What?! Over 9000?!

Holy crap. Despite Ashley Gosiengfiao’s assertions to the contrary, it seems that based on the comments to yesterday’s Otaku Taiki post, there aren’t actually any real cosplayers anywhere. Or at the very least, cosplay seems to be a very fragile state of being that can be disrupted by the presence of money, professional photographers, or Parokya Ni Edgar, or the absence of competitive spirit, skits, love for the character being portrayed, or by playing a character no one actually knows.

So now we have a dizzying minefield of terms to add to the vocabulary of any unwary newbie (like myself) taking the plunge into the messed-up world of cosplay (which, as previously mentioned, doesn’t appear to actually exist):

• Cosplayer
• Costrippper
• Registered Costripper
• Cosplay Fan
• Cosplay Mafia
• Modeling
• Actor

And let’s not forget Gay, Whore, and DOM, apparently an integral part of any cosplay observer’s repertoire when writing hard-hitting, telling-it-like-it-is reports in the name of Truth™.

What the hell people. Are we so eager to label people differently from ourselves just to proclaim our uniqueness? Maybe it’s human nature for any group to naturally splinter off into factions, but I don’t have to like it.

Someone should send a memo to all those kids in costume, although I think that since some people cosplay as a way to define their unique identities, telling them that they don’t know who they really are will probably just make things worse.

Are there any cosplayers left out there? Who the heck are you people, really? Do you agree with Ashley’s statement?

“As long as you’re wearing a costume to play a certain character from a game or anime or whatever, then it’s cosplay. That’s all there is to it.”

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Considering the widely divergent opinions about last weekend’s Metro Comic Con 2009, especially in the comments section of my coverage of the event, I’ve been wondering, what exactly do people want out of conventions? I mean, there are the basics — spacious venue, good sound system, good marketing, good layout — but all those things together don’t seem to add up to a convention that everyone would like.

So I put it to my readers: What DO you want out of your conventions, anyway?

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In the past week or so I’ve been finding myself mixed up in this debate in one way or another. From the brand new trolls on my site thanks to my latest Manifesto (hi trolls!) to a heated plurk debate about AP trying to DRM their news items, everyone has an opinion on this subject.

Lately Seedsop spoke up on Plurk about how a certain site that supposedly champions free speech about the local otaku scene has started filtering comments on its own site. Terribly ironic, but a sad reality of online life.

So now I ask my readers: Why is free speech so important to you? Even if it means exposing yourself to slander? And is it Gratis or Libre?

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