Well, not really. But "Preview Night" certainly isn't nearly as peaceful as it was just two years ago.
Of course, when I started attending the con it was a relatively teeny little thing in Golden Hall, so these things to grow.
The initial wave of "horror" during Preview Night came with just how many people were there. On reflection, though, this makes sense, and isn't as bad as it seems.
1) Four-day passes sold out ahead of time this year, for the first time. Anyone with a presold four-day pass can attend Preview Night. Thus, lots of people (they also appeared to have sold Preview Night-only badges this year).
2) There's nowhere else to be on Preview Night other than the Exhibit Floor. No panels, no gigantic events happening in Hall H, nothing. So everyone bundles into the Exhibit Floor and spends time shouldering around each other.
I chiefly trailed after littlestar today as she did the heavy shopping. It's best to get those hard-to-find, imported hardcovers from Stuart Ng books on Preview Night, both to make sure they don't sell out and so you don't have to lug a bag full of hardcovers around for a full convention day. She picked up some books there, but didn't find anything exciting at Kinokuniya.
My one goal was to sign up for the 2007 Magic Amateur Championships which is taking place this Saturday at the con. It's limited to 140 players, and I didn't want to have to bother signing up on a full con day. There were already a few folks ahead of me in that line, as the Wizards staff did their best to get things up and running. They have a very full (and well-described in the schedule) docket of events this year, covering all their major brands.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Will a full day of panels bleed off some pressure from the Exhibit Floor? I hope so.
I'm glad that my Saturday plan looks like it'll solidly ignore the Floor, though...