CCEE 2015 Impressions, Part 3: A Turd in the Punchbowl

One of the Saturday panels I was on was Gaming Controversies. I went hoping to hear something lucid about Gamergate and it's ilk. In fact, the panel was a bit deeper than that, though it was concerned with it.

I haven't linked to any Gamergate synopsis. Let's just go with misogynistic douchebags think that they're the victim when people object to them being misogynistic douchebags. They lash out at anyone who doesn't enthusiastically endorse their campaign to silence any woman with an opinion on the internet.

The panel was given by a collection of academics who studied Gaming culture. They were interested in how abusive online interaction occurs, what triggers it, and the ramifications of it. Others were more concrete in that they were focused on some of the issues directly (for example, sexual tropes in gaming, hence gamergate).

The panel itself was OK. The problem was that each of the panelists had a different focus, and by the time they each had introduced themselves and given their opening speech, we had used up 30 minutes of the 45 minute talk. It could have benefitted from either a unified approach, more time, or both.

During the Q&A period, one fellow got up and wanted the panelists to address how Social Justice Warriors were quashing dissent and censoring people. This was such a warped statement that it gave my brain that chewing-on-tinfoil sensation. In fact, it was so fractally wrong that I couldn't immediately come up with a proper rebuttal - I couldn't load enough information into one statement to encompass everything.

I tweeted about it and got a response from some jerk who wanted to Sea Lion me. I engaged briefly and then remembered that I had better things to do. Enjoying the rest of the expo for example.

I later learned that there was an organized bunch of GG assholes that decided to "infiltrate" the expo and got their asses kicked out the day before. I imagine the guy at the panel was a supporter - albeit not enough to show his solitarity by leaving the expo (and I wholeheartedly encourage any Gamergate supporters to boycott CCEE - vote with your wallets, misogynistic douchebags). Good on CCEE for doing that - not much point having a zero tolerance for abuse policy if you don't enforce it.

CCEE 2015 Impressions, Part 4 - Boobies, Joy, Exhaustion... I'm Spent.

Saturday was the best day of CCEE so far, with only the faintest whiff of bullshit. But let's not dwell on that.

I am a little in awe of the huge amount of talented people at this convention. The costumes were gorgeous, the panel discussions informative, the big guests were uniformly funny and entertaining, and everyone I talked to was a joy to be with.

I managed to break my fear of talking to people long enough to chat (briefly) with several artists and get their autographs. I got a book from Jennie Breeden, Danielle Corsetto, Bruce Timm signed, and a print from Laurie B!.

It was only later when I realized that every single book involved nudity or outright porn. Which is odd since I kind of lamp-shaded it with wendy_licious the day before.

"I want to get a naughty book signed by one of the creators. Can I get you to stand next to me so that she doesn't correctly identify me a solitary, middle-aged, basement-dwelling, pervert?"
"Of course."

All in all, it went smoothly, which says a lot about their experience with fans, rather than my level of nervousness.

Later I saw Q&A sessions with some of the big guests of the show: Steven Amell, Ming-Na Wen and Brett Dalton.

Steven Amell was the third celebrity at expo to surprise me with their normal voice. He sounds like Oliver Queen in all of the "Flashback Island" sequences on the show. He was funny and gracious and a good sport with some of the more outré fan requests. Best question/answer:

"Are you as good an archer as Oliver Queen?"
"I've been practicing since we started production, so I'm getting better. Steven Amell is not as good as Oliver Queen, but he's better than Hawkeye."

I howled.

Ming-Na Wen and Brett Dalton were both fun. They bantered with each other very well. And Ming is a lot of fun, in total contrast to her Agents of SHIELD character (That's why they call it acting). Best line from a panel full of great lines? This one:

"Brett has the smallest bladder in the cast."
"What can I say, I like to stay hydrated"

I tweeted that and it ended up being the single biggest retweet I've ever written. Unfortunately, it (the quote, not my tweet) lead to a number of pee-related questions.

As an aside, I was thinking that Ming was astonishingly good looking for a 40-year old. Turns out I was wrong - she's 51. Damn.

Finally, there was the costume contest. It was a showcase of fantastic workmanship, even in the novice and youth categories! Like I said above - I'm a little in awe. And also kind of sad that I have no crafting talent whatsoever.

While the judges were off judging, they had an Iron-Costumer contest (which, if you're familiar with Iron Chef, you should know exactly what the contestants were in for). That is a great idea, and is exactly the sort of costuming-related shenanigans that will keep the target audience around for the time it takes the judges to do their thing.

I was taking crappy-ass pictures with my phone for the first quarter of the contest, until I realized that I was focusing so much on getting the picture, I wasn't really enjoying the costumes. Since there were professional-grade photographers all around me (I imagine some even work for CCEE), I decided to shut the phone off and just watch. If I want to see pictures later, there'll be better ones online than the ones on my phone. I'll know better next time.

After the expo closed, I grabbed a car2go and joined some friends for sushi.