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Messages - Amarok

#1
If anyone wants to split a space on Thursday night, send me a message, yooo! I'm already registered and paid, and I'll be there either way, but it would be nice to split costs since I think I can probably condense my stuff to half a space.   :D
#2
Hotel and Facilities / Re: Fanime 2016 Roommate thread
February 19, 2016, 02:38:03 PM
Room needed! Posting before hotel reservations open up so I can get my plea for a spot in early.  :P

Introduction: I'm Mark! This is my 4th or 5th Fanime. I'm a dude in my 20s, flying down from Oregon. I love cosplaying, RPGs, drawing, and Japanese music. I'm pretty friendly/laid-back, but a responsible roomie. I don't smoke and usually don't drink much at cons, and I don't have any large props this year, so I don't need a lot of space! I'm LGBT-friendly and happy to room with people of whatever gender/orientation. I'm usually out and about at the con so just head back to room for sleeping/changing/fixing up cosplay.

Hotel Information: Looking for Thurs-Mon, any hotel within walking distance of the con, so Ramada's fine too.

Requirements: I would like a room key. That's it! I'm happy sleeping on a floor, paying in advance, whatever.

Contact: PMS on here are good, but you can e-mail me at [email protected] as well. You can also hit me up on twitter (@amarokster).

Thank yooouuu
#3
My 2 cents--just like I'm not really interested in seeing dub actors, I'm not really interested in seeing local bands, although I totally get that there are people who may want it. I always make an effort to go see all the Japanese bands you guys get to play every year even when they're not a genre I'm particularly into because I know the amount of work it takes to get somebody from overseas, and I appreciate the rare opportunity to get to see bands I wouldn't otherwise without going to Japan.  :D It's one of the big highlights of Fanime for me, so I'd be pretty disappointed if you went for local cover bands instead. If it's a numbers thing, I'd much rather see one or two artists from Japan instead of a bunch of local bands. And I agree with all of Ecchi ja Nai's comments/alternatives!
#4
Before I blast you guys with some negative feedback, I wanted to say that I absolutely had a fantastic time at Fanime this year! I can't wait to come back next year. My hat goes off to everybody for their hard work in making it happen, and I appreciate all the hours and effort that it took. My negative feedback is just because I feel Fanime suffers from some poor organizational problems that hurt its reputation and experience for attendees. Fixing some of these things would really help make it an even better con and one that people can look forward to not only for the fun, but for being well-organized and responsive.

Swap meet:
*Signs for swap meet at the convention center were vague/confusing. Would've helped a lot to have a clear indication of where it was and how to get there, especially considering signs for most other things were put right near where their events were.
*spread out the seller spots more? There was a lot of space in there not being used, and with the crowds of people looking at stuff, it was rough to get around at times.
*thumbs up to the bigger space and to getting people in there quickly after it opened. I don't know how it was on the seller end, but as a general attendee, I thought it seemed to be going really smoothly!

Guests:
*Better moderation/enforcement of policies and behavior in guest panels. Making it clear to attendees at start of Q+A panels what is and is not acceptable. (should be common sense, but didn't seem to be... :( )
*Putting guest panels in the larger panel rooms, especially if they are a popular guest.
*I really want to see more Japanese guests, but if it's going to be mostly Western guests, I'd at least love to see more who aren't related to dubs or localizations of things so people like myself who aren't interested in dubs can still have guests to look forward to. Youtubers/Let's Players are a great potential group of guests, for example.

Guides:
*Offer information on big events that aren't included in the time schedule more consistently and prominently. These seemed to be completely glossed over. Things like the swap meet, dance, casino night, cosplay spectacular, karaoke room, etc would be randomly mentioned in a small note somewhere, and that was it. Give them the space/mention they deserve in the pocket guide. These are major things, so why aren't they given any emphasis with their times and locations stated?
*don't force people to sign up for an account on some random site just so they can download the guidebook, if possible. The guidebook app is a great solution if the concern is that you need to be able to update it at the last minute.

Artist alley:
*please be more put together, on time, and transparent with registration for the artists. I saw a lot of people freaking out and stressed out by the poor timing and organization, and I think the guidelines for judging people's entries need to be made more clear.
*more helpful signs for where the entrance is, as it was out of the way and hard to find. Or use a more prominent door as the entrance instead of a side door way in the back.

Misc thumbs down:
*Cosplay hangout seemed kind of removed and maybe could've been in a more central location.
*Everything announced last minute, complete lack of updates until last couple of weeks before con, poor responses/lack of responses from Fanime staff regarding lots of things. It is really difficult to place any faith in the convention coming together when it seems like everything only gets finalized or announced at the last second, and the responses from Fanime never give good, factual information and just seem to be excuses or stock responses. I'm sure even if it's something unfortunate like a confession of something gone wrong, people would appreciate a genuine explanation rather than a, "When it's set in stone, you guys!" sort of line regarding concerns or questions.

Misc thumbs up:
*Registration is awesome now, keep it up. Going through the empty lines felt like doing a victory lap. :D
*Stage zero stuff was great and entertaining to watch when I was killing time. Nice variety!
*LOVED that gaming hall was open Thursday night.
*Nostalgia video room had a great selection.
*Dealer's room had a huge selection and was spread out enough that it wasn't crazy trying to walk through.
*A lot of the staff members at the con were really friendly and helpful.
*actual convention seemed to be running well despite the poor pre-con organization!
#5
I agree with Kuudere for the most part about the BACK-ON Q&A panel. It was so embarrassing and awkward, and I was really angry at all the people who kept asking for autographs and things like that. I just wanted to apologize like... on behalf of the entire convention, uugghh. I would've thought it's common sense to ask for autographs at an AUTOGRAPH SESSION and not a general Q & A panel where you're wasting both the guests' time and the other audience members', but apparently not. :/ 

I hate to say it, but I think that the only way things like this can be prevented is if at the very start of Q & A panels, it's announced that you can't ask for high fives, hugs, pictures with the guest, autographs, items, or whatever, and that if you want to ask more than one question you should get back in line for the second one/wait until more people have had a chance to ask first questions before coming back up again or something like that to prevent people from asking a bunch of questions at once. 

I don't mind so much that there were repeat questions because those might have come from people who came in to the panel midway and missed that a question was already asked, but the rambling non-questions were definitely a problem--in particular, even after people had been told to stop asking for autographs, there was one individual who kept asking for one and wouldn't stop going on and on in front of the mic with no real question but just kind of a desperate rant, and it was so painful. The panel was in major need of a "bad guy" to enforce some rules and get people away if they clearly had no question.

I have to respectfully disagree about the suggestion to force people to ask questions in English, though. I speak fluent Japanese, and I really hate the thought of being forced to ask something in English and have someone else translate it, possibly not getting the meaning across that I wanted, when I could just ask in Japanese myself. I've seen occasions where translators for guests at cons completely change the meaning of someone's question from when it was in English, and I really prefer to avoid that if at all possible. Also, Japanese fans sometimes come to guest panels and want to ask questions (logically) in Japanese, so I think it would be ridiculous to expect them to ask something in English, too. I think the people who want to ask rude things are unfortunately going to attempt to do so whether or not you tell them they can only do it in English. 
#6
I'm going to be a broken record and make the exact same feedback I made last year:

It would be really helpful if attendees could know if something being shown was a dub or a sub without having to go all the way down to the room to check it out. This could be as simple as putting a (S) or (D) after the title of something in the programming and would be helpful to many people, as I know lots of folks tend to prefer watching either dubs or subs.




Also, the subtitles on one of the Asian films being shown were REALLY messed up, like displayed subtitles were 45 seconds ahead of the video messed up. I don't know if this just wasn't brought to anybody's attention, but it didn't seem great that a film had just been left running like that. It was pretty much unwatchable because of that, unfortunately. :(
#7
It is REALLY embarrassing for Fanime that the guests basically have to announce themselves because Fanime isn't going to do it for them.

I would love to know the actual reason for why Fanime fails to announce guests because it's clearly NOT that it hasn't been set in stone, as much as they seem to love throwing that line out at any given moment. Is it laziness? Incompetence? Poor organizational structure/accountability?

Whatever it is, it would do a lot more good for Fanime's image to fess up to the actual problem and say how they're going to address it in the future rather than saying nothing or making excuses that clearly aren't true.  :-\
#8
Hope to make it to one of these with my Flynn (SMT IV) cosplay! Thank you for remembering SMT exists, even though it will probably be all Persona cosplayers besides me, lol
#9
Reusing my post from last year 'cause I'm lazy!

Need a room!

+ Introduction: Hi there!  My name's Mark, and I'm a dude in my mid-20s who lives in Portland. I'm a cosplayer, gamer, artist, fan of animu/manga, and I'm really easy-going, friendly, clean, and responsible. I had such an awesome time at Fanime last year that even though I moved to the NW since then, I'm coming back again this year...

+ Hotel Information: I'm looking for a room from Thursday until Monday if possible! I'd like to be in a hotel near the convention or on the shuttle line.

+ Requirements: I'm not very picky! I'm fine with rooming with people of a variety of ages/genders--just no kids, please. I just need space for my cosplay stuff (no big props this year!)/a spot on the floor to sleep. I hope to room with people who aren't so excited for Fanime that they forget to bathe. If you're a night owl/early bird or whatever that's fine and I can totally work around your schedule! I plan on being at the con except for when sleeping for the most part, so it shouldn't be a big deal.  ;D

+ Contact: You can send me a message here or via e-mail (amarok.tristalli(at)gmail.com), although e-mail's best as a last resort in case your mail gets stuck in my spam folder. I can give you a link to my FB if you want or try to talk to you on a messenger as well!

+ Miscellaneous: I can pay in advance, and if you have any special rules I can do my best to follow them (assuming there's nothing crazy!)

Hope to hear from somebody soon, and thanks in advance. :]
#10
I would've loved to see some Nameko goods of any kind, but I guess it's not popular enough in the US? It's such a HUGE hit in Japan it's surprising anime/game fans over here don't like it.  :(
#11
I have good self-restraint, so in the dealers hall I only bought a Pokemon plush and a mini Danbo figure for about 38$ total? I surprisingly didn't buy anything in the AA because it was SO crowded and cramped in there that I got too annoyed trying to see any of the booths/get through all the masses of people, so I ended up giving up without getting a good look at everything, ugh. >_< I spent another 30$ or so at the swap meet on random stuff!

Most of my fun money went towards shoving as much food in my face as was humanly possible at all the great restaurants around town.
#12
I have to agree with the above person and say, kudos to the nostalgia room! It was a fantastic combo of old classics that I think a lot of people love and many more have never seen (but should!).

Also, unrelated but huge props to whoever picked out Yuusha Yoshihiko to show. I'd never heard of this show before and just popped in the room while it was playing to kill some time and had trouble dragging myself away (several episodes later...) because it was so funny and ridiculous. It's now at the top of my list of series to watch!

I have one minor complaint/suggestion, and that's that the only way to know whether a showing of something was dubbed or subbed was to go to the room and check it out in person while it was playing. I really wish there could've been some indication of what was a sub or dub--something as simple as a (S) or (D) at the end of a title in the programming guide would've been great! Or was each room only showing all dubs or all subs? I didn't see enough in any one room consecutively to know... If it was the case that each room was only showing one or the other, it would've been nice to have some way of knowing. I know that some people prefer dubs and some prefer subs, so if there's a way to tell what language something is in without having to go all the way there, it'd be fantastic and save a little time. :D
#13
1. seconding charles barkley, lol.
2. Working at a maid cafe.
3. Has to be in a Jojo pose at all times.
4. Believe in the me that believes in you!
5. Bad times to use your bike.
6. localization change.
#14
I will also be Punpun! :D Although I have gone for the extremely obscure and ridiculous choice of smug face triangle-head Punpun.


I hope I run into you guys!
#15
Woo! I'm just in it for fun, so I'm mostly looking forward to hearing everybody sing! :D
#16
General Convention Discussion / Re: App?
May 21, 2014, 12:52:00 PM
Aw, man, sad to be an Android user as always! But thanks for the response!  :D Hopefully it'll get updated in time to be usable.
#17
General Convention Discussion / Re: App?
May 21, 2014, 08:31:59 AM
I installed the app on my phone (Android), but all it shows is 3 dots blinking endlessly on a black background when I try to open it. :/ Not really surprised, but is there something I'm missing?
#18
I was having a hard time figuring out whether I should go to this or the attack on titan gathering, but I decided I should go to this one since pokemon fans are way nicer/friendlier (don't tell the SnK fans!) I'll be there as snorlax! Looking forward to meeting lots of other pokemon fans. :D
#19
Just a heads up that the signup form is somewhat confusing! The signup form says this:

"If you are an individual, you must fill out the information for all three songs.
If you are a group, leave the Semi-final Song fields blank. Only fill out the Prelims and Finals Song fields."


but there are only spaces to write in 2 songs to begin with, and according to all of the other threads and rules there was nothing about semi-finals, so it's a little hard to understand.
#20
General Convention Discussion / Re: Are you HYPED?!
April 30, 2014, 06:53:02 PM
I totally feel the same as you, Tetsuo! I am 100% clueless about western releases of all things anime/video games, whether it's dubs or subs or English translations of any kind (the one downside of being fluent in Japanese? :[ ), which means that I have no idea who most of the guests are since they're related to dubs of stuff. It would be nice to have more guests relevant to the Japanese side of things, or, as far as music goes, more modern/relevant stuff.

That said, I am going to just take that as an opportunity to get excited about everything else and participate in lots of things I usually don't have time for at cons since I'm stuck waiting in lines for guest panels, which won't be happening this year! I'm hoping to participate in the karaoke contest, speed dating, and maybe one or two of the cosplay gatherings. And I think not being interested in the guests just means it'll free up my schedule and let me take it easy more and go check out random stuff that's going on, so I'm still pretty hyped!


I'm also already having dreams about forgetting my cosplays at home and things like that... Anyone else? :P