Anyone else let down by this year's Fanime?

Started by xBladeDragonx, May 29, 2011, 01:02:22 AM

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xBladeDragonx

I mean only 2 out of 4 days have passed, but... sorry to say... this year's Fanime is a huge let down at least for me and a couple of my friends.

The first huge let down was that no schedule book was provided to members like previous years. I mean I can understand if Fanime is wanting to go Green and all and save paper by not printing it on small booklets, but almost every info desk had little to no information on schedules. I mean the karaoke schedule were printed in the main Fanime Handbook... could have spared another 2 pages to print the schedule there? The mobile site was somewhat helpful, but wifi isn't offered everywhere in the convention center and with hotels charging way too much for wifi, it was impossible to know what the schedule was. Not to mention, lots of panels and events were canceled with no updates except on the mobile device website.

Another let down was the fact that a lot of fun panels were deleted off the schedules. Some I guess with valid excuses that's understandable, but others were just canceled with no reason. And on the topic of panels, were there always only 3 panel rooms... I could have sworn there were way more panel rooms than just 3... I guess it's just me and a couple of friends who think this year the panels were far less than previous years. Again on the panels... not much variety.... majority are repeat panels from years before with minor new info. I guess I can't ask for much. Some of the fun panels worth going were scheduled at late hours where most people are too tired of going or not wanting to wait for minimum 4-5 hours for a panel... (And I don't mean the hentai or yaoi) Then some of the good videos are scheduled early in the morning... I mean I just stayed up to 1-2AM finishing this late panel.... drove home, showered... sleep by 3AM the latest...and a funny and cool video worth watching starts 10AM... (so... get up at 8:30 - 9... breakfast... drive back to con... yada yada...) 6 hours of sleep is fine for many people but staying awake 18 hours of constant walking, standing, holding in that temper to punch that person blocking your way... (seriously... don't block traffic!) you get tired out very fast. And being tired... you get irritated easily...

Another that I personally didn't like were the removal of many video rooms. In between panels with nothing to do is for videos. I know this is Fanime... meaning majority anime... but the Asian Video Rooms were my favorite and were very popular previous years... the asian video rooms were always half to 3/4 full previous years. This year... only 1 room.... not much good videos offered and practically empty everytime I passed by or went in. I didn't really bother with the anime rooms so can't really say much there. (As some people say... you don't go to an anime convention to just watch anime. You can do that at home. :D [i guess asian films are an exception?])

Third let down... though I guess was expected... (as previous years) Horrible.. and I mean horrible crowd control. I knew it was going to happen but I was hoping there was at least some control. But Saturday... during the rain... The main entrance... impassable... it was virtually impassible without getting a little physical and shoving people out of the way. (I'll admit it i had to get a bit rude trying to get in) People taking pictures... I mean... honestly go head and ask for pictures, but have some courtesy to move to the side and out of walking traffic... Many times... we see cosplayers and photographers blocking entrances or exit. I mean I ran into people (literally bumping into them) and cos-players many times because the halls were virtually impassible. I mean I don't want to be a photo bomb nor do I want to be in your picture... but when you have other people sitting next to the walls and photo taking happening right in middle of traffic... it's not gonna be a happy ending...


It's probably just me who is finding this year a let down... When the schedule was released a couple days before con and I got to see the panels... I was already a bit let down by the non-interested panels... but other factors made it worst... This is mostly my last full weekend fanime.... If panels are worthy next year... i guess a day pass for me... :D

Mayhem

#1
QuoteADDENDUM

Other FORBIDDEN costumes include the following:

Modern Paramilitary
Modern Military
ANY costume that could be misunderstood as threatening in the current political climate
Any ROVER has the power to decide what meets the criteria for a forbidden costume.

Do we get told this Months in advance? ... No!
Do we get told this Days in advance? .... No!
Do we get told this on Day zero? .... No!

I get told this on day 1 just before opening ceremonies, and I get told I should have read the rules (which were not amended to reflect the new rule until after my entire ordeal). I get made to feel like crap about not reading the non-existent rules, and When Fanime realizes they Screwed the pooch, do they rescind the the rule till next year (this really should not have been much of a problem) ... no! I get bent over the counter, and they Do me like virgin at a drunken roman orgy! I don't even get the courtesy of a kiss and some lube! All this while being apologized to like I was some sort of molested alter boy the church doesn't want embarrassing them. Thanks fanime! I blew a few hundred buck on a costume I cannot use, not only because of someones lack of intestinal fortitude, but because of their absolute laziness to to keep the fans and attendees informed in a timely manor.

Honestly I do not feel I'm obligated to not talk about this in either my review or rant. If I wanted the sand paper condom treatment I would have gone to Anime Expo as standard attendee. With all the B.S. I have had to put up at Fanime this year I will most likely not be attending next year, and I get paid to go to this! (at best I'm asking for more money).

This was my first attempt at playing dress up at a convention and I have been attending Anime conventions for over a decade, so here I am, about to get my Cospay cherry popped so to speak, and the experience has left me so disappointed (darn near traumatized) That I doubt I will ever dress up even for Halloween in fear that I will get jumped by the fun Nazi and beaten by her killjoy stick.

I would rather be spending my Memorial day weekend honoring my fellow soldiers that have sacrificed their lives for my freedom, then getting made to feel ashamed for my own service to this country.

Yes! I'm still Angry about this.
Destination anywhere! So Far Gone, I'm almost There!

mdarkpoet

I agree with everything the original poster said, also...

My biggest complaint was that the people in Swap Meet had their badges pulled and for a lot of people there was NO EMAIL sent out to those people. So we had to wait in line for hours only to find out we could have gone upstairs to get our badge the entire time!!!

Schedules? Hahaha what schedules :P so stupid

The crowd, man what a crowd on Saturday. Some of the people didn't even seem interested in the con at all, why buy passes if you're not even interested?

Another disappointment to me was the Fairmont, they have been nothing but rude since we checked in and the room quality was disappointing. Don't be fooled by outward appearances, our stay at the Marriot last year was eons better than our stay at the Fairmont. Never again for the Fairmont.

Dealer's hall prices seem to have gone up for certain things O_o or is it just me for this one?

Karaoke room not offering as many song options as last year, I know last year you could go up to the guys with the computers and have them search up a song online. This time it's only if you bring a CD or MP3 :(

piiiiiiiiii -_______-

D oh

This was my first anime con and was pretty excited (One day pass on Saturday). When we came in we got bored and got out pretty quick.

-Bootleg items in Dealers Room. Maybe I'm just just being paranoid but the stuff that I usually buy online were 100 times better quality than the items at the con.

-Gaming room was a total let down. Some of the arcade machines were from 10-20 years ago and gaming table top was always full. We never got a chance to play.

-No schedule was def a problem. Me and my friends didn't know what or where to go half the time.

-Not going with a lot friends could have been a factor.

Despite the disappointment I would still wanna go next year if I can. Full Weekend to.

questionette

 This is true for every year at fanime, but does anyone else think it sucks that we have to pay registration fees in order to pay for over priced goods at the dealer's hall? ??? Just a thought...

Jelly Soup

I think the only real problem I had was with the Artist Alley staff being complete and utter assholes about everything. And I'm not just trying to spill the common 'they wouldn't let me do what I want, they're meany heads!' line you normally see, they were just being outright rude in every situation.

We had short repeat of last years musical exits in the Games Room again on Saturday morning, but that was worked out.

Had a minor problem with the Marriot and ended up staying a night at the Saint Claire. Really nice hotel, I'm thinking they will be getting my future business.

EDIT: And before I forget, I was a little sad to see a lack of Melty Blood in the Games Room. :/



LightYagami

Yeah. I think these conventions they over charge for badges. Shud be around 10 to 20 bucks for daily passes.

Dealer halls merchandise is really way too expensive. Then again they gotta make money for the space rental.

N I sorta hope there was a better variety of guess. Hope they were able to get reuben back. What they shud really do is combine fanime guess with sac anime, one in june.

Needed more rooms definitely for movies. Not just anime or asian movies, but movies in general.
Each room different type of category.

General anime, asian action, asian comedy/romance, horror movies(any language), usa action movies, usa comedy/romance. Usa thrillers/mystery.

Sumthing like that. Need to be organized.

Also, peace bonding was annoying. Had my wooden swords peace bond from last year n. This year u needed badge to get peace bond?

Also the staged even on second floor needed to be better organized. There shud also be more stage, entertainment around different areas of the conventions besides upstairs.

LightYagami

The area where u get peace bond by fountain shud have like sum stage n do other entertainment there. Like karaoke, dance or sumthing else as well. Drawing competitions or costume contest.

Need like to announce stuff so people know when things happen. I have more but these r things off top of my head.

Himeno

Quote from: LightYagami on May 29, 2011, 11:53:41 PM
Yeah. I think these conventions they over charge for badges. Shud be around 10 to 20 bucks for daily passes.
Do you have any idea how much it costs to hire venues like a convention center and event areas of 3 hotels?
Conventions like this cost in the 6-7 figure sum range.

SukebeStudios

Maybe Fanime is just getting too big for the staffers to handle?

Himeno

Quote from: SukebeStudios on May 30, 2011, 12:51:15 AM
Maybe Fanime is just getting too big for the staffers to handle?
Given the state of reg, information, schedule etc, that is quick clear.

I know a former Fanime staffer back home. He helped start Fanime. I don't think he'll be very impressed when I tell him about this weekend.

mdarkpoet

I do agree that the Dealer's Hall was a little more pricey this year than in the years in the past. Typically the Dealer's Hall always runs pricey, the reason for this is revenue. The space costs a lot for these guys to rent, the way I deal with this is I do comparison shopping for the stuff that I really want. Either that or I go to the Swap Meet, the Swap Meet was excellent this year, I got a LOT of amazing stuff for dirt cheap.

Example: King of Hell manga (my favorite manga) for 50 cents!

I think that Fanime was extremely understaffed this year and thus the *&^% really hit the fan. I still had a blast (just won "Worst Concept" over at the Gong Show, go Poland!) and got a lot of really great items and met a lot of great people.

Jelly Soup

What a lot of people don't realize about the dealers room is that the dealers have to pay a more than just the space fees and transportation costs. SJCC has a union and if a given dealer is bringing in more than he/she can carry themselves, he/she has to pay the union to do all the moving, both in and out (this is actually listed in the dealers paper work). As you can imagine, this is pretty expensive, so it makes sense that we'd see some gouging of some kind.



zeroelement

@Mayhem
Its illegal in California (as far as i know) not just fanime rules. Mostly patches saying anything close is not liked and if its CPD or something like that they and you get in trouble.) They failed to tell everyone but they had to uphold the law. But yea dressing up like miliarty or cops is a BIG no no. Anime and video game ones are often clear they are not military. If your outfit was patchless/wordless (aka no U.S Army) and not 100% semi or current current it should of been fine.

@xBladeDragonx
~Some panels were canceled because the panel people did not follow the rules and CHECK IN __(15 i think) mins before the panel (i asked my friends in staff).
~The schedule thing was a let down. But they tried something new and it blew. I printed out a schedule and put it in the cosplay hangout and today i saw some at the downstairs info booth)
~4 panel rooms. Last year it was 5 but they combined two to make it bigger for bigger panels.  
~Videos are hit and miss every year. There simply no for sure way to keep them packet.
~crowd controll That is VERY hard and people need to learn when to ask for photos and when not to. Also Cosplayers need to not just stop but find a good location thats safe (rare to find safe spot) but also the rain was unexpected and some wanted to get out before they got wet and pervs started getting off on the wet look.

@mdarkpoet
Lot of Noob staff this year which is to blame for the bad treament(mayhem) and bad song lists.

@D oh
Game room reuses what they got. They do need to spend some money on it but your not going to the con to just game right?
If they want more games they will have to cancle special guest and then other people would compain that the main point of the con was stopped to pay for new boardgames which people could of bought. You bring your own Magic cards right? bring your own boards. (they would say not me)

@questionette Dealers hall is out to make a buck. Haggel(those are not stores, its more of a flee market they are not Required to sell for that price)  or take pictures of stuff you want and get it off amazon for cheaper.

@LightYagami just right your name in the deathnote or mine. Video rooms are ment for Anime i personally think the ONE not anime room is fine.

@Himeno Ya bages are priced right for the people they bring in. Dealers hall is dealers not deals. They up the price and some lower the price talk to them check out the products and go home and amazon/google it easy to find it cheaper. (or the swap meet)

@SukebeStudios The staff amount is fine when the protesters aren't there but overall they need to TEACH the rovers what to do. They give them the same rules we get and they interpret it the way they want to. The staff is not trained only experience makes things run well and this year was alot of new guys. (i know 10% of the staff) They just show up and help set up little to no training is given.

I think they staff need to be screened more. Maybe have a complaint box (i hate rovers to) so they can get in trouble in which they might be nicer. But overall Fanime Ranks up with other cons like AX in my mind just smaller with less people. And most say AX is in trouble do to more stuff than Fanime is doing wrong. (at fanime we still get to carry weapon props)

I personally loved this fanime. My schedule was filled with things to do with little time between. Yes some of the panels could of been better, and the empty video rooms can be blamed on the no schedules people just walked around. My cuz came this year, it was her first she said it is currently a blast and will come again.

And btw getting bored at a con is easy. Whats hard is turning your head and talking to the person next to you.

PS before you hate reply me because i tried to find a reasonable reply   think about what other people see. Majority wins. Also suggest different videos in the suggestion topics use of your complaints (aka QQ) could be of good use instead of unaffected @ QQ

@Cure of boredom  Have friends go take pictures.

@mdarkpoet
Blame the protesters hitting during rush time. Staff cost money i personaly think more training vs more staff would work better. Takes 15 staff(not trained) to turn down the volume on a mac vs the 1 trained guy Most staff learn what they are doing day of or day before. (day -1 or day 0)
Cosplayer of Host club (nekozawa) and Soul Eater (Free)
Looking for local cosplay groups and new friends.

zeroelement

Quote from: Himeno on May 30, 2011, 01:07:36 AM
Quote from: SukebeStudios on May 30, 2011, 12:51:15 AM
Maybe Fanime is just getting too big for the staffers to handle?
Given the state of reg, information, schedule etc, that is quick clear.

I know a former Fanime staffer back home. He helped start Fanime. I don't think he'll be very impressed when I tell him about this weekend.
Na i think most of everything was done LAST min. The app that was out was Fan Made days before the con. Schedule was out late for it was made late. Not much time to print it out. I think the voulenteers who do this are doing a good job but everything needs to be set in stone sooner.
Cosplayer of Host club (nekozawa) and Soul Eater (Free)
Looking for local cosplay groups and new friends.

Mayhem

Quote from: zeroelement on May 30, 2011, 02:09:08 AM
@Mayhem
Its illegal in California (as far as i know) not just fanime rules. Mostly patches saying anything close is not liked and if its CPD or something like that they and you get in trouble.) They failed to tell everyone but they had to uphold the law. But yea dressing up like miliarty or cops is a BIG no no. Anime and video game ones are often clear they are not military. If your outfit was patchless/wordless (aka no U.S Army) and not 100% semi or current current it should of been fine.

Considering my back ground both in the military and Law enforcement ... I'm familiar with with the law it is not Illegal when it comes to military uniforms or even if I had put "US army" on my Costume which I didn't out of respect as I'm covered under several portions of 10 USC, Subtitle A, Part II, Chapter 45, Sections 771 and 772. and thanks to SCHACHT v. UNITED STATES I really don't have to worry about those exceptions.



With Law enforcement uniforms it gets a little more tricky as per California Penal Code Section 538d which clearly makes impersonation of a peace officer a Crime and This subdivision shall not apply if the uniform is to be used solely as a prop for a motion picture, television, video production, or a theatrical event, and prior written permission has been obtained from the identified law enforcement agency. You have to be careful with this even when it comes to Security and Security Officers.

http://law.onecle.com/california/penal/538d.html

There is no such state law that applies to military uniforms as costumes unless you use them to deliberately pass for military personnel such as to gain access to restricted military facilities.

Unlike Law enforcement The U.S. military has no authority over civilians outside of military installations unless martial law is declared.

Again my costume had nothing on it that said US ARMY, It simply had some funny milspec monkey patches and a Press and Photographer Name tape. this was a BDU that used the ACUPAT cammo Patern THIS IS NOT THE ACU UNIFORM USED BY THE UNITED STATES ARMY. No military in the word uses this Uniform and Popper had a very limited run on this SO you can no longer purchase this style of uniform You can however purchase the modern ACU uniform in ACUPAT Cammo at your local surplus store.

We still have people walking around in full cammo and even in modern uniforms. I saw a guy Walk around in a flight suite with captains rank and a a 1st Cavalry Division patch - something I would never have done unless I duplicating a specific Anime Character for accuracy. I even saw a guy in a raccoon city PD outfit (resident evil) compete with the word "Police" on it.

What got me jumped was the Cammo pattern my stuff uses. If I had been wearing ACUPAT Cammo Pajamas the would still have crawled up my Butt, However if they where woodland or real tree the Probably would have let me slide.

I had absolutely no prop weapons on me unless you count the Camera (Speed Grapher)

WHAT REALLY CHAPS MY REAR is we got no warning until after con started. at this point I'm already out allot of time and money I'm never going to get back.

Oh and  Army Regualtion 670-1 Does not apply to civilians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Combat_Uniform
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Dress_Uniform
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Camouflage_Pattern
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_camouflage_patterns
http://milspecmonkey.com/store/patches
Destination anywhere! So Far Gone, I'm almost There!

SukebeStudios

Quote from: Mayhem on May 30, 2011, 03:37:59 AM
Quote from: zeroelement on May 30, 2011, 02:09:08 AM
@Mayhem
Its illegal in California (as far as i know) not just fanime rules. Mostly patches saying anything close is not liked and if its CPD or something like that they and you get in trouble.) They failed to tell everyone but they had to uphold the law. But yea dressing up like miliarty or cops is a BIG no no. Anime and video game ones are often clear they are not military. If your outfit was patchless/wordless (aka no U.S Army) and not 100% semi or current current it should of been fine.

Considering my back ground both in the military and Law enforcement ... I'm familiar with with the law it is not Illegal when it comes to military uniforms or even if I had put "US army" on my Costume which I didn't out of respect as I'm covered under several portions of 10 USC, Subtitle A, Part II, Chapter 45, Sections 771 and 772. and thanks to SCHACHT v. UNITED STATES I really don't have to worry about those exceptions.



With Law enforcement uniforms it gets a little more tricky as per California Penal Code Section 538d which clearly makes impersonation of a peace officer a Crime and This subdivision shall not apply if the uniform is to be used solely as a prop for a motion picture, television, video production, or a theatrical event, and prior written permission has been obtained from the identified law enforcement agency. You have to be careful with this even when it comes to Security and Security Officers.

http://law.onecle.com/california/penal/538d.html

There is no such state law that applies to military uniforms as costumes unless you use them to deliberately pass for military personnel such as to gain access to restricted military facilities.

Unlike Law enforcement The U.S. military has no authority over civilians outside of military installations unless martial law is declared.

Again my costume had nothing on it that said US ARMY, It simply had some funny milspec monkey patches and a Press and Photographer Name tape. this was a BDU that used the ACUPAT cammo Patern THIS IS NOT THE ACU UNIFORM USED BY THE UNITED STATES ARMY. No military in the word uses this Uniform and Popper had a very limited run on this SO you can no longer purchase this style of uniform You can however purchase the modern ACU uniform in ACUPAT Cammo at your local surplus store.

We still have people walking around in full cammo and even in modern uniforms. I saw a guy Walk around in a flight suite with captains rank and a a 1st Cavalry Division patch - something I would never have done unless I duplicating a specific Anime Character for accuracy. I even saw a guy in a raccoon city PD outfit (resident evil) compete with the word "Police" on it.

What got me jumped was the Cammo pattern my stuff uses. If I had been wearing ACUPAT Cammo Pajamas the would still have crawled up my Butt, However if they where woodland or real tree the Probably would have let me slide.

I had absolutely no prop weapons on me unless you count the Camera (Speed Grapher)

WHAT REALLY CHAPS MY REAR is we got no warning until after con started. at this point I'm already out allot of time and money I'm never going to get back.

Oh and  Army Regualtion 670-1 Does not apply to civilians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Combat_Uniform
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Dress_Uniform
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Camouflage_Pattern
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_camouflage_patterns
http://milspecmonkey.com/store/patches

Dude, careful. You don't want to bring logic into this. They might get mad. After I started thinking about it...complaining about Fanime is like talking to a brick wall. The only thing they end up doing is saying something like, "If you were displeased...VOLUNTEER!" I think Fanime is too big for them to handle and it's falling apart. Sooner or later, they're going to screw up enough where TOO MANY people are displeased.

I will grant them this. The things they DO get right generally outweigh the bad...so that's probably why not as many people notice.

hikanteki

Quote from: mdarkpoet on May 29, 2011, 04:44:51 PM
Dealer's hall prices seem to have gone up for certain things O_o or is it just me for this one?

I noticed this was especially the case for Japanese imports.  This is probably due to the exchange rate being as horrible as it's ever been (on our side, anyway) for the past year, like 80 yen to the dollar.

gsp113

"ANY costume that could be misunderstood as threatening in the current political climate
Any ROVER has the power to decide what meets the criteria for a forbidden costume."

I'll definitely respond to this one as I agree with what alot of you are saying. Just this rule in particular gets to me because so many things can be misunderstood as threatening etc. First that quote up there: Threatening in the current political climate? Um if someone walked around as a Tea Party member (not that I like these guys but I'm an American and I proudly served my country in the Army before finishing College this past Friday) but political climate and threatening in that category could be a number of things so does that mean the Tea party cosplayer (AKA dressing up as Sarah Palin) is committing an infraction? Or (and this happened at AX one year) what about the guy or girl dressing up as Hadji from Johnny Quest? There is definitely a turban on his head are we gonna say he looks like Taliban? Another question why is the staff at fanime so worried about the Attendees when they should be worried about the Press, and those damn protesters every year(the press I will get into later and I'd love to find the managers contact info and tell them about what I heard and saw from a few of these guys)? What I'm getting at is anything can be deemed threatening in today's political climate though I do understand the decision to make someone green out there Swastika (even though it really doesn't mean white power or anything its a symbol derived from the native Americans) seeing as in Germany displaying that will get you sent to jail. But some of these rules are a bit out of hand and in my opinion and I'm sure many others a tad bit too much for inexperienced staffers. If you walked around as a flamboyantly gay
or lesbian character some high horse mega jerk could see that as threatening. Please Reword and re-tool this rule with some sort of appeal method after all these people did work hard on that costume. A head rover or member of staff should be able to hear both sides of the story in that situation.

Being a military brat as well I understand its the law you cannot impersonate a soldier etc but kids dress up for halloween in mom and dad's BDU (or now ACU) all the time. Last year we saw 2 Campbell cosplayers clearly wearing Military dress greens (which btw remain the same minus the cover)  as long as these people are clearly not impersonating a soldier (AKA carrying a C.a.c card, having U.S.Army, and or a Name on their costume) It shouldn't matter what generation the uniform is because believe it or not alot of those old BDU are still in use on bases and in training runs for groups like OPfour and the 11th ACR (armored Calvary Regiment) so technically that makes them modern day uniforms.

In this case a little comedy a Rover totally rolled up on me and my friend while I was walking (in costume as Zwei someone who isn't in the miltary but an Assassin) and they totally threatened to have my badge pulled if I didn't and I quote "Get rid of my military ID because it's a violation of the rules" 1. Clearly not a person that watches Requiem for the Phantom. 2. An extremely rude and disgusting civilian seriously though he yelled at me he was like "I need to confiscate that GIVE IT TO ME!  3. Not very observant as the ID included my real name and my affiliation as well as my Pay Grade/rank yes thats right it was a legit c.a.c card and it is a felony punishible by imprisonment under federal law as well as U.C.M.J to simply hand over my C.A.C card to anyone no joke we can't even have old ones when it gets renewed they must be destroyed. I signed an oath never to give that card to anyone. I had to convince this guy I was a legitimate soldier and that this wasn't part of my costume. Awkward moment dude.

Where the heck were the schedules other than online? I own a smart phone but come on guys everyone doesn't have one of those and everyone does not get unlimited data every month. Stop it with the Iphone favoritism too some of us own a palm or droid. Everything seemed so disorganized this year in comparison to the years before: Disorganized, rushed,rude, and this is a big problem UNDER-STAFFING half of the staff didn't know what was going on with anything.

Quit trying to be AX: yes they are one of these biggest cons ever but that doesn't mean adopt the same fly by night cheap ass policies as them that don't make anything safer or more productive they just exist to be told at the last minute to attendees at the last minute and or to piss them off.

For example no clear rule on weapons that are gun like, peace bonding guitars that are in their cases and someones just taking to their room. If the gun is freaking used for a Karate class to train a class what to do at close range gun point and its color is yellow, completely unable to fire anything because it's freaking rubber it probably feels real but even a cop can tell thats a fake. Not whining though seriously it was a fun con and I had a blast at Yuya and Flow (bring more high energy artists like Flow) Now I'm not taking a dig on the convention because I'm about to defend the prices for registration!

GUYS you get to go to the special events for free once you register at AX you have to pay for the tickets to that too I'd prefer fanime charge me 55 a pop or 60 and I get to see someone perform for free.

Again I love this con it's really awesome and unique with things like the Black and White ball as it's nice to see we anime fans and gamers etc can indeed be gentlemen and decent women (PLEASE DO NOT EVER DROP THIS EVENT) just to name one event. But the way the Yoshiki panel and autograph session was handled was poor managing on someones part. People had been waiting in the front of the line since 5am and due to a game of "Rock Paper Siscor" only 40 random people who won the game got to get his autograph. I understand he was hurt and sick and stuff but seeing as I hear he had another session at stage zero later that night I'm guessing he wasn't to happy about it either. That was totally in bad ethics and taste by management.

I didn't cry about it I was happy my friend got to get his autograph after almost 12 hours of sitting in line it made her day but the first 40 people in the door or the first 5 rows should of gotten his autograph not a random selection of people by rock paper scissor that was super childish. If he was really pressed for time and stuff they should of just canceled the signing. Some of these people didn't even have stuff for him to sign or for that matter one person honestly admitted she didn't know who he was! DX

Finally one more thing that I think really should be addressed cause it was super offensive. If you sat in the first two rows at Yoshiki's panel closest to the stage..you may have over heard some very offensive and downright derogatory names being used during Yoshiki's videos. Bad thing was they were from the press who knew nothing about who they were writing about and taking pics of. I heard one of the press guys watching the video talking to another reporter and saying things like "why does this slant-eye wear a brace on his neck" and "he talks like a f*g". We love Yoshiki and X-Japan, we love the Asian culture and it's music other than anime that's one of the reasons alot of us come to the con! I'm sure I'm not the only one who heard this guy in the second row and was offended and I'm not even Japanese. Invite press members who understand the stuff and why people come out by the millions to see stuff like this.

It really seems like this con is cracking down on the attendees I'll be back next year cause this con kicks ass but get organized for starters not even alot of the staff knew what was going on! That fixes 85% of the problem easy. Some of these staffers didn't look 18 either...maybe this is the maturity level but people skills should be a must even when you have to lay down the law am I right? I mean getting rude with the attendees get's nothing done! "I'm not feeling the shoes, can't let you in" thats just an example I'm not trying to be rude just bringing a few things up that made me and some others im sure frown.

Mayhem

Quote from: SukebeStudios on May 30, 2011, 04:30:42 AM

Dude, careful. You don't want to bring logic into this. They might get mad. After I started thinking about it...complaining about Fanime is like talking to a brick wall. The only thing they end up doing is saying something like, "If you were displeased...VOLUNTEER!" I think Fanime is too big for them to handle and it's falling apart. Sooner or later, they're going to screw up enough where TOO MANY people are displeased.



I've been going to staff meetings since Jan. I was going to staff this year but It conflicted with my Press obligations and that pays for the con. Half my friends are on Staff every year, and my daughter is staffing this year. the concept of "If you were displeased...VOLUNTEER!" doesn't really fly anyway because you have to be way the heck up the food chain to be able to effect these decisions, Unfortunately I don't know if it's altitude sickness or the pod people effect, but once you get to that level people seem to loose the ability to "find their arse with both hands and a road map" and "lead ants to a picnic".

QuoteI will grant them this. The things they DO get right generally outweigh the bad...so that's probably why not as many people notice.

This would probably be due to the people on the ground/Floor adapting and overcoming to the situation best of their ability, I don't think this really has anything to do with the upper leadership. Two big problems with Fanime (and most cons when they reach a certian size) seems to be the upper leadership is out of touch, and the ability to communicate between divisions/departments. Its also almost imposable to pull or shift extra human resources from one. department to another on the fly. Except for maybe the rovers who seem to be the "Goto Guys/Gals"

Staff for fanime also has the least reward of any convention I know of so you know these people are in it for their love of the cone because they don't even get a free T-shirt out of the deal .... they have to pay $10 bucks for that.
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