Important > Calendar Event Discussion
Dragon*Con in Atlanta, GA, Aug 29-Sept 1, 2014
Kodiakc:
Any info on signings for the weekend?
Dannyboy:
The app was just updated, I strongly suggest anyone attending con get it from iTunes or the play store.
Danny
PilgrimDan:
I heard some really bad things about Dragon*Con from quite a few people at Gen-Con, along the lines of how people at Dragon*Con mostly turn up to party and many people who aren't guests turn up just for the booze and that the atmosphere was nasty. I was talking to one writer who said it got so crowded it took an hour and a half or more to go to the rest room and that he lost money going there to get books signed because no-one seemed to be interested, so he wouldn't be going again. He also said that Dragon*Con was getting so unruly that there was a real danger of it turning into a riot - with a quarter million people.
Does anyone know how true this is?
slayn:
--- Quote from: PilgrimDan on August 20, 2014, 07:34:31 PM ---I heard some really bad things about Dragon*Con from quite a few people at Gen-Con, along the lines of how people at Dragon*Con mostly turn up to party and many people who aren't guests turn up just for the booze and that the atmosphere was nasty. I was talking to one writer who said it got so crowded it took an hour and a half or more to go to the rest room and that he lost money going there to get books signed because no-one seemed to be interested, so he wouldn't be going again. He also said that Dragon*Con was getting so unruly that there was a real danger of it turning into a riot - with a quarter million people.
Does anyone know how true this is?
--- End quote ---
Not very. It's a crowded convention, yes, but outside of that nothing else is accurate, and even the number of people there isn't a problem for the most part. I've never had to wait more than, like, two minutes to use the restroom at any point in the last five years of attending.
Further, both hotel and convention staff are very good at keeping people without badges and/or hotel room keys out of the hotels.
The main thing to remember is that the convention isn't about any one specific aspect of being a geek. I can almost guarantee that people at GenCon don't like DragonCon because there's not enough gaming for them. But then, DragonCon is not a gaming convention. There's gaming there, certainly, but it doesn't get any more or less attention than other events.
As far as the writer you spoke to, that sounds like sour grapes to me. First, attendance hovers around the 50-60,000 range, putting his number off by a factor of five. Second, it's a well-behaved crowd for the most part; some people drink a bit too much in the evenings, but I've never seen anything that comes remotely close to unruly and the idea that a bunch of geeks are going to riot at a convention that specifically caters to them is hilarious. I'm sorry no one wanted his signature, but if you're not a NYT bestseller, that's a risk you take attending a general-purpose convention like DragonCon. Hell, I've seen actual NYT bestsellers with anemic lines during signings.
Dannyboy:
PilgrimDan:
I've been attending Dragoncon since 2000, yes the convention has gotten bigger in many ways. You must remember that it is a non-profit fan run convention. They started in one hotel and now use all the convention space of five major hotels in downtown Atlanta plus the exhibit space of the Atlanta Merchandise mart. 50,000 is an accurate count for attendance from what I've heard about last year's count. The drunken atmosphere complaint isn't accurate from my experience, there is plenty of drinking going on but I have never witnessed someone spewing. The only real issues happen when someone stops at the bottom of an escalator. As for the author in question... he wasn't Jim. I was on line for over an hour waiting to get books signed last year. Twice. I had three books to get signed they were limiting people to two at a time to try and get through the whole line in the hour allowed.
I have attended many other cons but Dragoncon is the one that keeps me coming back. By comparison NY Comicon (my hometown con) is a horrible zoo.
My $.02
Danny
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version