caddyalan

I stumbled on this article after browsing for information on a licensed, untranslated fighting game (Nanoha A's for PSP, if you were wondering), and then noticing an article on the same blog about comics conventions versus anime cons.

It doesn't appear any commenters have attended video game-centered conventions. I'll be attending Penny Arcade Expo in the near future. Since I've been a video game fan for over twenty years, I'm curious to see if the convention is enjoyable, and I hope I'll get along well with its attendees.

 I attended Wizard World Chicago in 2008 and 2009. The con's artist alley was a decent experience, but I wasn't interested in most of the dealer's room, and I didn't have time to attend panels. The fans in attendance were mostly male in 2008, but a more mixed crowd appeared in 2009. In both events, many of the fans seemed to be adults. Overall, it wasn't a bad experience... but not all that relevant to my interests. I'll see if C2E2 is any different.

 I have attended Anime Central since 2006, and I've occasionally attended Anime Weekend Atlanta and two smaller but similar cons. While I freely admit that anime cons have a large number of annoying teenagers, I didn't have to go far to find fellow adults. Likewise, I avoided panels that didn't match my interests. Even though I respect "yaoi-and-Pocky" fans, I chose to find fans whose tastes are similar to mine.

 If you were curious, my interest in comics is fairly limited. Like Scott McCloud, I also have to admit that I didn't care about mainstream comics when I was young. So until a friend lent me a trade paperback of Elfquest, I didn't know that there were non-superhero, non-newspaper comic books... and I didn't know that trade paperbacks existed. Jeff Smith's Bone is my all time favorite comic. I'm not currently following any series.

 Likewise, if you're curious, I became an anime fan when a friend lent me a Slayers TV series VHS tape. Yes, I freely admit that Sturgeon's Law ("ninety percent of everything is crud") applies to anime and related media. And yes, there are a lot of embarrassingly stereotypical series. However, I've found a wide number of series which I enjoy. I'm currently reading and liking Fujoshi Rumi, Detroit Metal City, Yotsuba, and Franken Fran. Recently, I've watched and liked Pretty Cure, Hikaru no Go, and Castle in the Sky. And in related media, I've become a fan of Hanako Games' independent games, as well as the freeware title RE: Alistair.