Well there's a lot of things to keep in mind. Your statements of "worse than last year" are extremely subjective. Most of the reasons given as to why it wasn't as good, are things like "MY PERSONAL PREFERENCE OF THINGS WERE NOT MET"... which is perfectly fine, but I wish you wouldn't say the *con was worse because they didn't have topics I liked*. Merely that you didn't like the content of this year. The reason why this bothers me is because the content didn't make the con worse, because for every one person who said "I didn't like the anime this year" or "I didn't like the panels this year" there is someone that will say "I loved the panels this year compared to last" "I loved the anime shown this year compared to last"... and there is nothing that can be done about hthis.
You stating that "I hated the anime this year" doesn't give staff anything to work with. They can't listen to you say this, and go "okay, we know how to improve it!" So please think about what you are saying... I can answer a lot of the complaints in this thread though.
Water- Water tanks were cut for the reason that, the budget wouldn't allow for it. Here's something to keep in mind. Those water tanks with the cups are just fountain water. Although having them all over the place is nice, walking an extra minute to a water fountain won't kill you. To put this in perspective, if there was water every where... they would have had to cut in other ways. So let's put it like this... would you rather have a few water tanks all over the place, even though you could just walk to a water fountain an no B&W ball? Or would you prefer to have events like B&W Ball and have to walk a little extra to a water fountain?
This one is only my opinion but-
Stage Zero. It's not hard to bypass stage zero. There is a bottom floor you can use if you don't want to get caught up in the crowd. There are two sets of stairs around stage zero you can use to avoid the crowd as well. Come on guys, you guys are complaining about something that you can avoid with... an extra 30seconds of walking. Just in case you guys don't know what I mean... The stairs on the South side of the wall that goes down into registration and then back up right where artist's alley entrance is. Or on the N side the two sets of huge steps that lead around stage zero that go to the front of the CC. Both of which are never blocked can easily be used to get around. 90% of the time, I took the first floor when I needed to get to the other side of the CC. There was NEVER a crowd and usually it was pretty empty outside of the line for reg, which was no where near the walk way anyways.
It sounds like you guys are complaining because "there are people there getting in the way of you being able to check out stage zero while walking by". Or in other words "WHY IS THERE AN AUDIENCE AT THIS EVENT THAT I WANT TO SEE WHEN I'M WALKING BY?!?!?!? There should be no audience, so I can check it out on my own leisure, and if I'm not interested, continue to get where I want with no one in any way blocking me".
The dealers hall:
I have been going to conventions for about a decade ago. The dealers hall hasn't impressed me since my 2nd con. Why? Because essentially, they are all the same. They are dealers selling the same things. They restock with the new stuff that comes out all of which I can buy on the internet. The only appeal of it is that, you can buy it right there, right then, and it's in hand... instead of waiting for it to ship to you... which is fine. I'm not saying the dealers room is bad, and people do love it, but there's no point in complaining about it. I usually stop by once just to see if there's any rare goods, but it's not worth complaining.
But for the uninformed... this year did have a lot of new things. Things actually rather rare for an American con. Touhou related stuff at Toylets booth, and a few booths had actual exclusive items from different JP-cons. It's just a matter of knowing.
Once more, just because something doesn't carry what you want, doesn't mean it's a bad thing. I hate Amber Combie and Finch... but I don't think it's a horrible store or anything.
I like complaints... that are legitimate. They help the con grow and become better. I hate when people complain about petty things though, especially when it's not legitimate to complain about. Think of it like this...
What if I complained about someone cosplaying as the same character as me, causing me to lose some attention? Or what if, I complained that the venues did not have RC cola. I don't like pepsi and coke, I only like RC cola and Shasta. You guys would say that is stupid, right??? A lot of your complaints are no different. Please put some thought about what you're complaining about.
The badge thing... is incredibly good. I actually brought this up with staff members and they are going to discuss this in the future.
The con itself cannot control the prices on food for the cafe. And you seem to not understand how restaurants work in general if you're complaining that the Maid had to do other stuff. The only time maids were pulled away from patrons for pictures was because of 2 things...
A staff picture was required, or for press. I was the one that pulled maids away from patrons, and I always ASKED the patrons beforehand to see if it was okay, and if any of them said they preferred not to, I would not have pulled her away. Most of the time, it was okay... maids were able to spend a lot of time with patrons, giving them some time to eat their food before talking/playing games etc. with them. I personally watched them, and there were very few times when maids couldn't do so.
Those times were, during shift changes which we've already thought about and will consider a way to do more efficiently, and during times when maids were short handed, if you happen to be one of those people during those times, I apologize, but there's really very little we could have done. It's the same as at a real restaurant. We were understaffed, realistically... because based on older numbers we believed that the cafe would not be filled to capacity 100% of the con. There wasn't a single moment where there was not a line, and where the cafe was not being filled. Our numbers were incorrect and we didn't have enough people. The maids actually put in up to twice as many hours as they needed to because of the popularity.
Food prices at the cafe were actually extremely reasonable compared to the rest of the con center. A sandwich, drink, and cake would only cost about 12-14$. Had you gone to any of the actual restaurants, the same thing would have cost you 28$. Sure, it would have been higher in quality, but you're at a convention center. Food is not cheap. But just to let you know... you'd be paying even more in Japan. 6$ cup of coffee? 14$ omlette rice that's the size of my hand?
Next year, I think we'll have more maids, and shift changes will be handled better, but even at real restaurants, shift changes are extremely difficult times. Having to organize it all and have each maid know where all their patrons are, to pass that on to the next maid, all while they're getting their things/packing their things is difficult.
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Topic: Fanime 2009 Convention Feedback (Read 20803 times)