Natterings From Nepantla

A consensus is emerging that it will probably not be safe to have large in-person gatherings before the summer. Balticon, which is held Memorial Day weekend (the last full weekend in May, for international readers), has recently announced that it will be virtual for a second year in a row.

Futhermore, the consensus says that it will probably be safe by fall. So, for instance, Rustycon, which is normally held in January in the Seattle area, is moving to September this year, with an announcement that it expects to be one of the first in-person events in the state of Washington. Origins, one of the big commercial gaming events, which first tried to go virtual and then cancelled last year, has moved itself to October on a similar assumption that it will be safe.

Caught in between are all the big summer cons. Worldcon, as I mentioned recently, has the extra wrinkle of its main hotel being unavailable for negotiation due to bankruptcy proceedings.

Gen Con, usually early August, has simply not opened up pre-registration yet. Gen Con had easily the smoothest transition to being online, due to so much of the infrastructure for online gaming having existed for years, so it should be able to wait a while before it has to jump one way or another.

Then there's Otakon, one of the biggest anime cons in the US. ANN reports that Otakon is looking for donations to stave off a possible collapse. Rumors have immediately sprung up about the state of its finances, but my guess is that it's looking at being trapped between the enormous fees for being held in a convention center and much lower attendance. Even if it was able to cancel for a second year in a row, it also has fixed costs, plus there's whatever it sank into last year's free online event.

The situation is better here in Portland. 2020 was the year the Portland Retro Gaming Expo was supposed to have moved from October to August. It was presumably going to try for similar dates this year, but there's been no update to the Web site in ages. It doesn't have to worry about being forced to honor a facility contract with the last stages of a pandemic going on, though, because the Oregon Convention Center is currently serving as an emergency homeless shelter and mass vaccination site.