Otakon Nerd Thread!

[MasterSwordUltima]

So I'm leaving in an hour or so to head down to Baltimore to get my pre-registration done, and then hit up a bar or so. Then tomorrow is one of the biggest anime conventions on the planet. I guess I'm meeting up with ShadowTiger sometime during the weekend to play some Brawl as well (him and I might enter the tournament there).
So expect some rad pictures sometime during the next few days (that is, if you're into cosplay and anime/video game stuff). I'll have some up on my facebook too, so all you hip kids in the AGN group - keep your eyes peeled.


Anyone else gonna be at this?

[mrz84]

Sadly no. I'm broke. So you won't be seeing me there anytime soon. I would like to see the piccys when you get back though. And tell ShadowTiger I said hi. :cool:

[MasterSwordUltima]

The game room was crazy. Tons of Brawl action, and I got to check out the latest Project M stuff with ShadowTiger. Very cool stuff. (trying to throw in the hint at being beta testers to the dev there, hahah). I was cosplaying as a Team Rocket grunt - and it turns out that about 30+ other people did too. And so we linked up and trolled some REDs, it was good.

Pics will be up randomly within the next few days.

[mrz84]

That sounded awesome. Maybe my schedule will allow me to go next year. And now my mind is ablaze with cosplay ideas. Most of them have probably been done already, but meh.

I forgot you and ShadowTiger were beta testers, though. :moo:

[ShadowTiger]

Yeah, it was pretty rad. Oh, that Project M thing: I went to their IRC Channel the day after the meet-up, and they didn't know one of the Devs was going. standardtoaster was the only (active) op in the channel at the time. The guy did have the latest version though. Hopefully he was legit.



Anyway, I'll copy and paste what I wrote over at PZC.




Otakon (http://www.otakon.com/) - A convention featuring Anime and Video Gaming. Here's a map (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Pratt+Street+Baltimore,+Maryland&hl=en&ll=39.285885,-76.615058&spn=0.004119,0.006899&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.534108,56.513672&t=h&z=17) of the area from a sky view.

I took a trip with my College's Sci-fi anime club to the annual Otakon convention. I leave tomorrow night for New York. I'm currently in Baltimore, Maryland, sharing a hotel room with four other people from this past Tuesday until tomorrow, enjoying the sights and sounds of the Baltimore Harbor. It's very beautiful, if overpriced due to tourism.

Tuesday night, the entire club gathered up and made their way to Dick's Last Resort (http://www.dickslastresort.com/), a "manly" club and bar restaurant with a particularly odd theme to it. It was as if the "waiters" were paid specifically to somewhat harrass and poke fun with the customers. We are seated, and the waiter's conversation with us essentially was as follows:


Welcome to Dick's! The food is up on the menus, there, there, and there. I see you Asian types squinting your eyes, so I will read them to you..! *Pauses, and points to a menu*

.... . Food!

Go pick your food now, and tell me what you want to drink. Most people picked water. A waiter came over with a plastic tub of water, slammed it down, causing water to slosh everywhere, then dropped a bunch of plastic cups on the table, (some falling over the side.) then literally threw straws at people with one flick of the wrist. A straw landed in my shirt pocket. -.-

Later, on Thursday afternoon, we went to get in line for our Otakon pre-registration passes. You could have registered online before the convention to buy a pass, which is $10 or so cheaper than buying it at the convention itself when it opens. The line was easily around the entire group of blocks (Not block. Group of blocks.) with water salesmen walking around in the 101 degree heat, carting coolers of bottles of water behind them.

One guy that I just can't not mention is this one guy, .. this totally ripped shirtless black dude with a megaphone, speedily dragging a milk crate full of bottles of water behind him with a rope, (The least impressive of the water-carrying methods we saw.) but he had the most amazing and addicting chant. He was practically marching to the beat of his own chant.


Ice Cold Water Guy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDVTkh48cgI&feature=related) | The Remix (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lskyzZxNg80)

He had the entire convention line cheering for him, chanting his chant, dancing to the tune. It was great. Everyone knows him. He's there every year, doing the same thing. People see him in the local 7-11 and high-five him.

So we're waiting in this line for about an hour and fifteen minutes, situated on essentially the opposite side of the group of blocks from where we would be entering the building to line up. But after that amount of time, the line started moving really quickly. It only took us about 12 minutes to traverse the entire massive complex block to the entrance for registration. It moved quickly because when we got inside and to the top of the stairs inside the building, there was another massive line, but at the end of the line, it fanned out into 20 or so stations. So you could just check the ID of someone, have them pick their pass design, give them their paperwork and pass, and send them on their way. It took fifteen seconds, if even.

During the convention itself, it got crowded. I mean EXTREMELY crowded all around the convention center. Of course it would. I mean I've seen it more crowded in the middle of Manhattan when Justin Bieber visited, but things like wings and hand-held stuff gets in the way. :P There were some amazing costumes. You'd see everything from Resident Evil soldiers to Minecraft heroes and creepers. I saw someone with the head of a creeper followed by the body of the creeper in tow. People in the same costumes tended to inevitably flock together. I thought that was pretty neat.

The actual convention hall is absolutely tremendous, or at least it feels that way when it gets crowded and you're forced to move at a snail's pace. (Very torturous for me. I'm a speed demon.) There's stuff scattered all over the place. Massive meeting halls all over the complex. On the basement is a video gaming hall, with outlets, tables, and TVs as far as the eye can see. There were four Melee and four Brawl TVs hooked up with some serious competition on each at all times. It was a true pleasure to sit there in a contest of my peers at both.

On Saturday night, I got to see a fifth, smaller TV set up with the Brawl Mod Project M (http://projectm.dantarion.com/), which enables sort of a Melee-esque feel in a Brawl environment. It really does act and feel similar to Melee, even though it may not look like Melee much. The version we had there, though, was the full version. One of the project's developers actually brought it in to unofficially showcase (Kinda just because he could. :blah: ) and play some people in it. It had a far smaller turn-out in terms of onlookers and players, but we had some pretty intense matches. My Link eventually managed to topple the reigning champion's Charizard (Which now has some pretty interesting new moves.) and took on a few people of my own.

There was a rave on two of the nights of the Con. The line was, as is expected, incredibly long, stretching far beyond half of the innards of the Con hall. I'm talking lines several city blocks worth long. The rave was pretty neat, I guess. I personally feel like I've done them plenty of times before, even though it was my first rave, but I can see how. It was just people shaking their fists and jumping to rave music with lasers and fog in the background. During the fourth DJ's time playing, apparently people were rocking so hard that the DJ's table holding his turntables and laptop collapsed. They blamed it on the audience, even though it was underground on a cement floor. Huh. Anyway, ...

The events at Otakon mostly consist of panels and workshops and audience participation. There are workshops that help you draw Anime figures or Chibi figures, there was a panel that discusses Japan's IP-address problems, (I was kinda surprised to see this one, actually.) and a pretty neat show in a stadium arena featuring voice-over skits from the cosplayers. Very funny. One skit featured some arbitrary anime that had hypothetically been taken over and censored by 4kids. Hahaha...

There was also a tremendous "Dealers' Hall" where shopkeeper set up a booth to sell their goods. Anything and everything fanciful and artistic, and even electronic were sold or advertised for. D&D Supplies and dice, arcane pendants and rings, kimonos, swords and daggers, posters, video games and consoles, seriously expensive action figures, and of course, Manga and Anime were sold there. I bought two T-Shirts. (1 (http://tshirts.name/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/White_Tiger_T_Shirt_Nature_and_Animals.jpg) & 2 (http://whatdidyoubringme.homestead.com/files/Tshirts/Mammal/images_mtn/TwilightWolves2066.jpg)) I didn't want to spend money on anything I couldn't actually use in some way. I then ended the Con by spending some more time in the Dealer's room, as there was one particular booth that had Melee set up. I ended with a 1:1 with someone who ended up as my team partner for two hours. I four-stocked him, my Link vs his Marth. Great match. I love how we both agreed to not edge-guard each other, or spin-attack or counter, and actually held our word. He didn't like how I kept grabbing him with my hookshot, so I asked if it bothered him, and we set an agreement. A nice honorable fight.

Oh. I also had the pleasure of meeting MasterSwordUltima there. Awesome guy. Hell yeah. I was fighting a bit of a fever, but we finally got to meet up in the Gaming Room at the Brawl tables. We chatted about ZC and quest mechanics and Brawl's Project M, which we loomed over for much of our short time together.



Yes, it was my first 'Con experience. Definitely enjoyable, no doubt. I wouldn't cosplay or anything, but it is definitely very refreshing to be with people with similar interests and personalities. Or rather, to swim in a sea composed of them. So packed there. XD LOOOONG LINES!! I hyperbolize not, sirs and madams.

On a side note, manners are so different in Baltimore than in New York. I mean, yeah, it's New York, sure, so I don't have much of a point of comparison between Maryland and anywhere else, but hey, I'm one of the friendliest people I know, and even I felt like a total arse in comparison to the majority of the people there. Even the change-beggars were uber-polite.

Be careful about eating out around the area, though. None of the restaurants were inexpensive. In fact even in the Dealer's room, stuff was incredibly expensive. Yeah, it's the cost of transportation, but still.

So yeah, I had a blast. Everything was really expensive, and it was pretty hot, and good gravy there were a lot of people begging for money on the streets, but it was definitely an overall pleasant experience. Do go to Otakon some time if you have the money for it.

[MasterSwordUltima]

The only thing that bugged me was the one beggar who handed out those papers saying he was deaf - and to please purchase it for $2. HIS CELL PHONE WENT OFF. -_-'

So then later on saturday, I saw him sitting outside the Hilton, asking for change. So like a total troll, I made it a point to jingle the change in my pocket. It's okay though - because I'm Team motherfucking Rocket!

[ShadowTiger]

Reviving the topic because it's relevant. Otakon is once again this weekend! I'll be going, sure. I'm leaving tomorrow (Friday) morning really early, taking a megabus down there from New York, and high-tailing it to the hotel, checking in, and rushing to make some plans, get the passes real quick, and check the schedule.

I think one of the best things to do while in the region is to check out the Inner Harbor area; specifically the bookstore and the restaurants. It's a great bookstore, and I've heard the crab cakes are outstanding, if expensive.