Fanime-Con 2008...dissapointing?

[Hirotona]

Mmm I really enjoyed this years con over 06 and 07, but perhaps that's because this is the first time I actually stayed the full time (day and night). Also since I felt that Artist Alley this year was even more awesome then before and I spend a good 75-80 percent of my time at the con there chatting with friends and commissioning anyway all a good con experince for me entails for the most part an AA with lots of friends to chat with (and for me to have a decent amount of cash to commission art for me and friends).

The only large period of time I spent out of the Artist Alley was at a friend's cosplay photoshoot that was a lot of fun and very well planned out so no dissapointments there either ^^;

[satanic_mechanic]

The Ramada sucked but you can't blame Fanime Con for that :)

haha... there were these guys in the room next to mine, and i heard "never gonna give you up" outside, so i went out and started singing. they were rick rolling some guy on the 3rd floor. that was fun.

then jesus vs. fanatics = rickroll was great. its on youtube.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH9DGfNSTmI
too bad i missed it (>.<).

i thought asian cinema was okay this year. there werent very good hongkong or japanese movies, but the korean movies were better.  anime by and large was worse then last year (super robot wars? did anyone see that absolute crap? it was terrible. whose pick was that?) with the exception of Sword of the Stranger.... efffing epic.  who else saw that? it rocked my world.

the artist alley in my opinion had a big boost of talent over last year.  BIG boost. i was very impressed by especially the landscape artist.

i won 6th place at the saturday holdem tournament; the prize was a losing lottery ticket and a Godjira dvd sampler - not godzilla; godjira.  the sunday one was cancelled, and i couldnt make it to the friday one.

the boffer room never came together.  PC gaming was cancelled.  that could have kept me entertained for basically the entire time.  those two would have been awesome. but alas, it was not.

overall, whereas i had a solid 95% last year, this year was a 76%.   Worth the trouble... but barely.

[K&K4ever]

Four little words: Elevators on last day >:(

[sykoeent]

I mean, when you have money, and you can't find anything to buy, that says something

this was the same for me, i actually for once in my life HAD MONEY TO SPEND, but there was nothing to buy


SOOOOo i spent it all on a couple CASES of strawberry pocky and melon ramune.

The artist alley has grown so much

and i spent the rest of whatever i had left over on some lovely artwork

Hmmm.... Yeah, the whole, "Nothing to buy" has been what's happening to me at the past few cons. A lot of the blame is on the net and eBay... but I think the blame should be put on the prices and selection. A lot of the items I saw were a little more expensive than online stores and in some cases, way more expensive. The 2 statues I purchased were actually more expensive online and also harder to find. But at the same time, even though I did appreciate this booth carrying these items at their prices, it was for the wrong crowd. I mean, sure they are "anime" versions of Supergirl and Powergirl, they are just not "real" anime characters... plus the artwork on the package from Udon sucked... so double wammy. I think a lot of these dealers need to look online and actually do research for their inventory and prices and compete with that, or at least, try not to go too high above their prices. Also, looking to see what will be hot will be a big help in their sales side.

As far as the artist alley, applause. This is the crown jewel of this con, and I hope this expands even more. Now that Ape is moving to the Fall season, this will be a great place for aspiring mangaka to show off their stuff!

Dissappointing part of Fanime? The bathrooms were gross at times. But what can you expect? Also, more space could have been utilized!

[narutofan17]

The only thing that disappointed me was I thought the masquerade would be on Sunday so I missed that and the Advanced Smash panel was canceled. Besides that I had a good time.

[crystalsoul]

well i have ask, who say the Rebuild of Evangelion movie?    that was one of the best movies ive seen in along time, and even tho i didnt see the whole thing, it still blew me away

[JohnnyAR]

well i have ask, who say the Rebuild of Evangelion movie?    that was one of the best movies ive seen in along time, and even tho i didnt see the whole thing, it still blew me away

They should've shown it later in the afternoon *sobs* I missed it! That was probably my only chance to see it in this country :'(

[Trumby]

4) Badges had to be in their big sleeve plastics (My friend couldn't go into the Raves without it.)

Just want to comment real quick here: no they didn't. I went all weekend with the badge itself attached with a clip I brought with me, as I don't like using lanyards or those big builky holder things.

This was my first Fanime so I can't compare it to previous ones, but I can compare to other cons in general. And I will agree that it did seem lacking to me as well. I think it was more the fact that I didn't really know people down there so spent a lot of time wandering around the con center or sitting and people watching. The only event I actually went to was the Masq. I wish I would have noticed that the AMV contest was so early in the day..would really have liked to see it.

[NerdyBirdAsh]

4) Badges had to be in their big sleeve plastics (My friend couldn't go into the Raves without it.)

Just want to comment real quick here: no they didn't. I went all weekend with the badge itself attached with a clip I brought with me, as I don't like using lanyards or those big builky holder things.

Yes, they did.
It says on the back of your badge; they were technically void without it.
A few staffers/volunteers didn't pay attention to that, but a lot of others did, especially the raves and such.

[Kyokun]

4) Badges had to be in their big sleeve plastics (My friend couldn't go into the Raves without it.)

Just want to comment real quick here: no they didn't. I went all weekend with the badge itself attached with a clip I brought with me, as I don't like using lanyards or those big builky holder things.

Yes they did.  My friend didn't like it around his neck, so he clipped it to his belt loop instead (still completely visible, and faced out), and they wouldn't let him in the Dealer's Room.  It totally pissed him off.

[Gogetah]

Didn't I just write my pros and cons..... Hmmm. There's an awful lot of threads about convention feedback. :P

Overall I felt more comfortable in 2007. 2008 introduced a lot of power trippy volunteers.

[Tony]

Didn't I just write my pros and cons..... Hmmm. There's an awful lot of threads about convention feedback. :P

Overall I felt more comfortable in 2007. 2008 introduced a lot of power trippy volunteers.

Hey, feedback is important to us ^^ ... especially since there's so many...

Complaint noted and being worked on!

[Jun-Watarase]

Didn't I just write my pros and cons..... Hmmm. There's an awful lot of threads about convention feedback. :P

Overall I felt more comfortable in 2007. 2008 introduced a lot of power trippy volunteers.

Hm, agreed. While I did enjoy '08 very much, more volunteers this year seemed a bit hot-headed with their authority. :T

[NerdyBirdAsh]

Hm, agreed. While I did enjoy '08 very much, more volunteers this year seemed a bit hot-headed with their authority. :T

I third this statement.
I noticed a lot of people feeling uptight and I can't help but think that it may have had something to do with fear of staff that led to that.

I had no direct confrontations with any staff or volunteer member, but I did witness a few on the sidelines and I've heard/read some horror stories from others.

I think half the problem is that yes, there were overzealous members working as staff and volunteers who went above and beyond what their tasks were, in the wrong direction. Power abuse and rude behavior towards congoers topping the list of problems. The other half of the problem was that a lot of those who did have a confrontation with staff members didn't know how to handle it. The were afraid their badge would get pulled, they would get arrested, they would be the ones at fault and no one would try to mediate and get to the bottom of things. They didn't want to say anything until AFTER the con so they wouldn't risk their chance at having a good rest of the weekend. Along with this, they didn't think to take down a name or a badge number or any sort of identifying information to follow up on until later, making it hard to screen for these people in the future to ensure they don't do the same thing next year.

I think we definitely need to think of some way to fix that. A disclaimer, something, anything to let congoers know that if they think a staff or volunteer member wasn't handling a situation appropriately, that it's ok to put light on it to someone in the position to try and sort out the problem. On the other side, staff and volunteers need to be told what their boundaries are and that if they feel that they're handling something they aren't qualified for, they should contact someone higher on the authority chain.

[Gogetah]

Some attendees are afraid of retaliation. I've heard stories of threads being locked on the worst horror stories.... O_o

[Paladin Cecil]

I enjoyed Fanime this year a lot more than I did last year. The gatherings were awesome and I was able to make one of the best sets of video clips I had ever made at a con. I also had a lot of fun with the panels I hosted and it was really cool to be able to see Dan Southworth.
And I have some ideas I plan on doing for next year to try to make it even better.

[Tony]

Some attendees are afraid of retaliation. I've heard stories of threads being locked on the worst horror stories.... O_o

Nah... we don't lock threads on content alone; there are plenty of unflattering stories on the boards about the convention. I have locked threads - like the one about the guy potentially getting his stuff stolen - but those are cases where the thread started to devolve, which is critical in situations like these. (For example, if there's an emergency, cops shoo away people... not because they're trying to hide anything, but because onlookers and passersby can make the situation worse.)

[Ari]

What? Did u not see jesus confront the protestors? XD
All kidding aside, I guess it's up to personal perception. For me the opposite was true. Last year kind of dragged, while this year I had a blast.

Lol it was that complete same for me too. I had a blast this year and it kinda dragged last year, but this year i ended up going to panels... viewing rooms... etc. Lol i didn't buy as much as i usually do... but somehow i ended up spending a lot of money anyways... ;_;

[Trumby]

4) Badges had to be in their big sleeve plastics (My friend couldn't go into the Raves without it.)

Just want to comment real quick here: no they didn't. I went all weekend with the badge itself attached with a clip I brought with me, as I don't like using lanyards or those big builky holder things.

Yes they did.  My friend didn't like it around his neck, so he clipped it to his belt loop instead (still completely visible, and faced out), and they wouldn't let him in the Dealer's Room.  It totally pissed him off.

Interesting. I had mine like that literally all weekend..and went in the dealers hall at least a couple times every day. Maybe it was because I clipped mine up at chest height. The lady at the game room was even checking the backs of the badges to make sure it had that stuff on the back (I didn't even know it was there until she asked to see the back of my badge..lawl). <.<

[Glitch]

What? Did u not see jesus confront the protestors? XD
All kidding aside, I guess it's up to personal perception. For me the opposite was true. Last year kind of dragged, while this year I had a blast.

Lol it was that complete same for me too. I had a blast this year and it kinda dragged last year, but this year i ended up going to panels... viewing rooms... etc. Lol i didn't buy as much as i usually do... but somehow i ended up spending a lot of money anyways... ;_;

Finding the right panels can really lift your spirits. All of a sudden you got a group of people to hang out with. That was the case for me with the cthulu for president, how to animate, and comedy panels.