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Archon's the Collinsville-based (roughly St Louis-area) sci-fi convention I try to make it to every year. It's your standard Friday-Sunday convention, though for a little while, it was actually up to Thursday-Sunday. If you don't know about it, it's known locally as a party convention and when I was younger, it really felt like it was the area convention to get to. That was long before I could drink, and this is a place where the beer is free after 5 PM. I was really bummed when Kay and I didn't have enough money really for even one ticket last year but this year, thanks to spending wedding gift money on them months ago, we were able to both go even if we couldn't afford costumes or hotel rooms.
Okay, so we both had a good time. There were a lot of people in cool outfits and we both got our drink on in a strange, nerdy environment. I mean, that's the upside. We're both glad we went. But I can't help notice that Archon's a convention that's in decline when it comes to stuff to actually do. The panels weren't especially interesting sounding (to me), and seemed really uninspired. (There was a huge amount of Dr Who programming on Friday, and I get it, I do, but even if it's the anniversary, I think that's largely bad programming because there wasn't much besides Dr Who.) There used to be foam fighting, and now there's not. There used to be rooms that would show anime series and sci-fi movies, and now there's not. The programming book used to have details on where and when gaming events and tournaments were being held, and there either wasn't much of that this year or they just didn't tell anyone. The open gaming room in the convention center looked blocked off on casual observation. I mean, and this is as much a problem with Amazon and Ebay as anything else, but the dealer's room hasn't sold me anything but snacks in about half a decade. I couldn't even get Japanese snacks this year, which is usually an easy purchase.
So, what's up with that? I assume various conflicts of interest. For example, I heard that there was some bickering between the convention head and the people who ran the video rooms, and the rooms they used to use were remodeled in the hotel, and people just sleeping in those rooms was terribly common which the hotel probably wasn't keen on. The weapon binding rules are so tight, I think that actually precluded foam fighting. Cutting pages in the program surely saved money, and programming might just have been a mistake. None of that's really my responsibility, though. Like, it's not my call. All I know was that until 5 PM? The convention was actually pretty dull. 'Pretty Dull' is usually not good enough to get me to spend 50+ dollars per ticket to take up a whole weekend.
Everything else has been catching up. I picked up Alice's Adventures in Wonderland from our shelves at home, since I've never read it and I guess it's a classic, but it hasn't exactly hooked me.
Okay, so we both had a good time. There were a lot of people in cool outfits and we both got our drink on in a strange, nerdy environment. I mean, that's the upside. We're both glad we went. But I can't help notice that Archon's a convention that's in decline when it comes to stuff to actually do. The panels weren't especially interesting sounding (to me), and seemed really uninspired. (There was a huge amount of Dr Who programming on Friday, and I get it, I do, but even if it's the anniversary, I think that's largely bad programming because there wasn't much besides Dr Who.) There used to be foam fighting, and now there's not. There used to be rooms that would show anime series and sci-fi movies, and now there's not. The programming book used to have details on where and when gaming events and tournaments were being held, and there either wasn't much of that this year or they just didn't tell anyone. The open gaming room in the convention center looked blocked off on casual observation. I mean, and this is as much a problem with Amazon and Ebay as anything else, but the dealer's room hasn't sold me anything but snacks in about half a decade. I couldn't even get Japanese snacks this year, which is usually an easy purchase.
So, what's up with that? I assume various conflicts of interest. For example, I heard that there was some bickering between the convention head and the people who ran the video rooms, and the rooms they used to use were remodeled in the hotel, and people just sleeping in those rooms was terribly common which the hotel probably wasn't keen on. The weapon binding rules are so tight, I think that actually precluded foam fighting. Cutting pages in the program surely saved money, and programming might just have been a mistake. None of that's really my responsibility, though. Like, it's not my call. All I know was that until 5 PM? The convention was actually pretty dull. 'Pretty Dull' is usually not good enough to get me to spend 50+ dollars per ticket to take up a whole weekend.
Everything else has been catching up. I picked up Alice's Adventures in Wonderland from our shelves at home, since I've never read it and I guess it's a classic, but it hasn't exactly hooked me.