I must admit.....this was a tough one to review. Was the con bad? Not in the least. Genericon 31, while not one of my favorites of all time, isn’t a stinker by any stretch! Like pretty much every previous year I’ve gone, I’ve had nothing but a fun time. There are, however, issues that made this one rather interesting. Issues that simultaneously helped & harmed this lovely convention, and said issues many of you agree with. Without further delay, let’s take a look at my review for the snow-covered Genericon 31, and see if it was any fun.
Good Points
More than anything else in Genericon 31, one of the best things was the staff. Despite the issues that arose (more on that below), these wonderful people kept everything together. They took some heat from con-goers that were less than kind, but as usual they were friendly, helpful, and took time out of their schedule to make our schedules great, regardless of the circumstance......especially the cosplay coordinator......love you Tea Leaf!!!!
Next up is the venue. As usual, Genericon covers a good stretch of the RPI campus. The Great Hall handles the bulk of activities, the Playhouse took care of the smaller panels & events (Great burlesque show from Pleasant Nightmares Burlesque), the cafeteria & Jazzman’s café (Now a mini-Starbucks) provided great food, and the armory as usual was a great space for the vendors & artists (Alongside the Reg & pre-reg tables/lines) to ply their wares alongside a few other food vendors as well. All of the occupied spaces were organized quite well despite the chaos of Friday, regardless of the crowding of activities (See below for details).
As usual, one of Genericon’s finest points are the con-goers themselves. Like the colors of the rainbow, just about any & every kind of geek, nerd, otaku, and metalhead (Cause metalheads are everywhere) could be found roaming the land that is RPI. Everybody that I ran into was nice, kind, friendly, and quite helpful. There were plenty of friends & people I recognized, but I came across an equal amount (If not greater) of new convention goers that were wonderful to meet. Some were long-time Genericon fans, others were brand new of relatively recent additions to the weird & bizarre Genericon family. I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Lastly, the various panels & events are a great plus for this convention. There was practically something for everybody per usual. Cosplay Chess, Iron Cosplay, Hentai Comedies Worth Watching Part 2 (The panel I hosted), and many more were available for anybody to enjoy. I know it seems like I’m repeating myself here considering I talked about this the past few times I’ve reviewed this convention, but it’s true!
Okay Points
Due to the actions of what happened below, the various panels & events were completely compacted into Saturday & Sunday. There’s 2 sides to this: on the one hand, this made for an action-packed weekend. There was a lot to see & do, and many panels were effectively back to back. On the other hand, this made for a simultaneously chaotic weekend. The transitions between back-to-back panels were sometimes a mess, and because of the shorter weekend, the wait line for the convention registration went outside the armory.....and it was impressive in a warped way that the line was so long.
Bad Points
Okay......let’s talk about the elephant in the room.....the cancellation of the convention this past Friday. I’m not gonna lie in saying that I was pissed when I first heard that RPI was closed. In all the years that this convention was open, never once was there a closing. Delays to be sure, but never a closing. Genericon 31 marks the first time that RPI (Again, don’t blame the con staff) closed down the con per se. In my mind this killed a part of Genericon, and threw the rest of the con into chaos. The shortened length made the experience smaller, and strangely less significant than prior cons.
The other bad point also involves the closing, but in a different way. On Friday, a notice early on that morning said that the con was closed that day. Not long after, it was un-canceled. After a few hours, it was re-canceled as it were. The chaos from this was impressive, and everybody was thrown for a look. At the Q&A with the con staff, I asked what was going on, and lo & behold, the individual (Don’t know the name) who handles the Facebook page of the convention jumped the gun on the information. Things were corrected for a bit, then changed to a cancellation once again from an official RPI decision. This was really infuriating, and the un-cancelling really created a sense of hope.....which ultimately turned out to be false.
Overall Impression & Rating
Genericon 31, while having some bruises, still manages to come out on top as a fun event. It took a little bit of warming up to, but once I did I’m glad I came. The time might have been shorter than usual, but I didn’t feel bored for effectively the entire time. Again, this might not be one of my favorite Genericon trips I’ve made, but I didn’t hate it one bit.
Genericon 31 gets a 8 out of 10. Originally I was gonna rate it from a 7 to a 7.5, but after thinking about it a little, I found it to be much more enjoyable than I first thought it was.
So that was my look at Genericon 2018. A damn fine convention with some damn fine people, great events, and a nice geeky atmosphere. It had it faults to be sure, but the faults didn’t completely damage how nice this gathering was. I look forward to next year’s, as it’s a very special anniversary for me. Until then, the rest of March moves on. See you soon!
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