The End of Augmented Reality

At the time of this writing, it has been one week since EP-CON 2012 closed its doors. My three days of the convention, despite the tiring efforts it took to film a majority of it for public release, it was enjoyable. we got to engage in what has become my favorite convention activity: videography, and despite obvious issues with the convention in terms of schedule, we weren't terribly put out, and managed to complete the task put before us on the convention floor with duty and conviction.

Since the convention ended, however, an enormous amount of controversies have sprung up regarding the convention. I don’t intend to go into details about what happened. They have already been well and accurately publicized.

These circumstances come as a lethal blow to the publishers of Augmented Reality, all of them long time supporters of EP-CON and associated events. Therefore, we’ve come to the decision that Augmented Reality Online Magazine will no longer be operating. We do not want to associate ourselves with these sorts of circumstances, and we don’t want to make the statement that we celebrate El Paso fandom when grievous errors like such are being made on behalf of the convention, its organizers, and all associated parties, including ourselves.

The members of Augmented Reality have all agreed to part ways and make attempts to continue to report in their own. In the next few months you’ll still see the members of this blog continue to involve themselves in their own personal fandoms. Many elements of the blog will also continue to exist on the web, but will be attributed solely to the individuals responsible for them. What will follow after this statement will be the remaining videos we filmed during EP-Con 2012 and for our own personal projects. These final videos will be uploaded periodically until they’re complete.

On behalf of all the staff of Augmented Reality, we’d like to say thank you to the El Paso fan community. If you hadn’t supported us, we wouldn’t have existed at all. Thanks to those of you who truly appreciated our work. Thanks to those of you who came up to us at a convention to tell us you appreciated us, found our publications to be entertaining, and used it for the purpose it was made: to understand and celebrate the unique environment we have in El Paso.

Someday, the clouds will part, and we’ll all have our time in the sun.