Dragoncon is a good bit different than Gencon. A LOT more cosplay and partying. It is way more crowded with people just hanging around in your way as you try to get somewhere. One cool thing about is that there is big college football game downtown that weekend also ( LSU and UNC this year ). And both teams are visitors, so a lot of the fans stay downtown. That provides for an interesting mix of people. Drunken college football fans and drunken geeks with swords.
There is a good amount of gaming, although I am disappointed by the number of games available early on. And with Arc Dream pulling out there goes half of my gaming I preregistered for. I got several Dresden files games scheduled and hope to pick up some interesting stuff that was just not listed for the prereg. aybe some pickup Fiasco and boardgames.
Last year was my first year going in many years. It was also where I started playing non-DnD games. My first non-DnD game since before 3.0 was a Monsters game with Ross last year. And it is only about 3 miles from my house.