I don't know if it's a question of overconfidence in computers, a dumbass move by Hasbro to save money, a decision by WotC to skimp on an event that they're washing their hands of next year, or simply bald-faced incompetence, but preregistration for this year's GenCon sucks.

I've been to GenCon three times, and I'm looking forward to this year's trip, which marks the last time that the con will be held in Milwaukee before being moved (at least for the next few years) to Indianapolis.

It started last August with Housing. In the past, if you went to GenCon, you could register for housing at the next year's con. This year, they ditched that in favor of a first come, first serve set-up using online registration. Personally, I'm of the mind that it's a good idea to reward repeat customers, but Wizards apparently wanted to be more egalitarian about it. So as a result, my friends and I had to scramble to make sure we were online with credit-cards in hand to get room reservations as soon they became available earlier this year.

And then came preregistration. We initially prereg'd for the con back in January, but that's only half the battle -- the next step is actually registering for events. In previous years, you would get a preregistration guide with a TV Guide-like directory of what's running when, something that's essential when you're attending a con with hundreds of events. Then you'd figure out what you wanted to play, and send in your event preregs ... and hope that you got what you wanted.

Last year Wizards offered a step up -- you could send in your prereg'd events online by entering the appropriate event number. This year the entire process moved online, much to the surprise of veterans like myself and my fellow