Why Can't We Have a Grand Non-Tournament?

As the internet cracks under the strain of various communities and groups debating what should be legal in a competitive environment, I am left to wonder about the state of the non-competitive scene.  By its very nature, the casual gamer is someone who does not need a structured environment in order to enjoy their hobby.  Games are arranged as time allows and usually involves a close group of friends or patrons of a particular store.  There isn’t a public outcry for events of a similar size to the larger GTs that can provide a non-competitive experience.

When it comes to a non-competitive experience, what about them prevents the creation of something similar to the Games Days of the late 90’s?  Why do casual hobbyists not feel as compelled to gather in larger groups as their more competitive brethren?  Based on the various discussions I have read since GW began their Advent calendar releases, it seems that there is a sizable portion that want to just play with whatever GW releases, but why don’t they want to do it as part of a large community?  Why does it only happen when in the context of proving who is the better player?

Many years ago, I attempted to run an event for WFB that was fully catered and had a ton of door prizes (we were passing out Rhinox riders as they were brand new at the time).  The only catch was that results were not being tracked.  Everyone would play 3 games and be randomly paired each game in an effort for people to mingle and play someone new.  The event was advertised months in advance and was even promoted and sponsored by Games Workshop (including loaning us LotR and Tau models to display that were not being released for a few more months).  At the end of the day, we had a lot fewer folks attend than what we had hoped for the event.

As the story goes, a couple of months later, we repeated the event, but this time tracked results and gave out awards.  Attendance was almost 4 times greater without making any changes other than determining a winner for the day.  Just to be clear, the same composition requirements were used, basically the same scenarios were used.  The only difference was that we promoted that someone would be declared the winner.  

It was an interesting experience, and one that I have always kept in the back of my mind as I have organized other events.   When I was running Invasion Kenosha, I always tried to skirt the line of making the event as inclusive as possible while still keeping a competitive element to encourage the attendance needed to run the event without me footing a sizable bill.  I will never claim that I did the best job and found the perfect formula, but I did give it my best and hopefully some folks will have fond memories from the five years that I ran it.

My point with all of this is that I would like to run something in 2014 that is truly an event for the casual player.  I want the experience to be organized and professional, but lack the trappings that come with it being labeled a tournament.  I want folks to become excited about attending, but don’t feel motivated to attend on the hopes of proving a point.  At the end of it all, I want an Indy Games Day that encourages people to bring their armies and not the ones provided by GW.  The challenge ahead is to figure out what will motivate the casual crowd to attend and provide the means to make such an experience possible.