if anyone comments "just don't go then" I will come to your house and poop on your carpet <3

Cons are no longer about celebrating fandom and culture. Its about selling things and networking. This has infected every part of anime. Cosplay, art, guests, etc. It's not about anime its about using the anime aesthetic to make money.

For profit conventions shouldn't have volunteers. They should pay everyone who's doing work for them.

That’s how it goes.

1: a niche fun thing begins to grow in popularity

2: its gets more popular and starts to be lucrative.

3: what made it fun to begin with is now all about money

Welcome to the future of fandom

we gotta talk about overcrowding too! So many cons these days oversell tickets to the point where there's barely any space in the walkways. It's unsafe, uncomfortable and just shows how conventions have become about money and selling as many tickets as possible

i am a disabled cosplayer. i made an awareness post about the lack of accessibility at conventions after attending a local con that's gotten too big for the venue it's hosted in at the cost of attendees' comfort (especially disabled, as the movement within the convention and between its floors is extremely limited). while most of the feedback for it was positive, i also witnessed a lot of people gossiping and making me out to be overdramatic. disability is the only minority anyone can end up becoming a part of at any given time, whether they're born with it or it happens following a severe illness, bad accident or old age, so i really don't see how advocating for accessibility is "overdramatic". i've started to lose interest in attending conventions because i feel like they just don't want me there if i'm disabled. thank you for speaking up about this.

I miss in character panels so bad 😭 they were so fun to watch irl, be in and watch on youtube!!!

I miss the early days when it was more of a meetup and prices reflected that. Now it's like the price tag is just bc anime is popular but there aint shit there anyways lmao

I used to DJ conventions for a living, heres my perspective:

Post-COVID, the internet became the place where the community happens. The con is no longer the center of the community or the cross-section of different subcultures that it used to be, and that fundamentally changed what a convention was for.

I think the con DJ circuit got especially slopified because of this. It’s the same handful of promoters throwing the same party at every major con, with essentially the same roster of DJs, influencers, and cosplay/OnlyFans personalities. The party becomes more about the personalities, photo ops, VIPs and social media content than the actual music or building a scene.

TLDR; It’s an extraction of the culture.

Going to a convention now feels like an overpriced vacation

Artist alley vendor here. I'm currently in my second full year of vending and am experiencing first hand a roller-coaster of everything said here. I wouldn't mind sharing some of my view of cons from the other side of the vendor table as a new vendor.

As a "veteran con goer" (40's) I'd add to the social side, cameras being everywhere as having had a negative effect. And I specifically mean video cameras. Everything being video recorded everywhere at a con by someone, has robbed a lot of the whimsy/spontaneity I feel. People afraid of becoming somebodies viral content, having their words or action taken out of context or just being mocked or made into the target of some groups latest online rage crusade.

On the dealer side I think the value aspect has been wrecked, like a lot of things, the internet. The dealers hall used to be a space to get things not commonly/easily available in retail stores like imports, early releases or even sometimes convention exclusive. Or barring that you could at least get a good deal on the last day of con from vendors looking to offload supply rather then pay to haul it back to their home store. The few more recent cons I've gone to, I've looked at the wares on sale and rarely saw anything that I didn't go, "I could get that from online store X and probably for less."

Them charging theme park prices for conventions is insane. I also remember when it was expected for a con to have high-profile guests.

I’ve been going to cons since 2008. What I honestly miss is going to these things in order to make friends. Back in the 08-2011 days I could go to a con, make like 15 new friends in a weekend and then make hangouts every Saturday after that and we all got together and got food, played video games and looked forward to the next con. Nowadays everyone at these things has their own friend group that they know forever and they do not want any newcomers in their friend groups and they close themselves off from meeting new people. Either that or everyone I seem to meet are “influencers” who only go to cons to work, network, and clout. No one can even spare 10 minutes to meetup and say hi. I really miss cons before all this post 2020 bs. Nothing can change my mind. Cons weren’t perfect before but better than what we have now. I get depressed even going anymore.

I remember when a full weekend for most cons was like...40 bucks.

I’m old and I used to love going to anime cons because they used to have viewing rooms, scavenger hunts, freebies, raves every night, lots of tables that sell food, and people invited randos to their room to play board and card games. Cons don’t do that stuff anymore.

No yeah, you are NOT alone in this sentiment! There are VERY few cons nowadays that I've been to that had this whole vibe that it was by the fans, for the fans. SacAnime for example still has that nerdy feel that reminded me of what cons were like pre-2020 times. But having said that, most cons don't have that same feeling and it truly sucks :(

After being in the 2 hour badge line at dragon con where 15 people passed out due to standing outside due to the con not doing what everyone else does and mailing badges I was very aggravated at points. It feels like paying a premium to then go shopping in a pop up mall. $200 after fees for the badge for anyone who didn’t know if they were going a couple months prior. Lines so long you couldn’t get into any panels even arriving an hour early, people hating on role playing and actually doing what cosplay entails. No one talks to new people just their friends. There’s no culmination of like minded individuals coming to a place to hang out and make friends with other likeminded people. It’s a huge popularity contest, I saw a girl get absolutely demolished by another cosplayer she complimented. The cons are now just big malls and mid parties a drunk would leave. They need to reduce the costs, add attendance limits, and focus more on the actual community part of it instead of it just being superstar fest and a couple thousand people sitting on floors all day. If it weren’t pop culture to be nerdy now, these cons wouldn’t be so mediocre and expensive tbh

On the con volunteering thing. I currently volunteer for a single midsize (for the area) non-profit con. Free hotel, free weekend badge, 2 catered meals a day, all day free snacks and drinks, all for 4 to 24 hours of work (can be pre con or at con.) The hotel benefit is 24 hours minimum.
Unfortunately, they are an outlier according to other volunteers who work at other cons.
A local BIG for-profit con only gives you a day badge and food if you work at least 6 hours that day, also doesn’t cover hotels unless you’re a sector lead. And people wonder why they seem understaffed every year.
Basically if you volunteer, do the math, talk to others, find out the benefits.
I hate how more and more cons are basically becoming Celebrity Petting Zoo. Don’t get me STARTED on cons who have a cosplay contest not because they appreciate the art, but because they know people will pay for a badge just for the contest and they will just put the bare minimum organization into it, or over work a cosplay guest and put big prizes on it. (Usually not all cash as well)

Hearing some conventions have another fee to attend to concerts or night parties at the convention on top of paying $80-$200 to attend at the convention is INSANE. Thankfully most events at the cons I go to are free entries but I have a bad feeling it will change in the next years.