what is the best con outside of gencon?

alsih2o · Mar 24, 2003

anybody have a local favorite they want to brag on?

hammymchamham · Mar 24, 2003

Though I live no where near it, I always like the name ConnCon

Ruined · Mar 24, 2003

I've always been a fan of Origins. It's pretty large, I believe the second-largest Con held by Andon/whoever has it these days. And well, I'm on the US East Coast, so it was much more accessible than the venerated GenCon.

Gonna try out DragonCon this year, and hopefully MidSouthCon this weekend, so my vote may change...

Crothian · Mar 24, 2003

I always liked MarCon held memorial weekend here in Columbus. It is not just a gaming con, it it a sci fi fantasy convention. So, there is anime, authors, gaming, fliking, costume contests, talk on all things in the genre. It is the only con that I know of that is not specialized so it is easy to always find things of interest and experience new things within the genre.

diaglo · Mar 24, 2003

not that i've ever been. but i hear DragonCon is good.

Lady Starhawk · Mar 25, 2003

I live in Minnesota, and although it's not a gaming convention, I find a local con called CONvergence to be the best I have ever been to. It's a local fan run con for all aspects of sci-fi and fantasy and more. Movies, Anime, comics, gaming, literature, hard science, it has it all (and a TON of partying

) and with well over 1500 people converging on one hotel for the weekend it's just a wonderful atmosphere.

Robert Meyer Burnett, one of our guests of honor last year, wrote a glowing review at www.moviepoopshoot.com/retinalfetish/4.html
And another of our guests of honor said he was going to do a write up in cinecape for us

.

I just got my progress report for the upcoming con this morning and I'm going to go read that.

Lady Starhawk
www.convergence-con.org
(and no I am not on the convention committee)

WizarDru · Mar 25, 2003

theRuinedOne said:
I've always been a fan of Origins. It's pretty large, I believe the second-largest Con held by Andon/whoever has it these days. And well, I'm on the US East Coast, so it was much more accessible than the venerated GenCon.

Well, Columbus is a lot closer than Gencon, it's true....but why is there no GenCon East, anyways? It would seem obvious to me that there are so many East Coast gamers that a GenCon East would be a given...but I've been wrong before. When Origins was in Philadelphia (and thus my proverbial backyard) a few years back, I was dramatically unimpressed. It seemed very lackluster...but it certainly didn't look like a convention of 11000, either.

My local favorite gaming con is ShoreCon, held in Cherry Hill, NJ. It's well run, a blast to attend, and nearby for south-east Pennsylvanians.

For non-gaming cons, I vote for Otakon and Balticon, both in Baltimore. Philadelphia's Philcon is old, stagnant and expensive...while these cons are fresh, vibrant and not costly at all. I had more fun at Otakon last year and Shorecon the year before that than I'd had in the last five PHilcons...combined.

blackshirt5 · Mar 25, 2003

When is ShoreCon held Dru? That's close enought that I could get to it.

Azure Trance · Mar 26, 2003

I like ICON (Island - Convention). It's a weekend long con that swamps the local SUNY Stony Brook campus. If I'm not mistaken it's one of the largest on the East Coast.