Another Reason Going To SDCC Is Unnecessary

So I'm still sitting here in my Ohio home. I spent much of the afternoon and early evening online, checking Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, etc. for news and such coming out of the show. I've got my Google-Fu on point, cross referencing notes from one feed against others. Someone might make a passing reference to something that sounds deeply interesting to me, and a few minutes later I've got pictures and transcripts and whatnot. Somebody else has a live feed going online, which I've got playing in the background as they're talking with Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth and Ryan Reynolds about their respective upcoming movies.

And I'm taking all this in and I'm thinking, "How could you adequately do this convention if you didn't have access to an online feed the whole time?" If you tried to attend in a **ahem** conventional manner, you'd miss out on tons of opportunities. I could well be getting more and better info from the convention here at my computer in Ohio than someone without internet access who's actually on the convention floor right now.

Then a pair of Tweets fly by from two different folks.

The hall h panels are delayed due to a medical emergency. No one is allowed out until its resolved. Showing trailers again. Weird.

Some guy in Hall H at Comic-Con was stabbed in the face with a pen because he wouldn't change seats. Crazy! I'm not joking!

Within the hour, actual news reports start showing up on sites like Bleeding Cool and Entertainment Weekly. And not long after that, we've got video of the guy being taken away by police and a new report from Comic Book Resources talking with the police about the incident.

But if you happened to be, say, on the other side of the hall where the incident occurred and didn't have internet access, you'd be stuck wondering what the hell happened and would have to rely on word of mouth why the Marvel panel hadn't started yet.

Indeed, Maggie Thompson later Tweeted...

2.5 hours aftera reported stabbing in Comic-Con's Hall H, I'm still not hearing any attendee buzz about it.

And all this made think. What's the real reason for going? Really, it's to meet up with other like-minded people. The comics or the movies or whatever are just a starting point, an introduction to other people who also like that stuff. And since I generally hate everybody anyway (nothing personal against you of course!) then the only real incentive isn't even an option for me. I can sit back and relax, eat some homemade pizza, play with my dog, and still walk away with all the key pieces I'd want out of a convention. I can order online any new books I hear about from the creators and/or publishers, get all the great news, and NOT have to fight the crowds? Sign me up for that!

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