Defcon used to be better than defcon. It's just what happens to communities sometimes, especially the ones with too much freedom and money.

Sadly, it's around Christmas an I have a definitive veto from wife and kids.

The good news: you can watch practically all sessions on youtube: https://youtube.com/user/mediacccde/playlists

While this is nice if you are just interested in some of the talks it's not really a substitute for being there, meeting people and taking in the atmosphere (for me at least. There's a lot of things you don't see in the streams, like the venue, the tents and all the small cool things in the assembly area.

I have been once a few years ago. Some of it is certainly enjoyable, like meeting people you know from the Internet or wouldn't have meet otherwise. And overall the organizers are doing a good job. But it feels like a lot people go year after year no matter what, in a bad way. Thousands of similar people talking about the same things year after year. Add to that the cost and logistics of it all, and don't feel much of a need of going again.

So I might be worth it for people who haven't experienced that sort of thing. But otherwise I would recommend watching online with some friends and travelling someplace else for new experiences.

Do people go to cons for talks?

That varies from convention to convention. There's a whole spectrum from networking/social conventions to mostly talk and info focused conventions.

Christmas in Germany!