Status Active Location(s) Troy, New York Inaugurated 1985 | Genre Multi-genre Country United States | |
Venue Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | ||
Genericon is a modestly sized anime/science fiction/gaming convention held in Troy, New York on the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) campus for over 20 years, making it reportedly the oldest college multigenre convention in the nation. It hosts theater-style auditoriums and has 24-hour anime viewing rooms, karaoke, cosplay events, 24-hour video game room/competitions, role-playing games, board games, and talks by guest speakers. The events usually begin 5 p.m. on the Friday of the last weekend of January and continue until Sunday at 5 p.m. with a closing ceremony and announcement of new "Con Chair". For Genericon XXI, convention staff partnered with Jazzman's Cafe, located in the middle of the convention itself, to bring food and beverages to the convention.
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History
Genericon began in 1985 as a general science fiction convention, organized by the Rensselaer Science Fiction Association, a student group at RPI. Early conventions were held in the lecture halls of RPI's Russell Sage Laboratory, and featured standard SF convention activities such as lectures and panels, film rooms, a dealers' room, an art show, and filking. Guests of Honor at Genericon 1 were writer Hal Clement, artist Phil Foglio, and fan Jan "Wombat" Finder. Other guests included Leik Myrabo, Lynn Abbey, Fred Saberhagen, and Professor Alan Meltzer. Subsequent Genericons have included such notable guests as Samuel R. Delany (Genericon II), Joan Vinge (Genericon III), Jack Dann (Genericon III), Barry Longyear (Genericon VII), Christopher Golden (Genericon IX), Vic Mignogna (Genericon XXIV), and Kyle Hebert (GenericonXXVI).
Since its founding, Genericon has been held every year, except 1993-1995, as the entirety of the staff had graduated in the year of Genericon VIII . In recent years, since Genericon X in 1997, the con has gravitated away from its sci-fi roots towards a focus on webcomics, video gaming, and anime, though LARPing and other standard gaming has remained somewhat popular. This is most evident in the fact that guests invited to more recent Genericons have been more from the webcomic industry, including Pete Abrams (Sluggy Freelance), Jeffrey T. Darlington (General Protection Fault, Genericon XV), R. K. Milholland (Something Positive, Genericon XVII), Jeph Jacques (Questionable Content, Genericon XIX and XX), Mohammad Haque (Applegeeks, Genericon XX), and Ananth Panagariya (Applegeeks, Genericon XX).
In 2010, Genericon XXIV introduced a new "Featured Panelist" system, wherein the convention staff selected a group of panelists deemed to be "experts in their field (i.e. popular journalists, podcasters, or industry professionals)." The list featured a number of anime bloggers and journalists, as well as a group of RPI alumni who frequently run panels at the convention.
Genericon XXIV's official attendee count was 1351.
By Genericon XXVI the number has climbed to over 2000.
Annual activities
Every year the following are usually the highlighted events:
Problems and issues
Sleeping on the convention space has become a problem in recent years. This is a problem since RPI does not allow loiterers. People have been woken up by staff and told to move, or leave campus to sleep elsewhere.
R. K. Milholland has expressed a dislike for the con following his attendance as a guest in 2004. Other webcomic artists, however, have claimed to have enjoyed the con in their visits, including Jeffrey T. Darlington, Jeph Jacques and Ananth Panagariya.