Missing hype?
It's not even time to go yet but I already have low expectations for this year, if I'm being honest. Lack of good guest and panel announcements that come very late, increased prices for less content, spamming over and over about telling people to buy badges when there's no announcements to be made, applications that take way too long to hear back about, and the weird shift towards idols and VTubers really bring it down.
Maybe I'm just burned out from attending each year, but I'm starting to feel like I get my money's worth at other anime conventions rather than here. Is ANYC trying to copy NYCC or something? Because I don't understand the point of branching out so far away from anime that it's literally not an anime convention anymore. This isn't me judging people's reasons for attending, but when it gets to a point that a convention doesn't balance out its features by leaning in mostly one direction, it's not a good look for them.
I see other conventions pumping out content way before they start because they know to how to stay on top of everything, whereas you get last minute FOMO with ANYC announcing stuff like a month or weeks before it's time. Why keep people in suspense like that?
The shift to summer just to compete with other conventions is a bad move, imho. I missed it when November was the time for ANYC, but people kept complaining about the cold weather when you literally were gonna be inside all weekend.
Did I also mention that the Discord server is moderated by rude ass people who don't give a shit about anyone's feedback?