Fanime 2008 Feedback thread.

[RyuHayabusa]

Ok, this is the FanimeCon 2008 Feedback thread. Please keep it civil and make all of your criticisms constructive and be civil about it. Any feedback is appreciated, either positive or negative, but KEEP IT CIVIL. Thanks. :3

[LordKefka]

Great con this year. Probably the best of the 5 Fanime I've been to since 2004 at SJ.

Pros:

Swap Meet - Awesome is the only word I can think of. Other than the fact that a few people were charging as much (if not more) as dealers. Good variety of things.
E-gaming/Arcades - You guys who staffed, good job and props for bringing awesome games out. Arcades had every fighting game I wanted such as Melty Blood, MvC2, 3rd Strike, GGXX, and etc.
MusicFest - I'll keep it short here, but from what I went to which was An Cafe, it was fuckin fuckin awesome.
Registration - I think you guys did a great job keeping the lines. Though I didn't have to wait to get mine, I just wanted to mention that it was a big improvement from last year when I staffed. Keep it up.
Programming Guides/Book - Pretty awesome. No short supply until Sunday afternoon ( I think?) when "rush time" was over. Organized for the most part.
Guests of Honor - I went to only the Gainax panel, but it was pretty good. They stayed longer than they were even supposed to be up there and held an autograph session for as long as possible. Aside from some random person who asked Yamaga-san what he "thought about fansubs", most questions were pretty interesting be it self interest or what not.
Maid Cafe - Improvement from last year. Good maids, good service, and stuck around people who came and talked to them (even drawing/sketching things on the napkins (?).
Bandai at the dealer's room - I'll save my comments for when I'm not brain storming as I am now.
Artist Alley - Comments saved again.


Cons:

Overlapping events due to event time change- For example Black and White Ball which was supposed to take place Saturday night interfered with An Cafe's concert when it was moved to Sunday night. Too bad I wasn't able to cover both.
Immature kids - As always, you have those people. I'll save my rant for later.

EDIT: Apparently they just overlapped from what I'm looking at.

Indifferent:

Dealer - meh for the most part
Screening Rooms - it was more of a 50/50 thing when I looked at the Anime.

[short_storiesgl]

i HAd hella fun!!!!!! i met some cool people and Lok gave me 2 bucks for downing some hot Sauce...


haha WOOT



i got free massages and food and yeah i dunno im too lazy.

[Kaura117]

There seemed to have been a few technical hiccups here and there. And as mentioned in the first response comment, the dealer's room was a decidedly "meh" affair- nothing horrible, but nothing especially noteworthy either.

I also have minor complaints about the quality of the skits in Masquerade, though the combination of Ric Meyers and Pictochat means that even if next year's is worse, I'll still be there, choking back inappropriately timed laughs. The old man's great, and MST3kifying the event with fellow congoers made even the decidedly mindscarring skits (even without details, I know some of you know which specific skit I'm thinking about!) a hilarious experience.

The individual panels also either whiffed or homerunned. CG anime? Foul ball. Interesting info, even from an outsider's perspective, but part of the presentation was... self-serving. Resin? Homerun. Fascinating advice, and even my engineering friends took a lot from it. Otaku Business was an interesting presentation, certainly, though there were perhaps parts that aren't, perhaps, optimal advice, and seemed biased towards a certain age range, and a rather young one at that.

Like with Dealer's Room, I'll have to say that 24hr gaming also falls into the "Meh" range. Prices seemed on the high side. I do admit ready bias when I say that there are insufficient dance pads, but it certainly felt as if the lines were needlessly long sometimes.

On a lighter note, I came out of the Maid Cafe with a positive impression. The girls were friendly and personable, and while cold sandwiches will never be a great hit with me, they're relatively easy on the budget. That latter detail, I will admit, is the primary source of my positive feedback- I did not have a previously favorable impression of the concept of maid cafes before, but hunger trumps prejudice. Now? Now I think I would repeat patronage, and not just for the food. ...well, maybe I'd be even more willing if the drinks' relative cost wasn't so high...

Oh, also. Is it just me, or was the enforcement of the weapons policy a bit more lax this year? I wandered around half the con with a black, hard plastic baseball bat before a friend finally reminded me that it might be prudent to have it tagged. Completely escaped my attention then- as well as, apparently, every staffer at every door I passed.

[Jelly Soup]

Pro:

-Great dealers room this year. It was nice to have a dedicated games dealer. Got me a US Wii.
-Lots of One Piece.
-Interesting panels.
-Gaming room. Dear lord, it was a pleasant shock seeing a Famicom running Mario Kart on Thursday.
-Speed runs? On Stage Zero? Fuck yeah, we need more of that next year.
-This was one spectacular year for Pokemon cosplayers. Lots of them, almost all amazing.

Cons:

-When someone (a lot of someones) tells you you're running the wrong movie, don't ignore them and gyp the crowed out of a movie.
-If you guys catch someone you're looking for (like, say, a black dude stalking girls), might it be better form to move him, and the following discussion, to a private room, instead of the hallway you caught him in (such as, say, the fourth floor of the Hilton). All the shouting kept many of us awake.

[heeroyuy135]

I don't know what happened, but no one knew about how to obtain tickets to the Meet GAINAX Reception at the Fairmont. I kept asking and asking and asking...eventually, I got my hands on one and it was epic!

[Zee]

I really liked the AMV contest this year.  I loved the sheets you handed out with the list of videos on it, and how you showed the title and information for each video before and after it played.  The only thing that could have improved the experience is if you'd handed out pencils as well, but most people don't have problems lending and borrowing, so it isn't a huge deal.

As for the masquerade...if only it had been as nice.  The civic auditorium was not the best venue.  The place echoed like mad, and a number of the seats were next to useless since you couldn't see the stage at all (who the heck designed that place?).  Up on the balcony, I couldn't hear a word the host was saying, but the audience's cheers were really piercing.  And I might have been able to live with all that if it weren't for the incessant Rickrolling and Haurhi Suzumiya dancing.  Most of the skits were repetitive and struck me as unimaginative.  I would really recommend you guys start denying entrants when the third or fourth group of Haruhi dancers register to be in the masquerade.  That might sound harsh, but I'm sure the performers would also appreciate being notified that two or three other groups are already doing the same thing, so they don't have the audience groaning as soon as they walk on stage.  And can we just ban Rickrolling altogether?  Please?

Like others, the dealers room struck me as "meh" this year...I'm not sure what I was hoping for, but I nearly laughed when I realized that the layout of the individual booths was almost exactly the same as last year!  I suppose I was hoping for something new, but there wasn't much.  On the other hand, Artist Alley was fantastic!

For the most part I really enjoyed my experience.  My major disappointments were the masquerade (I'm really starting to miss that German guy with the Totoro ), the scheduling of the concert at the same time as the ball, and the ballroom being too small.  Other than that, I had a great time.  I enjoyed the panels and the programming was great.  Thumbs up!

[the otaku god]

Hi Everyone,
Well another FanimeCon has come and gone! There were tons of great times and few bad times. With that said its time to hear what you have to say. What did you think of the new video main room, Anime selection, Movies, new video events, ect....? I am all ears also most of all I would love to heart what we did right as well so I can have some good with the bad.
I hope to hear from you soon!

Please post all video comments here::
http://forums.fanime.com/index.php/topic,2223.msg254229.html#new

[darkknightcecil]

Well Since i was a Staffer I was kind of pissed
Pros:STAGE ZERO WAS AWESOME!! WENDELL AND eveyrone else=EPIC!!
um e-gaming, INITIAL D =D, expensive but worth it!!, Um, I got recorded on video!! , I GAVED OUT FREE TICKETS TO AN CAFE on sunday due to the excess amount of it and the musicfest guy gaved it to me cuz i was a staffer and i was helping out.!!=D, and it was fun!
Cons; WHY IS EVERYTHING TICKTED THAT WAS AWESOME!? jeez..
the signings, the staff only signings, alot of us weren't informed about the signing for staff only, such as an cafe today.
so much problems.. gr,, fake driver licenses, fake staff ids..

[Nina Star 9]

Well, there was a lot of great stuff, and I don't think I can really get into it all. But I do have a few improvements that could be made:

- Saturday night Masquerade. Please, please never do this again. I understand about the conflict with AnCafe, but still, it just doesn't work. This is one of the reasons why I wasn't as motivated to get a costume done in time, especially since I arrived that afternoon. If I had a costume for it, then there is no way I could have made it to judging/practice/etc.

- Need a bigger venue for the B&W Ball, please. I was one of the lucky ones that got in right when it opened and then stayed the whole time, but there was a huge line, and I'm sure that it was even longer than I could see from the watercooler. Plus, everyone was stepping into each other during at least some point of the night.

- Dealer's room was meh. Not horrible, but not great. I miss the days of $1 and $2 manga tables, and interesting, varied merchandise. Though, there were some pretty decent lolita booths, which I was surprised to find. We also need things that aren't totally mainstream in there, and maybe some light novels, as well? I looked at every booth for the Kino no Tabi light novels and couldn't find them anywhere.

- Probably not something that can be fixed, but what about keeping more food stands open toward dinner time? The Maid Cafe and the one stand open until the wee hours of the morning were about the only things I could find Sunday night, and that one stand really only sells snack-type foods, and were mostly sold out, anyway.


Other than that, it really was a great con this year. :D

[billgoku]

Everything was great, I loved the dealers room, the artist alley and all the programs shown. The Masquerade could of been a little better though, but it was still worth the see.  I didn't get to pre-reg for next year because the announcement I got was 4pm monday, and when I went there, they were closed at 12 noon. Must of miss heard that one though.

One real bad thing. The Safety on Site, one member in particular, he was a total jerk, damaged my prop gun and was a general jerk. I'd love not to see his face again next year. (The guy wore glasses and had a terrible attitude.)

[dibbly]

One real bad thing. The Safety on Site, one member in particular, he was a total jerk, damaged my prop gun and was a general jerk. I'd love not to see his face again next year. (The guy wore glasses and had a terrible attitude.)

yeah i meet him to, i wont say the situation, but the first time i thought he was tired and grumpy. The second time i saw him he was letting people into the b&w ball he was completely unprofessional and needlessly rude. i can understand being overstressed, but taking it out on con goers is wrong. whatever his deal was he needs to learn proper etiquette for handling the situation or volunteer for something he can handle.   

[bahamutknightzero]

Pros

-Stage Zero
-Game Room (these guys need to get some love for all the hard work they did this year)

Cons

-Scheduling
-Inconsistant Weapons Policy enforcement
-Power Trip-y Con Staff/Volunteers (this is only to some, not all)
-Masquerade on Saturday (Felt so out of place)

The reason I say the power tripy thing and the Weapons policy is that a friend of mine was really upset that one of her props (a baton that was part of a Reno cosplay) was nearly dismantled by some of the Con staff on Friday when she went to peace bond it (Luckily the woman that was doing the peace bonding near Stage Zero was a lot nicer and understanding on Sunday when my friend and I went to check on her Cerberus gun prop that day).


Zee: I do want to say about the Masquerade thing that yeah the Hahuri dancing was overkill, but you do have to feel bad about the other groups that did have to follow. As for denying entries, that wouldn't be fair. By that logic, you are pretty much also getting rid of walk ons (sure they are pointless, but these people did work hard on their costumes and do want to show them off to everyone). The repeatative skits thing is something that people don't know and is something that cant be done. It's just a thing of coincedences. Oh and ban a Rickroll after only being done twice [I think it was twice, I know I was in the 20th group] ? (the first one wasn't much of one since it was a ringtone.)

I'm sorry if I appeared to have pissed some people off or get people in trouble, but I just wanted to voice my opinion on my thoughts so far based on the Weekend and some of the feedback here so far.

[billgoku]

One real bad thing. The Safety on Site, one member in particular, he was a total jerk, damaged my prop gun and was a general jerk. I'd love not to see his face again next year. (The guy wore glasses and had a terrible attitude.)

yeah i meet him to, i wont say the situation, but the first time i thought he was tired and grumpy. The second time i saw him he was letting people into the b&w ball he was completely unprofessional and needlessly rude. i can understand being overstressed, but taking it out on con goers is wrong. whatever his deal was he needs to learn proper etiquette for handling the situation or volunteer for something he can handle.   

Yeah, I saw him in the dealers room stopping anyone and everyone he could, harassing them as much as possible. There shouldn't be people with that kind of behavior on the staff.

[Reikon]

For clarification, the arcades are not part of e-gaming. E-gaming only handled the consoles.

There were some problems we had this year like the canceled Melty Blood tournment and the sometimes slow check out process, but we did the best with what we had since we don't get much support from the con itself. We were short on staff so most of the people there worked more than double the hours they were required to, so sorry if some of us were a bit cranky. Hopefully with the changes planned for next year, we can reduce or eliminate the problems we had.

[Jelly Soup]

Oh, how could I forget.

Registration.

What the hell?
In previous years, early registration people could pick up their badges on Thursday. Not being able to is a very minor gripe. However, changing the entire process so that everyone is waiting in a large group for two hours while four people yell out the same names repeatedly is absolutely retarded. I understand that this was an attempt at improvement, but.....improvement on what? The previous method has worked for the 4 years I've attended. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[heeroyuy135]

I don't know if this falls on me or it falls on them, but I wish some dealers wouldn't take offense when you tell them the same item is lower at another dealer...

[Sunara Ishi]

- Dealer's room was meh. Not horrible, but not great. I miss the days of $1 and $2 manga tables, and interesting, varied merchandise. Though, there were some pretty decent lolita booths, which I was surprised to find. We also need things that aren't totally mainstream in there, and maybe some light novels, as well? I looked at every booth for the Kino no Tabi light novels and couldn't find them anywhere.

I agree. I would like a few other things as well.

It was weird not seeing the gaia booth this year.

Although everything was a lot of fun; there seems to have been some communication problems. Especially with the An Cafe lines. The autograph session was a problem. The ticket said Exhibit Hall 2 and those of us that arrived early were told to wait around there until someone returned and gave us the go ahead to line up. The staff member that told us so disappeared and never reappeared to update us. Even the gaming staff seemed to have no idea of what was going on. Hours later (and less than 30 min. before the session) we were moved into Exhibit Hall 1 behind a bunch of people. The line wasn't as much of a deal as being left hanging.

Also, I heard through the grapevine that a lot of staffers just showed up for their badges and not to actually staff. I rather hope that was exaggerated.

An Cafe was awesome but it saddened me that there were still so many seats empty when the concert started. (I had hoped for that place to get more crowded) And that there were so many tickets not given out. I heard that some tickets never got to people that would have used them. And some people gave up on going to the concert because the line looked so long.
It looked way long because we were single file and not bunched up as we tend to do for past years.
(This was my first year for MusicFest but I assume the line is normally like Masquerade's line.)
Maybe if we were allowed to be bunched up till we got near the front, more people might have joined the line.

This is an issue I heard from friends: Apparently plastic baseball bats were being confiscated from all Ness cosplayers because one cosplayer misused their bat. It sounds like the cosplayers were not even given the option to return them to their rooms. We thought maybe they were trying to identify the bat misused but no ones names were taken with their bats. I think it'd be a really good idea to have a section in the rules identifying what the confiscation rules are and what cosplayers rights are. It doesn't seem right to have one's personal property taken from them without proper reason. Especially not without getting the names of those that it belongs to.

As for everything else: The concert was beyond awesome; it was a dream come true. <3
The Hidenobu Kiuchi autograph session was cool. I am sad that I accidentally missed his Q&A panel.
So many awesome cosplays this year. I don't know how many were from people just coming this year for An Cafe and how many will return...

[Edit: Almost forgot because it went so smoothly... Yay for Thurs. Reg lines starting as close to on time as possible! >.< That was rather nice.

[SOawesomeness]

Jelly Soup- I heard about that and I really didn't understand why we didn't do early-reg pick-up. No one told me about this, either, and the sub-head of pre/early reg was confused as to why we didn't accept early reg either. :00
Sunara Ishi- Yeah, I sort of really missed the Gaia booth. ):

Pro:
-Longer food-selling hours for some vendors, yay!
-I absolutely loved our volunteers given to us for Reg. A lot of them were really kickass and just freaking awesome.

Con:
-BWB and An Cafe at the same time. I totally went for An Cafe this year after working Reg, but then we left like, an hour later because we didn't like their music and went to BWB. Unfortunately, we waited in line for a long while and then got to go into the room for 10 minutes. Good thing is, apparently Fanime's gonna try to get a bigger room next year. (:
-The check-out for game consoles was a bit too long for me...  but that might have just been my experience with it.
-SOS tried doing line control for reg on I think Friday and Saturday... EPIC fail. Those guys just sat in their chairs and did nothing. I tried telling them to help out confused looking people who just went straight towards the computers instead of waiting in line, especially when there was like, a lot of people at once. >.>

[sykoeent]

Hello!!!
After all these years, I was finally able to attend the Fanime con!... even though it was only for Sunday! hehehehe

First off, the pros!
I really enjoyed my time at Fanime, even though it was short. I enjoyed it so much, that I will be attending next year along with a few other industry pros! The maid cafe was awesome! Although, this was just a volunteer event, the maids and security were very friendly and a pleasure to talk to! I hope that this event returns every year. The cosplaying! This was all of you! I highly enjoyed this, and I applaud all of you who have done this! Good job!, no... EXCELLENT WORK! Keep this up! The Artist Alley!!! To me, this was the main thing I came to see. There were legends told of Fanime's artist alley, and, yes, very inspiring!

Now the cons...
Only one. Registration.... well... industry reg... Without a badge, one cannot enjoy all the fun things to do around the con. There needs to be a way where we can pick up badges when we arrive... I got there around 8am... was dropped off. But whatever...
Oh, and the information booth upstairs... wow... Please be informative and lively. It felt like I was talking to Napoleon Dynamite when asking for info. Painful...

Advice:
I heard that the Artist Alley sold out. No surprise! But there could be more tables. The aisles were soooooooooo far apart that there was probably room for 2 or 3 more rows. Fanime, to me, is like the Comiket of California, and the Artist alley and its artists represents our doujinshi work. We need to blow this out and expose this more so that we all grow as artists.
Butlers in the maid cafe! Equality here, people! I am a guy, a straight one, but there are a lottttttt of females who are into anime! Share the wealth to attract more female customers!
RANDOM NINJAS...
'nuff said.

See you all next year!