1/21 anime column

Last premieres and cutting the regular lineup down to size. The hard part was choosing between Dr. Stone, Otherside Picnic, and Wonder Egg Priority for the last two slots.

Schrödinger's Worldcon

Worldcon is a complicated convention which develops complicated problems.

As previously mentioned, DisCon III, this year's Worldcon, previously sent out a survey asking members which they would prefer if it was unable to be held in person on its planned dates: a virtual con on the same dates, or an in-person con in mid-December. This was not to be a binding vote, just one that would inform an announcement that was to happen right around now about the convention's plans.

One can hope that vaccines plus the new administration will mean that it is considerably safer to visit DC in August. But since there is no way to know that for sure, I'm guessing that an in-person Worldcon in August is not in the cards.

The new wrinkle to the situation is that the owner of the con hotel has gone into bankruptcy. An unavailable hotel isn't a problem if you're not planning to use it (or if you have a backup facility), right?

From the con chair on their public Discord server:

If we announce anything but an in person in August without agreements, we open ourselves up to paying the hotels cancelation fees. We cannot afford to do that. Ideally we would have come to agreements in the past week, but the Wardman park closure has created issues as our contract may be considered an asset.

So while plans may be made, there may not be an announcement for a while.