Let's start with the sex part of their degradation.
Just like at almost every other "geek" or "nerd" convention out there, sans PAX, there are booth babes. Comic Con is no different. Well, except that most of the booth babes can be seen as prudes compared to all of the "fan girls" walking around the convention. Fan girls here should be read as attention-starved females with severe issues with the male figures in their lives that need to lash out in any way they know how, but not willing to do porn.
I am far from one to say I do not appreciate the female form. It's curved, smooth and very pleasant to my eyes, but I am unlike the same 80% of the people I spoke of on the prior day. Those individuals feel the need to drool over it and ruin it for everyone who is not living the basement dwelling nerd's experience. One of the major complaints many people have about the convention space is that it is almost impossible to walk about. That is because these 300+ pound people have to stop and snag a picture of this fabled "Hot Geek" they heard about. Ever try walking down a 20 foot wide aisle when 20 four-foot-wide guys are trying to snap a picture of one these attention-starved females? It's like jumping into a dumpster in the back of a liposuction clinic, and it smells the same.
What is even worse about this, is that these females going for "sex appeal" are drawing attention away from the things everyone actually showed up to see. On top of that, they also pull away those showcasing new items, movies or games from doing their jobs. Looking back on day 1, this was when it started and people truly there for fun were getting ignored. The worst of these experiences happening later when I was being a true fan boy.
When I rolled into the God of War panel to check out the new stuff not shown at E3, I thought I would actually get some one-on-one time with the developers - be it through the post-panel Q/A or post-panel hallway chat. So like a good fan boy I sat through the panel without squee-ing and got up to ask my questions. I had two technical questions and one fun, fan boy question. When it finally came to my turn, someone in the industry, who remain un-named, decided to flaunt her shit. I even heard the guys from the PlayStation Blog start planning to bump whoever was last so they could drag her ass up and end on a high note. That whoever was me. So instead of getting some meaningful game questions out there, I was forced to ask a fan boy question to get a quick "No Comment" type answer. This also left time so she could show off for their cameras her "God of War" cosplay and ask "When will there be a female Kratos?"
When things wrapped up, this was exactly the same damn thing that happened when trying to get a quick one on one with the guys from the panel - only it wasn't the devs choice. They were rushed to go take some pictures with the above mentioned attention starved female.
Let's just say I was ready to perpetrate some violence on quite a few people after that, but I had a much cooler head than some of the other attendees. This brings me to the violence.
As with any zombie outbreak, there is going to be violence. Most of the time it is the brain dead attacking the higher life forms. Oddly, at this year's con, that was not case. In fact, there were more than a few incidents that didn't get spread out there like the infamous Pen-To-The-Eye style attack. Most of them were over stupid squabbles of blocking some nerd's view of the fabled "Hot Geek" or shoving to get closer to the mythical "Hot Geek."
After day zero, I actually placed a bet with a fellow con-goer on how intense the violence will be this year. He thought it to be mainly verbal again this year. Somehow I knew it would go physical. In the end, I won the bet. I even won the bet the very next day as a shove fight broke out over one 300+ pound attendee nearly trampled a much smaller attendee because he was rushing to go snap a pic of some Poison Ivy cosplay. Nothing major, but it was a step up from the worst last year being a bitch off between offended geeks.
A few more times throughout the 3rd day though, I witnessed the rage and violence kettle progress to a boil. This is when I, and those in tow, decided to leave and have a good time over at the SOE Block Party. But no more than 40 minutes after arriving at their studios, reports began trickling in about a fight, and then a stabbing back at the convention. The violence had finally made its presence fully known and the outbreak of stupid fully spread.
We all went home that night wondering, "How are video games the source of violence in this culture?" I mean has there ever been a stabbing at E3? Or even further, has there ever been a physical fight? Not to my knowledge, but when movies and comics get mixed with half-naked "fan girls," look the fuck out!
Stay tuned for more of the insanity and conclusion that came with Day 4.
