Con Report: Gen-Con 2008

[aya_blue]

Gen-Con is a 25,000+ person gaming convention held in Indianapolis every year. My gaming tends to involve controllers, not dice. However, as an anime con veteran, I thought it might be interesting to attend. I thought the differences between a typical anime con and this gaming con were fascinating.

First of all, the guy to girl ratio was

Comments

[darkmiyuka]

I have been to GenCon Indy 2004 and 5, that was my first true con compared to Ohayocon '07 being my first Anime con. Yes, the difference is quite noticable. The cosplay is different, the panels are different, the dealers room is freaken massive as all hell, the whole FEEL is different. I prefer the anime cons myself and if I ever go back to GenCon I know I'll see it in a whole new light. It is fun though :D

Video Games Live, I dont know how much they changed with their first showing but I hated it. They match-played it beautifully and the background drops were great but as they played, I pretty much heard nothing. It was so plain to me. Then simple and clean from Kingdom hearts, showing nothing at all of Kingdom Hearts on the backdrop. However the Metal Gear Solid theme with the guy that came out pretending to be a guard, I actually thought that was creative and he interacted with the music.

[aya_blue]

Sounds like VGL is about the same, but I did enjoy a lot of it. I don't get to go to the symphony very much ^_^

See you at Matsuri!

[zionchild]

Gaming's been an American fad for a lot longer than anime. Chainmail, D&D's predecessor that signaled gaming's first heyday, was out around 1971. Anime definitely influenced things even back then, but I don't think it really hit its stride until the mid-90's. So it makes sense that the fanbase is older.

Considering that anime-ers are taking their cues from a media that includes a lot of shrieking, glomping girls, and gamers are taking theirs from silent-hero types, I guess the noise-level difference makes sense as well. It still made me wish I could cast an Extended Silence over the entirety of the anime cons I've gone to, though.

I think Anime cons would smell a lot worse if cosplay wasn't such a huge part of that fan subculture. Even smelly people want to take a shower if they're dressing up for something.

Charging a badge price and a door price is stupid.

[natastic]

Interesting! I guess the make up doesn't "surprise" me, but it also disappoints me a little. Adults and still the lack of hygiene? Whatever. Was the "pinky lady" from Marcon ther??

Yeah, I probably would have been thrown in jail! I think I'm over packing for Matsuri. >_

[aya_blue]

There was definitely occurences of poorly placed chainmail. Marcon was worse though, because it was more concentrated, while costuming at Gen-Con was more sporadic.

See you in a few hours!

[prismkitty]

Oops. Forgot to warn you about the gamer funk and the paying for individual panels. Sorry about that. I know that overall the costuming isn't great, but normally there are some stand out costumes like a full replica of the Predator and stuff like that. ^^

[aya_blue]

I bet there were some really good costumes and I just didn't spend enough time at the con to see them.

And don't apologize, I'm glad I got to experience all that stuff first hand. I'll just be better prepared next time ^_^

[tintros]

*waves*
Nice con report. I picked up the habit, but I get distracted and it takes me longer to put it together ;)

Commentary-wise..
-The demographic is a huge contrast, and very jarring if you were to be transporter'd from one to the other. The gender gap was what struck me the most, though I was going from gaming to anime rather than the reverse, but the age difference is huge as well. It's not something I'd considered much but your friend has the answer, when the medium 'hit'. Maybe in 20yrs we'll see an aging anime crowd squeezing itself into senshi outfits?