wait, WHAT?!
Oh Gods, the only guests confirmed for Ring*Con this year are Twilight people (except for one lovely Newzealandish lady, who has, however, been to the Con three or four times before).
*sighs* Well, I suppose this is the year where I have to do what I told the people who didn't like Pirates of the Caribbean two years ago, or Harry Potter last year ( Read more... )
That is just fine, and I'm sure there are others like you. But there are also people who never got "out of" LotR and thus would like to see at least one or two LotR faces - faces that haven't been to Con five times in a row and don't have anything to tell anymore, even though they may do fantastic comedy shows. And since this is Ring*Con, the uniting element for most people who've gone there so far is, well, the Tolkien fandom, even though most are generally open to other fandoms.
There are basically three options. The first - which has been discarded already - would have been to stick firmly to LotR, and probably lose all but the die-hard LotR fans because "there's nothing new".
The second would be to change everything, get rid of the LotR surtheme, and invite only big names of whatever fantasy film happens to be the most hyped at the moment. That would doubtlessly invite many new guests, but just as doubtlessly put off many of the old Ring*Connies. This bears the risk that more "old" visitors will no longer buy a ticket than "new" visitors come in.
The third - in my opinion, the most wise, and this is what the organisators are trying to do, except they don't manage to bring it across properly - would be a compromise: Keep the LotR surtheme, but also invite guests from other fandoms. That way, new people from other fandoms come in, those who are no longer into LotR have something new as well, and those who are still into LotR and remember that it was LotR that brought the Con to life in the first place are happy as well. The awesome part is that this is perfectly possible.
Now as I said, I am actually convinced that the third option is what the organisators are trying to achieve. The question is just whether saying "We've got three major characters from Twilight coming, and Lori will do her comedy thing again, you all love Lori, right" is a good way to do it (I doubt the discussion would be quite so dire if the information had been, for example, "We have three major Twilight actors and Hugo Weaving/Karl Urban/[insert major LotR actor here]"). Yes, perhaps that's all the information they have so far - but then I think it would be wise to say "Don't worry, we're still talking to a lot of other people, for example from ____, ____ and ____". Or at least, when people say on the forums "Meh, Twilight is not my thing and Lori has been there three times already, I hope there will be someone else from LotR", NOT react by "YOU PEOPLE ALWAYS BITCH! THERE ARE MANY TWILIGHT FANS WHO WILL BUY TICKETS NOW, SO STOP WHINING! YOU CANNOT ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT!!!".
Because that happened (and not just in this context), and no matter what your personal opinion on Twilight, LotR or conventions in general, that's just bloody unprofessional. ;)
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See, the thing is that without the obsessed fans, Ring*Con would be just the kind of convention you see in Galaxy Quest: Lots of merchandise and a few stars who come on stage for a moment, sign autographs, and have their pictures taken.
Thanks to the obsessed fans, there are also workshops, lectures, plays and projects. Ring*Con's got a special atmosphere, and because it is so special and word got around, people have been visiting from all over the world, although they could have seen the same guests (or bigger names) at other events closer to home.
Of course, that means that the obsessed fans put a lot of thought and effort into the whole thing, and that also means that they are opinionated. They are not going to put a lot of thought, money and effort into an event that keeps telling them they don't actually matter one bit.
The discussion is not, in fact, about Twilight. Some people love it, some people hate it, some people don't care either way. Even on the forums.
The discussion is about whether the Con will be entirely Twilight-oriented. That actually is a valid question, because why should someone who hates Twilight buy a ticket for a Con that has only Twilight guests? As the organisators pretty much told us "You have to buy tickets or I can't get big names", all the people who thought they'd get the usual deal - mainly LotR, with perhaps some pirates, wizards or vampires thrown in - are now slightly worried they'll get mainly Twilight with a two-minute screen time in the SEE Hobbit thrown in. Which is all fine and well for those who like it, but it is not what they paid for. See the problem?
The most beautiful thing is that nobody has to get into the middle of an argument. The argument happens on the forums, which anyone who doesn't care for the discussion can avoid. It does not happen at the Con - after all, it's already been discussed on the forums. So unless you're a glutton for punishment and start hanging out in a forum you have never visited so far, I wouldn't see how you'd have to put up with the argument.
(And yes, I can safely say that - we've had the same discussion on the forums two years ago when there were a few PotC guests, and there was no war going on at the Con; and we've had the same discussion on the forums last year when there were a few HP guests, and there was no war going on at the Con. This year people are more tired about the organisators' ways of handing out information in scraps or only after weeks of nagging, but still the discussion is going on at the forums, among maybe 20 people, and it is highly unlikely that the other 1980 people who (hopefully) come to the convention will suddenly get swept up in it.
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However, if all your friends are into LOTR but the entirety of the con programming including the fan-run stuff is Twilight, why would you spend 90€ to go?
(It really sounds like this is turning into the European Dragon*Con, to be honest.)
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*nods* And THAT is precisely what the obsessed Ring*Connies are afraid of, and why there is so much of an argument.
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