FanimeCon 2024 Forums

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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

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..

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

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.)

Quote from: billgoku on May 26, 2008, 09:56:51 PM

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.   

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.

Quote from: dibbly on May 26, 2008, 10:08:05 PM

Quote from: billgoku on May 26, 2008, 09:56:51 PM

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.

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.

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.

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...

Quote from: Nina Star 9 on May 26, 2008, 09:50:52 PM
- 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.

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. >.>

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!

Quote from: Sunara Ishi on May 26, 2008, 10:44:48 PM
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.

This was not exaggerated at all for e-gaming, which is why we were extremely short staffed. We were supposed to have 30 people in our department, but I only saw maybe 15 (and I was there at nearly all hours of the day). Of those 15 who showed up, only about 10 actually worked.

I think we should set up a system where staff have to pay in advance and then get refunded only if they actually do all their hours. This would have made more staffers actually show up and not make our department so short-handed.

Actually, a Butler Cafe might be an interesting idea on its own right, wouldn't it? I have to say, the concept intrigues me. A glance at FanimeCon's floor shows a very strong female presence- this has long since stopped being an event for only geeky male fanboys. I'd even go so far as to say that the gender representation is getting close to equal.

Quote from: bahamutknightzero on May 26, 2008, 10:09:07 PM
As for denying entries, that wouldn't be fair.

I probably worded that badly.  What I meant was, if you're in charge of the people signing up for masquerade, and a group comes along who wants to do something that two other groups are already doing, instead of just saying nothing and signing them up, it'd be better to say, "Look, two other groups are already doing that.  You can still be in the masquerade, but you need to come up with something different."  Heck, they could even help those cosplayers get in touch with the other groups who had the same idea and they could team up or something.  But it's sad when there are so many Haruhi dances that people coming onto the stage are greeted by groans.  That never should have been allowed to happen.  I know it's not a serious stage production or anything, but the masquerade should be entertaining for everyone, not repetitive for the audience or embarrassing for the performers.

QuoteOh 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 counted three times including the ringtone.  You don't think that's a little much for a joke that's only funny because it's unexpected?  Not to mention outside of the masquerade where you had the internet guys walking around with the boombox rickrolling everyone, and whoever was in charge of the music rickrolling everyone over the PA system two nights in a row...  It's overkill, and it's ruined everything that used to be great about rickrolling.  I just think it's time for someone to put their foot down and say "stop killing the meme!"

One of the best in my 9 years of going to fanime.

Pros:
Registration on Thursday took like 30 minutes top; got there at 7:00 got badge just before 7:30, talk about awesome.
Video rooms (esp. on sunday) were fantastic: eva rebuild, stranger, dororo.  
Anime hell was a lot of fun (loved the use of "Ninja Master Theme Song" from MST3k).
Artist Ally was huge and full of great artists.  More dojin, original comics and crafts would be preferable to the dirth of print booths, but everything that was there was great.
Arcade was a lot of fun, picture booth and esp.2 took some of my food money ><
General atmosphere of fanime remained intact: enthusiasm, nice folks, great cosplay and a fan focus.

Cons:
Dealers room was as a lot of people said not great.  Not really the con's fault as the dealer's fault.
Q&A Sessions (H.Kiuchi's excepting, he was great) were the same old questions to Yamaga-san and crew ('what do you think about fansubs,' 'what's the deal with drills,' 'have you ever hired/accepted a story proposal/etc from a foreigner' should just be off limits, esp. the last one, i mean how can you answer that honestly and not sound like some xenophobic dream crusher?)
Only problem I had with the video rooms was some of the volunteers running them had no clue how to run the (actually quite nice) mac minis.  On more then one occasion members of the audience had to intervene and take over playing the videos.  

Quote from: Reikon on May 26, 2008, 11:11:12 PM

Quote from: Sunara Ishi on May 26, 2008, 10:44:48 PM
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.

This was not exaggerated at all for e-gaming, which is why we were extremely short staffed. We were supposed to have 30 people in our department, but I only saw maybe 15 (and I was there at nearly all hours of the day). Of those 15 who showed up, only about 10 actually worked.

I think we should set up a system where staff have to pay in advance and then get refunded only if they actually do all their hours. This would have made more staffers actually show up and not make our department so short-handed.

yeah, i noticed that, a whole bunch of staff and a manpower shortage problem, but its like whatever, i dont know whos actually working and who isnt. then again  all i remember is helping out door guards the whole time for no other reason than laughs not even the hours involved. meh theres more to it but im lazy. it was fun though.

KAY

well so far the con was good, an cafe concert was amazing! keepin it NYAPPY. It was a nice reception for them and sure it was all fun. Dance was amazing

Cons:
-Dear jesus when they say no pushing during the concert please DONT PUSH like the whole middle section fell down and a girl had to be pushed out because she was hurt. I have minor bruises and well my left boob got a punch. some girl tried to be smart and shove her way by punching. you aint gonna get closer that way, but I got her back Oh it was victorious. but you know despite the crowd shoves and pushing It didnt bother me that much to get to see An cafe in a way that I thought was magical. Met some sweet cafeko girls they were sweet =)

-Dealers room seemed small this year, I didnt spend alot since some things didnt catch my interest.

-Dance: what happened to the hip hop yo! I was really hoping for variety not just techno
-Masq: It was a bit weak, the only good act was the Marvel V.S Capcom bit

I thought the con went really well this year. I really enjoyed it. I thought overall the atmosphere was much calmer than last year.

Pros:
Late night programing on stage zero - this really kept the concourse lively and meant there was something to do at odd times. Bored people often end up being stupid people.

24 hour Starbucks and the 4 am snack bar - it was nice to get a late night somethin without having to walk to MacDonalds. Yeah its con pricing but I was down.

Reduction in signs and glomping this year - I saw less of them than any of the cons I have been to before.

Expanded size of the Video Main room - It was freakin huge! Redeath was great it was easy to get a seat for a change.

Registration - Went really fast on Thursday. Awesome.

An Cafe - They were great. And winning the ticket to the autograph session was a nice bonus.

Cons:
Early starts on video rooms- Some video rooms started to show stuff before the scheduled time. This sucks. I posted on this in the Video programming forum.

Poor info regarding concert and autograph sessions - the no camera rule caught me off guard. I know on the ticket it said "no photo/no video". I carried my camera strictly out of habit in my messenger bag so I had to get mduo to run over and rescue my bag. I watched a girl cry in line for 20 minutes because she couldn't take a photo during the autograph session. Ticket pick up was also poorly communicated. I saw people trying to figure out where to get the tickets (this included me). Also times and location for autograph events need to be posted better. People at the information booths couldn't even tell us were to get tickets or where/when the gainax panel even was. Same for the autograph session with An Cafe. One info person told me it was on Sunday at 2 pm. They were mistaking the ticket pickup times with then actually session.

Ummm... that's it really. I don't have any other complaints. Everything else was fun and I had a good time. For me the dealer room was actually better this year than last.

Quote from: Kazuko on May 26, 2008, 11:45:07 PM
Cons:
-Dear jesus when they say no pushing during the concert please DONT PUSH like the whole middle section fell down and a girl had to be pushed out because she was hurt. I have minor bruises and well my left boob got a punch. some girl tried to be smart and shove her way by punching. you aint gonna get closer that way, but I got her back Oh it was victorious. but you know despite the crowd shoves and pushing It didnt bother me that much to get to see An cafe in a way that I thought was magical. Met some sweet cafeko girls they were sweet =)

I had a similar problem except the girl elbowed me and pushed forward in front of me despite me trying to resist. At least it was towards the end of the concert but it was rather annoying. Especially because I was trying to protect my fallen ribbon between my feet and she pushed me and stepped all over it and on my feet. Unfortunately, these kinds of things happen while being up close to the stage. I doubt staff can do too much about it. But it would be nice if they can catch the people trying to push others down.
Maybe they can have rope lines between sections of people? I dunno.
Also, maybe have the front of the mass not on the steps near the stage. I think people might have been pushing more than they might have if the steps didn't make the people in front block everything.

Quote from: Sunara Ishi on May 27, 2008, 12:05:07 AM

Quote from: Kazuko on May 26, 2008, 11:45:07 PM
Cons:
-Dear jesus when they say no pushing during the concert please DONT PUSH like the whole middle section fell down and a girl had to be pushed out because she was hurt. I have minor bruises and well my left boob got a punch. some girl tried to be smart and shove her way by punching. you aint gonna get closer that way, but I got her back Oh it was victorious. but you know despite the crowd shoves and pushing It didnt bother me that much to get to see An cafe in a way that I thought was magical. Met some sweet cafeko girls they were sweet =)

I had a similar problem except the girl elbowed me and pushed forward in front of me despite me trying to resist. At least it was towards the end of the concert but it was rather annoying. Especially because I was trying to protect my fallen ribbon between my feet and she pushed me and stepped all over it and on my feet. Unfortunately, these kinds of things happen while being up close to the stage. I doubt staff can do too much about it. But it would be nice if they can catch the people trying to push others down.
Maybe they can have rope lines between sections of people? I dunno.
Also, maybe have the front of the mass not on the steps near the stage. I think people might have been pushing more than they might have if the steps didn't make the people in front block everything.

Yeah this guy held me and my friend and prevented us from falling, I have yet to thank him =( but well people were pushing from the back and being pushed back from the front = OH DAMN. Im sorry about your ribbon though D:

props to the crowd surfing!

Quote from: Kazuko on May 27, 2008, 12:08:35 AM

Quote from: Sunara Ishi on May 27, 2008, 12:05:07 AM

Quote from: Kazuko on May 26, 2008, 11:45:07 PM
Cons:
-Dear jesus when they say no pushing during the concert please DONT PUSH like the whole middle section fell down and a girl had to be pushed out because she was hurt. I have minor bruises and well my left boob got a punch. some girl tried to be smart and shove her way by punching. you aint gonna get closer that way, but I got her back Oh it was victorious. but you know despite the crowd shoves and pushing It didnt bother me that much to get to see An cafe in a way that I thought was magical. Met some sweet cafeko girls they were sweet =)

I had a similar problem except the girl elbowed me and pushed forward in front of me despite me trying to resist. At least it was towards the end of the concert but it was rather annoying. Especially because I was trying to protect my fallen ribbon between my feet and she pushed me and stepped all over it and on my feet. Unfortunately, these kinds of things happen while being up close to the stage. I doubt staff can do too much about it. But it would be nice if they can catch the people trying to push others down.
Maybe they can have rope lines between sections of people? I dunno.
Also, maybe have the front of the mass not on the steps near the stage. I think people might have been pushing more than they might have if the steps didn't make the people in front block everything.

Yeah this guy held me and my friend and prevented us from falling, I have yet to thank him =( but well people were pushing from the back and being pushed back from the front = OH DAMN. Im sorry about your ribbon though D:

props to the crowd surfing!

well... it was more like a bulk a fabric but it wasn't too damaged as far as I can tell. I protected it most of the concert.

I will not condone the crowd surfing. D: Even if it can look cool. I heard a girl got kicked in the head by one of those guys.

Quote from: Kaura117 on May 26, 2008, 05:42:25 PMOh, 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.

I think there's a difference between staff and volunteers.  I noticed the door guards tended to have the "volunteer" ribbons, so I don't think they're staffers, and they're probably not trained/qualified to comment on weapons.  I got the impression that the real staff tended to be the ones rushing from place to place without enough time to inspect the crowd for weapons.

Quote from: Nina Star 9 on May 26, 2008, 09:50:52 PMI miss the days of $1 and $2 manga tables

I bought a bunch of $2 manga from Dr. Master.  I heard from a friend that, near the end of the convention, they were actually giving away manga for free!

Quote from: Sunara Ishi on May 27, 2008, 12:15:29 AM

Quote from: Kazuko on May 27, 2008, 12:08:35 AM

Quote from: Sunara Ishi on May 27, 2008, 12:05:07 AM

Quote from: Kazuko on May 26, 2008, 11:45:07 PM
Cons:
-Dear jesus when they say no pushing during the concert please DONT PUSH like the whole middle section fell down and a girl had to be pushed out because she was hurt. I have minor bruises and well my left boob got a punch. some girl tried to be smart and shove her way by punching. you aint gonna get closer that way, but I got her back Oh it was victorious. but you know despite the crowd shoves and pushing It didnt bother me that much to get to see An cafe in a way that I thought was magical. Met some sweet cafeko girls they were sweet =)

I had a similar problem except the girl elbowed me and pushed forward in front of me despite me trying to resist. At least it was towards the end of the concert but it was rather annoying. Especially because I was trying to protect my fallen ribbon between my feet and she pushed me and stepped all over it and on my feet. Unfortunately, these kinds of things happen while being up close to the stage. I doubt staff can do too much about it. But it would be nice if they can catch the people trying to push others down.
Maybe they can have rope lines between sections of people? I dunno.
Also, maybe have the front of the mass not on the steps near the stage. I think people might have been pushing more than they might have if the steps didn't make the people in front block everything.

Yeah this guy held me and my friend and prevented us from falling, I have yet to thank him =( but well people were pushing from the back and being pushed back from the front = OH DAMN. Im sorry about your ribbon though D:

props to the crowd surfing!

well... it was more like a bulk a fabric but it wasn't too damaged as far as I can tell. I protected it most of the concert.

I will not condone the crowd surfing. D: Even if it can look cool. I heard a girl got kicked in the head by one of those guys.

D: I know but it happens at various rock concerts, Everyone gets either kicked in the head or the person gets dropped and Im glad that no one was dropped cause that would have ended badly. Sorry for the girl who got kicked though, Im used to it since like I have been to lives and bleeh

I didnt realize it now but my purse is like totaly torn from the handles jesus my purse ;___;

Oh man someone had spikes on like on their wrist...It was a bit scary cause you know the whole close bodies thing

all I know is I shouldnt have worn a low cut top to the concert

now on the DVD it should be retitled TITS AHOY

btw, some girl pulled out her cell phone during the concert and she was recording, one of the staff members was next to her and didnt do anything and I was too far to say something

Well... I'm not too sure what the bands are prepared for here.. I'm afraid that we might accidentally offend a band/guest by not having proper behavior. I don't know what they consider proper or rude. X.x;

I wonder if they can give us a list of basic DOs and DON'Ts in the future; like stuff that isn't obvious.
I rather hope we did good.

Quote from: Reikon on May 26, 2008, 11:11:12 PM

Quote from: Sunara Ishi on May 26, 2008, 10:44:48 PM
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.

This was not exaggerated at all for e-gaming, which is why we were extremely short staffed. We were supposed to have 30 people in our department, but I only saw maybe 15 (and I was there at nearly all hours of the day). Of those 15 who showed up, only about 10 actually worked.

I think we should set up a system where staff have to pay in advance and then get refunded only if they actually do all their hours. This would have made more staffers actually show up and not make our department so short-handed.

If they weren't showing up for their shifts then their department head should have been pulling their badges.  If specific shifts weren't assigned then this is a lesson for next year that either the department head or the department second needs to do one.  And those who flaked this year should not be welcomed back.  It's not fair to the rest of those working the con.

Quote from: Kender on May 27, 2008, 12:48:02 AM

Quote from: Reikon on May 26, 2008, 11:11:12 PM

Quote from: Sunara Ishi on May 26, 2008, 10:44:48 PM
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.

This was not exaggerated at all for e-gaming, which is why we were extremely short staffed. We were supposed to have 30 people in our department, but I only saw maybe 15 (and I was there at nearly all hours of the day). Of those 15 who showed up, only about 10 actually worked.

I think we should set up a system where staff have to pay in advance and then get refunded only if they actually do all their hours. This would have made more staffers actually show up and not make our department so short-handed.

If they weren't showing up for their shifts then their department head should have been pulling their badges.  If specific shifts weren't assigned then this is a lesson for next year that either the department head or the department second needs to do one.  And those who flaked this year should not be welcomed back.  It's not fair to the rest of those working the con.

They never showed up for any of their shifts. We can't pull badges of people we've never seen. Specific shifts were assigned, but since many people did not show up for shifts, we were short-handed and many people stayed overtime or came even when it wasn't their shift to make sure we always had at LEAST one person there. For example, we were supposed to have 5 people working Sunday morning starting from 6, but when I came in at 7, there was only one person there. I had to help even though my shift didn't start until 12.

Quote from: Chiri Kcrinh on May 26, 2008, 10:53:22 PM
-The check-out for game consoles was a bit too long for me...  but that might have just been my experience with it.

The check-out process was indeed a bit long at times. We didn't have our systems set up so two computers could be used to check-out people at once, so sometimes the person at the computer was flooded with requests, especially when people weren't forming lines. People also didn't read our sign, so sometimes we had to waste time explaining how to check-out items (which sometimes took quite a while).

Next year, there might be a system that allows multiple people to check-out at the same time if we continue use that system.

What did people think of the check-out system? We know it was a bit annoying to come to us when you wanted to play, but you have to understand all the equipment is personally owned by the staff, so we needed a method to deter stealing.

Pros:
- My first time going to Hentai Night. HILARIOUS. Can't say the same for Yaoi Night though.
- First time going to a cosplay gathering. Spent longer than expected with the group, then regrouped later for dinner.
- Speedruns on Stage Zero.  I don't really care for AMVs, so I was impressed to see speedruns in the wee hours. 
- The dedicated shmup screen over by the consoles was pretty cool (Blazing Star and Radiant Silvergun FTW!)
- Maid Cafe was in a much bigger area this year.
- Lots of water stations.
- At least 3 areas for wifi this year.  It's great to have at-con wifi when the Fairmont charges $14 for it and MetroFi makes you install this annoying sidebar thing to connect.
- As usual, the sense of familiarity and community when you're at a con attended by 10,000+ nerds. I feel like I belong for once. And as someone mentioned in the post-closing ceremonies feedback thingy, it's easy to make friends at a con as opposed to say, school or college.

Cons/Things that could've improved:
- Arcade was expensive.  $0.75 for Point Blank 2, $1.50 for WMMT3 and ID4 (ID4 I can understand, but WMMT3 at every other place in the South Bay, including SJSU where 2 of the machines came from, is only $1)
- At-con food was expensive...$3.00 for a kid-sized juice bottle, and 25 cents more for water.
- It's a bit unclear where the wifi hotspots are--unless you know what the routers looked like you wouldn't be able to know where they are.
- Masquerade was horrible. Cheesy voice acting, 9,001 renditions of H*** H*** Y**** (yes, it's so overdone it deserves to be censored), and only a few good skits (such as the Marvel vs. Capcom one). Being in PictoChat with 15 other people made it slightly better.
- We were supposed to get Pop'n Music 14 Fever (well, according to the marquee), but instead, we got Animelo 2. What do I have against it? You need a code to put in Hi-Speed, as opposed to just pressing 2 yellow buttons on Fever to bring up the modifier menu.
- Maid Cafe seemed pretty empty compared to last year (less maids, for instance). 
- I was a little confused when I tried to play IIDX 3rd Style on one of the PS2's--this is my 3rd year going, and until now I didn't know that you had to check out games, and I had to wait for the person playing to return it to the front desk to play it.

Quote from: Reikon on May 27, 2008, 12:58:05 AM

Quote from: Kender on May 27, 2008, 12:48:02 AM

Quote from: Reikon on May 26, 2008, 11:11:12 PM

Quote from: Sunara Ishi on May 26, 2008, 10:44:48 PM
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.

This was not exaggerated at all for e-gaming, which is why we were extremely short staffed. We were supposed to have 30 people in our department, but I only saw maybe 15 (and I was there at nearly all hours of the day). Of those 15 who showed up, only about 10 actually worked.

I think we should set up a system where staff have to pay in advance and then get refunded only if they actually do all their hours. This would have made more staffers actually show up and not make our department so short-handed.

If they weren't showing up for their shifts then their department head should have been pulling their badges.  If specific shifts weren't assigned then this is a lesson for next year that either the department head or the department second needs to do one.  And those who flaked this year should not be welcomed back.  It's not fair to the rest of those working the con.

They never showed up for any of their shifts. We can't pull badges of people we've never seen. Specific shifts were assigned, but since many people did not show up for shifts, we were short-handed and many people stayed overtime or came even when it wasn't their shift to make sure we always had at LEAST one person there. For example, we were supposed to have 5 people working Sunday morning starting from 6, but when I came in at 7, there was only one person there. I had to help even though my shift didn't start until 12.

Did anyone try to contact them?  We all had to provide contact information for how we could be reached during con for reasons such as this.  And also do we know for sure their badges were picked up?  Maybe they just completely flaked on the whole con?  Just a thought for the department head to check into if it hasn't been done already because that's a different offense than getting the badge and just not showing up to work scheduled shifts.

We were short-staffed with Panels as well, but that wasn't due to staffers not showing up for their shifts thankfully.  That was due to it being a new thing having a staff for the department and not knowing just how many people would really need so we weren't stretched so thin.  Many of us who could were pulling longer shifts than we had scheduled.

Anywho, my only suggestion at this point is to figure out who didn't show up (and picked up a badge) and not allow them back as staff for any department.  Create a black name list so to speak.  And if they didn't pick up their badges then they need to give a good reason for bailing on their volunteer commitment, but certainly not as high offense as abusing their badge.

Quote from: G.S. LXVIII on May 27, 2008, 01:20:48 AM
- I was a little confused when I tried to play IIDX 3rd Style on one of the PS2's--this is my 3rd year going, and until now I didn't know that you had to check out games, and I had to wait for the person playing to return it to the front desk to play it.

It was like that this year because we had many more games/systems and allowed people to choose what they wanted to play. You could always take turns instead of checking it in and out. The system was made to make people responsible for not losing it or to ID someone who stole something. We had a sign in the front, but most people seemed to ignore all of our signs.

Just for reference, I captured notes on the live feedback session held at the end
of the closing ceremonies; here is the list of (Q)uestions raised, and where applicable,
the (A)nswers given to those questions, so that people here in the forums are
aware of the issues that have already been called forth to the FanimeCon management
team:

(pulled from my full transcript of the closing ceremonies...)

Former con chairs are called to the front
for the fan feedback/constructive criticism
section.

We do welcome your comments on how we can
improve.

If you're staying for the constructive
criticism, form a line up front, and we'll
make a note of your feedback.


========= begin fan feedback panel notes =============

Q: First up: last year, there were lots of easy
places to sit down and do things; there's a
lot more food, which was good, but all the
tables were taken up by food stuffs; no easy
place to sit down and just plan schedules and stuff.

Q: The games could be cheaper for the amount of time
you have for the games in the arcade.

Q: Are we planning to put the black and white ball
into a bigger room next year?  Or a faster way
to get people in and out.
A:We'll make it bigger and longer next year, yes.

Q: Would like to see a better improvement in the
schedule; wanted to go to panels but had to
go to masquerade practice instead. 
A: We try to make things work for everyone; there's
always going to be counter-programming; there's
so much to do here, it does require making some
tough decisions.

Q: Can we get an improvement on training for volunteer
and some staff, there's some staff that go on power
trips when it comes to weapons and the like.
A: It's tough, we're a volunteer organization, we'll
do our best to train them, but it's hard to force
people who are just volunteering their time; it's
not an easy task.
Making mistakes is part of learning; let the staff
know when they've made a mistake, help them learn
as well.

Q: Whose line is it anime was great, but would have
been nice to rotate through more people.
A: Jonathan was looking for more actors at the same
time; Dan and Reuben were supposed to be a
part of it, which would have also helped.  We'll see
what he can do about it next year.

Q: The arcade games need to be cheaper! 
A: (from the line: "they're standard arcade prices.")

Q: We have a huge area, could we get more machines
to help fill the area?
A: We went out on a limb with the number of machines,
and were suprised at how they were full.

Q: Can we put a permanent schedule at the info
desks that can't be stolen easily out of the
pockets?

Q: ld we have a public microwave for people
who bring ramen?
A: Someone must have requested a microwave, it
showed up in Casey's room.  Those are controlled
by the hotels, so it's not something we can easily
do.

Q: One complaint about the starbucks here not
taking starbucks cards; not something we have
control over, unfortunately, so the person will
address their complaint to starbucks directly.

Q: Is there a way to show who the winners of
the FMVs are?  Maybe at Stage Zero?
We'll hit Sean Barber up about that.

Q: At Fanime2005, we showed the winning
AMVs, that was a good way to end the con; can we
bring that back?

Q: This year's e-gaming, sad there were no
PC games.  Can we get PC games back?
A: Consoles are relatively cheap; but to get a
beefy PC to run games, and asking people to
donate it for a time, is tough.  So we're
limited on how much we can do for PC gaming.

Q: What was up with the lack of group
registration? 
A: It's a wonderful thing for the
members when it works.  we ran into a lot of
problems with it; it took more work than it
was worth for the staff, but we can look into
it again in the future to see if there's a way
we can do it that will be less labour intensive
on the staff side to make it happen.

Q: People are on a budget for food; could we maybe
get a breakfast buffet for early morning, 7-10
or 7-11 for cheaper (as a buffet?)

Q: Jesus suggests we get a bit tougher set of badge
holders; his badge holder broke while he was at
dance; can we have more on hand and have
replacements, if it's going to be considered a
mandatory item for being considered a paid member?

Q: The no-camera policy at MusicFest was a problem
with people who waited in line and then were
rejected at the door and had to go put it away
and then get back in line.

A: The city got freaked when they saw the an cafe
videos from Europe, with mobs and near-riots at
concerts; so when Sony said no videos, the city
enforced it *very* strongly.

Random hater comes up in line...we can't really
figure out what he's upset about.

Q: Neil had a pretty good con, thanks for the good
work.  There was a bit of confusion on the badge
holder policy; needed better communication about
the need for cheap plastic badge holder and the
lanyard.
And the AMV winner announcements could have been
handled better.

A: We'll work on better badging in the future.

Q: 3 questions from next person.  Why do we need an
ID to rent the gamecube controllers in the arcade
hall? 
A: That way they know how to contact you if
you don't return it.
Q: Can we get a freezer and/or microwave in public?
A: The hotel reserves fridges for those who need to
keep their insulin cool, as medical needs trump fan
snack cooling.

Jason has to duck out; if you have additional
complaints/feedback for him, send email to
[email protected]

Q: Could they get more space around the people playing
brawl so it's not so tight around the area?

Q: Game room, checking out consoles, he had to wait
for the previous person to return it before he
could check it out.
He liked the speed runs at Stage Zero, bring
that back for 2009.

Q: We need to be able to figure out how to control
drugs and alcohol coming into the con--what can
we do to control the substances going into the
official dance (rave).
A: We had over 13,000 people, it's definitely a
challenge; right now, we're short on staff for
covering issues like that.  With SJPD on site,
if you see stuff that's illegal, definitely get
word to the Safety on Site staff members, and they
will make sure it is passed along to the authorities
for enforcement.

Q: Is there a way we can get the online signups a
bit more streamlined (for staff and volunteers?)
A: We had too many people drop out when we made it
too easy, but yes, staff and volunteer recruitment
is very high on our list of priorities.

Q: No synopis about the anime being shown?  The live
action ones have synopsis?  It was in the program
guide; some panels didn't have entries in the
program guide; look to the newsletters for late
updates.

Q: Web site was much more confusing this year; had
to go to the forums to get info.

A: We've started using twitter for real-time updates
on scheduling, which helps!

There are also other websites that do updates, you
can email [email protected] for more info on
changes you'd like to see implemented.

Q: First, on the website, it said you weren't allowed
to sleep at the con, but there would be a dedicated
sleeping area? 
A: Uh, no, there's no loitering allowed
by law, so that wouldn't be true.

Q: A few times when he was at the end of line, staff
people were harrassing him about having a weapon, even
though it was just part of his costume, and not actually
a weapon at all.
A: We can look into options, but we do have to be
strict about our weapons policy and peace bonding.

Q: Next up, asks about the online hotel registration,
it looked good having it on the website but it seemed
to have failed a month before, and never seemed to come
back.  It provided a phone number to call, so you weren't
totally out of luck, but would be nice to have a way
to report issues more easily.
A: We weren't aware of the webite having issues, as we
still had hotel registrations coming through; if you see
issues, feel free to report them, don't just assume we
know when there's an issue on our own.

Q: He worked for nvidia, apparently there was
supposedly some type of cross marketing
arrangement with nvidia and that we had the
name on the lanyards and bags; concerns that
there were rumours that nVidia dropped the ball in
a joint marketing effort?

A: They sponsored the books, bags, and lanyards
to market the nvision conference, and that joint
effort was carried out successfully, and was limited
to the sponsorship of the lanyards, bags, and program
guide as noted.

Q: Good job with the water, and good job having
a photo booth there this year!

Q: Only people who brought their own controllers
seemed to be playing in gaming area; could that
be clarified better ahead of time so people would
know to bring their own controllers?

Q: At con reg for 2009, she went to go reg at around
12:00, wasn't sure what happened, but she wasn't
able to finish checking out of her hotel room
at noon and still make it down to prereg in time
for 2009 prereg; can we have longer hours for that
on Monday next year that extend past room checkout
time?

Q: Sean was running the speedrun panels at stage
zero in the wee hours, sounds like it went well,
and he'd like to come back next year and do it
again.
A: Yes, definitely!

Q: they liked the layout of the printed schedule sheets this
year, easy to read, panels on one side, video on the
other, split by day, easy to print at home, thanks!

Q: tabletop gaming, tournaments kept having people
move their games out of the way; could we get tables
that would be non-tournament only to keep people from
having to move?

Q: If we can make it clearer online how to volunteer and
how to staff, that would be cool.

Q: The video schedules were very clear, very easy to
read, thanks!

Q: The numbering of the video rooms was pretty
arbitrary; video main was also video 5; could we
put more of a sequence to the numbering?
Try to keep them more orderly next time, rather
than having video 1, video 5, etc.

Q: Thanks the asian film crew for not showing battle
royale!  Feels that fanime is becoming a younger
convention; with the programming in place, it's
good for where we are now, but as we get to a
younger audience, we're running out of things
to show these tweeners at night even though
they should be sleeping.

Q: Food is too expensive, make it cheaper!
A: All the food vendors were non-fanime; some were
convention center, others were outside, but the
convention center gateways all the food items
coming in.

Q: But the food is really expensive in the con!
A: Matt notes the Hilton food was cheaper than
the convention food, and an update was put in the
newsletter pointing people to the Hilton food line
on the first floor if you wanted more filling fare
for a more reasonable price.

Q: Could next year we put the same name in the
program guide as in the schedule?
A: We'll see what we can do within the space limitations
of the printed schedule.

Q: Also, could we mark which rooms have age
appropriate material at different times;
possibly a symbol on the video sheets for
age of material, or a 14-and-under safe
room?
A: Good idea, we'll see if we can get that information
included.

Q: Could we maybe have video rooms in the
hotels again like we did a few years
ago?

Q: Kudos on splitting the schedule from the
program guide; easier to get the updated
version when we get here.

Q: Could we have a back sheet to show new
items that weren't in the program guide?

Q: This place is very wheelchair friendly;
could we get a free or half-price entry
for the mandatory attendant she has with
her?
Q: Also, could there be more tables for her
to set her computer on to do work in the
concourse area?

Q: Splitting video on one side, programs on
the other was cool.  Running out of schedules
at the info desk was rough.  If we can list
what's going on at the info desks, that would
help too.

Q: Could we get more dub showings?  He doesn't
feel like reading the screen all the time.
A: He can email [email protected] to let them
know his preference for dubs.

Q: It's really loud at the Hilton panel rooms when
people are using the elevators; can we just keep the
doors closed, and mark them as 'come on in' so the
panels can still be heard inside?

Thanks everyone for coming!  See you next year!

Feedback session wraps up at 1754 hours Pacific Time.

Quote from: Kender on May 27, 2008, 01:28:24 AM

Quote from: Reikon on May 27, 2008, 12:58:05 AM

Quote from: Kender on May 27, 2008, 12:48:02 AM

Quote from: Reikon on May 26, 2008, 11:11:12 PM

Quote from: Sunara Ishi on May 26, 2008, 10:44:48 PM
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.

This was not exaggerated at all for e-gaming, which is why we were extremely short staffed. We were supposed to have 30 people in our department, but I only saw maybe 15 (and I was there at nearly all hours of the day). Of those 15 who showed up, only about 10 actually worked.

I think we should set up a system where staff have to pay in advance and then get refunded only if they actually do all their hours. This would have made more staffers actually show up and not make our department so short-handed.

If they weren't showing up for their shifts then their department head should have been pulling their badges.  If specific shifts weren't assigned then this is a lesson for next year that either the department head or the department second needs to do one.  And those who flaked this year should not be welcomed back.  It's not fair to the rest of those working the con.

They never showed up for any of their shifts. We can't pull badges of people we've never seen. Specific shifts were assigned, but since many people did not show up for shifts, we were short-handed and many people stayed overtime or came even when it wasn't their shift to make sure we always had at LEAST one person there. For example, we were supposed to have 5 people working Sunday morning starting from 6, but when I came in at 7, there was only one person there. I had to help even though my shift didn't start until 12.

Did anyone try to contact them?  We all had to provide contact information for how we could be reached during con for reasons such as this.  And also do we know for sure their badges were picked up?  Maybe they just completely flaked on the whole con?  Just a thought for the department head to check into if it hasn't been done already because that's a different offense than getting the badge and just not showing up to work scheduled shifts.

We were short-staffed with Panels as well, but that wasn't due to staffers not showing up for their shifts thankfully.  That was due to it being a new thing having a staff for the department and not knowing just how many people would really need so we weren't stretched so thin.  Many of us who could were pulling longer shifts than we had scheduled.

Anywho, my only suggestion at this point is to figure out who didn't show up (and picked up a badge) and not allow them back as staff for any department.  Create a black name list so to speak.  And if they didn't pick up their badges then they need to give a good reason for bailing on their volunteer commitment, but certainly not as high offense as abusing their badge.

Registration has their staffers go to the department head for badge pickup instead of going to ConOps. I'm not sure if you can do it for your department, but it ensures that you will see your staffer at least once.

Pretty good con this year. A couple minor problems, but generally good organization.

Pros:
- Most things started on time, and overall rovers were courteous and on top of things. Pre-registration was very fast and timely, the swap meet was well organized, the lines for things like the Dealer's Room and the B&W Ball were nicely organized.
- Nice selection of guests - 50 members of GAINAX (!!) and then some others. The "Bandai Talks about Gurren Lagann" panel was excellent (esp. the translation).
- Artist Alley was lively and a great hang-out spot.
- Maid Cafe was decidedly bigger. Food was surprisingly good, too, though still (obviously) overpriced.
- Congrats to Tony on being the new Con Chair - you'll do a great job, I'm sure.
- Tabletop, Arcade, and E-Gaming had great setups and were nicely organized. They even opened early! And 24-hour tabletop gaming for several nights of the con was awesome.
- Video Main was so massive that there was always plenty of room whenever I came by. The sound and video quality was also really good.
- Tons of people showed up, even on Friday!
- Schedules were nicely colored and easy to read. A shame they didn't include the GAINAX Room, but I presume that's because it was a last-minute addition.

Cons:
-Overly strict organization during closing ceremonies, especially when it was clear that nobody else was coming in when the room was half full - and yet a rover threatened to take my badge away if I didn't go back to my seat on the left half of the room.
-Translation during the "Unlocking Gurren Lagann" panel and the first Maika Netsu panel was lax and boring. The translators hadn't watched the shows or read the manga they were talking about!
-Asian Cinema was apparently on a playlist, which meant certain shows started EARLY. Got to the Sukiyaki Western Django showing on Saturday 7:45pm (15 minutes in advance of its scheduled start time) and it was already well underway. Not cool.
-Not easy to find information about meet & greet / autograph sessions. I ended up not finding Sadamoto-san, though I really wanted to meet him especially.
-Information booths had 2007's maps instead of 2008's, for most of Friday (lol).

In general, thanks, everyone, for a good con. Even though we had such massive turnout, everything stayed together and it didn't turn into ASUX. Awesome.

Who can I talk to that can make much needed changes for next year?
I know a bunch of people who are not coming anymore because of this years dissapointment.

1. Dealer Room- lacked variety. I know this is an anime convention, but it does do some videogames as well, or atleast used to. Where's the final fantasy stuff?? There was very little of it. Where is the Metal Gear Solid stuff, especially since the game is coming out in a month? These things were cut out this year. I think this convention definitely needs more videogames as well as anime. I could find the same things in so many booths. It was dissappointing. Also, where was the Gaia booth?

2. Movies- there were no horror movies this year. Some were labelled as horror, but were thriller or crime movies. The only one was "extensions" which was absolutely ridiculous. In all previous years there were many supernatural horror movies, like "one missed call" or "ringu" or other things like that, but not this year. Again I was very dissapointed. Also, this year, during the late movies, there was no trivia and prizes at all as in the previous years.

3. Scheduling- why so many clashing events?? An Cafe during the Yaoi gameshow, MISTAKES on scheduling like yaoi bingo on Friday instead when it is actually on saturday and sunday. Guest meeting/autograph session on Monday at noon was labelled Sunday at noon. Many people thought the AMV competition was cancelled. I know there were other clashes. I think also fanime needs some more events. They could be small, like some more contests spaced out throughout the weekend. Or somehow make the karaoke more engaging so more people come. Maybe offer a killer prize. Maybe have a band play live music (anime or game related) in the hallways, like Ramen and Rice did some years back. It needs more variety.

4. Food- need more places to eat inside during late hours that will not try to empty your wallet. If I want a drink, I dont want to pay 3.00 for a water bottle. Each day I ate downtown, not at the fanime. I would like to eat at fanime. Prices are outrageous though.

Pros:
1. Badges- made much better this year, mine wasnt constantly coming apart.

2. Artist row- Awesome. Many people, alot of cool artwork.


I cant think of other things right now, but these are important.

Hi all~

Masquerade head here. Well, we can't please everyone all the time :) The skits are completely subjective, so skits some people love -- are skits other people hate. I can't control that. I also can't control the quality of the skits nor the content of the skits, as these things are decided on by the people who apply and decide to be in the Masquerade. Most of them will absolutely not discuss the contents of their skits with anyone else.

Honestly, the Masquerade is pretty equivalent with Improv -- you never ever know what you are going to get. For example, we had 99 entries sign up this year -- and by con only 50 of those were actually in the show. I have to take what I can get, and those are completely designed by the contestants. Often skits change at the last minute.

All I can do as coordinator is ensure that the event starts and ends on time (which it did!), that the contestants are comfortable and taken care of, that the theatre and music is set up to the best of our ability, and that the audience is able to see and hear the performances. Outside of that, and ensuring the skits are generally PG-rated, there's not much else I can do. The same is true at every convention. Some years we get amazing skits (and we had quite a few this year!) and other years not so much.

All I can say, as I do every year, is that if you think you can do a better skit ... sign up :)

Thank you for your comments.

Every year, every con, without fail... I run into one ego-powertripped staffer that thinks he can do more than he should.

This year was no different at all. Friday night, at around 12:30am. Brandon Tomyoy was hosting his segment on Stage Zero, so I was heckling the hell outta him (because that's what friends do... right?). He started his movie up, and I ran into a group of friends. Someone from press decided to talk to me for about 20 minutes or so, and we were talking about random things online and Spinzaku was brought up.

For those that don't know, Spinzaku is a meme on nicovideo.

So we decided to pick up minh and spin in a circle... Imagine if you jus picked up a friend by the waist and spinned around in a circle slowly.

A roaver came by and stated "Stop horsing around or I'll pull your badges". This made me laugh. I replied back "actually... no you can't do that". This of course pissed him off and he yelled back at us "YES I CAN. If you don't quit messing around I'll take your badges". To which I replied "No, you cannot. You can politely ask us to stay here, call a higher up in roavers and explain the situation to them. In which they would deem if are conduct is that bad and if they so choose, THEY can pull our badges. You really can't do crap yourself though, especially since he haven't broke any rules at all." So he was like "I was watching you earlier, you were talking crap about the guy on stage zero, who is a staff member, and I don't care what you think" I interuppted him and stated "Yes, and he's my friend. I've known him for about 10 years now. In reality, I know a lot of staff members and I know the basic guidelines of jurisdiction. My friend Jenny was a rover for about 6 years. All you had to do was come here and politely ask us to keep it down so we don't hurt any one if you were concerned with what you were doing, but you didn't. Frankly, you can't do crap, and we will continue what we were doing. Call a higher up if you so choose to but frankly once more, you yourself can't do crap about this, and I think your higher ups will be annoyed that you called them over here because we lifted our friend up and spinned in a circle slowly."

He got super pissed and just walked away. He was with another roaver at the time, and that roaver apologized to us. He stated that the guy gets on power trips a lot and thinks he can boss attendees around. He apologized again and we talked and chatted for a few minutes before he went to meet up with the guy again.

It's not a huge complaint, and I know the con can't do anything about things like this, but every con without fail I run into a staff member like this.

Quote from: raltga on May 26, 2008, 11:24:22 PM
Only problem I had with the video rooms was some of the volunteers running them had no clue how to run the (actually quite nice) mac minis.  On more then one occasion members of the audience had to intervene and take over playing the videos. 

Was this a volunteer or a staff member? Was this in all videos rooms or on the Marriot
side?  We had told both staff and vols to contact the shift supervisor if there is any issues.
I think having a mac minis worked out great for playing the videos, I only wish we could use
one media player that can do both avis and mkvs. So far xbmc is the only one that can do
both without too many issues. We did give training material to our staff on how to use the mac minis and asked if they were still confused to contact me.

Unfortunately I can't force them to read the materials, but it does help to know which ones do not take their "volunteering" job seriously for next year.  As for the actual fanimecon  volunteers, they would not know how to use them since they are not part of staff. We also had problems with flakey staff members not showing up for shifts or coming in 30min - 1 hour late. It looks like we were not the only department in fanime with this problem and that will
change for next year. If there is anybody here that would like to join video programming and has extensive knowledge on how to use OS X please do sign up. We are a fun group of nerds that likes anime.

This year was alright -_- Not as awesome as the last year.
Here are my reasons why.
1.Most of the people there where there for An Cafe
and dressed in their Visual kei outfits and waiting in line 95% of the time. And having their Friends cut in those painfully long lines as well =_=;;; not to mention if one wanted a Autograph ticket they would have to wake up at 2:00am in the damn morning to get them. and still they would be  almost at the end of the line Dx

2.I Missed being glomped u_u [I have No Idea why >.> it lets me know I am loved]
But all the people that wanted to Glomp me said they couldn't because of the damn No glomp Rule Dx I was like Glomp me anyways Dx

3.I hardly made it to the gatherings due to t he An Cafe Line Issue.

4.The dance was Boring as Hell and there was a long line to get into the dance =__=; The music wasn't very pleasing. I liked Last years dance better.

5.The Karaoke room was always Packed Dx and it took me about 2 hours and 30 minutes to Sing one damn song Dx Then I would have to wait forever to get to sing up and sing again Dx so I gave up in that room.

6.The An cafe concert was amazing but too many damn people smelling like B.O and rubbing against me Dx

But despite all of that I had a Decent time there. I Just hope next years is Better and if there is a Big act coming No Tickets Dx that was sooo annoying to get them and then to stand in line for the  concert and have some guy passing out tickets for people who didn't have them. Pissed me off because I waited in a long ass line for the same ticket DXXX and to find out I could have been doing something eles instead of waiting in line to get the ticket he was passing out UGH SO annoying DXXXX *Yells around,  then calms down.* But all in all fanime was okay this year .__.

Quote from: Death_Note_Matt on May 27, 2008, 12:55:56 PM

2.I Missed being glomped u_u [I have No Idea why >.> it lets me know I am loved]
But all the people that wanted to Glomp me said they couldn't because of the damn No glomp Rule Dx I was like Glomp me anyways Dx

No, there's a simple reason why. You like physical contact. If it lets you know you you're loved... you're either dillusional, or trying to make up for having a crappy family life. Random people hugging you at a convention doesn't equate anything close to love...

Also, there was no ban on glomping. Maybe they just used it as an excuse because they DIDN'T WANT TO.

Quote6.The An cafe concert was amazing but too many damn people smelling like B.O and rubbing against me Dx

I'm guessing you've never been to a concert before.

QuoteBut despite all of that I had a Decent time there. I Just hope next years is Better and if there is a Big act coming No Tickets Dx that was sooo annoying to get them and then to stand in line for the  concert and have some guy passing out tickets for people who didn't have them. Pissed me off because I waited in a long ass line for the same ticket DXXX and to find out I could have been doing something eles instead of waiting in line to get the ticket he was passing out UGH SO annoying DXXXX *Yells around,  then calms down.* But all in all fanime was okay this year .__.

I didn't address the other times you said this, so I'll address it now. You realize... no tickets is the STUPIDEST MOST IDIOTIC POSSIBLE THING you can do right? By having a no ticketed event, you're literally asking for people to barge and fight their way in, causing fire hazards, and so many more problems.

It works like this, if you want to see the event, you wait in line. If it's not worth it, then don't wait in line and go do other stuff, letting someone who is willing to wait in line to get the ticket. You act like, you entitled to be able to do everything you want, and have priority over everyone else. We *share* this convention and everyone else has the rights to do the things they want to do. You have to prioritize what you want to do, and spend the time how you think you should for your best interest.

this was my 1st year coming and it was awesome but not everything

pros:
lots of fun cosplay gatherings,delears room,artist alley,stage zero , an cafe

cons:
such a short Q&A panel for an cafe and no flash photography allowed so pics came out kinda bad and problems with one staff member not letting me stand for a few secs to take a close up pic and then stood only a few inches away from my seat and telling me that im blocking the aisle and saying it was my last warning jeez it was only a few inches >:( and also not knowing where to get tickets and the time for the an cafe autograph session is it really necessary for fans to wait in line for tickets for an AUTOGRAPH SESSION? when they shld just allow fans to line up and get an autograph and the fact the black and white ball happening during the same time as the an cafe concert and also the peace bonding thing ending up scratching off ALOT of paint from my yuna wand T_T

thats about it dont kill me for saying this much about the cons


all in all it was very fun 4 my 1st time and i will come back next year

4th Year and:



Dealers Room: hella smaller like there wasn't even close to as mean things as there usually is... well maybe its cause the Gaia booth takes up so much room i dunno

Panels: I only wanted to go to 2 and 1 of which got canceled which was balls cause i wanted to see it. Most of you know what im talking about. the fanime forums one was okay good laughs.

Dance: didn't touch it

Masquerade: didnt go

an cafe: didn't go =p

Hentai room; all i have to say for this is "hahahah"

i felt as if con was different.. as in the atmosphere i dunno felt way different but i did have fun and as i said i met some really cool people and i generally had a good time even tho for most of the nights i was a little drunk =] but meh over all i give it a 7.

This was my first anime convention so I didn't know what to expect. It was just as awesome as I had imagined it to be.

Pros:
- An Cafe
- The Asian Films had its comedy but didn't have any Horror.
I would've liked to been scared stiff and see my friend's reactions also.
- I thought registration was going to be a hassle that would take forever but I got my badge after a short 15 minute wait.
- Awesome staffers. Especially the ConOps. They were super helpful.
- Pretty much almost everything.

Cons:
- Some bad(irresponsible) apples in the bunch.
The staff in the game room lost my badge so now I have the blue paper one to take home instead of the laminated card one.
- The concert attendees.
There was this person that actually held up a sign that blocked plenty of people's views.
- Weren't there supposed to be UFO Catchers in the game room?
I want more games where you can win prizes. I got bored of losing all my money to the Pile-Up and "Spinny" game.

Other than that, it was great. Met plenty of great staff and people.
Looking forward to next year. :D

Quote from: wings_of_an_angel on May 27, 2008, 01:14:44 PM
cons:
such a short Q&A panel for an cafe and no flash photography allowed so pics came out kinda bad and problems with one staff member not letting me stand for a few secs to take a close up pic and then stood only a few inches away from my seat and telling me that im blocking the aisle and saying it was my last warning jeez it was only a few inches >:( and also not knowing where to get tickets and the time for the an cafe autograph session is it really necessary for fans to wait in line for tickets for an AUTOGRAPH SESSION? when they shld just allow fans to line up and get an autograph and the fact the black and white ball happening during the same time as the an cafe concert and also the peace bonding thing ending up scratching off ALOT of paint from my yuna wand T_T

thats about it dont kill me for saying this much about the cons


all in all it was very fun 4 my 1st time and i will come back next year

Photos aren't allowed for a number of reasons that I won't bother to get into. Events will conflict, that's just how things are. There's no way to plan it so that every event only runs at that time without making the con 2 weeks long.

By just allowing fans to line up would cause a number of problems. 1... time. It would take hours upon hours upon hours for them to sign for everyone, and people would just rejoin the line getting like 10 autographs.

2... it's stressful for the band. I don't know if you've ever done it, but sign your name over and over and over and over again 5,000 times with short little breaks in between, adding names or other crap to it. Then right after that, go play guitar, or the drums.

People don't realize it's not exactly easy to sign autographs for a huge crowd. It's extremely stressful for them.

This is my 3rd year and I had alot of fun
pros-
-amazing Fmvs this years I was impressed
-marvel vs capsom skit at the masquarade very well done
-very friendly people like every year :3
-water stations

cons
-up tight staffers
-no gaia booth
-the video rooms had technical problems (I think someone was asleep at the wheel XD)
-having to walk all the way to subway to get cheap meal (not cons fault we were on a low budget)XD

hope to see you all next year

Quote from: PyronIkari on May 27, 2008, 12:28:10 PM
Every year, every con, without fail... I run into one ego-powertripped staffer that thinks he can do more than he should.

This year was no different at all. Friday night, at around 12:30am. Brandon Tomyoy was hosting his segment on Stage Zero, so I was heckling the hell outta him (because that's what friends do... right?). He started his movie up, and I ran into a group of friends. Someone from press decided to talk to me for about 20 minutes or so, and we were talking about random things online and Spinzaku was brought up.

For those that don't know, Spinzaku is a meme on nicovideo.

So we decided to pick up minh and spin in a circle... Imagine if you jus picked up a friend by the waist and spinned around in a circle slowly.

A roaver came by and stated "Stop horsing around or I'll pull your badges". This made me laugh. I replied back "actually... no you can't do that". This of course pissed him off and he yelled back at us "YES I CAN. If you don't quit messing around I'll take your badges". To which I replied "No, you cannot. You can politely ask us to stay here, call a higher up in roavers and explain the situation to them. In which they would deem if are conduct is that bad and if they so choose, THEY can pull our badges. You really can't do crap yourself though, especially since he haven't broke any rules at all." So he was like "I was watching you earlier, you were talking crap about the guy on stage zero, who is a staff member, and I don't care what you think" I interuppted him and stated "Yes, and he's my friend. I've known him for about 10 years now. In reality, I know a lot of staff members and I know the basic guidelines of jurisdiction. My friend Jenny was a rover for about 6 years. All you had to do was come here and politely ask us to keep it down so we don't hurt any one if you were concerned with what you were doing, but you didn't. Frankly, you can't do crap, and we will continue what we were doing. Call a higher up if you so choose to but frankly once more, you yourself can't do crap about this, and I think your higher ups will be annoyed that you called them over here because we lifted our friend up and spinned in a circle slowly."

He got super pissed and just walked away. He was with another roaver at the time, and that roaver apologized to us. He stated that the guy gets on power trips a lot and thinks he can boss attendees around. He apologized again and we talked and chatted for a few minutes before he went to meet up with the guy again.

It's not a huge complaint, and I know the con can't do anything about things like this, but every con without fail I run into a staff member like this.

Oh dude, that night was so awesome.

Abridged Version:

Us being a group of retards and holding our super tall friend in Spinzaku position and spinning him around. Eventually he falls on his ass. (He's okay, though. It was pretty hilarious.) Then two rovers come by...

Rover A: Hey. Stop horsing around! I'mma take your badges if you don't.

Pyron: FOO! I do whateva I wan'!

Rover A: I can take your badge if you don't listen to me.

Pyron: YO G. YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! <Goes into a long explanation on the Fanime staff and reporting system and explains 1000 and 1 reasons why they're unable to pull their badges.>

Us: <We're in the background being all :O and liek> Oh shi-, Pyron's ripping that guy's balls off.

Rover A: <Walks off hella pissed off 'cuz Pyron crushed his dignity by takin' his authoritah.>

Rover B: Yo man, it's coo. That guy's a foo anyways. I'm only here 'cuz Stage 0 jacked my laptop to be coo.

Pyron: lol

And next thing we know, Pyron's across the room, chillin' wit the other rover.

Us: Wtf? W/e, that was awesome in the hizzouse.

Then we all rode our Harley's into the beautiful sunset.

Quote from: furubaholic on May 27, 2008, 01:27:42 PM

-marvel vs capsom skit at the masquarade very well done
see you all next year

Oh oh oh, I saw this. It seems I'm like the only one that noticed. Bison isn't in MvC1.

... ... ...

The skit was kind of a mix between MvC 1 and 2 as the gameplay elements combined a few. For one the fight was 3v3 and each team did a triple super. However they also used the assist system from 1 as you were able to call out characters outside of your team to attack your opponent.

Pros
- Actual, somewhat, edible food available around the convention.
- Twilight Knights and their weapons panels. They were a cool bunch of people.
- Swap Meet, managed to sell alot of stuff. Making me happy that I didn't have to take as much home.

Cons
- Swap Meet could be advertised a little bit better for next year, especially for the Pre-Registered people.
- Dealers room felt like it was missing something. It wasn't Gaia. They needed more Doujinshi merchants.
- The Anonymii, honestly Rick Astley was funny. Now it's become nothing more than a Sign. Annoying, overdone, useless to the rest of us. Also, just like the rest of the people who felt "The Game" is still funny, it's not. It's old. I'll laugh once more when someone Duckrolls me.


That's really about it. There was probably more, but... whatever.

Quote from: G-Force on May 27, 2008, 03:18:02 PM
The skit was kind of a mix between MvC 1 and 2 as the gameplay elements combined a few. For one the fight was 3v3 and each team did a triple super. However they also used the assist system from 1 as you were able to call out characters outside of your team to attack your opponent.

... Are you trying to preach about MvC1/2 to me?

Ugh... Assissts have been in game since MSHvsSF. MvC1 was technically a 3 person team. 2 characters 1assisst. And like I said, they mixed elements when they shouldn't have. You don't tribute to the 10 year anniversary, and combine stuff badly. Anyways, they used mostly MvC1 reference and that was the basis, then they broke mold and did things they shouldn't have.

Loktera: If you go to AX< I work at a doujin dealer booth. My friend comes from Japan every year and brings as many as he can fit into boxes to sell. He takes special requests and has a website. Can't link as it's pornographic. Message me if you're looking for stuff specifically.

Every year seems better for me.  I really enjoyed this year, and a lot of that was the fact that I involved myself more this year.  

I can't list all of the pro's.  I can't speak for other people, but I had non stop fun for days!

Cons: Got glomped once....just about knocked my wig off and I felt like my ribs got broken.  

When I was going into Black and White Ball I got some "innappropriate" attention from a staff member who craned his neck to look down into my cleavage and then says "Thank you and THANK YOU" in the creepiest pervert voice I've heard in a long time.

Pros: Stage Zero is pretty cool, Black and White Ball was waaay better than last year.  I'm glad that the videos are back at the Masquerade.  And staffers gave me a friendly approach towards me so far regarding few issues.

Cons: The line at the dance was waaaay too long.  And plus I did not like the regulation at the Dance having my DDR box be removed!  I even played DDR in that thing and I know my risk!  I kind of find they were just overreacting about our own safety.  If its the space issue, maybe next year, I think the con should move it to a bigger place again!

Oh, and, whoever picked out the music being played in the convention hall, good job. It was great to randomly hear game music while wondering around. The Metroid Prime theme started playing at the same time the Super Metroid speed run started. XD

Quote from: PyronIkari on May 27, 2008, 01:07:40 PM

If it lets you know you you're loved... you're either dillusional, or trying to make up for having a crappy family life.

Do you always have to do this? It can't be that hard to just not be a dick.

Quote from: Jelly Soup on May 27, 2008, 03:54:58 PM
Do you always have to do this? It can't be that hard to just not be a dick.

It's not hard at all. It's about as easy as not saying stupid stuff like "random people glomping me at a convention makes me feel loved".

EDIT: Not worth it. Trolls like Pyron won't listen or learn.

Cons:
-The fact that the an cafe tickets were just handed out on Sunday bothered me because I used my first hour at fanime on Friday waiting in line.
-On Sunday night when they shut down all the food places in the area at around 3 am because some people were starting fights (not fanime's fault, but we hadn't eaten all day!)
-Fewer enjoyable AMVs
-Masquerade skits were stale so we left early
-The schedule seemed to overlap any events I wanted to attend with other events, which bothered me
-The camera nazis at the an cafe concert..... We got searched, then when we tried to go in the door the guy ahead of us got stopped. The ticket taker asked rudely if he'd been searched. He said he had. The ticket taker asked the search person who didn't remember... So then he got sent back and the guy at the door yelled at my group to get back and get searched. We'd already been searched and he was skeptical. He asked the woman and she said yes, she had searched all of us. He questioned "THOUROUGHLY?!" So eventually we were let in. I'd like to mention I had no bag, I was wearing a lolita outfit and had nowhere to store anything except maybe in my undies, which I would hope they wouldn't search anyhow. Jerk.
-Dealer's room was mostly boring and expensive. I bought my Renji plushie last year for 5 bucks. This year I saw a lot of (not rare) plushies going for 15ish.
-THE GAME

Pros:
-Water stations!
-Late night (expensive) snack station
-AMV contest being back where it belongs!
-Neato badges
-Opening act for the Masquerade! The girl sining rocked my socks. That was really fun.
-I never really hang out around Stage Zero, but this year I actually did! It was good fun.
- There was a booth in the dealer's room selling a boz cape I wanted, along with Sexpot, h.naoto, and some other brand clothing. Didn't get any though. Also, Pegasus Maiden's booth in the artist alley. <3
-People being generally nice
-IT'S FRICKIN' FANIME.

Overall.... great con!

Imported from cosplay.com with a few additions.

Highlights:
- JESUS VS. PROTESTORS. F'realz, that was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Especially when the Wolfwood came and lent his cross... and then the Spartans came as well.
*must upload pics...*
- Kingdom Hearts bringing sexy back, which made my inner fangirl squee quite loudly. That was fantastic and full of love.
- I got a fantastic Tsubasa artbook and Doll vol. 3, which no one seems to be able to find anywhere else, so I'm quite happy. I also picked up a bunch of adorable pins, a nice keychain, ears, and pretty much almost everything I came to Fanime to buy in the first place.
- An Cafe concert, which was quite fun. I was in the front initially, but got very tired of the bad B.O. and the shoving, so I moved to the edge of the crowd and still managed to get a good view and an entertaining show.
- Fantastic artist's alley, with very talented artists and lots of beautiful art.  I'm considering participating next year, but doubt I'll have any time at all. XD
- Just general con-going fun and fantastic costumes EVERYWHERE.  I don't have enough space on my camera. D:
- Host Club panel win! ;D


Lowlights:
- It felt like there was less variety in the dealer's room this year. *shrug*
- Tech people screwing up our skit. D: If we've triple checked with you to have a blackout at a certain point, it'd be wonderful if you guys followed up and actually went on to DO the blackout. No blackout resulted in a great deal of improv, awkwardness, confusion, overall lack of time and other suckish things. (#3 OH!smeCK)
- Hare Hare Yukai Dance x 2342398423 >.> Not that I don't like the dance and not that a lot of the people who performed it did it badly, per se, just that it got so repetitive.
- Scary stalker guy who followed me around multiple times whom I had to tell off to get him to stop.
- Missing the Bleach gathering, because I had staffish things to do at the time, unfortunately.
- The fact that I'm not 18 yet and thus cannot buy yaoi or swords or do adult-related things.
- Seconding the camera nazis at the concert.  I understand that they don't want us to take pictures and video- and I wasn't planning to- but if they don't want any cameras at all, then tell us BEFORE we get to the end of the friggin line.  And to the jerk who told my sister that she could just throw away her camera because he didn't care, you can go screw yourself.

Quote from: Jelly Soup on May 27, 2008, 04:07:11 PM

I fail to understand why you feel the need to attack someone over their opinion. You don't agree, that's great. Will you're picking on someone help improve the con? No, it won't, don't be a dick.

Sigh... What he said in no way would imporve the con. He was basically whining about things because he couldn't do everything he wanted to do, how he wanted. He didn't talk about legitimate problems at all. Glomping wasn't banned for one thing. I've already explained how the other complaints are illegitimate.

General rule, if you bitch about something, have legitimate reasoning as to how and why it applies. Like really, there's no point in complaining about the price of food/drinks at the convention. THere's absolutely nothing that can be done about it. There's no point in telling the convention you don't like it when the con can't do anything to change it.

This came up at my panel and in a number of different places. People are bitching about how conventions(not just fanime) about how conventions are ruining the fun of cons by not allowing paddles and signs and stuff like that. By not allowing people to stay in the conventions and stuff like that.

People don't regulate themselves, and bad things happen. It's not cons trying to ruin people's fun, it's them trying to keep people safe. If the con was implimenting rules that had no legitimate reasoning, then something could be said. When there is an incredibly logical line of why a rule exist, then the rules is good. I saw atleast 5 people being wheeled out of the con on stretchers this year. I saw a number of people attempting to sleep on the floor of the hotel halls. My girlfriend was basically stalked by 2 different people. A retard on this forum kissed her cheek when he said bye to her totally out of place. She said "never do that again" and he laughed and thought she was joking. She repeated it, and he still didn't seem to get it.

Funny thing is, this guy pretty much stalked my ex-gf 2 cons ago. I wonder if he knows I'm talking about him now.

The con puts up rules, to protect things like this from happening. It's not ruining fun, it's preventing bad stuff from happening.

The con asks nicely, and people don't listen. I don't "politely ask".

I found the lines in order to get your badge to be faster then last year.

I enjoyed some panels and events happened this year.
Pros:
Various panels and events happening. I liked where there was Encores with movies and panels (DMC for example)
(im)possible cosplay structure panel was awsome!! i really want to make new costumes this summer!
I made a very good use of the water stations like last year.
Good idea of having music going on the convention center. i wonder if we can request some songs at the con.


Cons:
I was somewhat not happy about delays. sometimes off schedule kind of things.

I was disappointed with the closing ceremony.Very unorganized.
i liked it 2 years ago where they showed the winning AMV, the video of some masquarade skits, and sorts.
I was also disappointed that we rushed to get to the line fast and ended up way back of the room, where the people who came later got better seats in the front. I felt bad for the people who came in first who had to sit in the very edge of the front row.

Dealer's room was smaller than last year. it didnt have much murchandice as last year. I didnt get to find what i was hoping to get.

I lined up early in morning to get AnCafe ticket and later, they are passing out AnCafe tickets everywhere. That was so stupid. why did we have to wait in line early in the morning.

Is it me or is PyronIkari always being a Douche?
I love to mention glomping because it gets a rise out of him XD

...I find it slightly distasteful to say so, but Pyron's more on the right than not, actually. The comments he addressed really were more than a little ignorant. Expressing one's opinions is all well and fine- free speech advocate here, and I'll personally defend even Bush's right to spew out whatever comes to his mind. But the dark side of that is that you're not, in fact, entitled to having your opinions unchallenged. While his wording leaves much to be desired, the actual information he espouses is pretty much on the right and truthful side of things.

Except for the food. There are ways to deal with the food issue, and make them cheaper. Not the convention food, obviously, but I do advocate that Fanime include a price guide to the local area's establishments. Or get fast food sponsors like In-N-Out that does the occasional remote operation (I've known a few schools that've done this- it has been full of win, overall). The Convention's already paid for the space- it is not, in fact, indebted to the Center to the point that it has to try and sell its food as well.

Quote from: Death_Note_Matt on May 27, 2008, 04:35:44 PM
Is it me or is PyronIkari always being a Douche?
I love to mention glomping because it gets a rise out of him XD

not to mention that shit is hella old amirite?

Lets not bring it back like sexyback kthx

pyron is a little bitch but he brings up valid points that I always agree. More assholes are always good to have around.

j

Okay enough with the teasing ^^
But yes I agree he is right most of the time.
and is appreciated for it too, Thanx to him There was no Head injury for me t his year from reckless glompers.

I glomped Pyron. o/

Everyone: Please get back on subject and stop commenting on the previous posts.

Con was awesome! :( so sad I missed Friday, darn finals prep.

You guys did a great job with the layouts and decorations, and traffic control worked well too. Did a fantastic job on the badges this year too, Kudos to the artist ;D

Just one bit that bugged me was that the Fanime '08 booklet was a little harsh on the eyes because it was a sans-serif font. Sans-serif is awesome for computers and electronically displayed text, but serif looks MUCH better and is a lot easier to read on paper. No biggie though xD

Thing that made me the saddest EVAR was that a lot of the sword booths in the dealers room had no shipping OR didn't provide boxes for the swords so that you could check them if you had to take them home through an airport. I know this is prolly something that the dealers should be hearing, but maybe making boxes available as a requirement would help...? None of the swords I wanted would fit in mah suitcase, and there's no way any of them would've made it through airport security xD

Only other thing was that it was a bummer that the line to get into the Black and White Ball was so long; I came early so we weren't hit with that traffic, but I felt pretty bad for the people waiting in that massive line snaking around the corner.

Also, heard a complaint from a friend that the maids in the maid cafe spent more time on their cell phones than talking to the customers(???). Dunno what that's about.

Overall, AWESOME con! Thanks so much to everyone who worked it and all the other visitors, you made it all worthwhile :). Hope I can come again next year! If not, I'll be at Comicon in July >:3

Quote from: billgoku on May 26, 2008, 09:56:51 PM

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.)

Quote from: dibbly on May 26, 2008, 10:08:05 PM

Quote from: billgoku on May 26, 2008, 09:56:51 PM

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.  

can you PM me with a description of the person, when, where and a summary of the incident? Thank you.

I was impressed by the Convention this year. The organization overall was much better than in previous years. Schedule came out a week before the con, Program Guides were ready upon arrival and everything seemed to work out well. Granted the crises that undoubtedly occurred may have put a damper on the overall organization, it was better than previous years by far.

The Fanime Music Videos were awesome this year. Far better than last year's competition. Kudos to all the FMV staffers and judges.

I wanted to go to the Damn you Internets panel on sunday night, but I heard it got canceled? Pyron can you fill me in on what happened or was there some sort of miscommunication or something about the room?

One thing that disappointed me this year was the behavior of some people at the Gainax meet and greet. I noticed a lot of people just walking up to Sadamoto or the other animators/staff members and just shoving a piece of paper in their face with a pen and saying "Sign?". That was very rude in my opinion. Granted there weren't many translators there, I was more than willing to offer some phrases to engage in some form of polite conversation, however brief that conversation might have been.

Artist Alley was amazing this year. Lots of great talent as well as a lot of interested parties this year made for a second dealers' hall pretty much. My friend spent the majority of his money there this year.

All in all, great con. Awesome guests made this year a great one. Keep it up Fanime.

Quote from: Jelly Soup on May 27, 2008, 03:54:58 PM
Oh, and, whoever picked out the music being played in the convention hall, good job. It was great to randomly hear game music while wondering around. The Metroid Prime theme started playing at the same time the Super Metroid speed run started. XD

I wanted to kill myself after listening to same kind of music for the 10th hour. >.>

Quote from: AMKestrel on May 27, 2008, 04:07:24 AM

Just for reference, I captured notes on the live feedback session held at the end
of the closing ceremonies; here is the list of (Q)uestions raised, and where applicable,
the (A)nswers given to those questions, so that people here in the forums are
aware of the issues that have already been called forth to the FanimeCon management
team:

(pulled from my full transcript of the closing ceremonies...)

Former con chairs are called to the front
for the fan feedback/constructive criticism
section.

We do welcome your comments on how we can
improve.

If you're staying for the constructive
criticism, form a line up front, and we'll
make a note of your feedback.


========= begin fan feedback panel notes =============

Q: ld we have a public microwave for people
who bring ramen?
A: Someone must have requested a microwave, it
showed up in Casey's room.  Those are controlled
by the hotels, so it's not something we can easily
do.

A hot water heater also works. That's what we bring to our hotel room for our Ramen.
Didn't those water jugs, placed around con, have a hot tab? Do those actually work? If so, maybe direct people to those.

Quote from: Chiri Kcrinh on May 27, 2008, 06:40:14 PM

Quote from: Jelly Soup on May 27, 2008, 03:54:58 PM
Oh, and, whoever picked out the music being played in the convention hall, good job. It was great to randomly hear game music while wondering around. The Metroid Prime theme started playing at the same time the Super Metroid speed run started. XD

I wanted to kill myself after listening to same kind of music for the 10th hour. >.>

LOL.  My sister and I where outside of the Dealers Room when we both stoped dead in our tracks...Both of us commented "WTH?  Winnie the Pooh?"  Then it struck us "Oh, Kingdom Hearts".  The music was fun!

Quote from: Sunara Ishi on May 27, 2008, 06:49:26 PM

Quote from: AMKestrel on May 27, 2008, 04:07:24 AM

Just for reference, I captured notes on the live feedback session held at the end
of the closing ceremonies; here is the list of (Q)uestions raised, and where applicable,
the (A)nswers given to those questions, so that people here in the forums are
aware of the issues that have already been called forth to the FanimeCon management
team:

(pulled from my full transcript of the closing ceremonies...)

Former con chairs are called to the front
for the fan feedback/constructive criticism
section.

We do welcome your comments on how we can
improve.

If you're staying for the constructive
criticism, form a line up front, and we'll
make a note of your feedback.


========= begin fan feedback panel notes =============

Q: ld we have a public microwave for people
who bring ramen?
A: Someone must have requested a microwave, it
showed up in Casey's room.  Those are controlled
by the hotels, so it's not something we can easily
do.

A hot water heater also works. That's what we bring to our hotel room for our Ramen.
Didn't those water jugs, placed around con, have a hot tab? Do those actually work? If so, maybe direct people to those.

Heck, if you've got a hotel room nearby just use the coffeemaker to heat the water. Easy-peasy.

I had an absolutely wonderful time at Fanime, though I admit I didn't do much except fangirl over An Cafe. X3 Thank you to all who put so much time and effort into everything. I wish I could come back next year but I unfortunately live across the country. XD

Pros:
1. An Cafe. Simple as that. Thank you to all of the people who made this possible. It was so exciting.  :D The concert and autograph session were simply marvelous.
2. As people have mentioned, the water stations! How excellent of an idea!
3. As much as I was annoyed by everything leading up to An Cafe's autograph session, they had it running smoothly when the time came, and for that I am eternally grateful considering I needed to catch a 12:30 flight. Thank you so much. <3
4. Haha, I absolutely adored the music playing throughout the convention center!
5. Though some staffers were quite rude to us in line for the concert, there were others who were so very nice and understanding. I'm sure we all appreciated that a lot.
6. Registration went fantastic for me. Very smooth and timely. 
I cannot add more general things to my pros list considering I did practically nothing except things related to An Cafe...
So here we go...
 
Cons:
1. Now, I do trust that this took a great deal of time and planning spanning over countless hours...but honestly, even if that is true, sometimes it was just an absolute mess. Especially the matter of tickets and lines. My dear friend and a ton of other people basically waited for 12+ hours for tickets, sometimes getting them and sometimes not. I know the quota thing was supposed to help, but I don't know if it did more harm than good.
2. The autograph session for An Cafe was simply poorly planned, at least at first. I had an early flight, so I arrived at the convention center at 7:30 in the morning to wait. And absolutely NO ONE seemed to know where or when the session would be. Seriously, my dad and I asked countless people and no one knew. That was mighty irritating. And then we could not form a line at the supposed place. The reason for this was basically "If you form a line, it'll look like a line." Pardon me, but... no shit. Of course it will. They just kept shuffling us around for reasons unknown to me. I'm sure they were trying to keep us safe or something, but it was absurd. And when we finally moved to the right place, it happened that people I am sure were not there at 7:30 were ahead of me. And that upset me on a personal level. I guess to solve that there should have always been a set place and lineup area for the session, as well as better communication, since for the longest time the staffers seemed to know very little dealing with the session.
3. The concert was great albeit a bit short. But my main problem was the staffers constantly screaming at us like we were retarded. The whole line thing was absurd. I am perfectly aware that we were supposed to line up around 2, but having us "disperse" only made us walk up and down the sidewalk waiting. How is that any safer? Honestly, I don't know how that could have been solved. But it annoyed us all, and a lot of the staff merely yelling at us instead of helping us was not pleasing. This concert was sort of a big deal, so they shouldn't have just assumed we wouldn't be dreadfully anxious.
4. Through no fault of Fanime or the staff, the crowd at the An Cafe concert was absolutely DREADFUL. The selfish, violent attitudes and the pushing and shoving and crowd surfing was horrible. I felt like I was going to faint on more than one occasion. For all of you who were actually civilized individuals, that comment is in no way directed at you. And if I happened to bump into someone, I truly truly apologize for it. I tried so hard to keep from hurting someone, but it was so difficult when we were all jostling each other like mad. 

I cannot add more than that, and a lot of the cons merely dealt with An Cafe...but I expect it was hell to plan this entire thing and keep things in order. So putting aside all of my complaints, I want to thank everyone who made such a thing possible and actually tried wholeheartedly to have everything run smoothly. It was a dream come true for me. :3 

Fanime was generally a whole lot of awesome!!  My obligatory list:

Pros:
-Encores of Asian films.  I was able to catch some films because of this, awesome.  Also, the variety of films offered was great.
-Video game and anime music played throughout the con.  It really makes the place feel... special.
-Stage zero action, 24/7.  Video game time attacks, devil may cry action, random games for prizes, interspersed main events - the only thing i didn't see were live music acts.  Recruit some live video game/anime music, and I couldn't ask for a better setup on the courseway.
-Artist's Alley was incredible!!  This year, it was really the place to hang out! 
-Excellent guests of honor.  Keep it up!
-Anime fans over 30 panel - SO MUCH FUN, SO MANY MEMORIES!!  Must have again!!
-Massage company on site.  I love those guys.
-Food, more widely available at different times.  Bring the prices down a bit, and I have nothing to complain about.
-Registration organization - 100% improvement previous years!! 
-Incredibly varied and high quality cosplay!
-Awesome variety in the game room!
-A REAL video game dealer in the dealers room, with a wide selection and knowledgeable staff.  Systems and everything!!
-Plentiful water stations!

Cons:
-Some videos started late and/or early.  On sunday, there was one case when a video was cut off, right near the end (Sukiyaki western django was cut off to start I'm a cyborg).  Obviously, folks were not happy.  I'm not sure if the movie started late, or if the alloted time slot was too small.  From what I hear, things like this happened a bit too often.
-The dealer's room seemed to lack variety this time around.  That probably is a result of the market - dealer's gotta bring what they think will sell, after all.
-Console tourneys could use a bit more organization.  I can't speak for others, but the CvS2 tourney was really disorganized at the beginning.  I would suggest a separate tourney table/area, where the TV, system, controllers and game is secured at least an hour before the tourney starts.  That way, it gives participants a bit of time to practice.  If there is a clear sign designating what is happening in the tourney area, it would also attract participants that may have forgot they signed up.  We had to scrounge stuff together for CvS2, since everything was checked out... and the random passerby wouldn't be able to tell the tourney from a regular group of players.  I don't want to complain too much about a free tourney, and I was very pleased with the attitude of the gaming staff.  Just a suggestion.
- 9 dollars for nachos hurt my feelings.  Is that just standard for the convention center?

Great time guys.  Congrats to the fanime staff for another wonderful con, and I look forward to next year!!

Quote from: BobMakihara on May 27, 2008, 07:12:33 PM
Pros:
-Registration organization - 100% improvement previous years!! 

Cons:
- 9 dollars for nachos hurt my feelings.  Is that just standard for the convention center?

Yeah, food pricing is set by the convention center, not by Fanime... otherwise, we'd have cheaper food if we could. ):
Yay, Reg! :3

Cons:
I blame Jason Ebner for high gasoline prices.
I also blame him for a lack of free parking around the con center.

Pros:
I thought the computer setup for registration was pretty neat.
Wireless net access throughout the entire length of the concourse area == hugely popular
All the water stations and tables and chairs made life convenient.

Quote from: Sen on May 27, 2008, 11:09:52 AM

Quote from: Kender on May 27, 2008, 01:28:24 AM

Quote from: Reikon on May 27, 2008, 12:58:05 AM

Quote from: Kender on May 27, 2008, 12:48:02 AM

Quote from: Reikon on May 26, 2008, 11:11:12 PM

Quote from: Sunara Ishi on May 26, 2008, 10:44:48 PM
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.

This was not exaggerated at all for e-gaming, which is why we were extremely short staffed. We were supposed to have 30 people in our department, but I only saw maybe 15 (and I was there at nearly all hours of the day). Of those 15 who showed up, only about 10 actually worked.

I think we should set up a system where staff have to pay in advance and then get refunded only if they actually do all their hours. This would have made more staffers actually show up and not make our department so short-handed.

If they weren't showing up for their shifts then their department head should have been pulling their badges.  If specific shifts weren't assigned then this is a lesson for next year that either the department head or the department second needs to do one.  And those who flaked this year should not be welcomed back.  It's not fair to the rest of those working the con.

They never showed up for any of their shifts. We can't pull badges of people we've never seen. Specific shifts were assigned, but since many people did not show up for shifts, we were short-handed and many people stayed overtime or came even when it wasn't their shift to make sure we always had at LEAST one person there. For example, we were supposed to have 5 people working Sunday morning starting from 6, but when I came in at 7, there was only one person there. I had to help even though my shift didn't start until 12.

Did anyone try to contact them?  We all had to provide contact information for how we could be reached during con for reasons such as this.  And also do we know for sure their badges were picked up?  Maybe they just completely flaked on the whole con?  Just a thought for the department head to check into if it hasn't been done already because that's a different offense than getting the badge and just not showing up to work scheduled shifts.

We were short-staffed with Panels as well, but that wasn't due to staffers not showing up for their shifts thankfully.  That was due to it being a new thing having a staff for the department and not knowing just how many people would really need so we weren't stretched so thin.  Many of us who could were pulling longer shifts than we had scheduled.

Anywho, my only suggestion at this point is to figure out who didn't show up (and picked up a badge) and not allow them back as staff for any department.  Create a black name list so to speak.  And if they didn't pick up their badges then they need to give a good reason for bailing on their volunteer commitment, but certainly not as high offense as abusing their badge.

Registration has their staffers go to the department head for badge pickup instead of going to ConOps. I'm not sure if you can do it for your department, but it ensures that you will see your staffer at least once.

Other departments actually picked up their badges from a different location than ConOps this year for Thursday pick up (old FaniMaid location near the Marriott entrance on the second floor).  It's if you had to pick up badges during the weekend you went to ConOps.  Although yes, in the past we did have to go to ConOps no matter what day/time it was.

It's a lot easier for departments like registration to get away with picking up direct from their department head.  Things like verifying ID and any potential minor wavers could be an issue having other department heads deal with.  Although it would be nice for department heads to at least see their staff once.  Panels we had a meeting on Friday 2pm with everyone and all had to be there (sans if you spoke with the department head beforehand and she knew you wouldn't be able to make it until later).  But we also had a MUCH smaller staff to keep track of.

I dunno =/.  All I do know is if there are staff members in specific departments flaking out on actually doing their assigned duties then it needs to be addressed.  That's not cool for the rest of us who are working like we're supposed to.  I don't want to see the mistakes of a few ruining the reputation of the Fanime staff as a whole.

Quote from: astroboy on May 27, 2008, 07:28:20 PM
Pros:
I thought the computer setup for registration was pretty neat.

D: They kept on going offline or something, we had a lot of technical difficulties, though I think it's because we had really bad connectors/power strips. D: But it wasn't that bad though I hope next year we won't have to go through that...

Quote from: ButterflyBones on May 27, 2008, 06:57:29 PM
4. Through no fault of Fanime or the staff, the crowd at the An Cafe concert was absolutely DREADFUL. The selfish, violent attitudes and the pushing and shoving and crowd surfing was horrible. I felt like I was going to faint on more than one occasion. For all of you who were actually civilized individuals, that comment is in no way directed at you. And if I happened to bump into someone, I truly truly apologize for it. I tried so hard to keep from hurting someone, but it was so difficult when we were all jostling each other like mad. 

I don't know how many concerts you've been to but its always like that when you're in a mob near the stage. You have to push and shove back to keep your place. Though I admit this was worse than another band concert I went to a few years back. Some of the people in the crowd were rather out of hand: the body suffers and the people actually attacking others violently.
Maybe there should be something that lets people know "Stand near the stage at your own risk".

I recommend that if you're not ready to deal with that, move to one of the seats. If not for one of my friends, I would've just gone up to a balcony seat. Though I'm glad I didn't. It was painful but worth it.

Btw, are you the small girl that was waiting with us near Exhibit Hall 2? If so, I would've tried to protect you at the concert if you were near me. I don't like seeing smaller people getting tossed around like that. Just to let you know, I was the white girl, in the modified blue jean skirt, that was hanging out with the girl, in the red Vivian Westwood jacket, in our "not line."

Quote from: Chiri Kcrinh on May 27, 2008, 07:41:55 PM

Quote from: astroboy on May 27, 2008, 07:28:20 PM
Pros:
I thought the computer setup for registration was pretty neat.

D: They kept on going offline or something, we had a lot of technical difficulties, though I think it's because we had really bad connectors/power strips. D: But it wasn't that bad though I hope next year we won't have to go through that...

Really? The only time we had any major technical problems was on Friday at badge printing. Otherwise, everything else was pretty minor and that is bound to happen with 40+ laptops.

Pros:
-The registration line was handled well from what I could see. Well, the pre-reg anyway. I also liked the computer registration for the on-site registrations.
-Artist Alley had an overwhelming amount of great talent
-Water stations and lots of them (I went OMG everytime I saw water available)
-An Cafe
-Autograph line on Sunday went smoothly for the most part
-Yay for programming and schedules!
-Swap meet
-Stage Zero was great this year
-Video game dealer was godsend.

Cons:
-An Cafe scheduled at the same time as the ball. I can deal with the fact that certain events are scheduled at the same time as the yaoi events, but it just seemed weird to me and more than one person in the concert line was bitching about it.
-Ridiculously long wait for Autograph/Concert tickets. Those who waited with me from the wee hours of Saturday know what I'm talking about. I know it isn't Fanime's fault...but does it really take 45 minutes after the scheduled time to open up a booth for tickets?
-It happens every year for one reason or another, but there is some wrong info on the schedules
-Lack of variety in the Dealer's Room. Personally I was sad about Yaoi Press not being there, but apart from that...I thought there was just a lot less things to buy this year.
-Confusion of where lines and autograph sessions were
-The fact that there was more than one instance of someone not knowing how to work a mac to watch anime.
-Concert could've been longer, but I liked it anyway.

Too reiterate about concerts. All rock-ish concerts are like this, and always will be. If you're afraid of getting elbowed, someone surfing on top of you, a stray back hand to the face, or having 200 people jumping up and down and rocking out... stay near the back. This is what a concerts really about, feeling the music and being a part of the show. Not just watching a band play their music. Bands love this kind of energy, and it makes them enjoy the concert a lot more when the audience does go nuts, and shows that they are really into the music.

We used to have conversation about concert scars we've received at work. I nearly passed out when I went to see Ellegarden. I was rocking out too hard when I started to feel it I got elbowed in the face when I lowered my head. So I just walked out towards the back, rested a bit, downed some water... rushed back up to the stage and started rocking out some more. I got hit about 15 times in the face that concert, and that concert only had about 500 people or so? Compared to say... the Metallica concert I went to in SD which had about 10,000 people and I was only 15.

This is a concert, if you don't like it, then stay in the back... or don't attend.

2nd year at the Con, and enjoyed it thoroughly.  Many thanks go out to the Staff, volunteers, and Con-goers who came to the Twilight Knights workshops and panels.  Almost to a man (or woman) you were friendly, had good questions, and wanted to participate.  Especially those that were involved with the Katana or Dagger fighting workshops, I really have to give you credit.  You did better than I did my first few practices.  Thank you so much for making this a great experience for the Guild.  When we were doing out last debrief, we had our usual vote to see our interest in coming back next year.  It was unanimous in the affirmative.  All of you are welcome to practice with us anytime, and we look forward to next year's activities.

Pros:
Loved the 24/7 action on Stage Zero.  Whenever I was bored I could simply walk by and there was always something going on.
Amazing Staff.  I'm talking about the full-time, working their butts off, never get a moment of sleep Staff, not the other kinds.  Always helpful, especially when I needed to use the mic to make an announcement, had a question, or wanted to chat.
Good selection of animes and movies in the viewing rooms.  Didn't have much liberty to spend in the rooms, but was able to catch bits here and there.

Cons:
... don't really have anything major to complain about.  I had a great time.  Missed the B&W ball because one of my friends got injured (sprained ankle while running), so I heard second-hand that the ballroom was much too small.  When I had dance lessons there on Friday, it was crowded with just the lessons, not the crowds of people I saw in line for the dance.  Perhaps a bigger area next time would be in order?

Quote from: Sen on May 27, 2008, 08:07:04 PM

Quote from: Chiri Kcrinh on May 27, 2008, 07:41:55 PM

Quote from: astroboy on May 27, 2008, 07:28:20 PM
Pros:
I thought the computer setup for registration was pretty neat.

D: They kept on going offline or something, we had a lot of technical difficulties, though I think it's because we had really bad connectors/power strips. D: But it wasn't that bad though I hope next year we won't have to go through that...

Really? The only time we had any major technical problems was on Friday at badge printing. Otherwise, everything else was pretty minor and that is bound to happen with 40+ laptops.

Yeah, almost every 10 minutes at least three or four would go off-line. We'd have to restart some of the computers or wait two minutes for it to be online again, it happened a lot. But yeah, not that many people complained about the laptops going off-line except for those who had to re-enter their information because it went off-line right after they finished typing in all their info... I just hope it won't happen as often next year. (:

Pro: I loved seeing all the forum members and meeting lots of cool people. I thought over all things were great. I had a blast but sadly i didn't go to enough things. I also played my first yaoi bingo! XD IT WAS FUN
OH AND MAID CAFE WAS AWESOME! ^-^ I really though it improved from last year plus the location was very nice. so well done all

Con: sorry i felt the dealer's room really sucked. I was very disappointed with the selection and ended up just spending money on cosplay stuff for next year. I would have liked to see more unique stuff (and MORE DOUJINSHI!)
Double up... sad to say it was OK... I dunno i prefered the bingo.
also the swapmeet.... again the information wasn't getting passed around as to what the hell was going on or where to line up for it. >< Like last year it was disorganized

Quote from: edendreams on May 27, 2008, 09:03:49 PM
Pro: I loved seeing all the forum members and meeting lots of cool people. I thought over all things were great. I had a blast but sadly i didn't go to enough things. I also played my first yaoi bingo! XD IT WAS FUN
OH AND MAID CAFE WAS AWESOME! ^-^ I really though it improved from last year plus the location was very nice. so well done all

Con: sorry i felt the dealer's room really sucked. I was very disappointed with the selection and ended up just spending money on cosplay stuff for next year. I would have liked to see more unique stuff (and MORE DOUJINSHI!)
Double up... sad to say it was OK... I dunno i prefered the bingo.
also the swapmeet.... again the information wasn't getting passed around as to what the hell was going on or where to line up for it. >< Like last year it was disorganized

Actually, yes. There is a dire lack of a decent doujin culture east of the Pacific, and I, for one, would love to see this changed. I do recognize the primary barrier against it- copyright laws in this country Won't Ignore the doujin market, unfortunately- but... hrm. Fanime wouldn't happen to have a few tame lawyers to work out a loophole, would it?

Quote from: Kaura117 on May 27, 2008, 09:10:07 PM

Quote from: edendreams on May 27, 2008, 09:03:49 PM
Pro: I loved seeing all the forum members and meeting lots of cool people. I thought over all things were great. I had a blast but sadly i didn't go to enough things. I also played my first yaoi bingo! XD IT WAS FUN
OH AND MAID CAFE WAS AWESOME! ^-^ I really though it improved from last year plus the location was very nice. so well done all

Con: sorry i felt the dealer's room really sucked. I was very disappointed with the selection and ended up just spending money on cosplay stuff for next year. I would have liked to see more unique stuff (and MORE DOUJINSHI!)
Double up... sad to say it was OK... I dunno i prefered the bingo.
also the swapmeet.... again the information wasn't getting passed around as to what the hell was going on or where to line up for it. >< Like last year it was disorganized

Actually, yes. There is a dire lack of a decent doujin culture east of the Pacific, and I, for one, would love to see this changed. I do recognize the primary barrier against it- copyright laws in this country Won't Ignore the doujin market, unfortunately- but... hrm. Fanime wouldn't happen to have a few tame lawyers to work out a loophole, would it?

We did have that one doujinshi club from Japan. Nonetheless, I do agree that the dealer's room merchandise was somewhat lacking this year. All I can say at this point is that we'll try and work on it.

I figured I might try to be actually helpful with some Dealers Room feedback, so here are some of the things I'd love to see:

1. More doujinshi.  I only saw one stand with doujinshi this year.
2. More affordable clothes!  I liked the gothic lolita clothes and bought a kimono, but neither were cheap.  Fair enough, but how about some more affordable stuff too?  I really wanted some of those cute shirts and hoodies that one big stall was selling...unfortunately I'm not about to spend seventy dollars on a hoodie and thirty five on a t-shirt that's so thin you can practically see through it.  Even if it's Tokidoki.  I can buy those online for less and I know it.  Where's the love for the people on a budget?
3. More rare/obscure merchandise.  I keep looking for a One Piece pirate flag and not finding one.  It makes Zee a sad panda.  I also like the P.O.P. series, but most were selling for $60-$100.  You can get them online for about $45-$50.  (Seriously, what's up with these prices?  Cons used to be cheaper than online shopping, not more expensive.)
4. How about more giveaway stuff?  Free posters with purchase and such?
5. Where the heck were all the plushies this year?!  Did I just miss them?
6. I seem to remember there being a Gloomy Bear stand one year (or was that Sakura Con?).  I'd like that to come back, and I'd like to see some more vinyl toys like Bearbricks and such.  Has anyone poked Kid Robot about attending?
7. I'd love to see Kinokuniya attend.  They have all the best stuff, I swear...

I know you guys aren't in charge of which vendors sign up and what they charge, but if there's anything you can do to pass around the suggestions and maybe get more/other vendors interested and give them an idea of what we're looking for, maybe that would help. :3

Quote from: PyronIkari on May 27, 2008, 08:15:10 PM
Too reiterate about concerts. All rock-ish concerts are like this, and always will be. If you're afraid of getting elbowed, someone surfing on top of you, a stray back hand to the face, or having 200 people jumping up and down and rocking out... stay near the back. This is what a concerts really about, feeling the music and being a part of the show. Not just watching a band play their music. Bands love this kind of energy, and it makes them enjoy the concert a lot more when the audience does go nuts, and shows that they are really into the music.

We used to have conversation about concert scars we've received at work. I nearly passed out when I went to see Ellegarden. I was rocking out too hard when I started to feel it I got elbowed in the face when I lowered my head. So I just walked out towards the back, rested a bit, downed some water... rushed back up to the stage and started rocking out some more. I got hit about 15 times in the face that concert, and that concert only had about 500 people or so? Compared to say... the Metallica concert I went to in SD which had about 10,000 people and I was only 15.

This is a concert, if you don't like it, then stay in the back... or don't attend.

Mikey I live for that shiet you it!

LOL I got cut but a person who had shaniqua nails at the despiars ray show in 05 seriously who wears shanequa nails?

Quote from: Chiri Kcrinh on May 27, 2008, 08:39:42 PMYeah, almost every 10 minutes at least three or four would go off-line. We'd have to restart some of the computers or wait two minutes for it to be online again, it happened a lot. But yeah, not that many people complained about the laptops going off-line except for those who had to re-enter their information because it went off-line right after they finished typing in all their info... I just hope it won't happen as often next year. (:

Instead of having this on the forums, you should be communicating this directly to your department head.

In short: Please take it off of the forums.

I totally forgot about this until now.
This happened sunday if I remember right:
One of the staffers (she might have been a volunteer) was rather mean towards me and another person when we tried to leave the gaming hall.

The gaming hall had no specific entrance or exit throughout the con and on that specific day, there was only one door open.

The staffer refused to let us leave and told us to go use the "exit".
I start walking towards the other side and turn around; almost right after she's letting others out.

I wanted to dismiss it at as a mistake but she gave a rather mean glare at me the first time and also when I left.
If I remember right, the other person and I had been in cosplay. I'm not sure what her bias was.

I just wanted to bring attention to it.

Quote from: Kaura117 on May 27, 2008, 09:10:07 PM

Quote from: edendreams on May 27, 2008, 09:03:49 PM
Pro: I loved seeing all the forum members and meeting lots of cool people. I thought over all things were great. I had a blast but sadly i didn't go to enough things. I also played my first yaoi bingo! XD IT WAS FUN
OH AND MAID CAFE WAS AWESOME! ^-^ I really though it improved from last year plus the location was very nice. so well done all

Con: sorry i felt the dealer's room really sucked. I was very disappointed with the selection and ended up just spending money on cosplay stuff for next year. I would have liked to see more unique stuff (and MORE DOUJINSHI!)
Double up... sad to say it was OK... I dunno i prefered the bingo.
also the swapmeet.... again the information wasn't getting passed around as to what the hell was going on or where to line up for it. >< Like last year it was disorganized

Actually, yes. There is a dire lack of a decent doujin culture east of the Pacific, and I, for one, would love to see this changed. I do recognize the primary barrier against it- copyright laws in this country Won't Ignore the doujin market, unfortunately- but... hrm. Fanime wouldn't happen to have a few tame lawyers to work out a loophole, would it?

Maybe we need a doujin room.
So its not being sold as official artwork but more like how artist alley is run.
I don't think we should toss the doujin stuff into artist alley. One or the other may not get enough space.

Fanime 2008 rocked pretty well, and most of what I would say has already been repeated many times over. Dealers' Hall was less than thrilling, but the AA was huge and awesome and had great variety. I'm one of those lazy people who never go to the concerts or masquerade or big events, but nevertheless I had a grand old time.

One comment I would like to make: is it just me, or does it seem to anybody else that the partying got a bit out of hand this year? I understand that Fanime is a social event and a lot of people like going to room parties and drinking at night, and that's all well and good if you like that sort of thing, but it seemed like there was an appreciably larger number of noticeably drunk people in the concourse earlier than usual...particularly one fellow who dashed down the hall while my friends and I were chatting, started throwing up into a garbage can, and then moved to a recycling bin to continue vomiting.

I just want to say thank you to all the staff of fanime 2008. You guys rocked. you made this such a great experience for me. some of you went out of your way to help and others just so warm and kind. You had a handle on a lot of things which made this con enjoyable. I also like how I dint see or hear too many staff members having to raise their fist of authority. You all rock ^_^

I thought this year went by nice. I read many post on the Dealers room being Just OK this year. But just to clear up some Info. The Dealers room was the Same size as last year. It only seemed smaller due to excellent booth placement. But number per number we had the same amount of booths. As For Gaia Not having no Booth? You should E-mail and Forum them about it.   From what I saw as a Staff and Fan. Everyone Did a wonderful job. Best Fans I have seen in years. "I only had to yell No Running Once!"

Note: Doujin stuff is technically illegal, even in Japan. But no one bothers to do anything in Japan because it'd be like spitting on the entire fandom. In the US. though it's technically illegal, it doesn't matter since it's international goods. Even though it's illegal, it's more of a grey area. It's really really really complicated (discussing with a lawyer about it right now).

The problem with doujinshi... are that the people that usually sell them in the states don't know much about the doujinshi they sell. They just get a bunch of them and sell them and hope people buy them. This is good, and bad. It's nice that people realize there is a market, but when dealers don't know what they're selling, and don't know what people want... it leads to problems.

Not to really plug my friend or anything, but every year at AX a friend of mine comes from Japan and brings a huge stock of doujinshi. It's awesome when people come and know what they're looking for and ask and what not, but at the same time it's bad because the less knowing people just ravage through stuff.

I won't link it here, but he has a website(that he doesn't update) and if people know what they're looking for he can special get things for them. Just PM me and I can send you a link if you wish.

Doujinshi are hit or miss, and they are a big risk for a lot of vendors especially if they don't know doujinshi. The ones that just risk it and bring whatever just hope people buy their stuff.

I enjoyed this year, but as usual feel the need to point out the pros and cons of this year. I might reiterate a bit on what I mentioned at closing ceremonies.

Pros:
- Water. Good job this year, it was either '06 or '07 where they always seemed empty. I don't think I ever saw one of them completely empty. Good job to the Convention Center staff on that one. ^^
- Photo booth. I know people were asking for this for a good many years, so I was glad to see it finally there.
- Generally friendly staff members, with one exception. I was helping check ID at Yaoi/Hentai when two staffers arrived. I started to ask the first for ID before I saw his badge, but the second one had his turned around. When I asked for ID, all I got was an, "I'm staff." I started to tell him something, don't remember what, but finally got him to turn his ID around before he grumped off to talk with someone behind the barrier. Staff, please don't get grumpy at people trying to help out, especially if it's something like that. D: Maybe he was just having a bad day. Dunno, oh well.
- Lots of food available. I know prices were high, but it was a nice step in the right direction.
- Generally had a good time. Registration seemed much better too. When I stepped up and handed the guy my ID and paper it took him MAYBE 30 seconds to hand me my badge. Excellent.
- Lanyards! People have also been asking for these, I had even brought my own and was ecstatic to see I didn't need them.
- Artist's Alley. I bought more there than ever before. It was nice to see relatively inexpensive things (Head shot cards from SSBB and the like) in addition to generally good quality work. VG cats was a nice surprise.
- Lack of glomping. I think I only got hugged by surprise MAYBE two or three times. And it was a hug, not a glomp, so I didn't have as much issue with it. : D Teh mudkipz was happy to not almost be knocked down this year.

Cons:
- Dealers room. It really wasn't that great this year. I felt like the selection was just lacking. A lot of the same things, and on top of that at outrageous prices. Many of the dealers weren't even willing to knock off a few dollars as a discount on larger purchases, even when they had in previous years. I know it's not Fanime's fault, but maybe the dealers will see everyone mentioning this and do something to improve it next year. I'm also not sure if it was just me, but most of what I saw being sold consisted of DVDs and Manga, at prices the same as if I went to my local store. There were maybe two exceptions to the pricing bit, but it was rather annoying to me. Here's my question: where were some of the previous dealers? Funimation? Gaia? There's one more but it slips my mind at the moment. Those were two of the booths I was looking forward to. Also agree with not enough giveaways. DEALERS! Look at what people are saying and hopefully improve next year! I left with considerably more money than I have in the past. (Like... a few hundred more.)
- Elevator etiquette. This was a big problem at the Marriott this year. This goes to the attendees, not to staff. Let the people who were there first get on, and don't crowd the elevators. If people in the back need to get out, GET OUT OF THE WAY. Step out of the elevator and let them out, then step back in. Don't make them shove their way out. It'll move faster that way, I guarantee it. I can't tell you how many times I had to push to get out of the elevator on my stop, I also can't tell you how many times I had people shove in front of me, forcing me to wait for the next elevator. Just.... be nice. If it would piss you off if someone did it to you, don't do it to others. Play nice people.

Edit: HA! I remembered the two other things I wanted to mention!

Cons:
-Gaming room consoles. I'm not sure if it was just with SSBB, but it really did seem as though only those with their own controllers were playing. I'm not sure it that was really the case, or if they had checked them out, but I only heard that the system was in place at closing ceremonies when someone else brought it up. Could we possibly just zip tie controllers to the systems again? I wanted to play, but never got the chance this year. It was rather frustrating to me. Someone mentioned a sign, but I never saw one? If it's something like that you really need multiple signs, facing all directions and in HUGE letters so people can see them as soon as they approach a console.
- At Con Reg for 2009. I didn't really see anything about when the times would be, and ended up asking about it in the dealer's room on Saturday, and being told that it opened at 4pm on Sunday. Well.... 4PM Sunday I was busy finishing things up. (Gathering or something maybe.... Maybe Charity auction....) And right after went to my room to eat before the concert. When I went to try and reg around Noon on Monday I was told it was closed. This was really disappointing to me. Could someone talk with the Registration head and ask them to considered keeping it open 'til maybe 2 or 3 on Monday? Most people are busy trying to pack and check out of their hotel rooms on Monday morning, myself included. I might be wrong on that account, but that seems to be what I've observed.


Sorry for the long post guys, but hopefully someone will take note and things might be changed for '09. ^^

I had great time this year, I was able to see some friends that I haven't seen for about a year, and also other friends that I haven't seen in months I was able to hang out with them. I had great time spending time with my girlfriend (K&K4ever) and along with my sister. I already pre-reg so see you all in 2009.

This was an Awesome con and I can barely wait for next year, see you guys then ;D

Quote from: mDuo13 on May 27, 2008, 11:22:32 AMA shame they didn't include the GAINAX Room, but I presume that's because it was a last-minute addition.

Yes.  We printed the extra GAINAX Room schedules at the last second, as soon as we had reasonably any information solid enough to print.  They should've been stuffed in your registration bags.

Quote-Not easy to find information about meet & greet / autograph sessions. I ended up not finding Sadamoto-san, though I really wanted to meet him especially.

I believe that information wasn't available to any of the Info Desks, ConOps, or Publications until Friday evening-ish.  The information didn't get passed around internally, and I apologize for that.  I really should've known whom to ask, and I just failed to put two and two together.

Also, the last time I heard (which was before we got enough information to make the GAINAX room schedule, so the information might be outdated), Sadamoto-san was not going to hold any official autograph sessions this year, so there may not have been any autograph session specific to Sadamoto-san for you to find.  He may have given out some casual autographs during panels and such, but I don't think it was formally planned.

Quote-Information booths had 2007's maps instead of 2008's, for most of Friday (lol).

I know, and I'm sorry.  In spite of researching things all year, I still managed to royally mess up signs this year.  I'd like to thank Finance for approving an extra huge chunk of money on top of my budget to take care of it, all of the pre-reg attendees for putting Finance in a good mood, and Eugene (who used to work for Kinko's) for arranging all the remaining details necessary to get the signs done.  But I think I'm now equipped to do better next year.

Quote from: Reinna on May 27, 2008, 04:18:55 PM- Seconding the camera nazis at the concert.  I understand that they don't want us to take pictures and video- and I wasn't planning to- but if they don't want any cameras at all, then tell us BEFORE we get to the end of the friggin line.

I completely agree with that.  Many staff (including me and even my An Cafe writer/reporter) did not know about the "camera nazi" at An Cafe either, and we got turned away at the door too.  I wish I could've known in time to have my newsletter crew write something about it at least.  What we had here was a failure to communicate, even internally.

Quote from: Kaura117 on May 27, 2008, 04:36:17 PMThere are ways to deal with the food issue, and make them cheaper. Not the convention food, obviously, but I do advocate that Fanime include a price guide to the local area's establishments. Or get fast food sponsors like In-N-Out that does the occasional remote operation (I've known a few schools that've done this- it has been full of win, overall). The Convention's already paid for the space- it is not, in fact, indebted to the Center to the point that it has to try and sell its food as well.

I was part of the reason why there's more information about convention center food than outside food.  I made a conscious decision to cut the San Jose food map out of the program guide because we ran out of space and because the convention center itself was willing to provide the San Jose Downtown Food Maps to the Info Desks.  Let me say that again: the San Jose Convention Center itself provided all the Downtown Food Maps at the Info Desks.  They're very nice about working with Fanime to get what FanimeCon attendees want.  I believe that the convention center has been willing to be as helpful as it is because it noticed that listening to Fanime's suggestions brings in more business.  So, when they extended food hours and brought in lower-priced items the way Fanime suggested, I wanted to do my best to let people know about it so attendees can provide feedback with their dollars about whether it works for them or not.  The convention center couldn't lower the price of their $9 nachos, but they did try to find cheaper items.  For example, I believe I saw more sandwiches and bagels and such this year, providing cheaper alternatives to the expensive hot dishes.

Also, it's been noted that the average age of the convention attendees has been dropping, and I'm a bit worried about sending younger attendees outside the convention center for food.  Because of that, I'd like to see more of the demand stay inside the convention center, so Fanime management has more to work with when trying to fix convention center food options.

From what little I know about the food terms and policies, I don't think bringing in In-N-Out will help prices much.  I believe the convention center has rules and fees on outside vendors, so I imagine In-N-Out would have to raise its prices if it tried to sell food inside the convention center.  The business might be worth it, and rumors have claimed that Tengu Sushi and Lollicup have been happy with their business in spite of the convention center terms, but the products the outside vendors bring are not cheap.  That said, I'd love to have In-N-Out inside the convention center, and I think it's a neat suggestion.

In any case, while it's true that there are a lot of limitations on what can be done about food prices, it might be useful, or at least interesting, to keep the suggestions coming anyways.

Quote from: chikhra on May 27, 2008, 05:22:30 PMJust one bit that bugged me was that the Fanime '08 booklet was a little harsh on the eyes because it was a sans-serif font. Sans-serif is awesome for computers and electronically displayed text, but serif looks MUCH better and is a lot easier to read on paper. No biggie though xD

That is good feedback, and I'll pass that on to the designers.

Thank you all for the feedback!

Tenba, the hotel might give information about what restaurants out there, but except for common knowledge like "Jack in the Box is cheaper than Paragon," there's no info about the relative price ranges. Which, btw, would be enormously helpful.

It means we can save more money for the dealer's room, see.  ;D

In all seriousness, though, I'm happy that the convention center's willing to help out, but there's still that last step to take in order to have that help really be of any use to congoers.

Quote from: Kaura117 on May 29, 2008, 07:49:10 AMTenba, the hotel might give information about what restaurants out there, but except for common knowledge like "Jack in the Box is cheaper than Paragon," there's no info about the relative price ranges. Which, btw, would be enormously helpful.

Hm...  You're right; the information doesn't seem to be readily available.  I thought I saw it online before somewhere.  I'll see if I can get a reporter to go collect it, but I can't make any promises.

After taking a Sick day from work, and catching up on Paperwork, and I still am losing my voice... Here I go:

*** DISCLAIMER: these views & comments are only from me and NO ONE ELSE from Fanime (Executive) staff. if you wish to flame me please do it via PM only. Thanks ***

Complaints about the Guy in Glasses Rover-
Please PM deonchan in regards to this ASAP. This Rover (who I first thought was me at first, til I realized how many complaints we had this year about his poor reasons for pulling badges...) we will address him and his issues and it is likely we will declined him to be on Rover Staff next year. I work in HR and sometimes people who claim to be a fit just arent, and this is what we call trial and error. --- My sincere apologies go out to anyone and everyone that had a bad experienced because of him. He will be counseled and advise because of HIS actions his Fanime privaleges may be revoked. If he thinks he had the right to pull peoples badges (and abused his power he did) he should expect us to have the right to pull his badge as well.

Complaints about An Cafe lines/Autograph/Q&A panel-
This is a classic misdirection tactic known as the "Nut and Shell" game. For safety and security reasons for the An Cafe Band, sometimes management may need an option to allow for last minute changes of the safety or location was at risk. Even being on line control staff I was out of the loop until I was asked to control the line. The staff before me did the best they could to control the line, but broke it off in akward places causing my An Cafe fans to be put farther back in line or confused where the front was. It's unavoidable confusion and I'm again sorry for any mistakes on MY PART but I can't always fix the mistakes if they were made before I got there to begin with.

Complaints about general prices-
Unfortunately Fanime does not have control over ANY prices - minus Registration prices. I know the Economy is tough, but as much as we'd like to lower prices its just not within ARG's ability to do so. It's best that the individual to figure out their budget with as many factors as possible: Hotel, Travel, friends bumming money (you know this happens), Dealers, Arcade, and basically anything else that uses $$$. Simply, we dont control prices. Sorry.

Conflicting Events/Dates/Times-
Keep in mind that different Departments work on these events and as a Fan/Con Goer you will have to make the difficult decision of one or the other or try your best to attend both. You have to believe us when we say we're not trying to make things difficult for you... But think about it this way- Yes its a 4 day event, but theres ONLY 2 nights where super special events can take place: (SAT/SUN Only) Thursday is only an pre-reg badge pick up night. Friday/Monday would be TOO early/late and thus grossly understaffed. Hence if Fanime say had 6 uber Fantastic events to plan on 2 nights only. Yes, your going to have some tough choices to make. You just have to deal with it and plan accordingly.

"Ghost" Staff Members & proper info & training-
I cant speak for all departments, but I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt that since we constantly say "By Fans for Fans" that the golden rule applies. Staff is asked to work X amount of hours in order to get staff badge. I will admit that some staff works more/harder than others and some of those not so nice people there pick up a staff badge and never lift a finger to help. That is a shame, but I do believe in Kharma... Moving Forward I'm glad to see that more Fans are interested in helping Volunteer/Staff for 2009. As our convention Grows so will our staff. Fanime HR I hope will continue proper training and informative meetings to keep everyone on the same page.

I am Rover Roy- I know some of you have seen, heard or possibly now hate me. So I'll have to deal with it... but keep this im mind because I do care more about YOUR Con experience more than my own. I take pride in the fact that I do this as a service to my anime/J-pop community. I am open to constructive critisims, just please do it via PM and NOT by out on the forums. Thanks.

Aaaah this year was definitely a mix, and for me it wasn't as fun as 2007...but that's all things considered. I will most likely attend next year if things work out. ^_^

Pros:

~finishing all four costumes in five days, and doing them WELL
~Getting SO MANY pictures taken of me and my boyfriend as Lenne and Shuyin and Rinoa and Squall.
~Learning how to dance...waltz and swing.
~Learning the dance to "Waltz for the Moon", and doing the dance during the song at the Black and White Ball while dressed as Rinoa and Squall in their SeeD Ball attire
~The FFVIII gathering
~Performing our skit at the masquerade. I'm glad to see it was so well received! ^_^ (I am a member of Candy Mountain Cosplay, the KH "I'm too sexy" skit)
~Hanging out with my friends
~finally meeting Crystalike

Cons:

~Overloading myself with four costumes to complete in five days
~having my glue gun stolen while working on last minute cosplay
~having my camera stolen while people were taking pictures of me and my boyfriend
~my boyfriend's prescription glasses were stolen off of the chair in front of him in an anime viewing room. NOT COOL.
~trying to organize, schedule, and perform with an ensemble. NOT A GOOD IDEA. I way overloaded my con time.
~only having time to look in the art and dealer's room once the entire con.
~Getting a parking ticket
~driving down a sidewalk on accident
~losing my Sora gloves
~the Hare Hare Yukai and the Caramelldansen sooo many times. Though I know its not anyone's fault
~even more than that, though: PEOPLE LEAVING THE MASQUERADE BECAUSE OF ALL OF THOSE DANCES. Our group, Candy Mountain Cosplay, was the last to perform, and we only had 1/3 of the crowd that was there to begin with.


Yeah....like i said, it was definitely a mix. Though I will probably be coming back, if not to perform another skit next year. I'll start the writing verrrrry soon. Candy Mountain Cosplay will return!!!

Quote from: Tenba on May 29, 2008, 08:01:21 AM

Quote from: Kaura117 on May 29, 2008, 07:49:10 AMTenba, the hotel might give information about what restaurants out there, but except for common knowledge like "Jack in the Box is cheaper than Paragon," there's no info about the relative price ranges. Which, btw, would be enormously helpful.

Hm...  You're right; the information doesn't seem to be readily available.  I thought I saw it online before somewhere.  I'll see if I can get a reporter to go collect it, but I can't make any promises.

I can do it.

...especially if I get a staff position- coughcoughnudgenudge.  ;) I was actually planning to work on an independent article for FanimeCon this year, but due to having my recorder stolen a few days before the con, AND my cellphone service suspended (not my own error, thankfully, but I might have to get off my parent's service if this proves to be a trend by next year)... well, yeah. Half-assed article; no fun at all. Would love to have another crack at it in 09- this time, with even less sleep~

This was my first time attending Fanime and I have to say that I had a really good time.  :D The Maid Cafe was interesting and fun. One of the maids, Mimi, even drew something for me on a little notepad that I carry around. The masquerade was a lot fun, but watching people constantly walk out was a bit diappointing. The artist in the artist alley had a lot of good stuff. Especially the guy who sold me a bunch of stuff for half price all weekend long. Forgot to ask him his name though. Oops. The best part of the con for me was the An Cafe concert. That was a (insert expletive here) blast! The only thing that disappointed me was the dealer's room. Well, kind of...none of them had any rare items that I wanted or might want. Plus most of them didn't really have any deals on anything. Though I think that can be attributed to high gas prices. I spent $148 getting there and back. Sorry for bringing up the subject.

Will I be back in '09? Yes I am.  :D

Hrrmm... I'm just going to name the cons... Don't get me wrong though, I still loved Fanime :)

Cons:
- THE DANCE. I waited about half an hour in line with my boyfriend and we finally got up in front and they told us, "no bags!" when another staff member had told us we COULD have bags but it wasn't recommended. So we had to go all the way back to my hotel room and drop off his backpack and we waited another 30 minutes in line and we saw people going in with their bags/purses/backpacks and we were so pissed XD;

The music sucked, wasn't loud enough, and it didn't really seem like anyone really got into it. PLAY SOME FREAKING JPOP/JROCK. I enjoyed the dance the most the year that the DJ played some really cool remixes of anime songs (I remember a techno remix of the Oh My Goddess OVA theme and some TWO-MIX songs). Please play more of that, and please have the music louder. I would be very willing to wait in line if that happened.

- ANIME HELL. I was in Anime Hell one night... I can't remember which, but I was just like, "wtf is this". They played like really old reruns of skits/commercials from SNL or Mad TV and some other really awkward crap... My boyfriend called me in the middle of it and he asked me where I was and I said, "Anime Hell, literally." which is what it really was... I was surprised to see so many people in there. BUT, (positive) I came to Anime Hell on Friday before the Dealer's Room was opened and it was very very entertaining. It was basically just a bunch of anime parodies, which was cool... but please no more of these old Jimmy Kimmel episodes with people in monster costumes fighting...

- Like everyone said, the Black & White Ball clashing with the An Cafe concert, and actually, quite a few events clashing with each other... kinda sucked </3

- Lastly, I don't really know what this was but... I decided to go to the Comedy Club with my boyfriend and it...wasn't funny...even though a lot of people there seemed to think it was funny. No offense...it was awkward...but if you other con-goers enjoyed it I won't ruin your fun. Just definitely not going to it again. There were a few things that kinda made me go, "heh" but that's about it. Couldn't handle the smell either XD; SHOWER FANBOYS, SHOWER.

Yup and that's it...other than that, I loved Fanime. Just pleaseeeeeeeee get a better DJ or something. I was really looking forward to the dance.

EDIT: Oops, also...

- CONSOLE GAME WHORES. SERIOUSLY. PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN HOW TO TAKE TURNS. My brother's super shy and he waited forever to play Brawl... even brought his own controller... he just stood there, forever, watching a bunch of n00bs play... we finally got to play when people left but we felt bad because we knew other people were waiting forever so we only did two matches each. And this didn't happen just with Brawl.

- ALSO, I don't understand the limited amount of space in the tournaments... or at least the Brawl tournament. I was really looking forward to entering the SSBB tournament but apparently it was full... normal tournaments don't usually fill up, do they? It was a bit of a disappointment. I say if Fanime has a Brawl tournament again, maybe get a separate area for the tournament, have a entrance fee, and there should be winners from 1st to 3rd place winning...money...or something, and unlimited entry. Please.

Quote from: Kaura117 on May 29, 2008, 10:18:09 AMI can do it.

...especially if I get a staff position- coughcoughnudgenudge.  ;)

Sure!  Please send e-mail to [email protected].  Mention your forum nick, and include a resume and writing sample just for fun.  I'm going to reorganize and send out a questionnaire when I'm ready to rehire people on my staff for 2009 (we all get fired and rehired every year), and I'll add you to the list of people I send the questionnaire to.  Thanks for offering!

Quote from: Zee on May 28, 2008, 01:32:53 PMI keep looking for a One Piece pirate flag and not finding one.  It makes Zee a sad panda.

You gotta look a little harder. The guy across from Tao Toys had one for sale. It was hanging in the very top left corner of his booth. I remember thinking about buying it.

oh yes and one more Con: Some Random Gut Coming Up to me and start yelling at me for something i didnt even know was happening... i dont like to yell and he made me....

PROS:

Artist Alley rocked this year.
FMV voting format was excellent.  I like being able to have a list of the FMVs so that I can try to find them later (although I'm having terrible luck with that so far)
FMVs were back in the Civic Center.
FMV categories were a decent length (e.g. not 20 action videos, like last year, which was extremely tiresome)
Pre-Reg line went smoothly.

CONS:

Dealer's room was disappointing, although I did like the kimono booth.
Anime schedule was weird.  Absolutely everything interesting was shown in the early morning (like 8 am or earlier).  I realize that's my preference and whatnot, but yeah... that was strange.  We actually ended up watching NO anime (at the con) this year due to weird scheduling.  Watched anime instead in our hotel room.
Press registration closed an hour before regular registration (which is when we told him the deadline was) so my friend couldn't get his badge.  Nobody working knew why it closed early either, which made him extremely angry as he was bounced from four different people.  So basically he couldn't do anything all night.
Bishie bingo attendees don't know wtf a chair is for, i.e.: you SIT in it so that people BEHIND YOU can SEE.  If you're a 6' guy, why the fuck do you need to stand on a chair?  Also they created a fire hazard by rushing the center aisle.  Everyone was standing on a chair, which made seeing the front impossible.  Ended up yanking a chair off the end and dragging it to the side aisle because I couldn't see a damn thing.  It would help if the strippers had a stage to stand on.  They did this one year; I'm not sure why they stopped.

Quote from: Tenba on May 29, 2008, 12:36:05 PM

Quote from: Kaura117 on May 29, 2008, 10:18:09 AMI can do it.

...especially if I get a staff position- coughcoughnudgenudge.  ;)

Sure!  Please send e-mail to [email protected].  Mention your forum nick, and include a resume and writing sample just for fun.  I'm going to reorganize and send out a questionnaire when I'm ready to rehire people on my staff for 2009 (we all get fired and rehired every year), and I'll add you to the list of people I send the questionnaire to.  Thanks for offering!

Sexy. I'll start working on that list.

Sad to say that my resume might be a bit sparse, however. My "professional" list of written works is, embarrassingly, a touch on the scant side. But the writing sample's no problem.

Seeing all of my friends was soooooooooooooooooooooooo awesome

Friday nights dance wasn't very good... Saturday though, was very good.

Move the Masqu back to Sunday please, I don't want to miss Yaoi-bingo next year

Quote from: Kyokun on May 29, 2008, 01:10:03 PM
Anime schedule was weird.  Absolutely everything interesting was shown in the early morning (like 8 am or earlier).  I realize that's my preference and whatnot, but yeah... that was strange.  We actually ended up watching NO anime (at the con) this year due to weird scheduling.  Watched anime instead in our hotel room.

Bishie bingo attendees don't know wtf a chair is for, i.e.: you SIT in it so that people BEHIND YOU can SEE.  If you're a 6' guy, why the fuck do you need to stand on a chair?  Also they created a fire hazard by rushing the center aisle.  Everyone was standing on a chair, which made seeing the front impossible.  Ended up yanking a chair off the end and dragging it to the side aisle because I couldn't see a damn thing.  It would help if the strippers had a stage to stand on.  They did this one year; I'm not sure why they stopped.

IAWTC. Our group barely saw anything because most of what we wanted to see was waaaay early. But yeah, I guess that's just a preference thing and not really something that can be changed.

We ended up sitting in the way back during Yaoi Bingo and yeah, we couldn't see any of the action because of so many people standing. I'd never attended before, and found the whole thing rather weird. The announcer lady seemed very harried and kind of mean to attendees, and since we couldn't see anything it kind of eliminated the whole point of attending in the first place.

Just a question...
In Comic-con's program book, they have various fan arts. Did Fanime's program book have fan arts? I didn't look through it yet.
Also... if there is no fan arts in the program, is it possible to have a section dedicated to fan arts? Themed ones... like anniversaries or whatever?

While I haven't really looked through the book myself, if memory serves, 07's book featured fanart.

Quote from: sykoeent on May 30, 2008, 08:04:24 AMDid Fanime's program book have fan arts? I didn't look through it yet.

The FanimeCon 2008 program guide had various art from the very talented FanimeCon Art Pool.  This year's theme was Feudal Japan, so we had ninja, swordsmen, merchants, and girls in kimonos.

If you (or anybody) can get me access to the ComicCon program guide being referred to, I'd love to take a look so that I can see what you're talking about.

The fan art is actually separated from the Events (Program) Guide at Comic Con into the Souvenir Book:
http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_progbk.shtml

I'm sure it's fairly expensive to produce (though lower quality paper than Fanime's program guide by far, and only black and white) and while nifty, there are a lot of events/departments at Fanime that could benefit from the cost.  I can try to dig one up for the next meeting though.

I really liked the Fanime Program Guide this year - great job by the Art Pool and Pubs!

mabe someone should make this thread a sticky so it doesn't get lost in the shuffles of post

Ooohhh, my thread got stickied. Just because:

(https://forums.fanime.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv338%2FTifaFan666%2FTomo-Sticky.jpg&hash=24382d85815a6af11cbc207d866500cd359750d5)

Now back to your regurlar  scheduled thread XD

Okay.. Here's my list..

Pros:
~ Artist Alley--I wish they wouldn't have sold out so early, I would have loved to have sold there. That's okay though.. NEXT YEAR!! On the merchandise side though, very wide variety, so that was awesome. I think that the AA this year was actually somewhat better than Dealers Room..

~The Panel Lineup--Great!! Although the scheduling of some kinda sucked. Kinda can't help it when you have a convention this kind of size. So I forgive you Fanime.

~FREE WI-FI!!! OMG, that single handedly made this convention the BEST CON EVER!! I've been to tons of conventions with no internet access and my hotel didn't have free Wi-Fi, so the fact that you guys had it was AWESOME!!

~The Anime Rooms: Another OMG.. There was so much to see, and I didn't even get to see it all! Oh, and yay to the Yaoi and Hentai rooms. Although, I wish there was some Yaoi on Friday night so I wouldn't have spent all of Saturday Night/Early Sunday Morning watching.

~Stage Zero: Loads of fun. Even in the middle of the night when all they did was play AMV's. Totally rocked.

~Oh, and even though the peeps that worked there didn't like this, the 24 hours Starbucks.. Awesome. I felt truly like I had stepped into otaku paradise..

The "Meh" Section

~Dealers Tables: Some cool stuff. But nothing worth seriously emptying my wallet over.

~Gaming Room: There was alot of cool stuff, but I would have seriously loved to have had some Magic The Gathering lessons. I really want to learn how to play that game. But no one has taught me yet. So that would have been a bigger plus for 2009.

~Swap Meet: Nothing super awesome. Although, I regret not buying that Kyo Kara Maoh poster..

Cons:

~Um yeah, those lines for the dance wasn't hot. As well as the An Cafe concert being on top of the B&W Ball, and my panel too.. Eh.. I still forgive you Fanime

~PADDLES WEREN'T ALLOWED AT THE CON. Now I know this is a weapons policy issue. But it wasn't anywhere in the Weapon's Policy. I think that Fanime for the future should consider either being more detailed about what is not and what is allowed, or just ban weapons altogether. Yes it would suck, but if it meant that Fanime would have one less thing to have to lose their permits over, then we can forgive them for it.

Quote from: BenihimeSama on June 01, 2008, 10:47:50 PM
~PADDLES WEREN'T ALLOWED AT THE CON. Now I know this is a weapons policy issue. But it wasn't anywhere in the Weapon's Policy. I think that Fanime for the future should consider either being more detailed about what is not and what is allowed, or just ban weapons altogether. Yes it would suck, but if it meant that Fanime would have one less thing to have to lose their permits over, then we can forgive them for it.

THese weren't banned because they're "weapons".

This year was my first convention ever and it was. Even though the lines were long you always had someone to talk too. 

Just for the record, there were a number of people wandering around with paddles.

I've been to EVERY Fanime Con. 2008 was a mixed bag for me.

Fanime Con 2008 didn't seem to go as smoothly as 2007 did.... I left 2008 in a bad mood after being treated like a prisoner during the closing ceremonies.... Yeah, congratulations on a successful convention.... *grumble grumble*

Pros:
*Lots of food options.
*Swap Meet went well from my experiences.
*The Nico Nico Douga Medley masquerade opening act.
*Guest panels were surprisingly informative.

Cons:
*Closing ceremonies. The worst closing ceremonies I've ever attended at any convention. Volunteers were very rude to attendees, especially this one guy wearing glasses who was yelling "You're not in line if you're not against the wall!" when we were all already against the wall....

When we entered the room, attendees were yelled at to take the next available seat starting on the left side of the room. After seating was done, there were great seats empty in the front on the right side....

I don't understand the need for people to be going on power trips at closing ceremonies.

Volunteers being new is no excuse for being rude and abrasive!

*Panels scheduled close together. This caused some panels to run into next and caused a lot of excessive hall traffic because of the lines for the next panel. There should be some space between each panel for clean up and set up.

Quote from: Gogetah on June 02, 2008, 10:06:38 PM

*The Nico Nico Douga Medley masquerade opening act.

I'm convincing her to do the VIP version of Melody 3.

I'm going to say flat out that I liked some parts, but thought a lot of the con has become mediocre.

Disappointments
- The Dealer's Hall sucks. Flat out. There's no variety really, no good prices, nothing I can't find for cheaper on the internet.
- The Yaoi Bingo needed a stage. Badly. Seriously, what's the point in being there if you can't see anything?
- Food; overpriced, not that good, bad hours. I realize our abilities to alter this are very, very limited, but... whatever we can do would be nice.

Praise
- Artist's Alley was really good. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of non-print stuff that was for sale. Yeah, drawings are nice, and buttons are ok, but more creative ways of displaying/using artwork would be fantastic for next year. Still, I was really pleased by what they had there. Good job to the artists (and the staff).

Ideas for Improvement
- We handed out maps featuring nearby places, could we maybe get them to give us coupons or something, and we could give menus and coupons and ads and stuff all in a little booklet? Because that would be awesome. Having a booklet with a bit more detail about the restaurants, and coupons for goodness would be nice.
- Swap-Meet could really use like, tables or something so you don't get a half-dozen people all crouched around a blanket or a square of cement.

Quote from: Aelia on June 03, 2008, 05:12:39 PM

Disappointments
- The Dealer's Hall sucks. Flat out. There's no variety really, no good prices, nothing I can't find for cheaper on the internet.
- The Yaoi Bingo needed a stage. Badly. Seriously, what's the point in being there if you can't see anything?
- Food; overpriced, not that good, bad hours. I realize our abilities to alter this are very, very limited, but... whatever we can do would be nice.

The food vendors at the con were pretty expensive. So I walked 7 minutes to Subway and got a $5 footlong each day. :P

I liked that Starbucks was 24 hours for Fanime Con. ^_^

Edit: Added the word "footlong". I could have sworn I wrote it when I originally posted this.... Did it get censored? I'm referring to Subway's deal on $5 footlong SANDWICHES.... O_o;;;

Quote from: PyronIkari on June 02, 2008, 06:05:58 PM

Quote from: BenihimeSama on June 01, 2008, 10:47:50 PM
~PADDLES WEREN'T ALLOWED AT THE CON. Now I know this is a weapons policy issue. But it wasn't anywhere in the Weapon's Policy. I think that Fanime for the future should consider either being more detailed about what is not and what is allowed, or just ban weapons altogether. Yes it would suck, but if it meant that Fanime would have one less thing to have to lose their permits over, then we can forgive them for it.

THese weren't banned because they're "weapons".

They were banned, when I went to get my paddles Peace Bonded, the dude who was doing it told me that it was not allowed at all. And he was a douchebag about it as well.

Whoa! Starbuck's open 24 hours during Fanime??? Now that's cool! I really can't wait til next year!!!

Oh, and for whoever is designing the floorplan layouts of the booths for dealers and artist alley, I can help here. It seems like there was a lot of wasted space, and a lot of the comments I've been reading about the artist alley selling out could've made the con more money in their tables.

Quote from: BenihimeSama on June 03, 2008, 11:21:25 PM

Quote from: PyronIkari on June 02, 2008, 06:05:58 PM

Quote from: BenihimeSama on June 01, 2008, 10:47:50 PM
~PADDLES WEREN'T ALLOWED AT THE CON. Now I know this is a weapons policy issue. But it wasn't anywhere in the Weapon's Policy. I think that Fanime for the future should consider either being more detailed about what is not and what is allowed, or just ban weapons altogether. Yes it would suck, but if it meant that Fanime would have one less thing to have to lose their permits over, then we can forgive them for it.

THese weren't banned because they're "weapons".

They were banned, when I went to get my paddles Peace Bonded, the dude who was doing it told me that it was not allowed at all. And he was a douchebag about it as well.

You misread what I said. They weren't banned because "they're weapons". They're banned because idiots carried them around and acted like idiots smacking each other and random people with them. They were banned because they promoted stupidity... in much the same ways that "glomp me" signs do. Only these are worse.

Especially like the yaoi or yuri paddles, it pressured people into doing things that they may not be comfortable with and then if they didn't do it they were spanked with the paddle. :( That is way uncool, peer pressure at its worst.

Quote from: BenihimeSama on June 01, 2008, 10:47:50 PM
...

~Gaming Room: There was alot of cool stuff, but I would have seriously loved to have had some Magic The Gathering lessons. I really want to learn how to play that game. But no one has taught me yet. So that would have been a bigger plus for 2009....

Magic? People still play that??? hehehehe I can teach you how to play that game if you want. I have a B&W Deck, which tends to be hard to play. But they sell some decks that are "themed", I think, and they are ready to play out of the box. I'll try to remember to bring a couple of decks next year... the only thing is, I haven't bought any new cards in a long time. I guess, the best description I've heard of Magic is that it's kinda like Yu Gi Oh... but more complicated.

It's nothing like YuGiOh at all.

It's a completely different CCG. Magic isn't that complicated at all. YuGiOh is just as complicated as Magic is, just in really different ways.

Quote from: BenihimeSama on June 03, 2008, 11:21:25 PM

Quote from: PyronIkari on June 02, 2008, 06:05:58 PM

Quote from: BenihimeSama on June 01, 2008, 10:47:50 PM
~PADDLES WEREN'T ALLOWED AT THE CON. Now I know this is a weapons policy issue. But it wasn't anywhere in the Weapon's Policy. I think that Fanime for the future should consider either being more detailed about what is not and what is allowed, or just ban weapons altogether. Yes it would suck, but if it meant that Fanime would have one less thing to have to lose their permits over, then we can forgive them for it.

THese weren't banned because they're "weapons".

They were banned, when I went to get my paddles Peace Bonded, the dude who was doing it told me that it was not allowed at all. And he was a douchebag about it as well.

Yeah I worked with him, he was the unofficial "Weapon's Master" for Masquerade so the power got to his head. Unless I read the weapon policy wrong, I dont see an issue with paddle at the Con, just standard common sense rules of not trying to hurt those around you. But I'll check with the rest of SoS/Rover and maybe next year we'll have better trained (and better guest service people working for us). I think we need an HR guy for SoS/Rovers next year. We're ACTUALLY working on a quiz/process of selecting our staff next year.

Quote from: PyronIkari on June 04, 2008, 12:13:22 AM
It's nothing like YuGiOh at all.

It's a completely different CCG. Magic isn't that complicated at all. YuGiOh is just as complicated as Magic is, just in really different ways.

It's a trap?

Quote from: FanFicGuru on June 04, 2008, 01:50:13 PM

Quote from: PyronIkari on June 04, 2008, 12:13:22 AM
It's nothing like YuGiOh at all.

It's a completely different CCG. Magic isn't that complicated at all. YuGiOh is just as complicated as Magic is, just in really different ways.

It's a trap?

I went to a Yu-Gi-Oh regionals tournament once, and acted like I was on the TV show. I almost made a kid cry when I stood up on my chair, "DRAW CARD!" (insert awesome hand motions here) "I SUMMON A MONSTER WITH THE LIKES YOU'VE NEVER SEEN! I SUMMON THE DARK MAGICIAN!!!!!!!!!!" "DARK MAGICIAN!!! DARK MAGIC ATTACK!!!!!!!!!!" And then I threw my dark magician at him "I HAVE DEFEATED YOU, RETURN BACK TO YOUR HOLE!" And kept doing awesome hand movements and posing.

It's hillarious beating someone when you act like that.

There was this other kid who totally had me beat and the only possible way I could have won was this single card that is limited to 1 a deck. So I was screaming "I BELIEVE IN THE HEART OF THE CARDS. YUUUUUUUUU-GIIIIIIIIII-OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! IT'S TIME TO DU DU DU DU DUELLLLLLL!" And I draw the card... get the card I needed, and won. The guy nearly shit himself. It was so awesome.

PyronIkari,
You just made my day.
Nay, my life.

Please stay awesome,
FF

PyronIkari the though of you acting that way makes me giggle inside :D

Quote from: PyronIkari on June 04, 2008, 09:42:40 PM

Quote from: FanFicGuru on June 04, 2008, 01:50:13 PM

Quote from: PyronIkari on June 04, 2008, 12:13:22 AM
It's nothing like YuGiOh at all.

It's a completely different CCG. Magic isn't that complicated at all. YuGiOh is just as complicated as Magic is, just in really different ways.

It's a trap?

I went to a Yu-Gi-Oh regionals tournament once, and acted like I was on the TV show. I almost made a kid cry when I stood up on my chair, "DRAW CARD!" (insert awesome hand motions here) "I SUMMON A MONSTER WITH THE LIKES YOU'VE NEVER SEEN! I SUMMON THE DARK MAGICIAN!!!!!!!!!!" "DARK MAGICIAN!!! DARK MAGIC ATTACK!!!!!!!!!!" And then I threw my dark magician at him "I HAVE DEFEATED YOU, RETURN BACK TO YOUR HOLE!" And kept doing awesome hand movements and posing.

It's hillarious beating someone when you act like that.

There was this other kid who totally had me beat and the only possible way I could have won was this single card that is limited to 1 a deck. So I was screaming "I BELIEVE IN THE HEART OF THE CARDS. YUUUUUUUUU-GIIIIIIIIII-OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! IT'S TIME TO DU DU DU DU DUELLLLLLL!" And I draw the card... get the card I needed, and won. The guy nearly shit himself. It was so awesome.

Video, or it didn't happen.  ;)

(also, damn. Haven't played Magic for half a year now. NOT interested in getting back into the draft and sealed deck scene, though- not when I heard that they're pulling a stupid stunt like adding a "mythic rare" rarity level to the next bloody set. Is MTG's sales in such dire straits that they need such an obvious sales inflater like this? Timespiral purples were blatant enough- at least they were just reprints.)

Quote from: Sucrose on May 29, 2008, 10:23:34 PM

Quote from: Kyokun on May 29, 2008, 01:10:03 PM
Anime schedule was weird.  Absolutely everything interesting was shown in the early morning (like 8 am or earlier).  I realize that's my preference and whatnot, but yeah... that was strange.  We actually ended up watching NO anime (at the con) this year due to weird scheduling.  Watched anime instead in our hotel room.

Bishie bingo attendees don't know wtf a chair is for, i.e.: you SIT in it so that people BEHIND YOU can SEE.  If you're a 6' guy, why the fuck do you need to stand on a chair?  Also they created a fire hazard by rushing the center aisle.  Everyone was standing on a chair, which made seeing the front impossible.  Ended up yanking a chair off the end and dragging it to the side aisle because I couldn't see a damn thing.  It would help if the strippers had a stage to stand on.  They did this one year; I'm not sure why they stopped.

IAWTC. Our group barely saw anything because most of what we wanted to see was waaaay early. But yeah, I guess that's just a preference thing and not really something that can be changed.

We ended up sitting in the way back during Yaoi Bingo and yeah, we couldn't see any of the action because of so many people standing. I'd never attended before, and found the whole thing rather weird. The announcer lady seemed very harried and kind of mean to attendees, and since we couldn't see anything it kind of eliminated the whole point of attending in the first place.

I completely agree. The anime schedule seemed a little weird to me too. Several popular shows (Mushishi and Hell Girl form what I remember) were scheduled for Monday afternoon when many of the attendees were either trying to check-out of their hotel rooms or gone.

And yaoi-bingo needs either a stage or a camera that can project onto the screen. Once the place fills up it's impossible to see anything unless you're in the first 5 rows. Either that or they need to prevent people from rushing into the asile or standing on the chairs; it's really inconsiderate to the rest of the audience.

Quote from: phoenixphire24 on June 05, 2008, 01:57:37 PM

Quote from: Sucrose on May 29, 2008, 10:23:34 PM

Quote from: Kyokun on May 29, 2008, 01:10:03 PM
Anime schedule was weird.  Absolutely everything interesting was shown in the early morning (like 8 am or earlier).  I realize that's my preference and whatnot, but yeah... that was strange.  We actually ended up watching NO anime (at the con) this year due to weird scheduling.  Watched anime instead in our hotel room.

Bishie bingo attendees don't know wtf a chair is for, i.e.: you SIT in it so that people BEHIND YOU can SEE.  If you're a 6' guy, why the fuck do you need to stand on a chair?  Also they created a fire hazard by rushing the center aisle.  Everyone was standing on a chair, which made seeing the front impossible.  Ended up yanking a chair off the end and dragging it to the side aisle because I couldn't see a damn thing.  It would help if the strippers had a stage to stand on.  They did this one year; I'm not sure why they stopped.

IAWTC. Our group barely saw anything because most of what we wanted to see was waaaay early. But yeah, I guess that's just a preference thing and not really something that can be changed.

We ended up sitting in the way back during Yaoi Bingo and yeah, we couldn't see any of the action because of so many people standing. I'd never attended before, and found the whole thing rather weird. The announcer lady seemed very harried and kind of mean to attendees, and since we couldn't see anything it kind of eliminated the whole point of attending in the first place.

I completely agree. The anime schedule seemed a little weird to me too. Several popular shows (Mushishi and Hell Girl form what I remember) were scheduled for Monday afternoon when many of the attendees were either trying to check-out of their hotel rooms or gone.

And yaoi-bingo needs either a stage or a camera that can project onto the screen. Once the place fills up it's impossible to see anything unless you're in the first 5 rows. Either that or they need to prevent people from rushing into the asile or standing on the chairs; it's really inconsiderate to the rest of the audience.

Mushishi popular? Since when? It did rather poorly despite being one of the best reviewed series.Jigoku Shoujo isn't very popular either. It's popular amongst it's fans, and they make a huge deal out of it like it's amazing... but it's hardly popular.

Quote from: PyronIkari on June 04, 2008, 09:42:40 PM

Quote from: FanFicGuru on June 04, 2008, 01:50:13 PM

Quote from: PyronIkari on June 04, 2008, 12:13:22 AM
It's nothing like YuGiOh at all.

It's a completely different CCG. Magic isn't that complicated at all. YuGiOh is just as complicated as Magic is, just in really different ways.

It's a trap?

I went to a Yu-Gi-Oh regionals tournament once, and acted like I was on the TV show. I almost made a kid cry when I stood up on my chair, "DRAW CARD!" (insert awesome hand motions here) "I SUMMON A MONSTER WITH THE LIKES YOU'VE NEVER SEEN! I SUMMON THE DARK MAGICIAN!!!!!!!!!!" "DARK MAGICIAN!!! DARK MAGIC ATTACK!!!!!!!!!!" And then I threw my dark magician at him "I HAVE DEFEATED YOU, RETURN BACK TO YOUR HOLE!" And kept doing awesome hand movements and posing.

It's hillarious beating someone when you act like that.

There was this other kid who totally had me beat and the only possible way I could have won was this single card that is limited to 1 a deck. So I was screaming "I BELIEVE IN THE HEART OF THE CARDS. YUUUUUUUUU-GIIIIIIIIII-OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! IT'S TIME TO DU DU DU DU DUELLLLLLL!" And I draw the card... get the card I needed, and won. The guy nearly shit himself. It was so awesome.

Holy shit this...Is awesome XD

AA was even better this year :3 And to me that's pretty much the whole con right there (yes simple tastes I know but it's where almost all my friends are).

The only quibble I had was about the ANcafe tickets, I entered the code to save one yet when I checked at the right times on both Thrusday and Friday no tickets were availible. I ended up not going but that had more to deal with the fact that a friend of mine I planned on going with ended up not making the con then the seeming lack of tickets on day zero and one of the con.

The Dealer's Room did seem to lack as much variety but I hardly even consider spending money there so that didn't bother me as much as it possibly should.

Quote from: Hirotona on June 05, 2008, 02:57:02 PM

The only quibble I had was about the ANcafe tickets, I entered the code to save one yet when I checked at the right times on both Thrusday and Friday no tickets were availible. I ended up not going but that had more to deal with the fact that a friend of mine I planned on going with ended up not making the con then the seeming lack of tickets on day zero and one of the con.

(o.O;  ) I was in the ticket booth during the Thursday afternoon and Friday morning shifts, and made sure to open the window at the times listed on the website (these times were posted on the ticket booth window as well). We even made sure to stay a half-hour+ afterwards in case there were some stragglers because we hadn't given away the allotted number of tickets yet, so there were definitely tickets available during those times...I wasn't covering the Friday afternoon shift, but I can definitely say there were concert tickets available on Thursday afternoon + Friday morning for those who used the code as long as you were there when the ticket booth was open according to the schedule...

Quote from: PyronIkari on June 05, 2008, 02:11:48 PM

Quote from: phoenixphire24 on June 05, 2008, 01:57:37 PM

Quote from: Sucrose on May 29, 2008, 10:23:34 PM

Quote from: Kyokun on May 29, 2008, 01:10:03 PM
Anime schedule was weird.  Absolutely everything interesting was shown in the early morning (like 8 am or earlier).  I realize that's my preference and whatnot, but yeah... that was strange.  We actually ended up watching NO anime (at the con) this year due to weird scheduling.  Watched anime instead in our hotel room.

Bishie bingo attendees don't know wtf a chair is for, i.e.: you SIT in it so that people BEHIND YOU can SEE.  If you're a 6' guy, why the fuck do you need to stand on a chair?  Also they created a fire hazard by rushing the center aisle.  Everyone was standing on a chair, which made seeing the front impossible.  Ended up yanking a chair off the end and dragging it to the side aisle because I couldn't see a damn thing.  It would help if the strippers had a stage to stand on.  They did this one year; I'm not sure why they stopped.

IAWTC. Our group barely saw anything because most of what we wanted to see was waaaay early. But yeah, I guess that's just a preference thing and not really something that can be changed.

We ended up sitting in the way back during Yaoi Bingo and yeah, we couldn't see any of the action because of so many people standing. I'd never attended before, and found the whole thing rather weird. The announcer lady seemed very harried and kind of mean to attendees, and since we couldn't see anything it kind of eliminated the whole point of attending in the first place.

I completely agree. The anime schedule seemed a little weird to me too. Several popular shows (Mushishi and Hell Girl form what I remember) were scheduled for Monday afternoon when many of the attendees were either trying to check-out of their hotel rooms or gone.

And yaoi-bingo needs either a stage or a camera that can project onto the screen. Once the place fills up it's impossible to see anything unless you're in the first 5 rows. Either that or they need to prevent people from rushing into the asile or standing on the chairs; it's really inconsiderate to the rest of the audience.

Mushishi popular? Since when? It did rather poorly despite being one of the best reviewed series.Jigoku Shoujo isn't very popular either. It's popular amongst it's fans, and they make a huge deal out of it like it's amazing... but it's hardly popular.

...Jigoku Shoujo has fans?! It's the same damned repetitive formula every episode! The only possible appeal that I can think of is maybe... amongst... the lolicons.

Oh.

...damned perverts.

Well whenever I asked the staff they must have informed me wrong /shrug

Oh well I'm not too worried nor upset about it ^^; The fact that they were giving away tickets in the AA and I didn't choose to get one shows that the concert wasn't really a big priority for me.

Quote from: Kaura117 on June 05, 2008, 03:16:36 PM


...Jigoku Shoujo has fans?! It's the same damned repetitive formula every episode! The only possible appeal that I can think of is maybe... amongst... the lolicons.

Oh.

...damned perverts.

The point of the story really, is to criticize Japanese culture and how it works. Frankly... I doubt 99% of the American fan base even remotely understood it, or how it applied. But yeah, it is niche fan circle. But that circle really likes it for some reason.

Mushishi is great. It's not popular, but I do with it was shown at a better time just to expose more people to the series.

Quote from: PyronIkari on June 04, 2008, 09:42:40 PM

Quote from: FanFicGuru on June 04, 2008, 01:50:13 PM

Quote from: PyronIkari on June 04, 2008, 12:13:22 AM
It's nothing like YuGiOh at all.

It's a completely different CCG. Magic isn't that complicated at all. YuGiOh is just as complicated as Magic is, just in really different ways.

It's a trap?

I went to a Yu-Gi-Oh regionals tournament once, and acted like I was on the TV show. I almost made a kid cry when I stood up on my chair, "DRAW CARD!" (insert awesome hand motions here) "I SUMMON A MONSTER WITH THE LIKES YOU'VE NEVER SEEN! I SUMMON THE DARK MAGICIAN!!!!!!!!!!" "DARK MAGICIAN!!! DARK MAGIC ATTACK!!!!!!!!!!" And then I threw my dark magician at him "I HAVE DEFEATED YOU, RETURN BACK TO YOUR HOLE!" And kept doing awesome hand movements and posing.

It's hillarious beating someone when you act like that.

There was this other kid who totally had me beat and the only possible way I could have won was this single card that is limited to 1 a deck. So I was screaming "I BELIEVE IN THE HEART OF THE CARDS. YUUUUUUUUU-GIIIIIIIIII-OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! IT'S TIME TO DU DU DU DU DUELLLLLLL!" And I draw the card... get the card I needed, and won. The guy nearly shit himself. It was so awesome.

That does sound awesome on a whole other level, now were you yelling for all to hear or yelling to get you point by but not cause a scene?

Quote from: PyronIkari on June 05, 2008, 07:03:51 PM

Quote from: Kaura117 on June 05, 2008, 03:16:36 PM


...Jigoku Shoujo has fans?! It's the same damned repetitive formula every episode! The only possible appeal that I can think of is maybe... amongst... the lolicons.

Oh.

...damned perverts.

The point of the story really, is to criticize Japanese culture and how it works. Frankly... I doubt 99% of the American fan base even remotely understood it, or how it applied. But yeah, it is niche fan circle. But that circle really likes it for some reason.

Mushishi is great. It's not popular, but I do with it was shown at a better time just to expose more people to the series.

Oh, I got its message. Some of it cross-applies to other Asiatic cultural trends. Doesn't stop it from being a boring waste of time, though.

Quote from: Jelly Soup on May 26, 2008, 06:17:52 PM-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.

It was requested (via PM) that I explain this further.

There were supposed to be two One Piece movies played over the con. On the first night, the little twit running the computer showed the second movie we were to see. Several people, me included, told her it was the wrong one. Hell, we showed right on the screen where the correct file was located (we saw it before she, for some reason, started Endless Waltz).

On the second night, we had a different person running the show. We explained the situation to him. He sympathized, but said that he had to stick to the schedule, advising that next time we get an ops to set the person straight.

Good:

I managed to get the items I wanted in the Dealers room. I've met more friendly faces, and familiar ones as well. I didn't struggle with hotel payments. I went to my first gathering.

Bad:

I didn't have anyone to hang out with[abandoned a lot]. My feet kept hurting[as expected].  My friend loves to eat all the food in my hotel. I couldn't stop giggling in the gathering pictures DX. Holding 'hug me signs' was considered 'prostitution', lolz.

I had a great time this year like last year, my first fanime as couple with me and my girlfriend. I was able to find the stuff that I want at the dealers room, the gatherings were awesome. Just the masquerade there was some skits that I like but I didn't like all of them. It was great spending time with friends that I haven't seen for about a year and spending time with friends from the bay area as well. I already pre-reg for 2009 so I'll see ya next year in 2009.

Pros:
-AMV Contest: Much better than last year, Montage 3, Day-oh, Ouran Spectacular, Code Moneky and the Gurren Lagann Be a Man were all awesome
-Registration: It felt like it was a lot quicker this year, seemed well organized
-Masquerade MCing: Ric Myers did a great job MCing, he was very entertaining
-Artist Alley: Lots of cool stuff there this year

Cons:
-Masquerade: The skits weren't as good as last year, plus it was difficult to here what some of the groups were saying, and the Haruhi dance got really annoying
-Video Rooms: Some of the shows and movies started early, some things were randomly replaced with no explanation
-Gaming Room: Could have used a few more tables, especially with all of the tournaments going on it was a bit difficult to find a table to play the tabletop stuff
-The plastic badge holder was kinda cheap, mine tore and i know some other peoples did too, I preferred the clip from last year

Yeah I enjoyed the Masquerade I think everyone did a good job but I thought that the bar was raised too high from 2007 (That was a good year) and not a lot of people could top that I was no different, a few others agreed with me after the skits.

I don't have much to say in the traditional "pro/con" way, simply because I've somewhat grown used to dealing with "con problems".

I've had a thought about the whole Staffer situation. It seems that most of the problems come from miscommunication or lack-of-training. What I'd suggest is to make the staff/volunteer hierarchy public domain (either in a physical tree-chart or some kind of table). Now, I realize the staffer's need for privacy, but I think a name/handle and perhaps an e-mail address would suffice (however, perhaps staff would be able to view things in greater detail, such as cell numbers). If that "staff" position has yet to be filled, just put TBD.

What this works to do is let people know who to talk to, and what to expect. It would be easier to forsee problems and react to at-con problems. Especially if this was on the Fanime site, it'd make communication much easier.

Quote from: Aishasama on June 19, 2008, 06:20:21 PM
I don't have much to say in the traditional "pro/con" way, simply because I've somewhat grown used to dealing with "con problems".

I've had a thought about the whole Staffer situation. It seems that most of the problems come from miscommunication or lack-of-training. What I'd suggest is to make the staff/volunteer hierarchy public domain (either in a physical tree-chart or some kind of table). Now, I realize the staffer's need for privacy, but I think a name/handle and perhaps an e-mail address would suffice (however, perhaps staff would be able to view things in greater detail, such as cell numbers). If that "staff" position has yet to be filled, just put TBD.

What this works to do is let people know who to talk to, and what to expect. It would be easier to forsee problems and react to at-con problems. Especially if this was on the Fanime site, it'd make communication much easier.

Perhaps on the staff site, but we don't think it would be a good idea for attendees to know who to contact for every little thing. Even with staff, you'd be surprised how many times they jump over their boss and believe their questions/concerns should be elevated to the Chair. No, your question about the types of anime that should be played next year shouldn't go straight to the Chair. It should go the Video Programming Manager. If you have questions about the price of food, not that we can do anything about it since it's up to the convention center, should go to Facilities, not to the Chair. If your Department Manager is not available, then bring it up to your Division Director.

We announce the Division Directors and Department Managers at the meetings. If you have questions, and if you're on staff, then you should bring your concerns to your head, there. If you're an attendee, then when the website gets back up, there will be e-mail addresses available to help you address your concerns.

I know alot of people will disagree with me on this (and i guess thats kinda the point of this thread) but I honestly got up and walked out of the mascaraed with all of my friends after about the 8th or 9th group.  I'm tired of mascaraed shows that are based around inside jokes that you HAVE to be OBSESSED with the certain show to understand and find funny.  I laughed at ONE joke the entire time i was there, aside from that one joke i sat there confused doing my best to understand what was so damn funny.  Please for the love of god, come up with a mascaraed skit that most people (if not everyone) can benefit from.  In all honesty i saw my attendance (or rather what i did attend) of the 2008 Mascaraed to be a waste of my time.

Quote from: Poacher on July 02, 2008, 03:47:01 PM
I know alot of people will disagree with me on this (and i guess thats kinda the point of this thread) but I honestly got up and walked out of the mascaraed with all of my friends after about the 8th or 9th group.  I'm tired of mascaraed shows that are based around inside jokes that you HAVE to be OBSESSED with the certain show to understand and find funny.  I laughed at ONE joke the entire time i was there, aside from that one joke i sat there confused doing my best to understand what was so damn funny.  Please for the love of god, come up with a mascaraed skit that most people (if not everyone) can benefit from.  In all honesty i saw my attendance (or rather what i did attend) of the 2008 Mascaraed to be a waste of my time.

Thanks for the feedback. Just keep in mind that we hold the show but the content of the Masquerade is entirely up to your fellow attendees. And so the current challenge for them (and any cosplaying group interested in performing) for 2009 is to come up with more interesting skits/performances.

oh i know, and i was hoping that it would be the attendees themselves who would read this in the course of reading through other's feedback (much the same way i did).

Quote from: Poacher on July 02, 2008, 03:47:01 PM
I know alot of people will disagree with me on this (and i guess thats kinda the point of this thread) but I honestly got up and walked out of the mascaraed with all of my friends after about the 8th or 9th group.  I'm tired of mascaraed shows that are based around inside jokes that you HAVE to be OBSESSED with the certain show to understand and find funny.  I laughed at ONE joke the entire time i was there, aside from that one joke i sat there confused doing my best to understand what was so damn funny.  Please for the love of god, come up with a mascaraed skit that most people (if not everyone) can benefit from.  In all honesty i saw my attendance (or rather what i did attend) of the 2008 Mascaraed to be a waste of my time.

I am sad you didn't attend the whole thing. The group I am in (Candy Mountain Cosplay) performed last...

no real inside jokes thar... anyway...

I'm planning for next year. Maybe you'll enjoy! I hope so!

I did have one compliant, when trying find someone to get the video program problem fixed it took about half hour to search for said person and we never actually did end up finding them. We had a group of people looking too, including 2 staff. Granted I know that's hard to control but it would be nice to have more than just the one person in control of videos.

pro: There are several things that I like, one of them i am thankful to make some new friends with the department of ears and tails!. They did a very well job on their business and I am very happy they did a very succesful job.
The tables is abit longer than I expected
-photoshoping to trick a certain person who will be renamed nameless!!!!
-SOMETHING HAPPENED DURING THE HOTELS THAT I WILL NOT ANNOUNCE IN PUBLIC! FOR CHRIST SAKE PLEASE KEEP SECURITY MAINTANE! I NEARLY HAD A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE IN THE HOTEL THAT SOME IDIOT MEMBER/STAFF TRIED TO DO AN IMPROPER JOKE. I Ask for Security assistance but instead i got FEDERAL ASSITANCE i am very greatful for their services but thsi was the first horrible thing that I have ever encounter!.

Cons:
-The staff (one member) is very hard to cooperate. The administrator (wont ask which department) did her best to keep things in management but there were times where she was helpful and there were some times i was very frustrated and insulted!

-Tables were Completely IMPROPERLY safe, 2 tables were about to collapse (will not ask which ones), 18 tables had POOORLY improper staple hits, 4 members of the artists are injured and were required by medical attention!. I was one of them and I had to rub it off with alchole and bandages! I REALLY SUGGEST TO change this process because It was a very painful injury! I also reported this to the administrator and so far I had a hard time to believe if she was scratched or injured!

-Account management (PAYMENT arriving) was very very bad. I was very worried about how the payment would work through but in the process everything was late. badges was replace with paper photocopies. Please tried to keep things in order.

-The artist administrator did contact me and I also contacted her but something happened!.....
She said that She tried to email me many many times about the table registrations, but did not went through my email. I know it was her responsiblity to fix this issue but she did not do a well proper job, the table I was assign was late because of her!!. Normally I would be having a great time and enjoy my time but the way things were i was sent back to the end. i was lucky that the autograph session was there along with the ears and tails comp. but I really hoe this never happens again!.
:please note I did contact her many times and she contacted me many times but in the end. I DON"T KNOW how she did not send me a notification of the table listings! This was the largest insult and most heartbraking to keep in my heart!

-new policy, Electricity was very very absent and there was 56 people using the outlets for their purposes. PLEASE KEEP IN TACT to add a lock settings to all electrical outlets! my other employer was threaten by one of your members that electricty in the artist row is not provided for members and the artist community due to the fact that it was un-affordable. I recomend you (the staff of artist row) to do paper and pencil because i know you have power for your World of Warcraft/everquest entermainent. PLEASENOTE all staff members should be doing their work. Not their leisure entertainment! if its too bored they can use either take a break or Walk around and see other peoples smile! I REALLY recommend that ALL electrical OUTLETS BE SHUT DOWN within the artist row only!
note: this includes people who want to recharge the battery, recharge their portable cellulars, Recharge the notebooks, and other electrical appliances~!

-SOMETHING HAPPENED DURING THE HOTELS THAT I WILL NOT ANNOUNCE IN PUBLIC! FOR CHRIST SAKE PLEASE KEEP SECURITY MAINTANE! I NEARLY HAD A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE IN THE HOTEL THAT SOME IDIOT MEMBER/STAFF TRIED TO DO AN IMPROPER JOKE. I ASk for ZSecurity assistance but instead i got FEDERAL ASSITANCE i am very greatful for their services but thsi was the first horrible thing that I have ever encounter!.

please be advise im not complaining but this is regarding about safety and First time experience,.......I will attend those meetings and Will talk to you one by one!
Thank you for your consideration and reading!

Quote from: sunrise-oasis on September 20, 2008, 08:02:31 PM
-new policy, Electricity was very very absent and there was 56 people using the outlets for their purposes. PLEASE KEEP IN TACT to add a lock settings to all electrical outlets! my other employer was threaten by one of your members that electricty in the artist row is not provided for members and the artist community due to the fact that it was un-affordable. I recomend you (the staff of artist row) to do paper and pencil because i know you have power for your World of Warcraft/everquest entermainent. PLEASENOTE all staff members should be doing their work. Not their leisure entertainment! if its too bored they can use either take a break or Walk around and see other peoples smile! I REALLY recommend that ALL electrical OUTLETS BE SHUT DOWN within the artist row only!
note: this includes people who want to recharge the battery, recharge their portable cellulars, Recharge the notebooks, and other electrical appliances~!

What? You're kinda jumping around here. There wasn't enough plugs on the artist row, is that what you're getting at?

Tables: I apologize for the tables. The staples are notoriously unpredictable. Let the AA staff know and they can contact the decorator to rectify the situation

Payment delay: We had a combination of some reorganization and some mis-communications. We continue to work towards the improvement of Fanime.

Contact problems: We repeatedly attempted to contact you via e-mail. We were unaware you were not receiving our e-mails and were under the impression that you were no longer interested in exhibiting at the alley.

Electricity: Simply put, outlets are far too expensive to have on a per table basis. They would be roughly $120 per outlet. We are willing to offer outlets to be shared by a group of tables but that must be requested. The gaming room is an entirely different situation as those room's designs are just for gaming, whereas the alley is setup for exhibition. We provide the one outlet at the staff table for charging items, and we ask that you not abuse that privilege.

Thank you for your comments and we will keep them in mind in this year's planing

I agree, 2007 was just too good a year.  But anyways these people work very hard on their skits I'd like to believe.  Where I find walkons pretty boring I see their point for putting them spread throughout the show.  If they waited till the end no one would probably stick around. 
There are only two problems I had with the Show this year.  I missed the MC from 2007 he was awesome and so funny.  Even his little walk ons for 2008 were funny.  Ask him to do it again!
The second problem is more of a complaint about the audience.  I know there was a lot of Haruhi dancing but it really ticked me off when the audience started booing outright at the preformers.  It takes a lot of guts to go up there infront of a crowd.  I just wanted to punch those people...

To the girl that did the Nico Nico song for an opening, that was awesome!  We should have more openings like that.

Tables: Just try using those safety clips, they are kinda cheap and they prevent to injure anyone. Its just a nice idea though.

Payment: Im happy it went through, and I was able to get the table!

Contacts: HOW can my email rejected???? i did'nt recieve ANy emails.if it did'nt went through, why did'nt stacy notified me with the other email i provided her? I know she was working very hard but, I tried to contact her and her emails bounced right off, if I paid you guys, then you know i wanted the table so badly! I worked very hard to earn that table!

electricty: I Suggest to get something to Locked the plugs. It was'nt the gaming I was talking about, IT was the artist row. I saw 2 peopl using the outling to charge their cameras (and they are not professionals, just average people taking advantage to your electricity without payment), then 1 guy shows up with his camcorder on the other side of the Auction area NEXT to you recharging. Then came another guy with his Computer and charged it there for 1 hour, left the bag and told someone to stay hear and make sure no one stole my computer). I think its time you should locked those sockets with a plastic plug that does'nt come off!. I know you can provide electricity to some people. but after that Threat we got from Stacy, it was just heartbroken!. He did'nt mean to do anyharm! Try something to plug those things and get more enforcements to make sure no one gets them. Otherwise I can prove to you that I can get electricty for free without having you guys know it!

Advice: Add a SECOND email address on all table artrow forms
Also.. why did'nt you contact us through the telephone? I was very sure Stacy/ some moderator would have the time to contact us and notify us!. and please don't say "you don't have enough time" you have some people there that is willing to help you!.....

Idea: Just to be safe, I think its time you guys choose the tables and not us, because i fear that the process is go by emails one by one and in the end result the first 30 people you notify will get the tables first before any of us can! I don't know if you contacted them by who pays first (i doubt this because you need clearance from the payment department) so I assume you guys went random!

Quote from: ewu on September 22, 2008, 12:21:48 AM
Tables: I apologize for the tables. The staples are notoriously unpredictable. Let the AA staff know and they can contact the decorator to rectify the situation

Payment delay: We had a combination of some reorganization and some mis-communications. We continue to work towards the improvement of Fanime.

Contact problems: We repeatedly attempted to contact you via e-mail. We were unaware you were not receiving our e-mails and were under the impression that you were no longer interested in exhibiting at the alley.

Electricity: Simply put, outlets are far too expensive to have on a per table basis. They would be roughly $120 per outlet. We are willing to offer outlets to be shared by a group of tables but that must be requested. The gaming room is an entirely different situation as those room's designs are just for gaming, whereas the alley is setup for exhibition. We provide the one outlet at the staff table for charging items, and we ask that you not abuse that privilege.

Thank you for your comments and we will keep them in mind in this year's planing

We contract out decoration and everything in the room that isn't the room itself. I will try to notify the decorator, but in the end it is their discretion what they use.

There are many reasons why an e-mail fails and the staff performed all reasonable steps to contact you. In the end, you were placed. There are 200+ other artists to take in account. It is unfortunate that circumstances did not end in your favor. I hope that this does not happen again this year.

I am sure that the AA staff has noted your electrical concerns. I will see if we can review the policy regarding the power use in the room.

We'll take your suggestions in account and look at how we can improve AA.

Quote from: sunrise-oasis on October 03, 2008, 02:21:41 AM
Tables: Just try using those safety clips, they are kinda cheap and they prevent to injure anyone. Its just a nice idea though.

Payment: Im happy it went through, and I was able to get the table!

Contacts: HOW can my email rejected???? i did'nt recieve ANy emails.if it did'nt went through, why did'nt stacy notified me with the other email i provided her? I know she was working very hard but, I tried to contact her and her emails bounced right off, if I paid you guys, then you know i wanted the table so badly! I worked very hard to earn that table!

electricty: I Suggest to get something to Locked the plugs. It was'nt the gaming I was talking about, IT was the artist row. I saw 2 peopl using the outling to charge their cameras (and they are not professionals, just average people taking advantage to your electricity without payment), then 1 guy shows up with his camcorder on the other side of the Auction area NEXT to you recharging. Then came another guy with his Computer and charged it there for 1 hour, left the bag and told someone to stay hear and make sure no one stole my computer). I think its time you should locked those sockets with a plastic plug that does'nt come off!. I know you can provide electricity to some people. but after that Threat we got from Stacy, it was just heartbroken!. He did'nt mean to do anyharm! Try something to plug those things and get more enforcements to make sure no one gets them. Otherwise I can prove to you that I can get electricty for free without having you guys know it!

Advice: Add a SECOND email address on all table artrow forms
Also.. why did'nt you contact us through the telephone? I was very sure Stacy/ some moderator would have the time to contact us and notify us!. and please don't say "you don't have enough time" you have some people there that is willing to help you!.....

Idea: Just to be safe, I think its time you guys choose the tables and not us, because i fear that the process is go by emails one by one and in the end result the first 30 people you notify will get the tables first before any of us can! I don't know if you contacted them by who pays first (i doubt this because you need clearance from the payment department) so I assume you guys went random!

Quote from: sunrise-oasis on October 03, 2008, 02:21:41 AM
electricty: I Suggest to get something to Locked the plugs. It was'nt the gaming I was talking about, IT was the artist row. I saw 2 peopl using the outling to charge their cameras (and they are not professionals, just average people taking advantage to your electricity without payment), then 1 guy shows up with his camcorder on the other side of the Auction area NEXT to you recharging. Then came another guy with his Computer and charged it there for 1 hour, left the bag and told someone to stay hear and make sure no one stole my computer). I think its time you should locked those sockets with a plastic plug that does'nt come off!. I know you can provide electricity to some people. but after that Threat we got from Stacy, it was just heartbroken!. He did'nt mean to do anyharm! Try something to plug those things and get more enforcements to make sure no one gets them. Otherwise I can prove to you that I can get electricty for free without having you guys know it!

I spoke at length with the head of AA. The only location for power is the staff table. No one is permitted to charge or plug in without staff permission. Any other outlets in the room are not open but will also not be locked. The staff will ask anyone plugging to unplug. We want to provide a good room and a fun room and with that comes rules to ensure that for the remaining artists. If you are asked to do something by staff, please comply. If you refuse or persist the staff may be forced to remove you from the room for the benefit of the many other artists in the room.