Thoughts!

So this was my first con and I have to say, it was a BLAST. Most fun I've had since I moved to Ohio. Thanks so much to the staff and every one involved for making it possible for people like us anime fans to have such a great time. I met some awesome and CRAZY people. Although if any one was bothered by the shirtless, drunk Russian, I'm sorry!! Me and my friends tried to keep him settled down, but as you can see it didn't really work. So sorry if we inconvienced anyone! As for the events and things... the video game room was AWESOME. I wish I hadn't missed the Brawl tournament though... but it was cool just to play for fun. The cosplay event on Saturday was fun too! I didn't really do much of the panels because I was so busy running around with my friends, but the anime showing rooms were nice. Although I was a bit disappointed The Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog wasn't shown in the Bad Anime room because I'm a Sonicfag like that. Anyways, over all it was incredible experience and I'm very glad I got to be a part of it.

I've decided to label this weirdcon. This weekend was absolute anarchy in the confines of a hotel. The more cons I go to, I realize that less and less people keep their cool, while more and more "Hyperactive" we'll call them, people arrive on the scene, with absolutely no respect for the hotel concierge and/or officials, and each other. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time at the con, but this con was so eventful in a negative way, that I wasn't sure it was actually happening. I was hearing talk of rapes, over dosing, people getting arrested and kicked out, children getting stuck in the elevator, and that's not even the half of it. It was absolutely ridiculous. It had a REALLY bad case of ridiculitis.

All in all what I'm trying to say, is peopole need to learn to respect others before drowning under the assumption that since anime cons involve chaos, that you can get away with whatever you want. Adding booze and drugs into the mix was just down right gobbledygook.

Also there was no Anime Hell which was slightly disappointing. =)

All in all I just enjoyed myself playing Connect-4 and watching all the drama and chaos around me. At this rate, anime conventions will be illegal in several states.

Actually, I was pretty releived that there WEREN'T any overdoses or kickouts. Not a single ambulance, which is always good. We almost kicked a guy or two out, but in the end everything was able to be worked out. Overall I was very impressed with the crowd. There was a bit of minor property damages, but nothing as bad as other cons lately.

No kidding. It seems like the etiquette at cons is exponentially degressing and people are getting more destructive. Ruined hotels weren't really a problem at all a few years ago. Pretty soon, no hotel is going to want to host an anime convention.

A lot of it is just maladjusted kids suddenly being empowered.

When did all this happen? I was there pretty much all day Saturday and I didn't see anything that ridiculous.

Maybe it's because I was really oblivious, but I didn't see or hear of a lot of the stuff Lightning_Fox mentioned either. I'm not sure if people got stuck on the elevator or not, but my friend called and told me about the elevator being stuck and that maybe one of our friends could be on it. It turns out that (thank God) none of the people in my group got stuck on the elevator.

I was stuck on the first floor because of that, and I tried the stairs and got freaked out to death of that loud noise, whatever it was. O_O

Someone pulled the fire alarm, I hear.

I was pretty much awake for the entire convention, and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Everything seemed to run smoothly, and people were well behaved.

In fact, this was one of my favourite conventions because everyone was so cool.

The fire alarm thing was crap. All the double doors closed and it took forever to get them to stay open.

Me, well...

So my thoughts on AP08 has led me to a bittersweet conclusion that I've been struggling with for awhile now. I had a good enough time, I really enjoyed getting to play pokemon with some people for a bit and the panals I went to, and it definitely won't be a con I forget for multiple reasons. But I'm going to have to agressively go after being a panalist or running an Artist Alley table, because anime cons are otherwise not very much fun for me. ; But I suppose someone has to do that. xD

I do not think that what turns me off is a fault of AP08 as much as ongoing trend at anime cons. Just the general throwing the rules out the window and doing whatever the hell you want, mixed with no control isn't working for me. As a joke this week, I said that anime cons were like a modern day, 'Height Ashbury'.

I'm not saying AP was a constant craiziness, I thought it was decently controlled for the most part, but it was a couple times. I think have been a little better for me there'd just been more programming, so I could enjoy what I like doing, instead of being out in what I don't like.

Maybe this is a passing thing for me, I had a pretty rough time. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy partying, and like to join in, just only to a point. And the chaos isn't fun for me. ; And the time I had was good. Just not great.

I don;t see "rules" being thrown out any windows. I did see some some social folkways being shattered to pieces, but those are expectations, not rules or laws.

I've been goign to cons for years, and I don't see a degregation in con ativity, I see a tightening of expectations outside of cons. or in other words things that were acceptable whenI was a kid aren't now in general. so maybe its jsut your expectations are getting higher.

If you want to be a lawyer about it, I'm just talking about doing whatever you want without regards for anyone else.

People go to cons to open up and be themselves for three days out of the blandness of the months. I'm sorry that not everyone can meet your expectations and quietly sit in a panal all day or play pokemon, but I guess that means you could just not attend? It's just very offensive to me to hear people say things like that. I happen to be someone that tries to uphold manners and the like, and I didn't see anything wrong with the goings on. People like to be crazy sometimes, and they don't get the opportunity to do that everywhere, so try not to drag everyone else down.

Honestly, thinking back to cons in '03, there are MORE rules now, and it's less Height-Ashbury. AP is an exception in that it is a COLLEGE CON with booze, but back in the day there was a lot more, ahem, sexual deviance. The crowd is getting more immature every year and the fandoms are just one big trio without any good merch for any other show/game in the dealer's room. I've started to get the feeling that I've grown out of this scene, but then there's a rave, and I reconnect with old friends, and I remember why I bothered.

Cons used to be a lot wilder. Or maybe my crowd now is just less crazy?