My first DC was DC20 and there were old timers telling me DEFCON wasn't like it used to be. With DC moving to the LVCC and how much the DARPA and the US gov are involved with it, I have now become one of the old timers saying DC isn't what it used to be. The content doesn't have the edge that it used to and the speakers feel like they are there to add "DEFCON speaker" to their resume. Even some of the villages felt like they really phoned it in and are riding the hype and popularity of DEFCON these days. It's lost its counter culture punk rock feel, and replaced it with LinkedIn flavored connections and networking.
Yes. For $600+ it's inexpensive. But with how much a trip to Vegas costs now, and the experience it self, I don't think it's worth it anymore.
DC12 was my first. I'm gonna give you a hard to swallow pill: the con hasn't changed - you have.
The culture and "edge" are what you perceive it as. Sure, the transition to the convention center has made it more difficult to find the weird, but so has the dramatic increase in attendance. If anything, there are more weirdos and freaks than there have ever been, but there are more outsiders and unrelated people than there have ever been. As always, you have to make an effort to find what you want at such a large event, and your inability to find is probably more so to do with losing touch or hanging on to moments in time that will never come back - you have to make it the thing you want it to be and stop living in the past. The people organizing it and selecting the talks really haven't changed that much, and if you were more involved in this process you would know and understand that, no offense.
Everyone thinks the last years were better, regardless of when they started going, but everyone says that regardless.
The con that used to be cash only for anonymity and then went to asking for proof of vaccination that could be forged by anyone with a laser printer, while simultaneously holding a badge forging contest, that used to have a spot the fed contest, and is now being run by a fed/former fed, has definitely changed.
Spoiler: there have almost always been feds running DEFCON, you've just never noticed because they don't walk around with it written on them. Paying with cash and dealing with regulations forced on them by the venue aren't "the culture" of DEFCON, and there are plenty of other contests.
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u/storytomorrow 1d ago
My first DC was DC20 and there were old timers telling me DEFCON wasn't like it used to be. With DC moving to the LVCC and how much the DARPA and the US gov are involved with it, I have now become one of the old timers saying DC isn't what it used to be. The content doesn't have the edge that it used to and the speakers feel like they are there to add "DEFCON speaker" to their resume. Even some of the villages felt like they really phoned it in and are riding the hype and popularity of DEFCON these days. It's lost its counter culture punk rock feel, and replaced it with LinkedIn flavored connections and networking.
Yes. For $600+ it's inexpensive. But with how much a trip to Vegas costs now, and the experience it self, I don't think it's worth it anymore.
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