AMECON 2010

This is copy pasted from the board of the actual convention because I coldn't be arsed to retype this much stuff.

So, AmeCon 2010. F*ck! I had a great time. I went down with my girlfriend the Thursday night, booked into our room at the Ramada hotel and popped up to the campus to see where everything was and if anything was happening yet. Met up with Tony Strong and a few others and had several drinks and laughs in the dorm rooms - we also discovered ladders of doom for when the stairs just aren't convenient enough (those who were there will know what I mean)! It was a fun night.

After sleeping back at the Ramada we returned to campus Friday morning to register and collect our badges. I was cosplaying Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue (not many people seemed to recognise the costume though), and the girlfriend was Roxas (again). Damn having a W surname! The missus has an A surname so she was in a much shorter queue to collect her badge, and then there seemed to be some kind of complication in my queue (sill not sure what happened, whether they couldn't find the guy's badge, whether he forgot his ID or what, I just know it took an age to resolve) so it was a slightly frustrating wait to get my badge, then I had to wait again to get the badge hole-punched, but it was only a minor niggle and people seemed to be doing the best they could to get through everyone as quickly as possible.

We spent most of the day in the games room and video rooms, seeing as there weren't really any panels or anything on until around 5. The games room was a lot of fun, had some great games of Smash Bros, Battle Stadium DON etc, and I got to torment the missus on Soul Calibur 4! Really liked the video rooms as well, it was great to be able to just sit in and binge anime. At 5 I disappeared to see the webcomic panel and got some good tips, then straight after that we had the opening ceremony.

AmeCon was our first con, we had been to MCM Expo before (three or four times) and our friends kept saying that cons were better and that MCM was really just a trade show. I think the opening ceremony was the first bit to prove this. There were lights, there was music, the comittee bothered to take the time and say "Hello, welcome, thank you for coming." which is something MCM would never take the time to do, our guests were introduced and said f*ck a lot just because we're over 18 making f*ck the official slogan of AmeCon in my mind! It was pretty cool, we went back to the hotel to change costumes, I came back as Luigi, my girlfriend as Yuffie, for the AMV disco and had an absolute blast!

So, Saturday morning we dragged ourselves out of bed, popped on our costumes (this time Goku and, surprisingly, Roxas, though travelling plus rain had quickly killed my Goku wig) and went to the bring and buy. My girlfriend managed to pick up a PlayArts Axel so she was happy, and I ventured into the dealer's room and grabbed myself Dark Chronicle, Gears of War 2 (I did already own it, but the disc had melted around the edges when my last 360 overheated), a Japanese edition of Dragon Ball volume 42, and some Legend of Zelda manga - oh a shout out to Ritchie's BTW, the little cafe in the sports hall. We had breakfast there every day of the con, the food was very cheap and very good, and headed out to see I'm Sorry I Haven't A Con.

This is where I started to feel like I was playing Shenmue or Dead Rising. I'd looked over the event schedule Friday morning, figuring out which panels and events where on at which time and in which room, and figuring out what I could go to, then figuring out what to fill the gaps inbetween with. I found it to be a humourous observation. My girlfriend disagreed and said I was just being a nerd (it's a con, being nerdy is the order of the day)!

She went off to see other panels while I sat in the bar, initially on my own, to watch I'm Sorry I Haven't A Con. Thankfully you people are friendly and awesome, and also in dire need of seats so I soon found myself surrounded by people to socialise with and I would mention names, but I'm terrible with names, even worse with names that may contain several numbers and symbols (feel free to send me an e-mail, add me on MSN etc though, you were cool people). I'm Sorry I Haven't A Con was really fun, I enjoyed watching it and I really hope it becomes a recurring event. After that was the AMV showcase which, I'll be honest, I watched because I had a drink to finish and it meant I didn't have to get up. I was pleasantly surprised though and I think Detroit Metal City was a very worthy fan favourite, certainly made me laugh.

I popped in to Anime Dub Live 3 and met the guy who had hosted I'm Sorry I Haven't A Con dressed as Gendo Ikari. He'd switched costumes but again, I suck with names, so I'm going to call him Gendo. We wound up volunteering for the improv stuff at the start and oh man, I really hope someone was recording that! If you were, send me a YouTube link, it would be awesome to watch back and see just how much of a tit I was.

I do owe the organisers of Anime Dub Live an apology though, they started late so I left early in order to get to Brad Swaile's panel. Like I said with Sorry I Haven't A Con, if it's running again at the next event I go to I'll definately come along, it was great.

So, Brad Swaile is Brad Swaile, he's just awesome. If you weren't at the panel (shame on you), YouTube it, enjoy it.

Masquerade! We got to the masquerade a little late, wound up sat behind a pillar, and behind enough people that I didn't really get any decent photos of anyone's costumes. The horrendously blurred, out of focus and just plain slanted photos I did get I'm happy to send to people, but seriously, they came out badly. Most of the costumes were fantastic, Monica's commentary amazed me (especially her little animated mascot - way to go tech guys) and it was a brilliant idea to have the cosplayers walk around because everyone got a really good view of them. In the end it didn't matter that I was sat behind a pillar and behind people because they walked right by anyway. Whoever thought of that system, good job!

We went through to the bar and bumped into Will and Elizabeth, a couple we'd seen around a couple of times and chatted to already that weekend. The girls decided to go to the yaoi panel while me and Will decided to drink and chat in the bar - during which the pub quiz was going on and wow, the people who were getting the high scores on that thing must be hardcore anime fans, I didn't know even half those answers, never mind when it started to play Japanese opening themes backwards and you still got it right.

The girls returned around midnight and we went to the disco for a bit, then back to the hotel.

Sunday morning, I managed to wake up nice and early, somehow. After breakfast we went to the AMV panel. My girlfriend wants to start making AMVs and the AMV showcase had left me wanting to pick up a tip or two, again we had to leave early because it clashed with my girlfriend's crossplay panel - so more of me apologising here, while I went, got more food (I'm a pig) and sat outside lecture theatre 1 for the video game panels (and met more awesome people). The video game panels were actually quite good, the second one in particular. I just graduated from art school with a BA (Hons) in Games Art & Design, and the second panel was all about getting a career in the industry and they had a project manager, an indie developer, an animator, a 3D modeller and a programmer answering everyone's questions and giving invaluable advice. In three years of studying, my university never managed to hold a guest lecture that even came close to being as useful as that panel. It was definately worth missing the omake for (though I will watch the omake on YouTube when it gets uploaded - if it hasn't been already).

I met up with the missus again and went to Seph's talk on wigs, my girlfriend bought a wig from her that she might love more than she does me, and wanted to make sure she was taking proper care of it and thank Seph for taking the time to make it, and when it comes to cosplay, I'm currently in the stage where I'm having a go at everything to figure out what I'm good at, what I'm not, and which costumes are feasible for me to do in the future.

It was a great talk and aftewards Molely was giving me some brilliant advice on making armour (on that note, I'm sorry I didn't catch you at the cosplay ball, but if you want to catch me on MSN or Skype or anything that would be great).

The cosplay ball was, pretty much, the perfect way to finish things up. Oddly enough, my girflriend was the one who was nervous to dance - usually it's the guy who's difficult to drag onto the dance floor! I got a chance to thank Will for organising everything and giving us a brilliant weekend, which is something I would never do at Expo. At AmeCon the organisers kinda made themselves known, they were constantly seen around, constantly doing something and having fun, and they were also approachable, which are qualities I've never seen in the people behind MCM Expo and is a big factor in why I felt the atmosphere at AmeCon was so much better and why the weekend was such a blast. It's an event crafted by people with a passion and it really shines through.

Oh, and just before I wrap this up. Dancing Piplup. What the hell?

I cosplay because it's fun. I'm more than happy to admit I'm a grown man who likes to dress up as his favourite video game and comic characters. XD The next convention I'm going to is actually on Halloween, so that's gonna be awesome.