In the world of cosplaying and conventions, there are a few cosplayers who stand out from the crowd, and have become online celebrities due to their accurate depictions of video-game characters and their costumes. But is it really all just fun and games? For these "online celebrities" it can sometimes be a dangerous thing. Crazed fans often abuse, degrade and insult them simply because they are dressed as a character that they don't like.

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Where there are games, there are conventions, and where there are conventions, there are people in character costumes –doing cosplay. The images of these devout fans in costume are part of gamer culture, especially online, where pictures of elaborate, pitch-perfect character clothing frequently make the rounds of blogs, forums and news sites. The people behind the pictures can be objects of wonderment, when the costume is good, or the butt of jokes, when it's not so much.

According to Adella, one cosplayer who's earned a reputation in the close-knit hobbyist's’community, there are plenty of psycho cosplayers.”But when she decided to do a series of Aeris costumes, it changed her life. And it wasn't because of psycho cosplayers, but because of psycho gamers.

When in costume, Adella began finding herself the object of that hostility. "I get a lot of rude comments from people",”she admits. "I've been pushed around a few times, and told stupid stuff like 'you sucked and you died, bitch' stuff like that".”Still, she noticed something a touch off about the way some people reacted to her as 'Aeris'.
"A lot of the fans were really creepy,"”she admits. "One guy, when I was walking back from the convention center in Long Beach to the Renaissance Hotel, tried to grab my arm and drag me over to the steps to hang out’with him. I hit him with my flower basket and ran! People kept running up, trying to jump on me, or grope me... like, because I was in costume, they had the right to just invade my personal space, or scream weird sh*t at me like 'AERIS, BE MY LOVER!'’or whatever."”

It gets worse.

"When I was at Anime Central, I think in 2004, maybe earlier... I was standing in the lobby of the hotel and talking to someone I had just met", she remembers. "And some girl ran up behind me and grabbed my braid and just yanked, as hard as she could. My head was jerked back and my neck had this awful pain wrench through it. I whirled around and screamed, 'don’t touch me!' And she just goes 'I... I just hate Aeris...' and ran off. Like because she hates some fictitious character.. it's okay to physically assault someone dressed up like that character?!"

Muses Adella, "I think people obsessively hate her, or love her. My enthusiasm for cosplay is deeply dampened. It's just a hobby, people"

Miss Razz via gamesetwatch.com »