[sammy-45]

Let us know what you saw that went wrong and how you think we could fix it.

It helps if you have an idea, but if you saw something that needs to be fixed we REALLY want to know about it.

If you have a comment about Reg or IRT, please post it on their boards so they can answer your comments faster.

Thanks.

05/20/10 Added Rules for Gripes:
-Per Guest Relations DH, there is no discussion of restricted areas

This post has been edited by SongstressLenne: 20 May 2010 - 02:11 PM
Reason for edit: Added New Guidelines

[BeefGir]

sammy-45, on May 4 2009, 08:37 PM, said:

Let us know what you saw that went wrong and how you think we could fix it.

It helps if you have an idea, but if you saw something that needs to be fixed we REALLY want to know about it.

If you have a comment about Reg or IRT, please post it on their boards so they can answer your comments faster.

Thanks.

i had several problems with the goings on in the main ball room.

the BIGGEST problem was the base on the speakers. it was WAAAAY to high. so during midnight madness, and anime hell no one could understand anything that was said. so majority of the videos where just videos with loud incomprehensible noises. if you try, you could understand some of it, but it was really a disappointment. and then during the amv awards on Sunday, the base was just so high that it was vibrating the whole room. and that was on songs that didnt need to have huge base.

i think there are a few solutions to this problem.
#1. LOWER THE BASE. i really dont need to feel the vibration of a song inside my chest when im sitting all the way at the back.
#2. get more speakers and put them around the audience so the sound is not only coming from the front. then lower the volume so it is not blasting so high. this may help with the clarity of the audio.
#3. for anime hell, add subtitles at the top of the screen so even if people cant understand the words, they can read whats going on. and it has to be at the top of the screen because when ever there where subtitles at the bottom, it took quite a wile for people to realize they where there. mostly because other people where sitting in front of them. i know this sounds like a really dumb suggestions because there is no way anyone is going to do it, but it is just a suggestion.
#4. maybe have someone check the quality of everything before hand. get someone who does not know what the videos are about, and show them a few just to see if they can understand everything ok.

another little problem i had was just the fact that i could not see the bottom of the screens in that room when it is packed. maybe just getting them up higher would help with allot.

i hope this will help you next year. thanks.

[Heartnet]

I know this may cause a few panels to be cut but I'm wondering if there could be more time between panels in each room. Nearly everyone of them went over their time limit, and I think it would reduce the wait time for people waiting for the next panel. Particularly in the big rooms, some things were running an hour later in the main room (concert, anime hell, etc), a little more time in between would help you guys prepare the rooms and congoers wouldn't have to change there plans for the rest of the night because of the unexpected wait time.

[Aeros]

An issue I have is that there didn't seem to be a Standard Operations Procedure for lines for the con. Biggest example of this is the line for the Soap Bubble rave this year, where the sidewalks were mostly blocked by the attendees and it was generally a mess. Perhaps establishing a single/double file line S.O.P. for next year with lines that overflow out into public walkways should be looked into.

[Stkbayfield]

I would like to add my agreement with the comments regarding Anime Hell. I went in wanting to love it, but when the show began with an episode of Dr. Tran that I had never seen before, I was excited, but I couldn't understand a word that was said. The microphone portions sounded like what you would expect from a stereotypical drive-thru and some of the subtitles (the Korean Moon news story especially) had the bottom line of text mostly off of the screen.

I in no way hold any grudges or feel anyone messed up, and from the delay I can assume the best job was done with the time given, but it did make the show unwatchable and my wife and I could not endure more than an hour of it.

[Cuddles116]

I have two things, the first only pertains to this year and the other has been happening for a while now.

I never actually figured out where I was suppose to pick up the guaranteed masquerade ticket I had gotten confirmed for way back in september, and apparently absolutely no one else knew where I was suppose to get it either. I got my Badge mailed to me so when I went to registration on thursday it was strictly for my Acen bag and ticket. I asked someone directing everyone where to go and they sent me to Assitance. The person sorting the people in the Assitance line said they had no idea about that and that I would have to come back tomorrow at 10 am. Kay no problem, even though that interferes with the dealers room opening. Got there bright and early Friday and was told when I asked the next person directing traffic that tickets were at a booth in the dealers room...okay starting to get a lil pissed I went there to where I was told they weren't handing out tickets until noon, and when I said well I wanted to know because I was suppose to have a guaranteed one that person got defensive and said they knew nothing about that and repeated noon. So I came back later to wait in line for 30 minutes to find out that noon was for a concert ticket not the masquerade ticket I specifically asked about before hand. That lucky me was on a different day at a different time in a brand new line -.- Granted I got a concert ticket out of the wait but it wasn't what I spent a good deal of time trying to get, and I still had to go out of my way further to get to the Masquerade. So my overall point if there is something like guaranteed tickets in the future please tell the staff so no one else runs around trying to find something no one else knows about -.-

Secondly, this is one of those minor annoyances that is actually really starting to piss me off.

For the love of god PRINT YOUR SIGNS...I know you may not know in advance if will call or whatever will be right or left of your sign but within the surrounding area there are printers. I know the Embassy has a business center. If Acen could budget in an extra few dollars for last minute printing *dreamy sigh*. Or how about just printing up a few arrows and then additional pages with Will Call, Special Needs, and so forth and then taping them under said arrow so you will know in advance and it will be even, clear and legible.

If printing is not an option WRITE THEM IN A DARK STANDARD COLOR I cannot read highlighter/light colors, nor can I read clearly from a distance light blue tape on a gray wall that says "Tickets Here" that happens to be only about 6 feet high max so once there is a few tall people in line it's completely blocked. Additionally while it made me giggle and take a picture there is no need to try and jazz it up said information signs with drawings of backwards money signs and lots of different bolds/underlines/colors.

[DJ F00P]

One thing that should be fixed is with the bags. Bags were not allowed in soap bubble and other things. This is fine, except since I lived like 20 minutes driving distance, I didn't have a hotel room to put my bag back, so since I didn't want it to be left unattended, I had to not go to soapbubble this year, which wasn't a super big deal because I like underground groove better. But it would be very nice if they had a locker system like I mentioned before the con. Just a safe place to put all of your stuff.

[Zeta Thompson]

Ok my biggest gripe this year was the screening rooms. I love watching subtitled anime, and I applaud the diecision to use the rooms used before for screening as panel rooms. It gave us a LOT more room! The only issue is that not all of us are tall. So in the smaller rooms with more limited space the subtitles tended to be blocked by other viewers in front. Is there some way to remedy this? I could not see a uniform solution really. But my neck and back hurt after a few viewings because I had to twist like a pretzel to be able to read all of the subtitles.

[Nyappy]

Cuddles116, on May 10 2009, 10:10 PM, said:

I have two things, the first only pertains to this year and the other has been happening for a while now.

I never actually figured out where I was suppose to pick up the guaranteed masquerade ticket I had gotten confirmed for way back in september, and apparently absolutely no one else knew where I was suppose to get it either. I got my Badge mailed to me so when I went to registration on thursday it was strictly for my Acen bag and ticket. I asked someone directing everyone where to go and they sent me to Assitance. The person sorting the people in the Assitance line said they had no idea about that and that I would have to come back tomorrow at 10 am. Kay no problem, even though that interferes with the dealers room opening. Got there bright and early Friday and was told when I asked the next person directing traffic that tickets were at a booth in the dealers room...okay starting to get a lil pissed I went there to where I was told they weren't handing out tickets until noon, and when I said well I wanted to know because I was suppose to have a guaranteed one that person got defensive and said they knew nothing about that and repeated noon. So I came back later to wait in line for 30 minutes to find out that noon was for a concert ticket not the masquerade ticket I specifically asked about before hand. That lucky me was on a different day at a different time in a brand new line -.- Granted I got a concert ticket out of the wait but it wasn't what I spent a good deal of time trying to get, and I still had to go out of my way further to get to the Masquerade. So my overall point if there is something like guaranteed tickets in the future please tell the staff so no one else runs around trying to find something no one else knows about -.-

Secondly, this is one of those minor annoyances that is actually really starting to piss me off.

For the love of god PRINT YOUR SIGNS...I know you may not know in advance if will call or whatever will be right or left of your sign but within the surrounding area there are printers. I know the Embassy has a business center. If Acen could budget in an extra few dollars for last minute printing *dreamy sigh*. Or how about just printing up a few arrows and then additional pages with Will Call, Special Needs, and so forth and then taping them under said arrow so you will know in advance and it will be even, clear and legible.

If printing is not an option WRITE THEM IN A DARK STANDARD COLOR I cannot read highlighter/light colors, nor can I read clearly from a distance light blue tape on a gray wall that says "Tickets Here" that happens to be only about 6 feet high max so once there is a few tall people in line it's completely blocked. Additionally while it made me giggle and take a picture there is no need to try and jazz it up said information signs with drawings of backwards money signs and lots of different bolds/underlines/colors.

I can tell you what happened with this, since I had to go through it with the concert ticket. There were two versions of the ticket emails that went out. One email that was sent out told people to go to one place for the tickets, the other told people the tickets would be available at will call. When I spoke to the DH of reg about it on my first day staffing, he hadn't heard about the will call thing, and said they would be at the information booth in Hall F, the exhibit hall. Then it changed to will call again, then it changed back to the information booth.

In short, it was a general mistake of mixed communication lines. It was finally confirmed that it was the information booth in Hall F, and there were signs up at the booth telling when the tickets were being given out for the specific events.

[therobd]

One of the aspects of ACen I look forward to the most each year is the game room. I'm a huge gamer, and I always enjoy playing against people who are just as enthusiastic about fighters as I am.

Unfortunately, the game room was organized terribly this year. Tournaments not starting on time is a fact of life at conventions, and I understand that the staffers are busy. Still, the Street Fighter IV tournament started at least an hour and a half late (I don't remember the exact time it started, but it didn't get going until at least 9:30), and not only did the King of Fighters: Maximum Impact Regulation A tournament start late, but no attempts were made to even start the game up and get the game running on a TV an hour after it was supposed to start (I left at that point). No one came over to notify us of any delays for an official ACen tournament with a time that was posted months ago.

For most of the day on Friday and Saturday, it seemed like the consoles were being treated as an afterthought. At 1 PM on Saturday, the room was really starting to fill up, and literally fewer than half the TVs had anything on them. The two TVs playing Brawl only had two controllers attached each. For a game like Brawl that is really popular, there is no reason not to have 4 controllers on them at all times unless the resources are just that limited.

I've always liked the variety of different games both obscure and popular that typically run at ACen. I talked a friend of mine from Michigan to drive down to ACen because of a YouTube video of the game room that he saw from last year. Staples of anime conventions like Guilty Gear, CvS2, and KoF had very little representation, and they could have been running on several of those TVs. I saw systems stockpiled behind the gaming desk that weren't in use. They could have been connected to the TVs playing games.

It's possible that there wasn't enough staff or donations. If it was the latter, I was partially at fault, because I didn't think that PS2s would be in short supply. I did donate my 360 to the convention for the weekend, and I was pleased to see that it was being used for Street Fighter IV. I do encourage whoever is running the game room to find a better solution for securing the 360s and the PS3s. While I was watching a match, a 360 red-ringed from overheating in the tupperware container it was stored in.

Please fix this for next year. I was excited to see so many HDTVs in the same area, but my excitement quickly turned to disappointment when I saw that my only options were SFIV, Brawl, Halo, Left 4 Dead, and about 9 blank TVs out of 17 or so total TVs. If donations were the problem, I will be more than glad to do more next year.

Edit: Minor grammatical errors

This post has been edited by therobd: 10 May 2009 - 09:55 PM

[Unka Josh]

Zeta Thompson, on May 10 2009, 10:20 PM, said:

Ok my biggest gripe this year was the screening rooms. I love watching subtitled anime, and I applaud the diecision to use the rooms used before for screening as panel rooms. It gave us a LOT more room! The only issue is that not all of us are tall. So in the smaller rooms with more limited space the subtitles tended to be blocked by other viewers in front. Is there some way to remedy this? I could not see a uniform solution really. But my neck and back hurt after a few viewings because I had to twist like a pretzel to be able to read all of the subtitles.

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm happy to say that before I left the convention, I was working with our tech guys to find a solution for next year. We might just have something worked out.

[GXP_agent_Zack]

Gripes:

I spent all friday wallowing in the sick pain of food-poison.

My gf and I wanted to play some arcade games on Saturday night after I started feeling better, so we went to the arcade room. However, the massive heat wave and stench of con funk literally punched us in the face. We had to leave after 15 minutes and 3 rounds of Puzzle Fighter. Can something be done about this? Fans, air fresheners, scrubbing down congoers, installing emergency showers, etc? Maybe we can have the arcade room in a more open area next time?

[The Persian Monk]

I thought the video games tournaments were extremely disappointing. They were very unorganized and inefficient. It didn't seem to be from a lack of trying, but more a lack of planning. When a tournament is advertised as starting at 4pm, and the first game doesn't actually start until 5:30pm, it probably won't be out of the first round by 7:30. This takes an inordinate amount of time, and puts the con-goer in a very awkward position- having to choose between two events they want to attend, when there is no reason they should have overlapped in the first place.

I think the problem begins at the sign-up process. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it, i.e. signing up for the Battle of the Rock Bands in the game room and AGAIN at the venue. Add that to the amount of time it takes to write out the brackets and it starts to become clear why things aren't starting on time. Even when the tournament starts, some people just aren't there anymore, likely due to the wait, and that makes the tourneys take even longer because you're waiting for them to show up.

Now, I'm not here to bash, but to offer some constructive criticism. My first suggestion would be to plan time to set up the system, game, tv, etc. before the advertised start time, maybe a half hour just to be on the safe side. Next, I would make out the brackets on the fly. Generally, when the tournament actually starts, it seems more people are on the sign-up sheet then are standing there at the tourney. To combat this, you could take your sign-up sheet and say "Who here is in the tourney?" Pick two of them and check them off the list, and add them to an empty bracket. You don't show, you don't play. Also- instead of shouting the rules of a tourney at them, write them on a piece of paper and tape them to the wall or something. Anything you can do to save time is going to be a boon. Even posting the name of the game on the wall above the TVs will make it easier to tell what games are where, so everyone knows where to go when it's time to start. In addition, I would plan for more people then you think are going to show up. Go BIG. If the turn out sucks, then the next tournament will have more time to set up.

All in all, I like the gaming aspect of ACen, but it all seems so haphazard and thrown together, like it was drawn up on a napkin from the pizza place someone ate at the night before. I'm not blaming any one person; perhaps it's just the nature of the beast. It would just be nice to see gaming flourish as a big part of ACen, and I think a little tweaking could go a long way. Thank you for your time.

[Hahn]

gripes a-hoy !

1. combine all handbooks & papers. it's hard juggling things around.
2. have a 'you are here' on every facility entrance so we can figure out what's going on in a particular place, fast. some hall/room are just so hard to find
3. crowd control on queues. stick signs on end of each queue with info of what event and what time. this is crucial for discussion panels
4. better PA system/soundman on discussion panels. sometimes its either too loud, too muffled or too soft
5. gaming room needs better tourney system and organized so that nobody hogs a console. some game got insane crowds and makes it hard to move around.
6. need to classified / synchronized concurrent events in a better order.



it's getting better in overall, cant wait to see 2010's

hahn

[akakaze]

therobd, on May 10 2009, 10:37 PM, said:

One of the aspects of ACen I look forward to the most each year is the game room. I'm a huge gamer, and I always enjoy playing against people who are just as enthusiastic about fighters as I am.

For most of the day on Friday and Saturday, it seemed like the consoles were being treated as an afterthought. At 1 PM on Saturday, the room was really starting to fill up, and literally fewer than half the TVs had anything on them. The two TVs playing Brawl only had two controllers attached each. For a game like Brawl that is really popular, there is no reason not to have 4 controllers on them at all times unless the resources are just that limited.

Edit: Minor grammatical errors

I agree with this. It seems like it was a donations problem because yeah, the majority of the TVs were empty. Props to the guys who brought Tatsunoko vs Capcom and a couple sticks on Saturday night. I've never been able to play it against anyone else familiar with fighters (I own the game, but nobody else I know likes fighting games much).

The arcade wasn't BAD, but it was better in previous years. I did like how many of the games were only a quarter. I was expecting 50 cents at least for every game. Playing Radiant Silvergun on a candy cab brings back memories of my trip to Tokyo earlier this year ^-^

Anyways, next year I'd really like to help with the lack of console gaming...that was pretty dismal.

[kenkendazo]

The good

Reg line. Very well executed.

The bad

Autographs. I got my Chiaki Takahashi on Friday night and I thank god I did then. She was not there for the Saturday nor Sunday session. On top of that, most of the sessions were off time. I understand that, but something should be posted by the areas letting us know when things will be moved, that or a staff member be at the location INDICATED IN THE GUIDES to tell us where to go or what time it has been moved to. The people who were working that section had no idea what was going on so even they couldn't give us straight answers. I also think that staff should carry at least one programming guide on them because I knew more than 90% of them from my breif glance through on Thursday. All in all, one thing to work on for next time, I know you guys can do it since the reg line was a huge success.

And the ugly.

...yeah, I got nothing here but I'm on a Clint Eastwood kick...

[mr_synester]

Ive been going to acen for 5 years now, and every year the soap bubble dance seems to get more complicated. its a fact that a large percentage of the congoers, look forward to the rave on saturday....however, standing in line for 3-4 hours just to go to a dance that you cant step out of for a second is really a waste of a badge.... is there anyway that the staff could maybe have the dance throughout a couple adjacent rooms. i notice there are like 10 dj's, if there were 3 different rooms or so for different dj's to spin in, that could help get rid of the long lines outside. another suggestion is: is there anyway to hold the dance inside the convention center? there is always that big empty room at the top of the escalator...just a couple ideas

As far as the game rooms go, i agree that they seem thrown together.... I was really looking forward to playing the magic tournaments. but since I got there late on friday. I couldnt get one of the detailed programs....I went down to the card gaming room and nobody could tell me when the tournaments are. there wasnt any postings outside the room or even a piece of paper with times scribbled on it laying on a table inside the room. needless to say, by the time I found out, they were already over....Later, when i found out, i noticed that some of the longest gaming tournaments were schedualed late at night...and at that, most of them started an hour or so late...it kinda sucks starting a 5 hr tournament at 10pm on sat. maybe in the future, the longer tournaments could be a little earlier in the day and the shorter ones can be later.

And one more thing...Is there anyway that the con could set something up to get 1 garunteed parking spot per reservation at the hotel...It really sux having to park 4 blocks from your hotel and try to carry everything to your hotel room. If you have a room at a hotel, you should be able to park at that hotel!!!
I realize that this is more of a hotel problem than a con problem, but maybe the staff could mention something



I love going to acen every year, but some of these problems get worse every year..... have the staff ever thought about going to a 4 day format to try to fit everything in better? the convention as grown big ehough to justify it

This post has been edited by mr_synester: 11 May 2009 - 11:12 AM

[Kewpie83]

Overall, not too many gripes for you this year!

-Signage- Signs that read 'panel rooms 1-4 this way' would have been great. Any sort of sign to let you know you were walking the right direction would be nice. After a day you pretty can figure out the layout, but for those who don't have a full 3 day pass, it could make their experience less fun. Also, I second printing your signs for registration on a computer and not writing them out on computer paper with markers. It may cost money, but the marker on paper route looks silly and not professional.

-Staff- I didn't see them really manhandle anyone this year! That's a first for me. BUT, I will say, we walked in, my mom and I, with our badges you mailed us, accidently went into the dealers hall instead of reg for our bags, went to the info desk and this was our conversation:

Me: Where do we pick up the goodie bags?
Staff: At registration...
(expecting him to tell me more, like WHERE registration is b/c obviously we don't have a map yet... Wait another beat)
Me: And that is where?
Staff: Out the door to the left.

Can you at least try to be a little more helpful? Maybe he forgot that we had just arrived, since he'd probably been briefed on the locations already, but please tell staffers next year not to forget that we aren't all experts on what is where, especially at 10am Friday morning. Not a big thing, but more info is always better than less, especially when you work at info.

-Programming: Piggy backing, there were some fun programs I missed b/c they coincided with programs I was attending. My suggestion would be to ask if those in charge of the programs would mind being booked twice on the programming schedule (ex: again, once friday, once saturday).

-Lines: Can staff have portable wipe off boards to set up next to lines so they can right what the line is for? It would make it much easier for guests and staff, I think.

Overall, though, the weekend was pretty fun. Thanks.

This post has been edited by Kewpie83: 11 May 2009 - 01:52 PM

[Unka Josh]

Kewpie83, on May 11 2009, 12:47 PM, said:

-Yaoi: Yaoi needs to be in a bigger room. This is the second year we missed it b/c the demand was larger than the programming room. I only saw it on the programming schedule once, as well. Maybe showing the same programs twice (Friday and Saturday, for example), will let those who missed it the first program a chance to see it? (I really only think to watch yaoi at ACEN, which is why I wished it was replayed sometime during the weekend)

I'm a little confused here-- are you talking about the Yaoi panel, or the Yaoi that was screened in the video rooms on Friday and Saturday nights? We didn't have overcrowding in the Yaoi room to speak of-- that was reserved for Sex Warrior Pudding.

[Cuddles116]

Kewpie83, on May 11 2009, 05:47 PM, said:

-Staff- I didn't see them really manhandle anyone this year! That's a first for me. BUT, I will say, we walked in, my mom and I, with our badges you mailed us, accidently went into the dealers hall instead of reg for our bags, went to the info desk and this was our conversation:

Me: Where do we pick up the goodie bags?
Staff: At registration...
(expecting him to tell me more, like WHERE registration is b/c obviously we don't have a map yet... Wait another beat)
Me: And that is where?
Staff: Out the door to the left.

Can you at least try to be a little more helpful? Maybe he forgot that we had just arrived, since he'd probably been briefed on the locations already, but please tell staffers next year that we aren't all experts on what is where, especially at 10am Friday morning.

This irks me that you were irked because of how you were answered just because where I work...They answered your question I don't really see it as a gripe. For example when I'm at work and am asked "are there bathrooms on this floor" and I answer "yes" I answered the question being asked and continue with what I am doing, if you want to know where said bathrooms are ask your question to indicate so. Another daily example I deal with is "where is the closest gift shop" seeing as how I work in a gift shop answering "this one" isn't me being a jerk or not being helpful it's answering the question you asked.

No one should be expected to be a mind reader, but that's just my opinion.

[Valencia Crowe]

The tournaments for the video game room and the video game room in general were absolutely awful this year. Seriously, I waited over an HOUR for the Soul Calibur IV tournament to start. It was supposed to start at 3 and did not start til like 4:30. I complained like every 20 minutes. My bf almost quit the tournament, but I found an ADH to complain to. For sign ups, PLEASE have sign ups done like an hour before the tournament. I do not want to have to wait for the brackets to be done WHILE the tournament should be starting. One of the ADHs was nice enough to let my bf have a bye in the first round so he and I can get some food since we waited for a VERY long time. Some of the gaming staff were VERY rude. I didn't get their names, but the girl with the terrible dreads was very rude. She was yelling at people to not go behind the chairs, when NO ONE had a CLUE about what was going on about the games over there. She could have been nice, but no, she had to be rude to everyone about it. Then the guy with a beanie got mad at this guy for apparently, holding his gun in a way that could hurt someone. He said, "Watch where you're pointing that thing." He was at the far end of the line of chairs, near the tables where the sign up was. I talked to a guy I knew on IRT about it, but he just shrugged it off. I hope the tournaments are better next year and hopefully some of the gaming staff.

I was disappointed with what arcade machines were there. There were a lot more last year and there seemed to only be very few this year. I was also sad that there was no para para machine. I hope I am not disappointed next year.

Also, I was trying to get my ticket for the M.O.V.E. and Slants concert on Thursday, like we were told we could, but I talked to Artie and he said we get them Friday morning. What is with that? Was this a last minute thing? I was also told by some reg staff that they had no clue about the tickets either and I know there were stuff moved around and that no one really knew where some stuff was. I wish I was more specific, but my memory fails me.

Is there a better way to tell people about the changes? Like, I was waiting in line for Nabeshin's autograph on friday, but it got cancelled and NO ONE knew about it. I went to this mini booth like thing in the hallway to the concerts and dances and stuff and they had a dinky little sign about what was changed and canceled. Seriously, no one is gonna look at that. There needs to be something done about that.

Edit: Corrected grammar and added more.

This post has been edited by Valencia Crowe: 11 May 2009 - 12:43 PM

[therobd]

According to the results in the Gaming section, the King of Fighters tournament didn't happen at all, meaning the 15 of us or so who were waiting for at least an hour and a half were just wasting our time. I understand that tournaments do start late, but for a tournament to be announced months in advance and not even take place is rude to the people who showed up. I went to the gaming front desk to ask them about it after a half-hour and was told that it would start "soon."

If there wasn't a copy of the game or if the staff is too busy, please, at least let us know within an hour. I left because I didn't want to spend the rest of my Friday night waiting around.

This post has been edited by therobd: 11 May 2009 - 12:48 PM

[aakachan]

Zeta Thompson, on May 10 2009, 10:20 PM, said:

Ok my biggest gripe this year was the screening rooms. I love watching subtitled anime, and I applaud the diecision to use the rooms used before for screening as panel rooms. It gave us a LOT more room! The only issue is that not all of us are tall. So in the smaller rooms with more limited space the subtitles tended to be blocked by other viewers in front. Is there some way to remedy this? I could not see a uniform solution really. But my neck and back hurt after a few viewings because I had to twist like a pretzel to be able to read all of the subtitles.

I agree.
My daughter & stood in the back for every video we watched. ...not very comfortable, but it was the only way we could see the subtitles.
For that reason, we didn't watch many videos.

[Outlawed]

BeefGir, on May 10 2009, 05:56 PM, said:

videos with loud incomprehensible noises. if you try, you could understand some of it, but it was really a disappointment. and then during the amv awards on Sunday, the base was just so high that it was vibrating the whole room. and that was on songs that didnt need to have huge base.

I'm assuming this AMV Audio quality comment is about the CONTEST finalists showing that was in Main Programming on Sunday. The awards were in the AMV room and started about 3:15 pm. I can't see that playback as vibrating the room.

[Kewpie83]

Unka Josh, we were trying to get into the Friday viewing at (I think) 11PM? When we got there, albiet 15 minutes late, we were told the room was filled to capacity. It might have changed, but we didn't hang around to see if anyone left. I'll edit my post b/c I'm thinking we must have missed something if you say they played videos both Friday and Saturday. Thanks for the reply. All in all, I think it was a very smooth running con than in past years.

Cuddles116, I just mean that it is nice when people try to answer questions in the most helpful way possible. I totally agree, it wasn't done in a rude fashion, but I've been taught to answer questions with more information, not the the minimum amount, especially in situations when you work at info desks. Not a huge thing, but something good to tell staffers. :-)

[Valencia Crowe]

I agree with Kewpie. It would be nice for people to explain more and not just say, make a left and then a right or some other really blah answer.

[Cursedeyes]

My gripe (being my first year and all) was the delays in every aspect of the con. i under stand that things get hectic and there were a tonnn of people here but a lot of the delayes made me late for some things or made me miss out on alot of other things And i agree about the gaming room funky ness, Jeez it was rediculous i was like "it has the humidity and nastiness of the walkweay to the con from the hyatt, but it's closely laced with the pungent stench of dirty gamers. i mean, how hard is it to put on deodorant?" As for more gripes, the survival horror panel was full of fail... I thought we would have authors or experts about survival or horror or the combination of the 2, instead we had hilariously poor slides and fail commentary by people who tried to dictate pretend zombie rules and then when you pointed out flaws in their rules and logic they ignored you and moved on lol. Another gripe which is not really acens fault, is the lack of items to buy like plushies and other collectibles and reasonable/ competitive prices. I could not, for the life of me, find an ouran host club plushie which i told my little sister i would get for her. You would think there would be more items beside the typical naruto and bleach everything. Another gripe was the lack of info you get from asking people for directions. On firday i went to no panels in the hyatt because as a con noob i had no clue where things were and i would ask those acen swat ppl for directions and most did not know the relative direction of anything. it made me sad. After a while i just randomly started exploring and going into random rooms hoping to find some lulz or awesomeness. The biggest plus was the pokemon panel. It was by far the most enjoyable panel at the con. The fashion show was kinda bad butt as well. the concerts were cool. the under ground rave and the saturday raves were fantastic, but the line for saturdays rave was rediculous. but idk what couldve been done cuz when i got in i was a little upset at the amoun of chairs there im like "chairs? wtf?" i understand people need to rest but some people were just sitting and doing nothing the whole time and a lot of people wanted to get in there and dance the night away.

[PanzerKunst99]

I think my biggest gripe this year was regarding the Battle of the Rock Bands tournament. It had the potential to be really fun, but ended up being an absolute debacle and the single most devastating blow to my weekend. For starters, I'm not sure why we were asked to sign up in advance in the game room, and then we needed to stand in line to re-sign in at the tourney itself. In fact, we wouldn't have known that we needed to sign up at the venue if another helpful congoer hadn't told us. There was no signage or any other indicator that would have let us know that. Also, when the event has an advertised start time of 8pm, that's when it should be starting. With the way the game tournaments were handled this year it wasn't a huge surprise that it was running behind, but that still cuts into other functions (I would have liked to go to a few other things, but I instead opted to waste my time waiting for my band to be called, which never happened. My BF also had to drop out of the Pokemon tournament that he'd been looking forward to because that ran behind as well, and was overlapping the start of the Rock Band tourney. Consequently, he never got to participate in either one, which was a HUGE disappointment, to say the least.)

We were told that the con staff did not expect as big a turnout as was there, and so they were forced to end the tourney early and cut the rest of the bands on the list. To me, that just seems like poor preparation. If the ACen website itself told us to be prepared for a large crowd, how could the staff have not been prepared for it? Given Rock Band's popularity and the HUGE number of con attendees, a little foresight could have gone a long way. I'm sure there are a lot of behind-the-scenes factors that I don't know about, but the excuse that "we didn't expect so many of you to sign up" holds very little water to a congoer that had been looking forward to this for months.

My first suggestion would be to rent the room for a longer amount of time, if possible. If the tournament goes from 8pm-10pm, perhaps getting the room from 7:30-10:30 or something would be a good idea. That way you have time to get the systems and peripherals set up in advance and make sure everything is good to go before anyone plays. If time restrictions are going to be a factor, the bands playing should also know in advance what song(s) they are doing. There were a few times when we were all waiting on the band to pick their song and get calibrated, which ate up precious time. An announcement was made halfway through the tourney that due to time restraints, no one was allowed to do a song that lasted more than four minutes, which put our band in a bad position because the song we had been practicing was at least six minutes. Perhaps making that a part of the tournament rules in the first place could have also helped if pressed for time. If there is to be a Rock Band tournament next year (and I think there should be, because it could be super fun), perhaps the rules should be revised to reflect a time restriction on the songs.

Also, having a more organized method for signing up would be a huge improvement. If you signed up in advance, you should get to play, not stand in line and wait to sign up again. The sign-up process for the game tournaments in general was extremely disorganized this year and could benefit from some adjustments.

I understand that a Rock Band tournament was a first for ACen this year, so that's why I think it's important to provide some critique. With a little revision, it could be a highlight for some congoers.

[youth]

Suigetsu, on May 11 2009, 10:02 AM, said:

The bad

Autographs. I got my Chiaki Takahashi on Friday night and I thank god I did then. She was not there for the Saturday nor Sunday session. On top of that, most of the sessions were off time.

I don't know if she was there Saturday, but she was at her Sunday 11:30 to 12:30pm autograph session when I got there around 12:10pm. You might have missed it since it was dwarfed by the Vic Mignola line which was also the case on Friday. I really felt sorry for her when I saw that. I hope guest relations explained to her why she might not have the same draw as an American VA. Annoyed at myself for forgetting to tell her Happy Birthday on Fri which btw one of translators told me they didn't even know till it was mentioned on the forums. I asked on Fri if they were gonna throw her a party & one of the GR guys was tightlipped about it, but I'm glad to hear that they did the day after.

Btw brought my little Azusa to pose with the real Azusa on Sunday.
http://animerunner.net/image/acen09_chiaki...zusa_figure.jpg

[DeikoPoP]

Kewpie83, on May 11 2009, 12:47 PM, said:

Overall, not too many gripes for you this year!

-Signage- Signs that read 'panel rooms 1-4 this way' would have been great. Any sort of sign to let you know you were walking the right direction would be nice. After a day you pretty can figure out the layout, but for those who don't have a full 3 day pass, it could make their experience less fun. Also, I second printing your signs for registration on a computer and not writing them out on computer paper with markers. It may cost money, but the marker on paper route looks silly and not professional.

-Staff- I didn't see them really manhandle anyone this year! That's a first for me. BUT, I will say, we walked in, my mom and I, with our badges you mailed us, accidently went into the dealers hall instead of reg for our bags, went to the info desk and this was our conversation:

Me: Where do we pick up the goodie bags?
Staff: At registration...
(expecting him to tell me more, like WHERE registration is b/c obviously we don't have a map yet... Wait another beat)
Me: And that is where?
Staff: Out the door to the left.

Can you at least try to be a little more helpful? Maybe he forgot that we had just arrived, since he'd probably been briefed on the locations already, but please tell staffers next year not to forget that we aren't all experts on what is where, especially at 10am Friday morning. Not a big thing, but more info is always better than less, especially when you work at info.

-Programming: Piggy backing, there were some fun programs I missed b/c they coincided with programs I was attending. My suggestion would be to ask if those in charge of the programs would mind being booked twice on the programming schedule (ex: again, once friday, once saturday).

-Lines: Can staff have portable wipe off boards to set up next to lines so they can right what the line is for? It would make it much easier for guests and staff, I think.

Overall, though, the weekend was pretty fun. Thanks.

Hello, Deiko Here:

First of all, Piggy Backing:

We tried to accommodate as many panels as we could this year, but we had limited Function Space. therefore this caused Back to Back panels. We are trying a few techniques to resolve this issue, yet it may mean some more panels will be declined.

I would rather not go this route, so I'll try acquire more space. no promises.

Your Line suggestion is great. We actually were supposed to have many wet boards, but due to a snafu, we didn't get them this year until the con was over. We will implement this idea for next as well as additional direction signs for more crowd control advocacy.

Again, thank you for your support.