In the interest of full disclosure, I ask this without actually participating in D&D Gameday, as it was my kid’s birthday today… But based on reports I’ve read around the blogosphere, the module “One Dark Night in Weeping Briar” ran waaaaay long.
If this is true, that there’s no way this adventure could have been run in 4-5 hours, I ask then, why not use the gameday to highlight both the PHB2, and Dungeon Delve? Dungeon Delve is still fairly recent, and the 3-encounter format of the delves certainly would have been enough to fill the 4-5 hour time.
What say you, oh attendees of the Gameday festivities? Should WOTC have used this to tryout their Dungeon Delve product along with the PHB2, rather than an adventure? (With Skill Challenges no less, hardly the stuff of D&D 4ed newbies.)
My comment box is yours…
www. Newbie DM .com 
Vulcan Stev
March 22, 2009
For me and mine, being complete 4e noobs, D&D day wasn’t much of a showcase. Don’t get me wrong, D&D Day was great fun, but I spent 2.5 hours learning the broad stroks of gnomes and bards. The kids each learned about the characters. Had I been by myself I would not have been enticed into plopping down money for the books.
Hammer
March 22, 2009
It would have made economic sense, and I suspect that many retailers probably did pimp out the other books as well as PHBII.
They were probably pimping the modules as well though.
MJ Harnish
March 22, 2009
I’ll be running a demo 4E event on a small regional con next month and I plan on using Dungeon Delve as the basis for all of the scenarios: It seems perfectly suited for demoing the rules and packing in a small adventure into a restricted time slot. So, the short answer is “Yes, I think WotC would have been better suited to premier DD yesterday.” However, the product was already out and thus had they used it, I suspect they would have been buried under a barrage of accusations about them trying to force sales of DD or that they were just recycling material. Hence, the specially produced adventure was a way for them to show off something new and make people special. They still probably should have borrowed the DD format though…
Propagandroid
March 22, 2009
The module *was* just three encounters. 🙂
newbiedm
March 22, 2009
@propagandroid:
even so, a skill challenge for an adventure meant to attract d&d newbies isn’t the best course of action…
but point taken…
Daniel M. Perez, The Gamer Traveler
March 22, 2009
I’ve emailed some of the local stores in South Florida to see how their D&D Game Day events went off. As soon as I hear anything I’ll add it here.
newbiedm
March 22, 2009
I know Outland Station in Kendall was going to run some games, I couldn’t make it due to my daughter’s b-day party… thx Daniel, let us know.
Ameron
March 22, 2009
I think Wizards missed a great marketing opportunity by now showcasing their Dungeon Delve. However, if they opted to use the Dungeon Delve then you know people would all play different levels which would mean the need for characters of all levels. So with that in mind, they provided one module with pre-generated characters of that level. I don’t know if using the Dungeon Delve would have made things run any more quickly. I find that the few I’ve already played do tend to run long. And the 3 encounter format often excludes skill challenges.
newbiedm
March 22, 2009
@Ameron:
I get that, the thing I’m saying is, showcase the book by singling out one adventure, paragon if you’d like, and run that one. Make the tiles available, the minis, all that, but print out one adventure in the book. That way, you promote the book, make the delve shorter in time by leaving out the skill challenge, and still promote PHB2 by making the pregens those classes.
I just get the feeling that the adventure provided, as written, was way too long to run in a few hours. The Dungeon Delve is being marketed as exactly the solution to a few hours of gaming, so why not use it?
Tom
March 22, 2009
I’m not sure the blogs you’re reading represent an accurate cross section. Our group did the whole adventure in a little over 4 hours. I’m pretty sure the other 3-4 groups at the store had similar results.
Daniel M. Perez, The Gamer Traveler
March 22, 2009
Being an Orthodox Jew, I always miss the Saturday events (sigh). That doesn’t help my case in getting to play, let me tell you.
As soon as I hear from the stores, I’ll chime in.