incap side led the Scholar to having to make a choice on that matter. You'd think Guise having the stone thrust into his chest would give us a variant specific to that since it would give him some alternate powers. This also means we aren't seeing the original Scholar in Tactics ever.
]), Mechanical T-Rex, Chekov's Hairdryer (An awesome power granting equipment, that I really hope is the Wraith's Hairdryer), Oblivaeon Shard, Pinnacle of Humanity, A Brother's Sacrifice. Honestly, I don't remember most of the negative sides, but I do remember one we didn't get where the mission was to Summon the Colliseium, so Kaagra or her bloodsworn pop up. Also had a Raid on F.I.L.T.E.R. that we never completed.