"Who's your favorite superhero?" "Oh, I like Chris Hemsworth." ^That was a real convention exchange. "What do you like to read?" "I don't read!" ^So was that.
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When my son came, we didn't really go to cons as vendors, but we went to a few as attendees. Pretty much the same story; floors overrun by obnoxious cosplayers and vendors selling baubles and items you'd more expect to find at a craft fair than a comic, toy, or game con.
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And then we ran our own con two years in a row: New Year's Party Con. A hotel asked us to do it, because they wanted to attract a safer clientele from the hippies who trashed their hotel the year before. "Geeks" were big money, we were told, and they wanted in on it.
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For a small, new con, it was a success. It was too much work and didn't make much money, but it made people happy. One person was so distraught about us not having it for a third year that they made a fool of themselves on Facebook, chiding us for thinking of our son over them.
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And if that doesn't give you a taste of what the scene has become, what would? Part of the reason it was so much work was because of the personalities. The bigger guests were actually great, professional, polite, friendly. It was YouTubers and "pro" cosplayers that were trouble
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Cosplay used to be something for fans, especially little kids. Now it's apparently a cutthroat business. They mostly hate one another, and are feuding or even suing rival groups. Many of the (would be) "pros" are obnoxious and arrogant. They promise things and don't deliver.
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Some asked for space to screen their videos, or offered to moderate a panel, but then didn't show up. But they all wanted a free ticket and a free table. And they were all shocked when people didn't want to buy their print photographs.
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Meanwhile, they hovered around in their cliques, complaining to me or to hotel staff about some trifling, or obnoxiously blocked the tables of paying vendors. They rarely bought anything, so the vendors suffered. But that was the crowd we attracted.
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And I haven't even started talking about the zealots who want to turn everything into a political deathmatch, or those who appoint themselves thought police. We all know about them, so no need to go on.
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But that experience seems like a microcosm of my hobbies as a whole. Superheroes, RPGs, even tabletop wargames, all becoming mainstream, maybe more popular than ever, and yet they are increasingly losing their savor. Does anyone else feel that way?
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Completely, in every way. This is why I’ve decided to create my own stories and continuously cull the groups of people I interact with in a careful manner. That said, I suspect maximum overload will be reached and many “mainstream” hobbies will reach burnout and be uncool again.
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