Impenetrable crowds! Lines! Longer waits for ever-shorter panels! The expense! At Epic Geekdom RM Peavy gives 8 reasons for not going to the San Diego Comic-Con this year.
4. Purchasing badges: Every year, it feels like the Hunger Games and the odds never seem to be in my favor. We have been together for at least ten years now, and every year it gets worse and worse. There are virtual waiting rooms, crashing sites, lottery systems, a line to get in a line, and half of you was wasted so I could maybe get a ticket for the next year to see you. No thank you. You should be making it easier for me. Have you ever thought about ME? There is no more advance purchase for next year for those already attending. I used to be able to walk up on Friday and purchase next year’s ticket, and now I don’t even know what building it is to register. It’s like I don’t even know you.
One commenter even argued he has a higher-quality experience watching the con on video:
I can see the panels on YouTube. Oh, you waited eight hours but you were there when Loki did his little speech? When Nathan Fillion took a call from Joss Whedon? I saw it on YouTube from the comfort of my own home. Thanks to G4, I caught interviews the SDCC people didn’t.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the link.]
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Perhaps we need to start treating media SF like we treat football. Yes you can buy hugely overpriced tickets, including scalping if you just have to be there, but WHY? Put the whole thing on video/TV and even charge a pay per view. It will be less hassle for all if too-popular cons like this go to a lottery. Period.
And this is the model that some vocal fans and pros think SF cons should imitate?
Comic Con from both sides of the coin: For close to a decade I was fortunate to travel the 100 miles from L.A. to San Diego in a limo, we parked at the loading dock in back of the convention hall, closest to Artist’s Alley. The convention would bring us our badges. We were given five escorts to help us navigate the isles. If we needed a nosh we’d go into one of the green rooms, they’d have everything from fresh fruit to cupcakes, lots of good geek food. It was always a lovely day. Did I forget to mention that the main WE in WE was Ray Bradbury?
The year that Ray passed away The Con held a tribute for him. This time I drove, taking one of the guests for the tribute with me. Once I got off the freeway in San Diego it took me as long to get to the venue as did the drive from L.A. We were slated to be at the Hilton next to the convention hall. I misread my GPS and wound up in the wrong lane, taking me 45 minutes to go around the block.
Once we were settled in the hotel I thought I’d dash across the street to say hello to a few friends. It took me over half an hour to get across the street and into the first door of the hall. By that time I knew I’d be late for the tribute so I turned around and took another half an hour to get back across the street.
I’ve never had to buy a ticket but sympathize with anybody that attends as a regular person. It is waaaay tooooo much of a hassle to actually enjoy the event. I’ll not be going back because of the sentimental attachment going with Ray, besides I’ve seen enough middle-aged women who weigh more than me wearing Princess Leia slave costumes.
Taral: If your only metric is Big Big Big, then it makes sense. And remember, in modern management, if you can’t objectively measure it, it does not exist. So bodies through gate and money in till are real, while “how much did people enjoy it?” is so fuzzy that it’s not real. (Yes, you could take surveys, but that means work.)
Not that I am someone who thinks Worldcon is supposed to moor someplace permanently (Anaheim would be the most logical place, I think) and Grow Grow Grow to be a 100K-plus madhouse, but I understand how a lot of people seem to think that unless you have tens or hundreds of thousands of people, it’s not a Real Convention. And those sorts of people consider the 5000-person Worldcon to be a small “boutique” event.
With 5000 there is still a sense of mad house. You can find people, promise to meet up with them and never see them again on that weekend. My reasons to go would be meeting people.
Owner Comcast is cancelling the G4 cable channel. Charter Communications dropped it as soon as Comcast made the announcement, before it had stopped cablecasting.
I guess in the economy the Goldman-Sachs, /N/a/t/i/o/n/’/s/ /B/a/n/k/ Bank of America, Citigroup, HSBC, et al. have stolen for us, a 300-500 person attendance local convention is no longer economically viable.