Gosh, I'm a bit late in posting this, aren't I? Well, by and large, I thought Fanime 2010 was one of the smoothest-run cons I've ever been to. In fact, having just been to Anime Expo 2010 this past weekend, I can say that Fanime was more organized by leaps and bounds. I guess this is part of why Fanime keeps getting bigger at such a shocking pace!
Pros:
- Guest selection. FLOW's concert was great, Momoi Halko's return was a lot of fun, Yamaga-san managed to remain fascinating yet again... I mean, there's still room for inviting more guests I'd really love to see, but it was still a great start.
- The handling of the protestors (with that convenient moving fan) was a stroke of genius. Excellent non-confrontational creative problem solving by the staff.
- The gaming room was once again one of Fanime's top attractions. Having everything combined, easily accessible with so much space is immeasurably better than most cons where various types of gaming are divided into different areas.
- The much-welcomed return of the pocket guide! Super convenient! I hear the mobile site was also really convenient, although I didn't personally check it out.
- Use of Twitter. This year,we had more and relevant updates without going overboard, which was great.
- Rovers were great this year: on target where they were needed, well-informed, not excessively officious, very practical... a smooth run machine (unlike AX!)
- Translators at most of the panels were fairly competent and well-informed. Definitely felt like a bit of an improvement over previous years.
- Lending boardgames were available from the very start and at all hours; the selection could've done well to include more Eurogames, but it was solid as-is and I appreciated the availability.
- Day 0. With so much activity going on, it feels more and more like a legitimate day of the con every year.
- Passerby lanes at Stage Zero. This made it a lot less of a fire hazard and a hassle to get past when big events were happening.
- Viewing rooms. There was a nice variety of things on display (fansubs, official releases, classics, new things) and they largely seemed to start on time. Though admittedly I didn't watch a whole lot of things.
- Swap meet. There were, as always, a couple people with delusional prices ($40 for .hack//INFECTION? I saw it at GameStop for $12!) but in general, I found more things I wanted to get, at bargain prices, at the swap meet than in the dealer's room.
Suggestions/Annoyances:
- I agree with Dracil's suggestion of shifting the pocket guide so that facing pages show the same time block rather than having to flip back and forth constantly.
- My biggest complaint was with the one way entrance/exits for the game room. It makes sense to set up a single path for traffic during peak hours (i.e. while swap meet is mobbing the room) but some of the volunteers were making tired-looking old ladies walk all the way around at midnight while nobody was coming or going. Can't we have the entrances be two-way during off hours?
- The Momoi Quest event was fun, but I think it could've been organized in a way that was more exciting. In general, I think that it lost some hype by breaking her performance up into many smaller concerts with no single, long concluding live. It felt like each time right as people were really getting into the spirit, she was done with that particular session. Also, having the lives at timeslots that weren't announced ahead of time made it difficult to plan around schedule conflicts.
- It was a bit of a shame that we couldn't get DJ Max Technika online, and Pop'n Music was a disappointingly outdated version. The lines at the arcade were fairly long for most of the con -- even in the middle of the night or very early morning, Technika had like a 5-person line.
- The dealer's room was a bit lackluster. I liked having the mydjsobad booth, and there were a few other places with OK selection, but the merchandise at most booths felt far too familiar and there wasn't particularly much I was interested in buying.
Other Observations (Not positive or negative):
- I notice that the Artists' Alley is having a bit of a height escalation lately. Nearly everyone has their little frames showcasing their art vertically, which I guess makes a lot of sense since that way people can see what you have to offer from farther away.
- In terms of Cosplay events, the downturn in FMA costumes was a little surprising since Brotherhood is currently running, while the total explosion of Pokemon costumes was impressive. In general, though, it seemed like this year had a bit more variety than previous ones.
- Attendance was visibly up, especially on Friday! Usually, Friday morning feels relatively empty (since presumably people are largely still at work or school) but this year's Fanime was packed throughout the day.
Overall I want to commend Tony and the rest of the Fanime staff for running one of the cleanest cons to date. My complaints are minimal, but I offer them because Fanime over the past few years has shown a most impressive quality: the ability to learn from mistakes and fix them, while keeping and bringing back the things that go right. Thank you all!
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Topic: FanimeCon 2010 Feedback Thread (Read 25393 times)