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I see my last topic was deleted. Gonna make it short and sweet then. Stayed at the Marriott last year, first time in the many years since I've been coming to Fanime.

Laundry list of insanity:

First day: Checkin was at 11am. We arrived at 10:45 and had to wait until 5pm to be checked in. Never happened at any other hotel. The service was crap, the staff was rude, and we had to juggle rooms and floors to get anything despite already having paid. In the end they "Did us a favor" and gave us different rooms then we paid for on a floor reserved for pilots.

Last day: The Marriott REFUSED to let us load our car before we left on Valet until the INSTANT we had to leave. So for 20-30minutes while we unloaded our rooms we left luggage with them in the back storage room, which we were told was for storing luggage.

When we went to get our luggage to load into our car twenty minutes later, my wife's anniversary present (A large and expensive Charmander doll), and a cosplay fur coat (100ish bucks on ebay were gone). She LOVED that doll. We met at Fanime and the doll took two years to track down (They DO NOT make those damn things anymore). All the front desk had to say was "You'll probably never see it again."

So now my wife is crying. And I have to fill out a bunch of forms. I call every week for a couple months but nothing. I come into the hotel 3-4 weeks ago on business to follow up. They don't even know what I'm talking about. After some complaints I finally get an investigatory email from their corporate office. Admitting wrongdoing and trying to build a case. And now. AFTER ALL THAT. All I get is this email:

"There's a disclaimer on the claim check ticket that reads the following: "In consideration of the free storage of the property covered by this check the owner or person depositing same agrees: This establishment is not liable for the theft, loss, damage, or destruction of the property in the absence of gross negligence on the part of this establishment or its employees.  If the property is not called for within ten (10)days, this establishment shall have the right to assess reasonable charges for its storage and after sixty (60) days, shall have the right to see the property according to law."

We have no alternative but to disclaim liability for the loss you sustained, since there is no evidence to indicate that your loss resulted from the negligence of the Hotel or its staff.  As a gesture of good faith we would like to offer you a Marriott Travel Card valued at $100 that can be used at any Marriott property.  If you accept please reply to this email with your mailing address."

Seriously? First they say they'll reimburse me. Then they don't talk to me. Then they claim there IS no claim ticket. Then they want to reimburse me again. NOW, they say there is a claim ticket they claimed didn't exist, exonerating them because I Didn't call for my property. But they already admit they gave me a claims ticket within ten days because I reported my items missing immediately and called every week.

Screw the Marriott, don't ever go there.

Bah, it matters not. I'm getting my table but I had to play the system to get it.

I suppose my sense of justice compelled me to post this, it irks me greatly I have to basically not follow the rules to get what I want.

Life Lesson: This with influence and power get what they want. Pity.

Okay this email confuses me. How can you fairly allot tables on a "First Come First Serve" basis when all the people who currently have tables got to register before the general populace?

I say this because the link was broken for a long time at the start of registration. I had to get it from another AA friend. But I'm still in the lottery, what this means is that everyone who currently has a table had insider information that normal registrants didn't have, and those that patiently waited for the link to be fixed got the shaft. That isn't first come first served, because plenty of folk who were forced to wait could've and probably did get their before others, but didn't somehow discover the link to register. I call shenanigans.

So the Artist Alley ran out of tables, and I'm crying favoritism.

For a very long while at the official start of the registration, the link to the registration was very very broken. I had to get it from someone who already knew it and even though I registered in the "Special" group of folk before the regular folk could register on the actual site I'm in a "Lottery" to get in. What I'm angry about is that the people who had a back door of already knowing the link, due to from interviewing regular is that they KNOW people who put Fanime on. They all got there "first" while others had to sit there on a broken website wondering when registration would go up. And now that the people with insider knowledge get their seats the rest have to be picked randomly.

I'd like to propose that due to the outage and the early grabbing of seats, "First come first serve" is not fair, but a form of favoritism based on selective insider-knowledge. If it was really fair everyone would be a part of this lottery to get into the Artist Alley.

So I was thinkin'. Last year we had some great success dressing up one of our guys and sending con-goers on quests. I figure we could do something a bit more planned this year. Basically everyone who wanted to participate could acquire a Munchkin-esque class (Static class with abilities/drawbacks such as "Fighter + 1 to blah"), and then we come up with as many varied and whacky con quests we can think of. With requirements that fit the theme of the game. Players would be rewarded with imaginary XP/Gold to cash in for better in-game abilities, and to pursue greater prizes. Prizes would just have to be whatever booth people are willing to offer, and we'd have to adjust points with some simple paper-playtesting if people became interested.

The Point: Basically to drive interaction and interest in the con, and the booths who are participating. If we can make the game social enough, people will drag their friends around and have a lot of fun at events they may not have gone to, while at the same time engaging possible customers. Also it sounds like great fun. Every NPC gets a "!" and "?" headband.

Possible classes:

First Timer: Required for newbie quests. Gets bonus points for quests involving con activities (Goto X panel and get autograph of X. Pictures at the rave, be on the game show. Sing karaoke.)

Cosplayer: Given to people cosplaying. Required for quests that require cosplayers (Tracking down certain characters, getting pictures with certain groups of characters, bringing them around to act out scenes, etc. etc.)

Jaded Veteran: Has ability to pool points with others (Class for people that want to help their kids/friends but aren't too keen on a lot of con stuff that newbies love)

Gamer: Required for game quests, points for winning games against official NPC's, and other game related con events.

NPC: People designated to give out quests. If not an official NPC (Booth person giving out prizes etc), a player NPC can give out quests and get points for people that turn in quests THEY gave from the official quest book. (Yay social virality)

Photographer: Required for a lot of quests specifically to get photos and especially to get proof. Get bonus points for every quest (They need a camera after all ;)

There are a lot more possibilities. The point being that if we require people to group together to get anything done, then make it socially viral. We can get a lot more people, spending a lot more time with us in the Artists Alley. That can snowball into a lot more interest, sales, and of course. Fun =). Going to leave this up for a couple weeks before deciding on a council of Official NPC's so we can gather, brainstorm, implement, and playtest.

Here's some ideas I had for quest/quest templates:

Get pictures of certain characters/groups of characters (Need Cosplayer/Photographer). People already do this trying to get groups of people together, why not make a game of it? Or make it hilarious with odd character pairings or actions like (Get blah to sit on blah, looking smug)
Beat X at certain games, available from the games room! (Or individual challenges like videos of DDR scores) Endless possibilities since we got consoles, board games, and an arcade right at the con.
Con participation (Events/panels/discussions/the rave/certain anime in the show rooms)

Anyhow. Just an idea. The more people we can get collaborating, giving out quests and prizes, the more successful it will be. Either way it'll be something we'll be doing :3

Thank you for the prompt reply!

 Anybody got an update on tables getting assigned.

 I have a question about artist helpers. Are we allowed to have helpers at the table? Cause a I saw a post earlier that said 2 artist maximum.

 So I've been waiting for the artist alley registration, any idea when that's coming together? Because if we can't get a table we don't really want to pay for registration =)