So I'm home after a weekend in Telford inflating the ego of a guy from America who plays games all day as a form of entertainment for the internet.
Cox con is a bit of a niche convention organised by a man called Jessie Cox who streams games, releases videos on YouTube and all that internet personality stuff. He and a group of YouTubers he works with all gathered together and attracted over a thousand nerds to Telford for a weekend of...well watching them play games but in a big crowd where we can heckle them in real life. It was fun. Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!
It was my second time at this convention. The first time, 2 years ago, I went it was literally because my boyfriend wanted to so I kept him company. This year I had at least watched a few of most of their videos but also this year the Completionist and going so I was pretty excited about that. (I know he went last year but it clashed with Manchester comic con last year).
The con itself though really is like no other. I know all cons have their own feel. The MCM comic cons are always buzzing, busy and hectic but fun, the Wales comic cons are more chill more guest orientated but none are as friendly and welcoming as Cox con.
I'm not the kind of person who talks to people. I don't tend to make many friends at cons unless it's a meeting a friend of a friend or something but Cox con is a whole other story. It's insane how friendly people are, how easy it is just to jump into a conversation. In some places, people look at you funny for trying to jump in a conversation without having been in it first but at con people just accepted it, welcomed it even. It was normal, people would just add bits to the conversation and it was great. I remember one girl saying sorry for butting in but everyone was like 'it's fine, it's fine.'. It's so strange to me. Amazing though, I mean on the second day I ended up going to dinner with two complete strangers, just cause we talked in the queue for signings and, boom, con friends. You just end up picking people up and then sometimes losing people and picking up others. It just feels so safe to talk to people there. I mean I take a while to push myself to compliment someone on something but I did it without thinking there. It's kind of magic.
I think a part of it is up to the guests themselves. They're all such bright personalities. I'll admit I wasn't familiar with all of them but all of them were great. Panels were all hilarious, if you saw them in the con they were so friendly and by god, I am impressed by that. You see, if you want something signed or a photo with these people you have to queue, potentially for over an hour! Luckily for me, the main one I wanted a photo with was Jirard (which I did and I got to give him and hug and tell him he's awesome cause he is and daaaa) but my poor friends who wanted a picture with Jessie, and then Dodger and Strippin had to wait forever.
When it was the Jessie line I wandered off to play games and draw and stuff, but I got a bit lonely when it came to the Dodger line so I waited in the line anyway and just bailed when they got to the photo room. But then, Queue buddies at Cox con are best buddies so it's not all bad.
The exhibition hall was good too. The half was split between stalls selling nerdy things and well...others. The second part of the hall belonged to a computer tech company with PCs set up to play games (can't remember which one sorry!) a few indie game developers showing off their games with playable demos and a coscraft stall where you could get advice on future cosplays which I wanted to make use of but I couldn't think of what to say to them...
The artists were fun to talk to and didn't spend too much which is always good. There was also a fellow Author there who seemed to be doing pretty well. She was selling a trilogy of heavy looking sci-fi books. She was doing really well and made me think of potentially trying to get a table there next year, potentially, as long as it doesn't clash with Manchester again and my trail run at Chester goes well.
Overall, it was a great weekend! I'm tired and wish I didn't have work all week but hey. It was fun and I'm looking forward to another awesome Weekend this week at Manchester comic con.