Conventions?

[LVUER]

Conventions? While I like it, I only have bad memories of those. I once went there with my bro, participating in a cosplay competition. The event was delayed again and again. They announced the winner later (I mean LATER, the show was held at 9AM and they announced the winner at 7PM). And the worst part? They never hand out the prize...

The prize? It's only a measly US$10, not even enough to cover half of the costume cost. Really, they should've just told us that there's no price from the first time IF THEY DON'T WANT TO GIVE ANY PRIZE!!! Cosplayers would still come to show off their costume anyway...

[DaFool]

It's a big thing because if there's a con here in the PH
1.) It's either animu
2.) About toys
3.) Cosplay
4.) Comic books..oh wait
6.) Games (by a certain big game publisher here)
7.) Jailbait-looking FHM models
8.) But most importantly, Chances are, most of them are stuck in Manila!

Big American conventions are the best, because there's an actual anime industry instead of just a bunch of bootleggers. Where else can you actually get to meet and greet the creators who flew all the way from Japan, watch world premiers, and even stage a live Hatsune Miku concert?

Philippine cons are extremely small fry, if you don't have a barkada of cosplayers, it's not worth going.

[Chorvaqueen]

It's a big thing because if there's a con here in the PH
1.) It's either animu
2.) About toys
3.) Cosplay
4.) Comic books..oh wait
6.) Games (by a certain big game publisher here)
7.) Jailbait-looking FHM models
8.) But most importantly, Chances are, most of them are stuck in Manila!

Big American conventions are the best, because there's an actual anime industry instead of just a bunch of bootleggers. Where else can you actually get to meet and greet the creators who flew all the way from Japan, watch world premiers, and even stage a live Hatsune Miku concert?

Philippine cons are extremely small fry, if you don't have a barkada of cosplayers, it's not worth going.

I'm not into anime so it's not a big deal to me.

Come to think of it, animu conventions here are might as well be called thieves convention

[Dollywitch]

have an ongoing dispute with the second largest anime con her(and the first), Eirtakon. caught members making abusive remarks in the IRC - not for the first time. committee refused to talk to me about it, brought it up on the forums, got permabanned. still refuse to lift the ban even though it was only set to deny me a voice with regards my abuse. absolutely disgusting. and they delete any correspondance with regards it.

because ofm y history of abuse online it's deeply offensive and they are fully aware of it.

[Dollywitch]

have an ongoing dispute with the second largest anime con her(and the first), Eirtakon. caught members making abusive remarks in the IRC - not for the first time. committee refused to talk to me about it, brought it up on the forums, got permabanned. still refuse to lift the ban even though it was only set to deny me a voice with regards my abuse. absolutely disgusting. and they delete any correspondance with regards it.

because ofm y history of abuse online it's deeply offensive and they are fully aware of it.

[Sapphi]

I've never been to a convention... of any sort, that I can recall.
I really wanted to go to an anime convention until I read all the horror stories people post on 4chan and realized I would go crazy with so many people in such close proximity. I get panicky in big crowds and usually end up running away and hiding somewhere empty and quiet for a few hours

The one reason I really still want to go, though, is the doujinshi sellers. I don't know how much doujinshi normally sells for at cons, but it's too pricey to buy on ebay, so I have to skim livejournal sales, making it incredibly difficult to get my fix of Hellsing doujinshi... Unfortunately even the promise of doujinshi doesn't make me very excited, since it seems like all the doujinshi at conventions is yaoi now...

I'll probably find myself at a convention one day, but it will almost surely be behind a seller's table.

[CatFace]

Sorry for the late introduction, but I was curious to know if anyone on here has ever been to AnimeNEXT in NJ. Really awesome convention if ya ask me.

It seems like everyone on here really enjoys Cosplaying. I've seriously considered Cosplaying myself, but I've never done it before. I've often times thought about dressing up as something from Chrono Trigger, but I didn't want it to be "full of fail." X3
Tell me, do any of you use cosmetic contacts for your costumes? I really feel like they would make my costume perfect, but I'm a little worried about the cost. Does anyone know of any cosmetic discount contact lenses that would perfect costumes? Just curious. Thanks, guys!

[SvenTheViking]

I've always wanted to go to a con. Tried for Kumoricon, but work came up. Tried for PAX Prime (or whatever they call the one in Seattle), but it sold out before I found out that the tickets were on sale. Tried for MAGfest, but then I realized that it would cost me over $1200 to fly across the country and stay in a hotel for 4 days.

I'll definitely (and I say that with as much certainty as I can 9 months out) be trying for Kumoricon this year, though. I mean, it's local, so I have no excuse for not trying for it. And pre-registration is already open, so I don't have to worry about tickets selling out like I do for PAX. I'm also gonna try for PAX Prime, but that's a bit farther off, chance-wise. I just hope I don't have to worry about doing some sort of anime cosplay... I don't think I've seen an anime with a major character I could pull off, and I've seen more than a little anime.

[redeyesblackpanda]

I went to Comic Con San Diego. Pretty much filled with people selling things. Mostly comic books (duh!). I ended up playing Magic the Gathering a lot. I'm not really that interested in regular comics. I meant to watch some of the anime, but then I just though "I could watch this at home, why am I going to try to watch it here" and just felt sad. I did try to get into some of the panels, but I came too late each time . Even so, it was fun and I'm actually planning on going this summer.

[LVUER]

Tried for MAGfest, but then I realized that it would cost me over $1200 to fly across the country and stay in a hotel for 4 days.

Perhaps you could camp, sleep in your car, or at least share a cheap motel room with all your friends?

[Gear]

Can you volunteer and get a free pass, too? I do medstaff at A-Kon and I don't pay to get in or for a hotel room. Granted I live in the city where it is, so travel costs are notwithstanding in this scenario, but it might still help.

[SvenTheViking]

I live in Oregon. MAGfest is in Washington DC. The flight alone is most of the price of going. I also don't know (actually KNOW, not just online acquaintance) anyone who would be attending, which makes rooming with my friends something of an impossibility.

This is the curse of living on the west coast; as awesome as it is here, everything interesting either happens in LA or on the east coast (and I bet it'd cost me just as much to go to LA). As for volunteering, it's not something I've looked into, but it's certainly worth a shot. I have no medical training and certainly would make a terrible member of security (if they even HAVE volunteer positions for that), but I can run just about any sort of electronics, and I can build things and set things up (theatre training ftw!).

[LateWhiteRabbit]

You can often find a booth to work at or man as a volunteer. Often, in the case of 3 day conventions, you'll get to attend free in exchange for spending one of the days manning the booth. Other arrangements I've seen include working a certain shift each day at the booth.

[Pyonkotchi]

I love conventions
I go to Anime-Central every year now with my anime club at school
I haven't met many weirdos yet. (I did see this one guys crossplaying and he looked dirty :< but...)
it's fun buying cool toys and stuff. seeing cosplayers, talking with people :>

[Silvere]

Conventions?

As there not that much per year in my country I´m on all of 'em.
But that´s mostly due to lots of friends being there and it´s a good way to meat 'em all and finding new people interested in the topic =D

Although I too have some bad memories connected to 'em as there are.. Don´t know.. Many awkward people :/ Not because of appearance, just some.. Really shut off people were you know their friendlist isn´t as big as it should.. Quite sad when they come up with extremely freaky stuff :< But they surely got their own few friends they can share that with =D

Edit:
Oh, and I realized that more than 50% of the people attending conventions have some dramatic background history 0_0
One time I kinda felt too normal for not having something tragic happened in the past besides some mobbing XD