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Convention Musings
Nov. 5th, 2012 01:41 pmSo, as I think I've stated previously, I'm honestly considering not going to Anthrocon next year. Though Spot and I treat it like a little vacation (spending money on dinners out is a treat, stuff like that), it usually ends up more stressful than anything. This year at FurFright -- which is extremely local to us so requires very little cost to get there, and we can eat food from our own fridge -- I made a fair amount more money than I did at Anthrocon. It could just be the economy, admittedly, but figuring it out, the ratios of attendees to dealers is as follows:
Anthrocon - 20:1
FurFright - 33:1
Those extra 13 people made a huge difference in the money I made. I might look into other conventions and do comparisons.
When you figure out the cost of everything for a single person (counting that the room and ride were split), I actually made very little at Anthrocon; most of what I made went into paying for getting there, getting food, and staying in Pittsburgh for 5 days. And if me and Spot were to do it ourselves -- no splitting the room or the ride -- it'd cost something like $1500 (which what I make wouldn't pay for, even if you halved it). Which, when you figure it out, is a lot of money to spend to be stressed out and tired and come home with Con Crud.
I think I've just been frustrated with people lately, and perhaps come the new year it won't bother me as much. Just little things keep building up. The newest thing is that a game from the gaming room at FurFright somehow ended up in someone's hotel room. We marked the majority of the games with stickers with our contact info on them, but those games aren't supposed to leave the gaming room. The majority of the games at FurFright are Spot's personal collection, folks -- he loans them to the con for the weekend because he is the Gaming Director and he trusts people to not be dicks with them. And this is the first time in nine years that this has happened…it may just be a deck of cards, but I'm taking it as a severe warning.
Not to mention the supposed "volunteers" who are supposed to man the game room door and prevent this kind of thing often treated the entrance to the gaming room as a social area…as in, you actually couldn't get through the mass of people standing around and chatting. I ran into this a few times over the course of the weekend, and it's something that needs to seriously be discussed with the folks in charge of the volunteers. You wanna be social at a con? Don't volunteer to be part of security!
So I'm genuinely trying to decide what cons I want to go to next year. Furry conventions seem so laced with drama right now that staying away from them is sounding better and better.
It's a shame; I really like doing conventions (or I used to). It's just people who are violating Wheaton's Law have kind of ruined them for me lately.
Anthrocon - 20:1
FurFright - 33:1
Those extra 13 people made a huge difference in the money I made. I might look into other conventions and do comparisons.
When you figure out the cost of everything for a single person (counting that the room and ride were split), I actually made very little at Anthrocon; most of what I made went into paying for getting there, getting food, and staying in Pittsburgh for 5 days. And if me and Spot were to do it ourselves -- no splitting the room or the ride -- it'd cost something like $1500 (which what I make wouldn't pay for, even if you halved it). Which, when you figure it out, is a lot of money to spend to be stressed out and tired and come home with Con Crud.
I think I've just been frustrated with people lately, and perhaps come the new year it won't bother me as much. Just little things keep building up. The newest thing is that a game from the gaming room at FurFright somehow ended up in someone's hotel room. We marked the majority of the games with stickers with our contact info on them, but those games aren't supposed to leave the gaming room. The majority of the games at FurFright are Spot's personal collection, folks -- he loans them to the con for the weekend because he is the Gaming Director and he trusts people to not be dicks with them. And this is the first time in nine years that this has happened…it may just be a deck of cards, but I'm taking it as a severe warning.
Not to mention the supposed "volunteers" who are supposed to man the game room door and prevent this kind of thing often treated the entrance to the gaming room as a social area…as in, you actually couldn't get through the mass of people standing around and chatting. I ran into this a few times over the course of the weekend, and it's something that needs to seriously be discussed with the folks in charge of the volunteers. You wanna be social at a con? Don't volunteer to be part of security!
So I'm genuinely trying to decide what cons I want to go to next year. Furry conventions seem so laced with drama right now that staying away from them is sounding better and better.
It's a shame; I really like doing conventions (or I used to). It's just people who are violating Wheaton's Law have kind of ruined them for me lately.
