A week ago I got back from Anime Central and initially I was going to write up a con-report on it. A con-report would have been a nice opener for this blog. But after getting back from it, I found that I was left feeling a little bored. That perhaps my interests in cons are changing a bit.
Now don't get me wrong. I like the atmosphere. I love seeing the costumes most of all. However depending on the convention, the experience can be hit or miss. Anime Central seems to be getting worse for me over time. The convention continues to grow larger, and while expansion is a good thing, it's only good when the staff knows how to handle the continuing growth. Instead of there being panels spread out between the 3 main hotels in the area (the Hyatt, Doubletree, and Embassy Suites), every single panel was crammed into the Hyatt. While that hotel does contain the space for it, it comes with a cost and that cost is smaller rooms. So obviously popular panels were crammed into tiny rooms, which caused there to be far more lines than usual, more crowding than usual, and less opportunities to check out many panels. Unless they're "first time" panels or unpopular ones. Then you could get into those easily.
The big ticket items for Acen are usually the concert, the masquerade, and the rave on Saturday night known as "Soap Bubble". Fourth in line would be their Friday night rave, Hardcore Synergy. In previous years I definitely looked forward to the concert because they happened to get artists that I was excited to see. m.o.v.e., Flow, L.MC...I may not have known a lot of their songs at the time, but I knew that I loved how they sounded and that was all. I cannot fault ACen for their musical guest choices this time around (though I strongly question why they decided to hold the concert for the main musician at a different venue than the convention itself...). And masquerade will always be hit or miss depending on the quality of the skits. But as for the two raves, I don't understand what's so appealing about them. I had gone to Soap Bubble last year and I can't say I had that much fun at them. The music is all this overly repetitive, blaring, happy hardcore, techno, electronica. While the genres themselves aren't bad, when the music is repetitive, it gets boring. If I compare this to the raves at Midwest Furfest, it's no contest. MFF is far more likable just because the music is varied.
While I had fun hanging out with my friends, I feel like I'm missing out on something. I went to what amounted to the same panel 4 times in the same day (4 tokusatsu panels). There were some friends that I didn't get to hang out with, I didn't really talk to too many new people and make new connections, and I didn't meet any online friends. The raves were uncomfortable with the multitudes of drunk and/or high people pushing and shoving their way to the front of the lines. I understand that a major reason why people go to cons is to hang out with their friends, however if you're hanging out with your friends that you see on a near weekly basis, there are cheaper ways to do it. I feel like I'm callous saying that, but if I'm paying to go to a convention, I want to feel like I'm getting something out of the convention. Otherwise, why pay for the convention? Why not just get a group of friends together to just do fun stuff around the city?
I've thought of entering craftsmanship contests. I doubt I'd win anything, but I've been interested in craftsmanship contests for a while. I meant to enter the hallway cosplay contest this year, but...I suppose I can say I chickened out a bit. Aside from that, I don't think there's anything else that general convention atmosphere has to offer me.
I suppose I should shift my focus onto being a vendor. That way I can network a little better, sell some art and/or cosplay props/pieces, pass out business cards, etc. I wonder if that would be a better use of my time at a convention. Maybe it could lead to a better time. If not I may just suck up my stage fright and try a craftsmanship competition.
I don't want to give up going to cons. There's a lot of great things at them. However I may need to work a little harder to make the convention scene fun and interesting to me again.
