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Anthrocon 2024 - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
a year ago
Been a while since I've done one of these!
Without anything crazy overshadowing the convention this year, I feel like I should throw my thoughts up on how this year went while they're still fresh in my mind.
In no particular order:
Good - Getting situated two days early is well worth the extra cost. Stuff getting situated in the room, not having to get into a gladiator fight to get a bell cart, and basically just be overprepared should anything have went sideways...plus getting on a low floor to avoid any of the bullshit from having to get up 20 flights of stairs should one be that unfortunate...Tuesday is the way to go. Trust me.
Good -
thrysta joined me and 
glittoriel for some things on those bonus days before the con officially kicked off! The Dave & Buster's trivia night was nice (even though we got 4th and finished outside of the prizing) and of course we got our Half-Price Games day run in on Wednesday morning as well.
Bad - Nicky's Thai Kitchen had a rare swing and a miss this year - the day we went, half of their kitchen was shut down for some reason and most of the dishes we normally would have ordered weren't an option. We still enjoyed what we got, but we would have done a different day if we knew that going in.
Thank fucking god - I STILL FIT IN THE FURSUIT. Phentermine is a hell of a drug. Getting me down from 192 pounds at my depression weight to 176 before it was go-time gave some wiggle room on food. Speaking of which...
Good - Between the day I paid to go to Penn City Grille, the Supersponsor Brunch, and the Ultrasponsor Brunch, I'm fairly sure I consumed an entire pig's worth of bacon. Sorry to whichever pig fur was cooked and prepared, hope you got to respawn soon enough to enjoy some of the festivities!
Slightly sad - No more numbering of the Fursuiter Badges. I guess this is wishing for a product of a bygone era, but there was just something special those earlier years about trying to get badge #150 (for obvious reasons, if you're on this page) and the two years it happened (once directly and once by trading for it!) That said, leaving badges in batches in Headless both (A) is probably easier and (B) encourages furries to ACTUALLY USE Headless.
More sad - still no fursuit group photo. I 100% realize why it's not a thing right now. I get there are logistics as to why. I understand full well it's being worked on with some ideas being kicked around. That doesn't mean it's not sad.
Bad - Westin...why in the shit was your plumbing so slow? It felt like there was a half a fursuit's worth of fur clogging the pipes before we even kicked off into con time.
Good - Dealer's seemed to have more stuff worth nabbing this year.
Better - A proper NSFW section! I know there are people saying it wasn't enough or doesn't compare to what other cons have as far as 18+ wares, but hey it's something! Definitely picked up a few things!
HOLY FUCKING SHIT - Pokefurs. Just...WOW. We're big enough to need the hall that used to house the fursuit parade group photo. We're going through the same shit trying to get lined up for this that was a thing for the legit parade photo. Secondary Pokecon within Anthrocon when? (Also, to the person/people running the Pokefurs meetup - you need a better microphone/a megaphone to get everyone to hear you. We're in suit, a lot of us can't hear well.) I definitely knew more people in this room than anywhere else.
Good -
dweet-tea teaming up with my old IRL Yu-GI-Oh friend Adam to win the 2v2 Smash tournament is a crossover I never thought I'd see in my life, but I'm here for it!
Better - Dweet showing me and Glittoriel progress on something big coming down the pipeline...and realizing he's more local than we thought...AND shares some of our choices of preferred liquor. The Mewtwo/Glittoriel/Dweet meetup at D&B for copious amounts of alcohol is a crossover I sure as hell look forward to!
FUCK YES -
Bad - it felt like there wasn't anywhere near as much as "must-attend" events as far as panels this year. For Glittoriel, she had the Undertale meetup, for me there was Pokefurs, and of course the fursuit parade, but...the lack of some of the game tournaments and other niche meets just felt...off? I know it's what you make of it and for some things I might have to volunteer to run an event if I really want to see something go down, but it felt different than past years.
Good, and didn't realize until much later - apparently Furnando's/Furryland/Pizza Parma was only letting badgeholders in the whole convention time to eat. Can we expand on this, Pittsburgh?
LOL - for those who drink, if you really want to get so fucked up you can't walk to your hotel room, play the Protogen Drinking Game. One shot every time you see one, two if they also have the extra stuff on arms/legs that light up instead of just the face.
Pleasantly surprised - Condado limiting margarita pitchers to Teremana and it ending up being just as good as the higher tier stuff = more excuse to drink next year now that we know that!
Meh - Last year, the Cocktail Cruise was open bar and didn't actually go by the 2 drink ticket thing. This year, it was 2 drinks and then cash bar. Admittedly we got used to the idea of the all you can drink...legitimately think the idea that was floated in Ultra Brunch could work with liquor instead of just beer/wine without breaking the bank though.
We do a little trolling - did you know that the entire Vaporeon copypasta can fit on one of those LED scrolling badges, despite it appearing to go over the character limit? Well now you do! (Hey, I need SOME form of attack that does psychic damage that isn't blocked by Umbreon typing...y'all Umbreons were everywhere, YOU KEEP FUCKING BREEDING!)
Overall, it was a great Anthrocon and here's hoping the next one is even better!
Notes to self for 2025:
24 bottles of water worked out just fine. No reason to go over this. We ended up bringing some home.
8 cans of Kickstart was too many - 3 came back.
4 pre-made bottles of margarita was only slightly overpreparing. 2 or 3 is likely sufficient. Bring half pints or pints of the other stuff straight.
Stop bringing soap, shampoo, and conditioner - there's no hotel that isn't providing these. Stick with the new razor, tweezers, band-aids (remember neosporin next year!) and deodorant and one scrubber.
Priority pass for the entire city based on badge tier?
You love the idea of the discount at Anthronoms more than the actual food. Just use this to get pop and get food somewhere you actually want to eat.
Without anything crazy overshadowing the convention this year, I feel like I should throw my thoughts up on how this year went while they're still fresh in my mind.
In no particular order:
Good - Getting situated two days early is well worth the extra cost. Stuff getting situated in the room, not having to get into a gladiator fight to get a bell cart, and basically just be overprepared should anything have went sideways...plus getting on a low floor to avoid any of the bullshit from having to get up 20 flights of stairs should one be that unfortunate...Tuesday is the way to go. Trust me.
Good -
thrysta joined me and 
glittoriel for some things on those bonus days before the con officially kicked off! The Dave & Buster's trivia night was nice (even though we got 4th and finished outside of the prizing) and of course we got our Half-Price Games day run in on Wednesday morning as well.Bad - Nicky's Thai Kitchen had a rare swing and a miss this year - the day we went, half of their kitchen was shut down for some reason and most of the dishes we normally would have ordered weren't an option. We still enjoyed what we got, but we would have done a different day if we knew that going in.
Thank fucking god - I STILL FIT IN THE FURSUIT. Phentermine is a hell of a drug. Getting me down from 192 pounds at my depression weight to 176 before it was go-time gave some wiggle room on food. Speaking of which...
Good - Between the day I paid to go to Penn City Grille, the Supersponsor Brunch, and the Ultrasponsor Brunch, I'm fairly sure I consumed an entire pig's worth of bacon. Sorry to whichever pig fur was cooked and prepared, hope you got to respawn soon enough to enjoy some of the festivities!
Slightly sad - No more numbering of the Fursuiter Badges. I guess this is wishing for a product of a bygone era, but there was just something special those earlier years about trying to get badge #150 (for obvious reasons, if you're on this page) and the two years it happened (once directly and once by trading for it!) That said, leaving badges in batches in Headless both (A) is probably easier and (B) encourages furries to ACTUALLY USE Headless.
More sad - still no fursuit group photo. I 100% realize why it's not a thing right now. I get there are logistics as to why. I understand full well it's being worked on with some ideas being kicked around. That doesn't mean it's not sad.
Bad - Westin...why in the shit was your plumbing so slow? It felt like there was a half a fursuit's worth of fur clogging the pipes before we even kicked off into con time.
Good - Dealer's seemed to have more stuff worth nabbing this year.
Better - A proper NSFW section! I know there are people saying it wasn't enough or doesn't compare to what other cons have as far as 18+ wares, but hey it's something! Definitely picked up a few things!
HOLY FUCKING SHIT - Pokefurs. Just...WOW. We're big enough to need the hall that used to house the fursuit parade group photo. We're going through the same shit trying to get lined up for this that was a thing for the legit parade photo. Secondary Pokecon within Anthrocon when? (Also, to the person/people running the Pokefurs meetup - you need a better microphone/a megaphone to get everyone to hear you. We're in suit, a lot of us can't hear well.) I definitely knew more people in this room than anywhere else.
Good -
dweet-tea teaming up with my old IRL Yu-GI-Oh friend Adam to win the 2v2 Smash tournament is a crossover I never thought I'd see in my life, but I'm here for it!Better - Dweet showing me and Glittoriel progress on something big coming down the pipeline...and realizing he's more local than we thought...AND shares some of our choices of preferred liquor. The Mewtwo/Glittoriel/Dweet meetup at D&B for copious amounts of alcohol is a crossover I sure as hell look forward to!
FUCK YES -
Coverage in the first second of the fursuit parade clip LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOO
Bad - it felt like there wasn't anywhere near as much as "must-attend" events as far as panels this year. For Glittoriel, she had the Undertale meetup, for me there was Pokefurs, and of course the fursuit parade, but...the lack of some of the game tournaments and other niche meets just felt...off? I know it's what you make of it and for some things I might have to volunteer to run an event if I really want to see something go down, but it felt different than past years.
Good, and didn't realize until much later - apparently Furnando's/Furryland/Pizza Parma was only letting badgeholders in the whole convention time to eat. Can we expand on this, Pittsburgh?
LOL - for those who drink, if you really want to get so fucked up you can't walk to your hotel room, play the Protogen Drinking Game. One shot every time you see one, two if they also have the extra stuff on arms/legs that light up instead of just the face.
Pleasantly surprised - Condado limiting margarita pitchers to Teremana and it ending up being just as good as the higher tier stuff = more excuse to drink next year now that we know that!
Meh - Last year, the Cocktail Cruise was open bar and didn't actually go by the 2 drink ticket thing. This year, it was 2 drinks and then cash bar. Admittedly we got used to the idea of the all you can drink...legitimately think the idea that was floated in Ultra Brunch could work with liquor instead of just beer/wine without breaking the bank though.
We do a little trolling - did you know that the entire Vaporeon copypasta can fit on one of those LED scrolling badges, despite it appearing to go over the character limit? Well now you do! (Hey, I need SOME form of attack that does psychic damage that isn't blocked by Umbreon typing...y'all Umbreons were everywhere, YOU KEEP FUCKING BREEDING!)
Overall, it was a great Anthrocon and here's hoping the next one is even better!
Notes to self for 2025:
24 bottles of water worked out just fine. No reason to go over this. We ended up bringing some home.
8 cans of Kickstart was too many - 3 came back.
4 pre-made bottles of margarita was only slightly overpreparing. 2 or 3 is likely sufficient. Bring half pints or pints of the other stuff straight.
Stop bringing soap, shampoo, and conditioner - there's no hotel that isn't providing these. Stick with the new razor, tweezers, band-aids (remember neosporin next year!) and deodorant and one scrubber.
Priority pass for the entire city based on badge tier?
You love the idea of the discount at Anthronoms more than the actual food. Just use this to get pop and get food somewhere you actually want to eat.
Pokefurs post-meetup dinner when? (though for a lot of us, it would turn into the Pokefurs Vore Meetup and some of us might BE dinner~)