Arisia

[laurens10]

Why I've stopped going to Arisia is touched on in this excerpt from the Boston Phoenix's review of Arisia:

The last panel I attended at the con was The Future of Etiquette.... I mentioned Blizzard's Real ID controversy in a question, and I was surprised to find no WoW or StarCraft players present, and thus I was forced to remember: no, I am not at

Comments

[greenlily]

A number of folks have tried to explain to me that what sets Arisia apart from other cons is that it's more of a "lifestyle" con as opposed to a purely "science fiction" con.

I think one of the issues they may have with WoW, specifically, is that it carries the image of geeks who would rather hide in their basement and socialize via online gaming, rather than geeks who want to go out and socialize with other geeks in exciting costumes. 99.9% of the folks you meet at Arisia were undoubtedly the shy basement-dwelling type at some point in their lives, and I suspect they're not eager to be reminded of it. It's unfortunate that they can't differentiate between their awkward past selves and the non-awkward, perfectly functional people who now choose to play WoW.

[tapuz]

That's so funny -- my running theory was that Blizzard's games are considered "too mainstream" for game snobs!

[chaiya]

I apologize for interjecting myself into this conversation, but my assistant conchair is one of those non-awkward, perfectly functional people who is a very devoted WoW player. Please believe me, most folks I have on staff know that video gaming is a perfectly reasonable pastime. ;)

What I think wasn't obvious to the general convention community is that we did have this discussion, on the staff level, and couldn't make a video gaming space happen for this year, as I commented below. That's not to say we won't in the future -- and, indeed, if you would like to be a part of helping make it happen next year, we'd really appreciate your aid! :)

[chaiya]

Hi! As this year's Arisia conchair, your post was forwarded to me, and I hope it's not improper for me to try to address the basic question you ask: what's with Arisia's lack of video gaming

[tapuz]

Thank you for taking the time to respond!

I'm involved with another (work-related) convention, and acutely understand the issues of the expense of multimedia in hotels. I had to attend an event related to that organization over last weekend so I had to miss Arisia this year :-(

The point that the OP is making, though, is not about hands-on video gaming.

While hands-on video gaming would certainly be awesome, there are many, many other panels, socials or videos that could happen that do not involve tech. I was very impressed with the overall programming schedule this year, but of the explicitly videogame/MMORPG-related events, "Get Lamp" was early morning, "Why Are MMORPGs So Popular?" opposite the Masq (though not dinnertime this year, thanks!) and "It's an Online Life For Us!" opposite the 8-bit dance. (The BYO-DS Fast Track looked great, though!)

Looking forward to getting even better next year!